| 118 your fathers; by whom the promises remain; and also with Michael, or Adam, the father of all, the prince of all, the ancient of days:
And also with Peter, and James, and John, whom I have sent unto you, by whom I have ordained you and confirmed you to be apostles and especial witnesses of my name, and bear the keys of your ministry: and of the same things which I revealed unto them: unto whom I have committed the keys of my kingdom, and a dispensation of the gospel for the last times; and for the fulness [fullness] of times, in the which I will gather together in one all things both which are in heaven and which are on earth: and also with all those whom my father hath given me out of the world: wherefore lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all ye may be able to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth; having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen.
In obedience to the above commandment we prepared some wine of our own make, and held our meeting, consisting only of five, viz. Newell Knight and his wife, myself and my wife, and John Whitmer. We partook together of the sacrament, after which we confirmed these two sisters into the church, and spent the evening in a glorious manner. The spirit of the Lord was poured out upon us, we praised the Lord God, and rejoiced exceedingly. About this time a spirit of persecution began again to manifest itself against us in the neighbourhood [neighborhood] where I now resided, which was commenced by a man of the methodist persuasion, who professed to be a minister of God, and whose name was-. This man came to understand that my father-in-law and his family had promised us protection, and were friendly; and enquiring [inquiring] into the work, and knowing that if he could get him turned against me, my friends in that place would be but few, he accordingly went to visit my father-in-law, and told him falsehoods concerning me, of the most shameful nature, which turned the old gentleman and this family so much against us, that they would no longer promise us protection, nor believe our doctrines. Towards the latter end of August I (in company with John and David Whitmer, and my brother Hyrum Smith) visited the church at Colesville, New York. Well knowing the determined hostilities of our enemies in that quarter, and also knowing that it was our duty to visit the church, we had called upon our heavenly father, in mighty prayer, that he would grant us an opportunity of meeting with them; that he would blind the eyes of our enemies, so that they would not know us, and that we might, on this occasion, return unmolested.
Our prayers were not in vain, for when within a little distance of Mr. Knight's place we encountered a large company at work upon the public road, amongst whom were several of our most bitter enemies. They looked earnestly at us, but not knowing us, we passed on without interruption. We that evening assembled the church, and confirmed them, partook of the sacrament, and held a happy meeting, having much reason to rejoice in the God of our salvation, and sing Hosannas to his holy name.-Next morning we set out on our return home, & although our enemies had offered a reward of five dollars, to any one who would give them information of our arrival, yet did we get clear out of the neighborhood, without the least annoyance, and arrived at home in safety. Some few days afterwards, however, Newel Knight came to my place, and from him we learnt that very shortly after our departure the mob had came to know of our having been there, when they immediately collected together, and had threatened the brethren, and very much annoyed them during all that day. Mean time brother Knight had come with his waggon [wagon], prepared to move my family, &c &c. to Fayette, N. Y. Mr. Whitmer having heard of the persecution which had been got up against us at Harmony, Penn., had invited us to go and live with him; and during the last week of August we arrived at Fayette, amidst the congratulations of our brethren and friends. To our great grief, however, we soon found that satan had been lying in wait to deceive, and seeking whom he might devour. Brother Hyrum Page had got in his possession a certain stone, by which he had obtained to certain revelations, concerning the upbuilding of Zion, the order of the church, &c. &c., all of which were entirely at variance with the order of God's house, as laid down in the New Testament, as well as in our late revelations. As a conference meeting had been appointed for the first day of September, I thought it wisdom not to do much more than to converse with the brethren on the subject, until the conference should meet. Finding, however, that many, (especially the Whitmer family
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