| 258 physical and gross; no response from the departed spirits of any of the family, though severally appealed to in turn ever came; and the manifestations though strange and material were altogether inadequate for the deductions spiritists drew from them. I did not give credence to the philosophy. My human intelligence was at fault, I could not decide. I believed that He who had enabled my father to decide which of all should receive his attention, could, if he would, enable me to decide whether I should, or should not, have anything to do with Mormonism; and if so, what. I proceeded upon this conclusion.
"A year or two before this we had raised an excellent crop of wheat, upon a piece of land lying in the south of our meadow, and this man Yates had assisted in doing some of the work. While engaged in it we had some conversation about Utah. After this, I did not see him for some months. One day, while pondering these questions, (and here, unlike some, I cannot certainly state whether morn or even, only that the sun was shining,) I suddenly found myself sowing this piece of land to wheat. My brother and this Mr. Yates I saw harrowing the wheat after my sowing. In passing over the land I met Mr. Yates as he drove to and fro, and our conversation was upon this Utah subject; and the same arguments and statements were repeated by him. To these I was urging again my reluctance to move, and the question was again presented, Why not go to Utah? I paused, rested the bag of grain that I was carrying across my shoulder, upon my knee, and turned to answer him. I heard a slight noise like the rush of the breeze, that arrested my speech and my attention. I turned my gaze slightly upward and saw descending towards me a sort of cloud, funnel shaped, with the wide part upward. It was luminous, and of such color and brightness that it was clearly seen, though the sun shone in its summer strength. It descended rapidly and settling upon and over me enveloped me completely, so that I stood within its radiance.
"As the cloud rested upon the ground at my feet, the words 'Because the light in which you stand is greater than theirs,' sounded in my ears clearly and distinctly. Slowly
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