These labors, and assisting in selecting the hymns suitable for the worship of the Saints, together with reading the proofs and superintending the printing of the Book of Mormon, occupied the early summer of 1840.
In July, however, Elder Taylor took the Music Hall in Bold Street, a large hall, capable of seating some fifteen hundred people, in which he proposed delivering a course of lectures.
Pending the opening of this hall for the lectures, he went to Ireland to proclaim the restoration of the gospel in that land. Among many others he baptized in Liverpool was a Mr. McGuffie, who had some acquaintances in Newry, County Down, Ireland. This man and a Brother William Black he took with him as his companions.
A large company of Saints went with them to the dock to see them off. It was but natural that Elder Taylor should contrast his situation, now that he was departing for Ireland, with what it was when he landed in England a few months before. Then he was friendless, unknown and among strangers; now he was surrounded by a multitude of friends, anxious to administer to his necessities and willing to assist him in his mission, while few men in Liverpool were more sought for, or filled a larger space in public attention.
The company remained on the pier-head waving their adieux until they could no longer be seen.
The day after sailing, Elder Taylor and companions arrived in Newry, a beautiful Irish village nestled among rolling hills, characteristic of that part of Ireland. Brother McGuffie obtained the Court House to hold a meeting in, and sent around the bell-man to give notice of it. A congregation of six or seven hundred gathered in at seven o'clock in the evening, and Elder Taylor preached to them. This was the introduction of the gospel into Ireland.
An appointment was given out for the next evening, but only a few attended, and Elder Taylor turned the meeting into a sort of conversational, promising to explain anything those present wished to know respecting the message he had delivered to them the night before. Thus the evening was passed.
It was determined that night—as his stay in Ireland could only be brief, in consequence of his appointments in Liverpool—that the next day they would proceed to the other points they had proposed to visit.
In the night Elder Taylor in a vision saw a gentleman approach him and ask him to stay, saying he would be pleased to hear him. The next morning, as himself, Brothers McGuffie and Black and a gentleman of the name of Thomas Tate were leaving the village in a jaunting car, the same man whom Elder Taylor had seen in the vision stopped them and requested him to remain; but as Brother McGuffie expected to return to Newry and remain there some time, Elder Taylor concluded to go on his way.
After a ride of seven miles through a beautiful, fertile, undulating country, cut up into small farms by green hedges closely trimmed, and plentifully dotted with neatly white-washed cottages, they arrived at the four towns of Bellimacrat, where, in the evening, Elder Taylor preached in a barn owned by a Mr. Willie. The following morning they started on foot for the town of Lisburn, Mr. Tate going with them to assist in carrying their valises. This Mr. Tate Elder Taylor had met in Liverpool, and prophesied that he would be the first person to be baptized in Ireland. As he and Elder Taylor walked on, side by side, that beautiful, fresh morning they left Bellimacrat, the latter opened the scriptures to his understanding and taught him the gospel in its simplicity. The listener was carried away with admiration for the plan of redemption which God had established for the salvation of His children, and as conviction of its truth had taken hold of his mind, he was ready to receive it; and on reaching the summit of a hill, which suddenly brought them in full view of the beautiful Lock Brickland, he cried out in ecstacy: