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158 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.

of Fayette, Seneca county, declaring the three wit- nesses to bear record of the book. The voice of Mi- chael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light. The voice of Peter, James, and John in the wilderness be- tween Harmony, Susquehanna county, and Colesville, Boone county, on the Susquehanna River, declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fulness of times. And again, the voice of God in the chamber of old Father Whitmer, in Fayette, Seneca county, and at sundry times and in divers places, through all the travels and tribulations of this church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."

We come now to a most momentous epoch in the history of the church, to the most important act of the prophet during the entire course of his wonderful life, to the act of all others pregnant with mighty results, if we except the primary proceedings relative to the sacred book and its translation.

Twenty years had passed since the plates of Mor- mon had been revealed to Joseph, during which time he had suffered divers and continued persecution. He and his followers had been reviled and spit upon from the beginning; some of them had been robbed, and beaten, hunted down, imprisoned, and slain. Yet they had prospered; the church had rapidly increased, and its members were blessed with plenty. Their neighbors spoke much evil of them and com- mitted many violent acts. The saints were exceed- ingly annoying; they voted solid and claimed the whole world as theirs, including Jackson county, Missouri; they were wild in their thoughts, extrava- gant in their pretensions, and by no means temperate in the use of their tongues; they were not always prudent; they were not always without reproach.

Just how far certain members or leaders erred, bringing evil on all, it is impossible at this day to