A man came to me in Kirtland, and told me he had seen an angel, and described his dress. I told him he had seen no angel, and that there was no such dress in heaven. He grew mad, and went into the street and commanded fire to come down out of heaven to consume me. I laughed at him, and said, You are one of Baal's prophets; your God does not hear you; jump up and cut yourself; and he commanded fire from heaven to consume my house.
When I was preaching in Philadelphia, a Quaker called out for a sign. I told him to be still. After the sermon, he again asked for a sign. I told the congregation the man was an adulterer; that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and that the Lord had said to me in a revelation, that any man who wanted a sign was an adulterous person. "It is true," cried one, "for I caught him in the very act," which the man afterwards confessed, when he was baptized.
Boston Conference.
A conference was held at Boylston Hall, Boston, when fourteen branches of the Church in Boston and the vicinity were represented, comprising seven hundred and ninety-three members, thirty-three elders, forty-three lesser officers, most of whom had been raised up in about fifteen months. Elder George J. Adams, E. P. Maginn, Erastus Snow, Erastus H. Derby, and others, took active parts in the conference.
Interview with John. B. Cowan.
Friday, 10.—After conversation with Mr. John B. Cowan, and others, I reviewed the history of the mob in Hiram, Portage county, Ohio, on the 25th of March 1832, and my first journey to Missouri. At three o'clock, afternoon, attended a council of the Twelve Apostles at my house. Of the Twelve there were present Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, George A. Smith and Willard Richards. I requested that all business be presented briefly and without comments, and told the council that I had an interview with Mr. Cowan this morning; that he was delegated by the inhabitants of Shokoquon (which is twenty miles above this place on the river) to come to Nauvoo, and petition that "a talented Mormon preacher take up his residence with them, they would find him a good house and give him support, and with liberty for him to invite as many 'Mormons' to settle in that place as may please so to do." Council decided that Brother John Bear go and preach to them.
I suggested that a general meeting be called in the city in relation to the postoffice and other things, and instructed the council to call Elder George J. Adams to Nauvoo, with his family, and to say that he is ordered to come by the First Presidency, and that he preach no more till he comes.
Case of Oliver Olney.
At five o'clock, I opened a mayor's court at my house, when John D. Parker, deputy sheriff, presented Oliver Olney before the court for stealing goods from the store of Moses Smith on the 23rd of January, when Olney declared before the court that he had been visited many times by the Ancient of Days; that he sat with him on the 9th, 10th and 11th of last June, and should sit in counsel again with him on Tuesday next; that he had had a mission from him to the four quarters of the world; that he had been and established the twelve stakes of Zion, and had visited them all, except one in the south; that he had suffered much for two or three years for want of clothing; that he despised a thief, except when he stole to clothe himself; that he opened the store of Moses Smith on the 23rd of January, and took out the goods then present (several hundred pieces) hid them in the cornfield, and carried them home from time to time, under the same roof with Mr. Smith, and that no one knew anything about the robbery but himself.
Olney was once a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but had been cut off a considerable time previous. He declared that the Church never taught him to steal; and I have written his voluntary confession here, that others may take warning and behave themselves in such a manner that they shall not be cut off the Church; for if they are the Spirit of the living God will depart from them, and they may be left to a worse spirit of delusion and wickedness than even Oliver Olney, who never saw the Ancient of Days nor anything like him. But on the testimony presented, I bound him over to the next circuit court for trial, in the sum of five thousand dollars; and for want of bail, he was committed to Carthage jail.