Sept. 1816. "From the 1st to the 10th I passed at Farmington, holding several meetings: the 11th, went to Gilmanton; the 13th, in company with Mr. Cogswell, started for the province of Canada, to visit our relatives, and to seek the welfare of Zion. The 14th, arrived at the house of my eldest brother, in Wheelock, Vt., a distance of 112 miles; on Tuesday following, arrived at Danville, held meeting at the Court House, where, favored by the presence of a good assembly and six ministers of the Gospel, I found liberty in speaking the living word. Our minds were mutually refreshed. On Wednesday, held meeting in the north part of the town, and at Mr. Wicker's in the evening, where I was amazed to find Mrs. W. happy and in health, as she had been sick for three years, and had, according to the testimony of herself and friends, been miraculously restored a few days before my arrival. Two years previous I had visited her in her illness, which served to increase my surprise at her present condition, induced, as I was told, by simple compliance in faith with the direction of the Apostle James 5: 14, 15. On Sunday, at Compton, we enjoyed an excellent meeting with old friends, relatives, and acquaintances, and on Monday evening rode to Ascott to visit a company of Christians who had formerly been noted for piety and engagedness, but were now the subjects of delusion. Abundantly had they been blessed of God; but instead of learning humility, they appeared to build themselves up in the spirit of self-righteousness. One whom they styled Apostle and Prophet was to them the highest authority, equal to anything in the Holy Scripture. _He_ had revelations concerning all the business to be done by his followers; also his pretended illumination extended to marriages and to the intercourse of the sexes, and when his _ipse dixit_ was given on these points, immorality was unblushingly practised. Pretending to have personal interviews with angels he had six followers, who, at his command, would fall upon their knees, lie prostrate upon the floor, or walk in a pretended labor for souls. Sometimes he kept them walking for several days and nights without eating or sleeping, when they would frequently faint and fall upon the floor. They often screamed, howled, and barked, making various strange noises, and bending themselves up into many shapes. They most tenaciously held that they were the only true church on earth, and that no person out of their pale was capable of giving them the least instruction. Like all the fanatics I ever saw, they evinced great hatred and spite when opposed, and sometimes they were full of the spirit of mocking. As I had known them when they were respectable young people, and had enjoyed with them the best of Christian fellowship, I could but deeply mourn over the delusion in which they were lost. After spending eighteen hours with them, I bore the most decided testimony I could against their sentiments and procedure. How many are carried away by every wind of doctrine, and allow the pure religion of Jesus, with which they begin, to degenerate into an alloy of earth and passion! Ever may I be kept in the Mediator, where I shall be permanent and uncontrolled by the wild extremes of the age. The week following I spent at Compton, holding meetings in different parts of the town. On Sunday, the 29th, the assembly was large, and we had a weeping time, as I bade them farewell in the name of Him in whom is our hope and love; and on Monday visited from house to house. Being ready to depart on the morrow, and thinking that it was the last time I should repose under my father's roof, my thoughts and feelings were deeply solemn, as I looked out upon the world-wide field of my future labors. My very heart was pained, and the night passed away in almost entire sleeplessness. Here closes the month, and in feelings of the greatest solemnity."