1
I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary labors of the day;
2
But, in attempting to work as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable.
3
My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home.
4
I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.
5
The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name.
6
I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my head, sur-rounded by light as before.
7
He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night;
8
And the angel said: Now I will show you the difference between light and darkness, and the operation of a good Spirit and an evil one;
9
An evil spirit will try to crowd your mind with every evil and wicked thing to keep every good thought and feeling out of your mind;
10
But, you must keep your mind always staid upon God, that no evil may come into your heart.
11
And he commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.
12
¶ And it was on the twenty-second day of September, AD 1822, and thus he appeared unto me three times in one night and once on the next day. 13 I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field and rehearsed the whole matter to him.
13
He replied to me that it was of God and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger.
14
I left the field, and then I immediately went to the place and found where the plates that were deposited as the angel of the Lord had commanded me.
15
¶ Convenient to the village of Manchester, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood.
16
On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box.
17
This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all round was covered with earth.
18
Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little excursion raised it up.
19
I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger.
20
The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement.
21
In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crosswise of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.
22
¶ Straightway I made three attempts to get them.
23
Then, being exceedingly frightened, I supposed it had been a dream or vision;
24
But, when I considered I knew that it was not, therefore I cried unto the Lord in the agony of my soul: Why can I not obtain them?
25
Behold the angel appeared unto me again and said unto me: You have not kept the commandments of the Lord which I gave unto you, therefore you cannot now obtain them, for the time is not yet fulfilled.
26
Therefore, thou wast left unto temptation that thou mightest be made acquainted of with the power of the adversary;
27
Therefore, repent and call on the Lord, thou shalt be forgiven and in his own due time thou shalt obtain them.
28
Therefore, I was chastened, and sought diligently to obtain the plates, and obtained them not until I was twenty-one years of age.
29
For I had been tempted of the adversary and sought the Plates to obtain riches and kept not the commandment that I should have an eye single to the Glory of God.
30
Thus, being forbidden by the messenger, I was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time;
31
But he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.
32
¶ Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there,
33
And received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner His kingdom was to be conducted in the last days.
34
¶ As my father’s worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day’s work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity.
35
Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continued labor, were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.
36
¶ In the year 1824 my father’s family met with a great affliction by the death of my eldest brother, Alvin.
37
¶ In the month of October 1825, I was hired by an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, state of New York.
38
He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, state of Pennsylvania,
39
And had, previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to discover the mine.
40
After I went to live with him, he took me, with the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a month, without success in our undertaking,
41
And finally, I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it.
42
During the time that I was thus employed, I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), Emma Hale.
43
And in that year, I was married to Emma Hale on the 18th January, AD 1827, while I was yet employed in the service of Mr. Stoal.
44
Owing to my continuing to assert that I had seen a vision, persecution still followed me, and my wife’s father’s family were very much opposed to our being married.
45
I was, therefore, under the necessity of taking her elsewhere;
46
So, we went and were married at the house of Squire Tarbill, in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York.
47
Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal’s and went to my father’s and farmed with him that season.
48
On the 22nd day of September of this same year, I obtained the plates.