| 652 our knowledge he caused an appointment to be made for the next Thursday for the church to choose their guardian; and they to [too] in the absence of the more part of the quorum of the Twelve, and even without consulting the high council of the church. I knew such a course would divide the church, and I protested against it, and determined to come to the stand if the motion was to proceed and dismiss the meeting. It fortunately happened that the Twelve came in time to attend the meeting which was changed by them into a special conference. We made another effort to get Elder Rigdon to sit in council with the quorum of the Twelve. We met at the time appointed and waited something like three hours before he came. He finally came and we then asked him to give us the relation of his vision or revelation, which he did. He said it was shewn [shown] to him that there were no authorities left in the church who could act. When Joseph was alive the people had confidence in the quorums, but now they had not that confidence; the people must choose some man they can have confidence in, to act. Said I to him, Elder Rigdon, there never was a time when the people were more willing to hearken to council and be agreed, than they are now.-Said I, has not the Almighty God established authorities in this church by Joseph Smith, such as the quorum of the Twelve, the high council and other quorums, and have they not power to act, and will they not be damned if they do not act; and will the people not be damned if they do not give heed to these authorities? He answered, yes; when not twenty minutes before he said there was no authorities in the church! Said I, Elder Rigdon, I object to that meeting you got up, in the name of the Twelve. It is got up without the consent or advice of those of the Twelve who are here, at present we dont [don't] need to adopt any new measures, we only need to carry out the measures which God has revealed, and when we have done this, God will give us more; and on these grounds, I object to the meetiug [meeting]. Says he, there is no need to appoint another officer. We have only to sustain the officers, as they are already organized; and I pledge myself there shall be no other business brought up on Thursday, only the regular prayer meeting. When I had got the pledge from him I told the people that Thursday's meeting would only be a prayer meeting. But after this some of the people went to him and he turned round again, and said it was a business meeting. I know that he said no business should be done at that meeting, and afterwards said it should be a business meeting. I then saw that this was a deep and cunning plan laid to divide the best people that ever lived.
On last Sunday we heard preaching all day about things along way ahead-terrible battles to be fought somewhere by the brook Kedron. Their preaching gave me a text which I want to preach from, it is somewhere in Webster's Spelling Book, and I suppose the little boys can tell me where. However it is a story of a "country maid and her milk pail," &c. The moral was that when men suffer their imaginations to be amused with things along way ahead, they suffer loss by neglecting those things which immediately concern them.-The great God said through Joseph-build this temple; I give you a sufficient time to build it, and if you do not build it by the appointed time, you shall be rejected as a people with your dead. I thought we were concerned in building up this place and defending it, and while we were immediately concerned in all these important matters, the day was spent in talking about Queen Victoria, battles, &c., and things which were calculated to draw our minds away from those things wherein our eternal interest is at stake. When he blessed the people I said amen, and when he said our persecutions were about over, and cried peace, peace, I hoped it would be so, if we could get it. He did by hard straining get it out that we might go on and build the temple and build up the city.
On Tuesday as has been stated we went to Elder Rigdon's house, when I had heard that he had been ordaining men to unheard of offices. These men were in no quorum, and under nobody's direction, nor authority, but Elder Rigdon's own revelations. We protested against it. He claimed he had authority and keys over any one else. By and bye we had more of his revelations. Says he, I saw all this before I left Pittsburg.[Pittsburgh] I then charged him with endeavoring to palm upon the people, false revelations and lies in the name of the Lord. He then gave us another slice of his revelation, in addition to what he had already told us. It was that he was to help fight a bloody battle in some appointed place, the particulars of which had been revealed to him.-This battle was not to be a war of words, not a battle with the tongue, but says he, "with the 'sword,' and it will be a bloody battle; the great God has revealed it to me, and no one shall beat me out of it!" Says I to him, if you build up churches and ordain men to preach who are not subject to the Twelve, how are they to be governed. Suppose the Twelve,
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