the prophecy to himself and proclaims the fulfilment of it in the happening of that day) speaks in the present tense, as if pleading with the men of his own day. So that if this power is admitted as being possessed by the supposed "unknown" author of chapters 40-66 it might as well be accorded to Isaiah as to him; and if that power be accorded to a propheti: writer, then all the difficulties conjured up by our modern critics, and to overcome which their theories were invoked, meet with easy solution.

As to the difference of literary style between the first and second division of Isaiah's book, urging as necessary the belief in different authors for the two parts, I am disposed to give considerable weight to such evidence, since I know how strong the tendency in expression towards individuation is; but those more competent to judge of that subject than I am, hold that of all the prophetic writers, Isaiah possesses the widest range of literary style, the largest richness in coloring and forms of expression. And this when the view of his style is confined to that part of his book of which all allow he is the author. As for example, the one author most assured that Isaiah did not write chs. 40-66 of the book that bears his name, the author of An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, speaking of Isaiah, and of course limiting his comment to the author of chs. 1-39, says:

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Isaiah's poetical genius is superb. His characteristics are grandeur and beauty of conception, wealth of imagination, vividness of illustration, compressed energy and splendor of diction. Examples of picturesque and impressive imagery are indeed so abundant that selection is difficult. These may be instanced, however: the banner raised aloft upon the mountains; the restless roar of the sea; the waters rising with irresistible might; the forest consumed rapidly in the circling flames, or stripped of its foliage by an unseen hand; the raised way; the rushing of many waters; the storm driving or beating down all before it; the monster funeral pyre; Jehovah's hand "stretched out," or "swung," over the earth, and bearing consternation with it. Especially grand are the figures under which he conceives Jehovah as "rising up." being "exalted," or otherwise asserting his majesty against chose who would treat it with disregard or disdain. * * * * The brilliancy and power of Isaiah's genius appear further in the sudden contrasts, and pointed antitheses and retorts, in which he delights.

Isaiah's literary style shows similar characteristics. It is chaste and dignified: the language is choice, but devoid of all artificiality or stiffness; every sentence is compact and forcible; the rhythm is stately; the periods are finely rounded; Isaiah indulges occasionally-in the manner of his people-in tone-painting, and

sometimes enforces his meaning by an effective assonance, but never to excess, or as a meretricious ornament. His style is never diffuse: even his longest discourses are not monotonous or prolix; he knows how to treat his subject fruitfully, and, as he moves along, to bring before his reader new and varied aspects of it; thus he seizes a number of salient points and presents each singly in a vivid picture. No prophet has Isaiah's power either of conception or of expression; none has the same command of noble thoughts, or can present them in the same noble and attractive language.

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Immerse such a writer as this into the spirit of the future, give him the theme of Israel's deliverance from Babylonian captivity, or the larger deliverance of Israel and the world from sin and death through the mission of the Christ; and what new coloring may he not give to his style? What greater depths of truth respecting God and man may he not sound, calling for new phraseology, new words and combinations to express the deeper knowledge of the enlarged "vision?" This I believe is what happened to the Prophet. He was so immersed; and his style under the inspiration of God rose to meet the new environment and the enlarged views given by the wider vision.

One of the most forceful passages on this subject that I have yet found is one written by Professor Daniel Smith Talcott, D. D., of the Theological Seminary, Bangor, Maine. He contributes the article on "Isaiah" to Hackett's edition of Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, and in the course of his treatise, referring to the diversity of style between the two alleged parts of Isaiah, says:

The array of linguistic evidence in proof of a diversity of authorship, which has gradually grown within the last century into the formidable proportions in which it meets us in the pages of Knobel and others, rests very largely upon an assumption which none of these critics have the hardihood distinctly to vindicate, namely, that within the narrow compass of the Hebrew literature that has come down to us from any given period, we have the means for arriving at an accurate estimate of all the resources which the language at that time possesse 1. When we have eliminated from the list of words and phrases relied upon to prove a later date than the time of Isaiah, everything the value of which to the argument must stand or fall with this assumption, there remains absolutely nothing which may not be reasonably referred to the reign of Hezekiah. Indeed, considering all the circumstances of the times, it might justly have been expected that the traces of foreign influence upon the language would be far more conspicuous in a writing of this date than they actually are in the controverted portions.

It is to be remembered that the ministry of the prophet must have extended through a period, at the lowest calculation, of nearly fifty years; a period signal

ized, especially during the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, by constant and growing intercourse with foreign nations, thus involving continually new influences for the corruption of public morals and new dangers to the state, and making it incumbent upon him who had been divinely constituted at once the political adviser of the nation and its religious guide, to be habitually and intimately conversant among the people, so as to descry upon the instant every additional step taken in their downward course and the first approach of each new peril from abroad, and to be able to meet each successive phase of their necessities with forms of instruction, admonition, and warning, not only in their general purport, but in their very style and diction, accommodated to conditions hitherto unknown, and that were still perpetually changing.

Now when we take all this into the account, and then imagine to ourselves the prophet, toward the close of this long period, entering upon what was in some respects a novel kind of labor, and writing out with a special view to the benefit of a remote posterity, the suggestions of that mysterious Theopneustia to which his lips had been for so many years the channel of communication with his contemporaries, far from finding any difficulty in the diversities of style perceptible in the different portions of his prophecy, we shall only see fresh occasion to admire that native strength and grandeur of intellect, which have still left upon productions so widely remote from each other in the time and circumstances of their composition, so plain an impress of one and the same overmastering individuality. (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 1165.)

Believers in the Book of Mormon have no occasion of uneasiness because passages from the latter part of Isaiah's book are found transcribed into the Nephite record. The theories of modern critics have not destroyed the integrity and unity of the Book of Isaiah. And after the overwhelming evidences for the truth of the Book of Mormon are taken into account; and it is found that on the plates of Nephi there were transcripts from the latter part of Isaiah's writings, taken from a copy of his prophecies carried by a colony of Jews from Jerusalem to the western hemisphere, six hundred years before Christ-men will discern in this discovery new evidence for the Isaiah authorship of the whole book of Isaiah.

Salt Lake City, Utah.

KEY TO SUCCESS.

The key to success in any department of life is self-denial. Idleness, laziness, wastefulness, come from lack of it, while industry, promptitude, economy, thrift and a successful career are the results of it,

GOVERNOR WILLIAM SPRY.

The present governor of the state of Utah was born in Windsor, England, on the 11th day of January, 1864.

At the early age of eleven years Mr. Spry came to America with his parents, settling in Utah, where he has resided since the year 1875. His education was obtained in the schools of the state and has been confined to the advantages which could be obtained from the common school branches. He began manual labor early in life and at the age of thirteen worked as a stable boy, and later at railroad work, as a section hand. From this, he advanced to the blacksmith shops where he made a record as a striker-not, however, as one who strikes for better terms or higher wages, but as one who strikes while the iron is hot, a characteristic that has continued with him up to date. Quitting the railroad shops, he later engaged in the hide and wool business, in which, as in other vocations, he succeeded admirably.

At the age of twenty-one, he was called as a missionary to the Southern States. Here he labored for six years, the last four of which were spent in charge of the mission which then comprised all the states south of the Mason and Dixon Line. In 1890, while yet in the mission field and one year before his release, he married Miss Mary Alice Wrathall. He has an interesting family of children. On his return to Salt Lake City after he had filled his mission in a most honorable manner, he became connected with Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, for which organization he began to labor in the fall of 1891. Quitting this work, he moved to Tooele, in 1893, at which place he engaged in farming and stock-raising with more or less success. His political career began in 1894, when he was elected county collector of