But Parley was not satisfied with even the ancient gospel form without the power.
At the commencement of 1830, the very time the Mormon Church was organized, he felt drawn out in an extraordinary manner to search the prophets, and to pray for an understanding of the same. His prayers were soon answered, even beyond his expectations. The prophesies were opened to his view. He began to understand the things which were about to transpire. The restoration of Israel, the coming of Messiah, and the glory that should follow.
Being now "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" to travel about preaching the gospel "without purse or scrip," in August, 1830, he closed his worldly business and bid adieu to his wilderness home, which he never saw afterwards.
"Arriving at Rochester," he says, "I informed my wife that, notwithstanding our passage being paid through the whole distance, yet I must leave the boat and her to pursue her passage to her friends, while I would stop awhile in this region. Why, I did not know; but so it was plainly manifest by the spirit to me.
"I said to her, we part for a season; go and visit our friends in our native place; I will come soon, but how soon I know not; for I have a work to do in this region of country, and what it is, or how long it will take to perform it, I know not; but I will come when it is performed.
"My wife would have objected to this, but she had seen the hand of God so plainly manifest in his dealings with me many times, that she dared not oppose the things manifested to me by his spirit. She, therefore, consented; and I accompanied her as far as Newark, a small town upwards of one hundred miles from Buffalo, and then took leave of her, and of the boat.
"It was early in the morning, just at the dawn of day; I walked ten miles into the country, and stopped to breakfast with a Mr. Wells. I proposed to preach in the evening. Mr. Wells readily accompanied me through the neighborhood to visit the people, and circulate the appointment.
"We visited an old Baptist deacon, by the name of Hamlin. After hearing of our appointment for the evening, he began to tell of a book, a strange book, a very strange book, in his possession, which had been just published. This book, he said, purported to have been originally written on plates, either of gold or brass, by a branch of the tribes of Israel; and to have been discovered and translated by a young man near Palmyra, in the State of New York, by the aid of visions, or the ministry of angels.
"I inquired of him how or where the book was to be obtained. He promised me the perusal of it, at his house the next day, if I would call. I felt a strange interest in the book.
"Next morning I called at his house, where for the first time my eyes beheld the Book of Mormon,—that book of books—that record which reveals the antiquities of the 'new world' back to the remotest ages, and which unfolds the destiny of its people and the world, for all time to come."