WE arose in the morning, after a good night's rest. I was somewhat lame, from wading in the swamp the night before. We had a good breakfast. Mr. Jereu sent an Indian to see us across the river, and informed us that it was sixty miles to the nearest settlement of either white or red men. We were too bashful to ask for anything to take with us to eat; so we crossed the river and started on our day's journey of sixty miles without a morsel of food of any kind. What for? To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to save this gen- eration. Think of this, children; think of what the Presidency the Apostles, and the Elders of this Church have passed through to give you the homes and comforts you now enjoy.

WE arose in the morning, after a good night's rest. I was somewhat lame, from wading in the swamp the night before. We had a good breakfast. Mr. Jereu sent an Indian to see us across the river, and informed us that it was sixty miles to the nearest settlement of either white or red men. We were too bashful to ask for anything to take with us to eat; so we crossed the river and started on our day's journey of sixty miles without a morsel of food of any kind. What for? To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to save this gen- eration. Think of this, children; think of what the Presidency the Apostles, and the Elders of this Church have passed through to give you the homes and comforts you now enjoy.

We started about sunrise and crossed a thirty mile prairie, apparently as level as a house floor, without shrub or water. We arrived at timber about two o'clock in the afternoon. As we approached the timber a large black bear came out towards us. We were not afraid of him, for we were on the Lord's business, and had not mocked God's prophets as did the forty- two wicked children who said to Elisha "Go up thou bald head," for which they were torn by bears. When the bear got within eight rods of us he sat on his haunches and looked at us a moment, and then ran away; and we went on our way rejoicing. We had to travel in the night, which was cloudy and very dark, so we had great difficulty to keep the road. Soon a large drove of wolves gathered around, and followed us. They came very close, and at times it seemed as though they would eat us up. We had materials for striking alight, and at ten o'clock, not knowing where we were, and the wolves becoming so bold, we thought it wisdom to make a fire; so we stopped and gathered a lot of oak limbs that lay on the ground, and lit them, and as our fire began to burn the wolves left us.

On Sunday, the 31st of July, A. O. Smoot and I preached at Mr. David Crider's, Weakly County, Tennessee. After the meeting Mr. Crider was baptized. A mob gathered and threatened us, and poisoned our horses so that the one I rode, belonging to Samuel West, died a few days after. This horse had carried me thousands of miles while preaching the gospel.

I felt impressed by the Spirit of God to take a mission to the Fox Islands, situated east of the Maine shore, a country I knew nothing about. I made my feelings known to the Apostles, and they advised me to go. Feeling that it was my duty to go upon this mission, I did not tarry at home one year after having married a wife, as the law of Moses would have allowed. On the contrary, I started just one month and one day after that important event, leav- ing my wife with Sister Hale, with whom she expected to stay for a season.

Who can comprehend the joy, the glory, the happiness and consolation that an Elder of Israel feels in being an instrument in the hands of God of bringing his father, mother, sister, brother, or any of the posterity of Adam through the door that enters into life and salvation? No man can, unless he has experienced these things, and possesses the testimony of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of Almighty God. 3

December 3rd found my wife very low. I spent the day in taking care of her, and the following day I returned to Eaton to get some things for her. She seemed to be gradually sink- ing and in the evening her spirit apparently left her body, and she was dead. The sisters gathered around her body, weeping, while I stood looking at her in sorrow. The spirit and power of God began to rest upon me until, for the first time during her sick- ness faith filled my soul, although she lay before me as one dead. I had some oil that was consecrated for my anointing while in Kirtland. I took it and consecrated it again before the Lord for anointing the sick. I then bowed down before the Lord and prayed for the life of my companion, and I anointed her body with the oil in the name of the Lord. I laid my hands upon her, and in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuked the power of death and the destroyer, and commanded the

On May 6th, I met with the Seventies, and we ordained sixty men into the quorums of Elders and Seventies. Brother Joseph met with the Twelve, Bishops and Elders, at Bishop Partridge's house; and there were a number with us who were wounded at Haun's Mill. Among them was Isaac Laney, who had been, in company with about twenty others, at the mill, when a large armed mob fired among them with rifles and other weapons, and shot down seventeen of the brethren, and wounded more. Brother Laney fled from the scene, but they poured a shower of lead after him, which pierced his body through and through. He showed me eleven bullet holes in his body. There were twenty-seven in his shirt, seven in his pantaloons, and his coat was literally cut to pieces. One ball entered one arm-pit and came out at the other. Another entered his back and came out at the breast. A ball passed through each hip, each leg and each arm. All these shots were received while he was running for life, and, strange as it may appear, though he had also one of his ribs broken, he was able to outrun his enemies, and his life was saved. We can only acknowledge this deliverance to be by the power and mercy of God. President Joseph Young was also among the number. He also fled, and although the balls flew around him like hail, he was not wounded. How mysterious are the ways of the Lord!

Brother Fordham had been dying for an hour, and we expected each minute would be his last. I felt the power of God that was overwhelming His Prophet. When we entered the house, Brother Joseph walked up to Brother Fordham, and took him by the right hand; in his left hand he held his hat. He saw that Brother Fordham’s eyes were glazed, and that he was speechless and unconscious. After taking hold of his hand, he looked down into the dying man's face and said: "Brother Fordham, do you not know me?" At first he made no reply; but we could all see the effect of the Spirit of God resting upon him. He again said: "Elijah, do you not know me?" With a low whisper, Brother Fordham answered, "Yes!" The Prophet then said, "Have you not faith to be healed?" The answer, which was a little plainer than before, was: "I am afraid it is too late. If you had come sooner, I think it might have been.” He had the appearance of a man waking from sleep. It was the sleep of death. Joseph then said: "Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?" "I do, Brother Joseph," was the response. Then the Prophet of God spoke with a loud voice, as in the majesty of the Godhead: "Elijah, I command you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to arise and be made whole!" The words of the Prophet were not like the words of a man, but like the voice of God. It seemed to me that the house shook from its foundation. Elijah Fordham leaped from his bed like a man raised from the dead. A healthy color came to his face, and life was mani- fested in every act. His feet were done up in Indian meal poultices. He kicked them off his feet, scattered the contents, and then called for his clothes and put them on. He asked for a bowl of bread

"I wish to say to the Twelve and all the Saints, to profit by this important key, that in all your trials, troubles, tempta- tions, afflictions, bonds, imprisonments and deaths, see to it that you do not betray Jesus Christ, that you do not betray the revelations of God, whether in the Bible, Book of Mor- mon, or Doctrine and Covenants, or any of the words of God. "Yea, in all your troubles, see that you do not this thing, lest innocent blood be found upon your skirts, and ye go down to hell.

I spent most of the following day in clearing out a pool of water, and preparing it for baptizing in, as I saw many to be baptized there. I afterwards baptized six hundred in that pool of water.

The sick were healed, devils were cast out, and the lame were made to walk. One case I will mention: Mary Pitt, who died in Nauvoo, sister to Wm. Pitt, who died in Salt Lake City, had not walked upon her feet for eleven years. We carried her into the water and I baptized her. On the evening of the 18th of May, 1840, at Brother Kingston's house in Dymock, Elders Brigham Young, Wil- lard Richards and I laid hands upon her head and confirmed her. Brigham Young, being mouth, rebuked her lameness, and commanded her to arise and walk, in the name of the Lord. The lameness then left her, and she never afterwards used a staff or crutch.

You are laying the foundation while in the days of your youth, for character which will decide your destiny through all time and throughout all eternity, either for good or evil.

When we have the principles of the gospel revealed to us through the mouth of the Savior, or by inspired prophets or apostles, we have no need to ask the Lord to reveal that unto us again. While the priesthood is restored to the earth, and the revelations of God are revealed to us through the mouths of prophets and apostles concerning the fullness of the gospel —doctrine, ordinances and principles, we should study them, and treasure up knowledge by faith. We should study out of the best books, and the Holy Ghost will bring to our remem- brance those things which we stand in need of, in the self-same hour that we are called to teach the people.

The teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith to President John Taylor and the rest of us was to obtain the Holy Spirit, get acquainted with it and its operations, and listen to the whisperings of that Spirit and obey its voice, and it soon will become a principle of revelation unto us. We have found this true in our experience, and in order to prove whether a revelation is from God or not we follow out the principles revealed to us, and if we find that which was manifested to us prove true, we know it is from God; for truth is one of His attributes, and the Holy Ghost deceiveth no man. When a man becomes acquainted with the whisper- ings of the Holy Ghost, which is revelation, he should be very careful to obey it, for his life may depend upon it. Revelation is one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost

In 1848, after my return to Winter Quarters from our pioneer journey, I was appointed by the Presidency of the Church to take my family and go to Boston, to gather up the remnant of the Latter-day Saints and lead them to the valleys of the mountains. While on my way east I put my carriage into the yard of one of the brethren in Indiana, and Brother Orson Hyde set his wagon by the side of mine, and not more than two feet from it. Dominicus Carter, of Provo, and my wife and four children were with me. My wife, one child and I went to bed in the carriage, the rest sleeping in the house. I had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me: “Get up, and move your carriage." It was not thunder, lightning or an earthquake, but the still, small voice of the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost. I told my wife I must get up and move my carriage. She asked: "What for?" I told her I did not know, only the Spirit told me to do it. I got up and moved my carriage several rods, and set it by the side of the house. As I was returning to bed the same Spirit said to me, ''Go and move your mules away from that oak tree,” which was about one hundred yards north of our carriage. I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up. I then went to bed. In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and carried it one hundred yards, sweeping away two fences in its course, and laid it prostrate through that yard where my carriage stood, and the top limbs hit my carriage as it was. In the morning I measured the trunk of the tree which fell where my carriage had stood, and I found it to be five feet in circumference. It came within a foot of Brother Hyde's wagon, but did not touch it. Thus, by obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me I saved my life and the lives of my wife and child, as well as my animals. In the morning I went on my way rejoicing.

While returning to Utah in 1850 with a large company of Saints from Boston and the east, on my arrival at Pittsburg I engaged a passage for myself and company on a steamer to St. Louis. But no sooner had I engaged the passage than the Spirit said to me, "Go not on board of that steamer, neither you nor your company.'' I obeyed the revelation to me, and I did not go on board, but took another steamer. The first steamer started at dark, with two hundred passen- gers on board. When five miles down the Ohio river it took fire, burned the tiller ropes so that the vessel could not reach shore, and the lives of nearly all on board were lost either by fire or water. We arrived in safety at our destination, by obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to us.

As I have received the good and the evil, the fruits of obedience and disobedience, I think I am justified in exhorting all my young friends to always obey the whisperings of the Spirit of God, and they will always be safe. The Spirit of God will rule over and guide all men who will permit it and seek for it, and this is especially necessary for young Elders who are laboring in the vineyard of the Lord. For the Lord knows where the righteous, honest and meek of the earth are, and will lead the Elders to them

Brother Smith and myself were together, and had retired to our rest, each occupying a cot, and but three feet apart. We had only just lain down, when it seemed as if a legion of devils made war upon us, to destroy us, and we were strug- gling for our lives in the midst of this warfare of evil spirits until we were nearly choked to death. I began to pray the best that I could in the midst of this struggle and asked the Father in the name of Jesus Christ to spare our lives. While thus praying three personages entered the room, clothed in white and encircled with light. They walked to our bedside, laid hands upon our heads and we were instantly delivered; and from that time forth we were no more troubled with evil spirits while in the city of London. As soon as they administered unto us they withdrew from the room, the lights withdrew with them and darkness returned.