| 64 not at that time informed whether or not they were to be written.
"On the last day of September, 1838, I arrived in Springfield, with my father and the rest of his family. In December following I saw a third vision, and the angel whom I had seen before then declared that, 'It is the will of the Lord that you should commence and write those books of Esdras.' At the same time the first book was presented to me; that is, I saw it again in vision.
"On the 27th of December, 1838, I commenced a book called 'The Words of Righteousness to all Men,' and wrote a few lines, but could not write so as to render it intelligible to any but myself, so poor a writer was I at that period. I told my father what I had seen, and he was rather inclined to disbelieve. He did not doubt that I had seen the visions, as I had related them, but he thought it highly improbable that an all wise God should command a family as poor and illiterate as we were, to perform so great a work. Said he, 'We have not wisdom enough amongst us to write a single book, and if it was written, we would not know whether it was correct or not;' but if he could be satisfied that the Lord required it of us, he was willing to commence and do what we could; but until he was convinced, he did not feel disposed to move."-Olive Branch, vol. 1, pp. 33, 34.
He here relates some visions which convinced his father, and continues:-
"In obedience to this command he did commence, and as I saw the books in vision, he wrote the words as I repeated them to him. He had not written any in many years and could proceed but slowly. The first Sunday after his seeing the vision, we spent all day in writing seventy lines, or little more than one page of the first pamphlet. A short time after, Jonathan Dunham came to this place from Missouri. We employed him, and he wrote about two hundred pages in writing, for which we paid him thirty six dollars. On account of the prejudice of the members of the church then here, we said nothing about these writings to any but a few. One of these, E. Merriam, came whenever an opportunity
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