WE now present the Eighteenth Volume of the JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES to the Saints, and to all lovers of the Truth.

We feel confident that the important instructions on principle and doctrine therein contained, relative to the building of Temples, the salvation of the dead, the introduction of the Order of Enoch, and the general progress and development of the great Latter-day Work, will prove as interesting, gratifying and beneficial to the Saints and to posterity, as those that have been previously published through this medium.

We regret that the circulation of the JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES is so limited. Its importance would warrant a thousand-fold greater extension of this work. We anticipate a time, not distant in the future, when a copy of the present volume will be more precious than gold. It is even now almost impossible to obtain a complete series. Copies should therefore be carefully preserved by all subscribers.

We also, with feelings of regret, chronicle here, which we think a befitting place, the death-on July 5, 1876-of Elder David W. Evans, to whom for many years we have been indebted for the reports of the discourses of the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles and others. His death being the cause of the temporary suspension of the publication of this journal.

In his demise the Saints have sustained the temporal loss of a faithful and worthy brother, and the public a devoted and able servant.

THE PUBLISHER.