| 62 JAMES COLIN BREWSTER.
James Colin Brewster was born about the year 1827, and hence was but about seventeen years old at the death of President Joseph Smith. He claimed that at some time (date we have not learned) Joseph Smith and others ordained him and pronounced upon him the blessing of being a prophet, seer, revelator, and translator. Mr. Brewster's account of this, as quoted by Elder Hazen Aldrich, in Olive Branch, volume 1, page 94, is as follows:-
"I and my father were requested by J. Smith, Sen., and Elder Beaman to come to the house of the Lord. We went in and the door was locked. After some conversation with Messrs. Smith, Beaman, and Holman, Elder Beaman called upon the Lord. They then proceeded to lay their hands upon my head and pronounced a blessing upon me in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and sealed it upon me by the power of the holy priesthood which they held, J. Smith then acting as First President of the Church in Kirtland. The prophetic blessing was, that I should be a prophet, a seer, a revelator, and translator, and that I should have power given me of God to discover and obtain the treasures which are hid in the earth."-Olive Branch, vol. 1, p. 94.
He claimed to have translated the writings of Esdras in which instruction was given regarding organization, gathering, and other important matters. The account of his translating these writings and the events preceding can best be related in his own words:-
"THE WRITINGS OF ESDRAS.
"SPRINGFIELD, Ill., August 30, 1848.
"The question being often asked, 'How are those writings of Esdras obtained,' I have thought proper to write a short article on this subject.
"In the Apochrypha [Apocrypha] we find the books called first and second Esdras. In the fourteenth chapter of the latter, we read that the prophet's prayer to the Almighty was this: 'But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the
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