in that day the law governing bondpeople was very explicit and strict; and though I cannot believe that God or his angel sanctioned slavery, on this occasion the angelic messenger certainly took cognizance of the law of the land and sent the woman back. But before she went he gave her a promise; for he had come, he told her, to give a blessing; he said in effect: You shall become the mother of a son, and that son shall grow up to be a wild man. He shall live in the desert in tents; he shall have no permanent abode. His hand shall be against every other man, and every other man's hand shall be against him." It would seem, would it not, that this was the very opposite of a blessing? But that was not all. "And," said he, "when that child is born, you shall call his name Ishmael." Aye, what is in a name? Wherein lay the blessing? Ishmael-Why, it was a name given of God. Think what it means. "Ishmael" signifies, "God shall hear him when he calls." O, what greater blessing could that prospective mother want? God shall hear him! What though he lived in a tent; what though he wandered from place to place, throughout all the days of his life; the God of heaven had promised and had sealed his promise with the seal of a name, that his ear should be open to the cry of that boy. The Ishmaelites, the Arabs, tell the story in their black tents until this day; they hold to that promise and call upon Allah with faith and confidence like loving children.

Passing over the centuries, I call to mind another instance in which the name of the individual was prescibed before birth. You remember when Zacharias, the priest belonging to the course of Abia, stood in the holy place, in the temple, on an occasion to him. very solemn; for the privilege of there standing and offering incense in the course of the daily service rarely came to any one priest more than once in his life. At the solemn moment when he was officiating in the very highest function and office of his priesthood, an angel appeared before him, and among other things promised him that his wife, Elizabeth, should bear him a son, and he added, "Thou shalt call his name John." You remember how Zacharias, the priest, manifested a feeling akin to doubt. It was such a wonderful thing. His wife was old, and he also, and they had given up all hope of children; but to receive the promise from the lips of an angel and to have the very name prescribed seemed to him so wholly wonderful that he asked some proof or evidence of the angel's authority or power. The angel gave him a sign, in these portentous words: "Thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed." Straightway Zacharies lost his power of speech ;and when he came out in front of the curtain dividing the general assembly place from the holy place, there to pronounce the benediction, he could only raise his hands and motion to the people. No word came from his mouth. Well, in course of time the boy was born, and in accordance with custom the people gathered on the eighth day, the fam

ily and friends, to celebrate the circumcision of the infant and the bestowal of a name. They came together rejoicing. The grandmothers, possibly also the sisters, the cousins, and the aunts all had something to say as to what name the boy should receive. Well, they decided that he should be called Zacharias, after his father Zacharias; but his mother, Elizabeth, said: "Not so; but he shall be called John." They protested and said: "None of your folks are called John; none of his father's folks are called John." Incidentally, in passing, I would say that that seems to me a very good reason why he should be called John, so that he would have a name of his own. But the dumb father made signs to them to bring writing materials, and when they brought him the tablet of wax and the stylus, he wrote, "His name is John." Then his own lips were opened and he burst forth with a song of thanksgiving and joy. Well, you may say, Why all this fuss about naming a baby, and only John at that a very common name, quite as common then as now. Do you know what the name means, you Johns here present? I will hazard an opinion there are some Johns in this congregation. What does it mean? John means "the gracious gift of God." That was a name fittingly bestowed upon him who came foreordained and foreappointed to be the forerunner of the Christ, to prepare the way for the coming of the Savior and to cry repentance in the wilderness.

The name of the Savior of mankind, the earthly name by which he should be known among men, was prescribed before his birth. Gabriel, who made the enunciation to the virgin, told her that when the child was born he was to be called Jesus. Now, Jesus was just as common a name in that day as John, or James, or Thomas, or Henry today, but "Jesus" means "a savior." He was also to be called Emanuel, which means "God is with us." The terms "Christ" and "Messias," or as Anglicized and used by us, "Messiah," are distinctively titles meaning "the anointed one."

Then it may be noted that in conferring names, parents are sometimes thoughtless or may not know what the selected name means. They may not know, when they name that boy Paul, a pretty babe, that he is going to grow up to be a giant among men. Paul means a little fellow; and yet we find it borne sometimes by men above the average stature. It may seem strange that another pair of fond parents will name their only child Thomas, when Thomas means one of a pair of twins. I say we take too little thought of what common names mean, and very little as to their significance in the particular bestowal; and hence there seems to be some good common-sense reasons for the Roman practice of giving an agnomen later in life, a name that the child had earned, or that the man had won.

There are instances of record, as every student of the Scriptures knows, of names having been changed when they were not suitable. You remember when God made his covenant with Abram,

he changed his name. Now "Abram" had quite a distinctive and distinguishing meaning; it meant "a high and mighty one," but when the Lord of hosts made his covenant with Abram and promised him that his descendants should be so numerous that though you could count the grains of sand upon the seashore, or the stars in the heavens by night, you should not count his posterity, he had to give him a title worthy of his rank, and therefore he said: "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham." Now, Abraham means "the father of a multitude of nations." So when Jacob prevailed with God and in his prayer for a blessing succeeeded, what blessing was conferred? The heavenly visitant said to him, "What is thy name?" Jacob told him; and you know from the circumstances of Jacob's birth that the name had not been given as any particular honor. Then said the angel, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel." "Israel" means "a prince who has prevailed with God."

It is not only men who have had their names changed. You remember the wife of Abraham, Sarai. Her name was of good significance; it means "God is the prince;" but when the promise was made that she should be the mother of Isaac, the patriarch who would succeed his father under the covenant, it was fitting that her name be changed, and that she receive a title indicating that she was to be the mother of that personage of promise and of royal degree. So, by the power of heaven, her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah, the good old name as we have it now; and what does that mean? "Princess"-not simply one who believes that God is the prince, but one who is a princess, in her own right. The patent of her royal state was given in her name. You remember that Jesus changed the names of some of his followers. Simon, the fisherman, had a name that was quite honorable; it means "one who listens, one who hears," carrying the thought of wisdom and prudence, but when Jesus met him and recognized him he said: "Thou shalt be called Cephas," which in Greek is Petros or as we put it, Peter, "the rock." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were called the sons of thunder, "Boanerges." Well, if it be thus important that the name be given aright, have we not reason to be thankful that the Lord has promised unto all who are faithful that if their names are not suitable they shall receive other names that are. I call to mind the promise uttered through the mouth of Isaiah, recorded in the sixty-second chapter. The Lord says, speaking of his people whom he called Zion:

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

"And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hands of thy God.

"Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hepzibah, and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married."

"Hepzibah" means, "My delight is in her," and "Beulah" means "one who is honorably wedded." Such is the promise to the people and to the land, and great it is.

DAVID PETTEGREW.

BY STELLA PAUL BRADFORD.

The greater part of this sketch is taken direct from the autobiography of David Pettegrew which thus begins:

"In the year of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, eighteen hundred and forty, I, David Pettegrew, commenced to write somewhat of a history of my life.

"I was born in the town of Weatherfield, Windsor County, state of Vermont, 1791. My father, William Pettegrew, was born in the town of Woodbury, Connecticut, in the year 1752. My Grandfather, Alexander Pettegrew, emigrated from Scotland to New England. All I know of him is what I remember hearing my father say of him. He was a soldier in the old French War. He had two sons, William and Stephen.

"My father was a soldier in the Revolutionary War under the great Washington. He had four sons-Daniel, Nathaniel, David, and Nathan, and also three daughters-Betsy, Lydia, and Sally. My mother died and my father married again and had four sons— John, Thomas, Alden, and William, and one daughter, Mary. My father died in 1816.

"I married Elizabeth Alden, daughter of John Alden of Claremont Co., New Hampshire, and myself and wife, with my brother Nathan, started for the West. We arrived at Olyann and purchased a boat and descended the river Ohio to Cincinnati, Ohio, where we lived four years, and then I moved to the state of Indiana, where I lived until the year 1832.

"We had born to us eight children. The names of my sons are David Alden, Hiram King Solomon, James Phineas, and George Fredrick. The names of my daughters are Lucy Ann West, Betsy Ann Nixon, Caroline Keziah, and Lydia Louise.

"My father was a traveling preacher of the Methodist Church, and I thought that church was nearest correct of any; therefore

we applied to them and were soon organized into a class in our neighborhood, I being chosen class leader.

"I strove to do good according to the light I had. I was exceedingly anxious to know why we could not attain to the same religion as the Apostles, or to the same faith and works. I believed there was but one right way, and I was much troubled concerning that matter.

"On the first day of the year 1832, as I was reading in my room before prayers, some person knocked at my door. I bade him enter, and behold it was a man with whom I had had some acquaintance years before, whom I considered a just and good man, but not very intelligent. I enquired what was the news and which sect was doing the most in the cause of religion. He answered that the Methodists, he thought, were doing the best of any. We conversed awhile on different topics, and at length he asked me if I had heard of a people called the 'Mormons.' I replied that I never had, only what I had read in the 'Christian Advocate,' printed in New York. I there read some slurs about a people that was gathering in the upper part of the state of Missouri, and supposed they were a fit people for the penitentiary. I asked if he knew anything about them, to which he replied he did and believed them to be a good people, and that he had a book of their religion; upon which I asked him to let me see the book, and he handed me the Book of Mormon. This was indeed new to me, and I thought a trick, as he looked upon this book as being as sacred as the Bible."

Grandfather bought a Book of Mormon, read it, and was convinced it was sacred and contained the fulness of the Gospel. He was released from the class in the Methodist Church and was looked upon by his former friends as a deluded man. The minister spent an entire service denouncing the book, and closed by turning to grandfather and telling him to call the neighbors in, take the Book of Mormon and burn it as a sacrifice to old Moloch, and let all witness the sight.

Continuing the record reads: "I saw that my peace and enjoyment were over if I remained at my place of residence. I therefore resolved to change my location. I had heard that the people who believed in the Book of Mormon were gathering in the upper part of Missouri, and thither I was determined to go.

"I offered my farm for sale, and soon found a purchaser, a German, who gave me the price I asked for it, and he also bought much of my other property. My eldest brother, seeing that I had sold my farm and had received the money for it, told me that I was deranged and it was his duty to see that I had a guardian placed over me.

"A few days before my departure I visited Cincinnati, where there was a branch of the Church. On my arrival I found Elders Elias, Isaac, and John Higbee, and from them I obtained some in