did. We had a large congregation, and found a fine opening for the

spread of the truth.

At the close of the meeting, at which I preached and Elder Crosby bore testimony, we were invited to dine with a family residing there.

The wife of our host told us that, about two or three months before, the minister that had preached in that part of the country had left, and they were without any religious instructor, when she prayed the Lord to send some faithful person to supply his place.

Thus engaged, she was shown in a vision two men, the elder of whom was preaching, but the other delivered an exhortation of a different kind. The doctrine, she said, was new to her, but it seemed true.

She also recollected distinctly the clothes and appearance of these men, and, to her great surprise and pleasure, recognized them in the persons of Elder Crosby and myself, directly we entered the room. Of course our hearts were cheered at hearing this, and we felt assured that the Lord was working in the vineyard with His servants.

We commenced to baptize soon afterwards, and the Spirit of the Lord was mightily poured out, in proportion to which the powers of darkness began to manifest themselves through the unbelievers.

But that which enraged our opponents most was the baptism of some of the greatest men in the place. All manner of lies began to circulate about our conduct and intentions. Among other things, it was stated that we were in the habit of interrupting public meetings, and many such statements were privately forwarded to the governor of New Brunswick by the religious ministers and others of our enemies.

This led him to send down an order to three justices of the peace to convene a meeting, and produce whatever kind of evidence could be procured, either for or against, and report accordingly.

Before this meeting was held we ascertained that these justices, who were our most bitter enemies, had been searching law books for something to lay hold of us with, and had found an old statute, applying to the whole of the province, forbidding all dissenters to hold public religious services without a written license from the governor. But the spirit of their purpose was shown by the fact that they had never put this law in force against the numerous dissenters that had flourished there--in fact, two of these justices were dissenters themselves.

The day of the meeting arrived, and all manner of witnesses that could be raked together were produced--among others a negro's evidence was taken, who had previously been convicted of taking a false oath. But for the purpose of this holy tribunal this testimony was good enough! What mattered? He was not for the defense--upon which side of the question it did not occur to the justices, as a necessary thing, to call for any witnesses whatever.

I quickly discovered that it was high time to stir in the matter, or possibly the next discovery would be that we were inmates of a jail; so, taking the advice of Squire Shelton, a gentleman whom we had baptized, I waited with him on Judge Bardsley, the judge of the county, who had frequently attended our meetings, and I procured a certificate from him that he had done so, and had heard nothing injurious to the people or the government.

With this and a similar certificate from Mr. Shelton, who was also a justice of the peace, Brother Crosby and I went to the governor's residence, and obtained an interview; but we found him most terribly prejudiced against us, and very ignorant of law and gospel.

He broke down, however, before the arguments of his aid-de-camp and counsel, who pleaded on our behalf, after battling with him for about two hours. The result was, that all law proceedings against us were stopped.

This enraged our enemies so much that our lives became endangered, and, to escape their violence, we had to sleep in the woods, and do our baptizing in the night, as their determination was to mob us the first opportunity.

Unfortunately, one of them overheard me promise to visit one of the brethren after I had been preaching one day. This mobber, with a party of about ten others, waylaid me. Some of them held me while the rest beat me about the head with their fists; but not being able to bruise me sufficiently in this manner, one of them took off one of my boots, and belabored me about the head with the heel of it until I was covered with blood, which ran down on to my clothes and the ground.

Some of them then threw me down, and jumped upon me with their knees until they broke several of my ribs. All this while I had been calling out loudly, whenever they did not stop my mouth.

But it suddenly occurred to me that, if I were to pretend to be dead they would leave me, thinking their murderous work accomplished; so I groaned loudly as if dying, and resigned myself into their hands, holding my breath as much as possible. This succeeded, the darkness of the night favoring my purpose, and they left me, and ran off as fast as they could.

Directly they were gone I arose, though with great difficulty, and went into a house not far distant, where I washed the blood off my person, and Elder Crosby, who also came there, laid hands upon me.

The mob, however, by some means discovering that I was not yet dead, and that Elder Crosby was with me, met, and resolved to attack the house that night, and, if possible, get possession of both of us, after which they purposed to cut off Elder Crosby's ears, tar and feather us, carry us out into the middle of St. Johns river, and, after tying stones to our feet, sink us both.

The first intimation that we received of this determination was by a wooden rail being hurled against the window. The rail broke through the window, came in upon the bed where we were sleeping, and awoke us both.

We immediately sprang up, and Elder Crosby rushed to the door where they were hammering to get in. He held it as well as he could, but in another moment they would have succeeded, had not Mrs. Shelton, who had been alarmed by the noise, come upon them unexpectedly with a lighted candle, and surprised them in the act.

This frightened them, and, alarmed lest they should be known, they fled with the rest that had been posted at the other parts of the house.

We were quiet after this for about an hour, and Justice Shelton, at whose house we were stopping, went to alarm the neighbors and his son, who lived some distance off, so that we might have assistance in case of the mob returning.

The mob returned while he was gone, having recruited their spirits with whisky. They made a second attack upon the house, trying another door this time.

But Elder Crosby held the door with an iron grasp and the resolution of a lion, so they were again unsuccessful. After drinking round they tried a third time, and one of them managed to get his arm through the door opening, but while doing so he was caught round the waist in the arms of Mr. Shelton's son, who, with several others entered the place at the moment. And thus the Lord delivered us out of their hands, for they were not long dispersing themselves after this.

Several of them were recognized by our friends. These Mr. Shelton put under bonds, but they threatened to burn his house and barn if he attempted to prosecute; and fearing that the government, from its dislike to the Saints, would refuse to back him up, he was compelled to let these mobbers go, and we remained without redress.

In the foregoing recital, the reader will perceive how fully the word of the Lord, spoken in tongues by the youth before we left Jefferson County, was fulfilled.

The next day, by the blessing of God, I recovered sufficiently to walk seventeen miles and preach, but my face was discolored, and I could only see with one eye. I took for my text, Paul's words, "thrice have I been beaten with stripes, etc." and, as may be supposed, my personal appearance furnished a very favorable evidence, on behalf of my argument, that the same effects--violence and death, followed the preaching of the gospel in these days, as did anciently.

Notwithstanding our persecutions we did not leave the country, but continued to preach, fearless of opposition, until we had baptized about fifty, and organized two branches. These were also visited abundantly with the signs following, and the Saints rejoiced greatly in the work. The persecution was a failure in Satan's calculation; it only excited curiosity and awakened attention to our principles.