| 65 offered, and wrote for us. He wrote in all nearly two hundred pages.
"About the time he commenced writing, my father took the first book, and went to Nauvoo to lay it before Joseph Smith; but he would not even look at it, as he was so pressed by other business that he could not examine it. My father returned, and soon after was reduced so low by a fever that he was not able to work for nearly a year. During this time he wrote several small books as I dictated the matter as it appeared to me.
"It was late in the fall of 1840, that the first light was obtained from those writings on the subject of the gathering, or the place of refuge for the saints. Soon after, it became generally known to the branch in Springfield that we had these writings, and Hyrum Smith visiting this place, my father invited him to his house and laid it before him. He made no decision, but advised us to lay it before Joseph, at the same time saying, 'We have no right to condemn a gift in a child.'
"In June, 1841, my father went to Nauvoo again, taking with him the manuscript we had written. Joseph took the writings, and after keeping them in his possession six days, he returned them, saying, 'I have inquired of the Lord concerning this, and have not received an answer.' After this we continued to write as often as we had time without neglecting our other business. Many members of the church had by this time heard a part of the writing read, as they came to our house for this purpose; but as yet nothing had been published. Our duty in this respect we did not know, and we made it a matter of prayer daily for months, and on the twenty-ninth day of March, 1842, I received the following instruction:-
"'Thus saith the Lord your God, it is my will that ye should make known the place of safety unto those that strive to serve me, and also the time when they shall gather themselves together to depart, and that ye cause small portions of the books to be printed in various places, that the people may read and understand before the day and the hour of my judgments shall come; amen.'
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