There is one circumstance that I shall take the liberty of referring to a little in more detail. In New York City alone, that is, in greater New York, there are two millions of the House of Judah, and for the last several years I have been wondering how we could make an approach to those people, attract their attention, and have the material to present to them that would place in their hands the great message that God has for that branch of the House of Israel. In very many of the revelations to the Church, where the Lord sets forth this latter-day work, you will find this phraseology often employed when referring to the preaching of the gospel — "first unto the Gentiles, and then unto the Jews." That occurs quite a number of times in the revelations contained in the Doctrine and Covenants ; and, of course, being in the midst of so large a population of the Jews, one's thought would naturally go out to them with a desire to get some word of our message over to them. Well, during the past six months, it seems to me that the way has wonderfully opened up in that direction, in the city of Binghampton, Broome county, New York, a name that will be familiar to many of you who are acquainted with, the history of the Church, for it is territory in which the Prophet Joseph Smith operated during the translation of the Book of Mormon, and also in the early movements of the Church. It is only about twenty-three miles from this city that the Colesville branch was organized, which was the first community unit to begin the great work of the gathering together of our people to the west. . . It was the Colesville branch that as a body, and by cooperative methods of mutual assistance, moved through the states of New York and Ohio, halting for a while in Kirtland, and then continuing their journey through Indiana and Illinois, and so on into Missouri, and to the western borders of that state, and made the first settlements in Jackson county, Missouri. Well, in Binghampton, near where this stream of western migration started, came our opening for an approach to the House of Judah. There is in that place a converted Jew, who is converted to Christianity, but not to our gospel, the true Christianity. He accepts Christ as the Messiah of the Jews, and he publishes a magazine entitled The Redeemed Hebrew. He received a paper from a Jewish Rabbi, in Canada, in which the Rabbi set forth his reasons for rejecting Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and concluded that it would be sin for him, and disloyalty to Jehovah for him to accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. The article was published and an invitation extended to Christian ministers to answer the Rabbi, an editorial note stating that the paper which should most completely answer the Rabbi would be published in the magazine. It may be a bit out of good taste for me to say it, perhaps, but the paper which I submitted to the magazine was accepted and published as a reply to the Rabbi. After the first article was published, I thought it needed a little amplification, and so I sent in a second article, and that, too, was published. Then it seemed to me that we had just reached the threshold of the subject, and there was just a fine opening made for proclaiming our message, God's message to the Jews, as we may gather it from the Book of Mormon; for, as pointed out by President Anthony W. Ivins this morning, the outstanding feature of our Book of Mormon scriptures is, that the book shall be a witness to the Gentiles and especially to Jews, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the very Eternal God, manifesting himself to all nations. That is found, as you all know, on the title page of the Book of Mormon, which the Prophet Joseph Smith declared was not his composition. He found it engraven on the title page of the gold plates.

When I sent this third article to the editor of The Redeemed Hebrew he informed me that it made thirteen pages of his magazine ; and as he expected to devote the whole magazine to that paper, he said he could publish sixteen pages nearly at the same cost as thirteen, and would I supplement what I had written with something further. I did so. When that was published it made eighteen pages instead of sixteen ; but he refused to select the part to be cut down, and I did not have the heart to sacrifice any part of it, so the eighteen pages were published.

In the supplemental matter I sent to him, I used what I have before used as a theme, I think in this tabernacle; namely, "A Prophetic Page of the Book of Mormon." I am sorry that we do not have here one of the older editions of the Book of Mormon, because then I could conscientiously tell you that all the prophecies that I referred to were upon one page of the Book of Mormon, but in our more recent editions, in dividing the pages into two columns for each page, that particular group of prophecies are distributed over two pages. But it only makes sufficient matter for one page, and I think I may still say that it is a "prophetic page of the Book of Mormon." You will find it now in your current editions on page 101 and page 102 ; in the older editions it occupied page 122. Of course, I shall not have time to enter into a discussion of all these prophecies of this page— there are five of them; but suffice it to say that the first prophecy predicts, that many shall believe in the Book of Mormon ; and, second, that they shall carry the words of that book unto the remnants of the land, meaning of course, the American Indians, descendants of the Nephites and the Lamanites of ancient times ; and third, that the remnants of those ancient people shall know their origin, that they are descendants of Israel ; the gospel shall be declared among them, that they shall believe it, the scales of darkness shall fall from their eyes, and before many generations pass away, they shall become a white and delightsome people.

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I regret that I have taken more time than I should have done, but I think these matters of sufficient importance to have entered upon the record of this conference, and I wish to say, my brethren and sisters, that I cannot but regard the opening that has come to us in the Eastern States to furnish material by which we may approach our cousin Judah with the message of the Book of Mormon, as an opening of the way by the inspiration and power of the Spirit of the Lord. I may not have made that very clear to you, but I feel it in my own heart, and I pray that God will bless this branch of his people, the Jews, and that the time will come when we shall have larger access to these people in the proclamation of God's message to them. I hope so, and pray for it, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.