ll such things had ceased with the
apostles, and that there would never be any more of them.

"I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a
great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion,
and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to
increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen
and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as
to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high
standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind
against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was common
among all the sects--all united to persecute me.

"It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how
very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over
fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the
necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor,
should be thought a character of sufficient importance to
attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular
sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of
the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so
it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.

"However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision.
I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made
his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the
vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still
there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest,
others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But
all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen
a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven
could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute
him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest
breath, that he had both seen a light, and heard a voice
speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or
believe otherwise.

"So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the
midst of that light I saw two personages, and they did in
reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for
saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they
were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of
evil against me false