UTAH.
We have received The Deseret News to Dec. 1, but find in it little to interest our readers. The following appeal shows a prosperous state of things in the Great Salt Lake City:
What are the Saints about in Great Salt Lake City? How is the city wall progressing? November has worn a smiling face, and the sky has been very propitious for do-ing out door work. But we have yet to learn what many of the wards of this city have done toward erecting this wall. We understand the voice of the weather to invite and to urge the citizens of every ward to be up and doing, losing no time. The Eighteenth Ward has not slumbered, but the wall appropriated to be made by that ward shows well at a distance. The Fourteenth Ward has also put in the plow to break the turf for the construction of their portion of the same. Perhaps some other wards may have done a little toward carrying out the counsel of the Church on this subject. When an ancient prophet went to Jeru-salem to survey the ruins of that city for the purpose of rebuilding the wall, it was then a perilous time; he was obliged to make his survey in the stillness of the night, and build with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. But it is not so with the inhabatants of this city. Now we are in peace, and there is none to molest or make us afraid. Many laborers are on hand ready to be hired at a cheap, reasonable rate, and some are saying, "no man "hath hired us." Provisions are abundant; and surely it is a time to "rise and build." An old prophet once said that "it is better to obey than sacrifice." But why is it better we ask? We answer, because that those who do not obey the law of the Lord always have to make a sac-rifice. Often a great sacrifice. King Saul's disobedience cost him than sacrifice of his Kingdom. The scriptures tell us, that there is a "set time to favor Zion," but if that time is suffered to run out and Zion does not get the favor within the specific period set, a sacrifice must inevitably follow. Now is the time to build the wall. Foreign foes do not assail us here; how soon our negligence or disobe-dience might be followed with perilous clouds of difficulty, the future may better reveal.
Some people may think that they have a great deal to do; they have taxes to pay, schools to support, a poor fund to enlarge, and many ways to look for the sustenance of their families and the wall work don't hurry—no danger yet!
But let us remember that a truly great people must do a great work or renounce claim to greatness. Caleb and Joshua were distinguished from their associate Bishops by advocating a great enterprise, while others were fearful and felt entirely unable. Even a failure to accomplish a great and good work is often more praiseworthy than a cowardly neglect to undertake it.
