| 219 came together. On the 5th, as we had been commanded to organize, we thought it advisable to seek for instructions. We accordingly called a prayer meeting, and as we did not get the desired instruction, we continued it on the 6th. We were then told to organize by what was written. We supposed this referred to the books, of course. Our next step was to organize the conference. This was now a difficult matter. As I have said, it had become a law to us that the one holding the highest priesthood should preside. There were present two high priests, and one Senior President of the Seventies. The question now arose, Whose priesthood is the highest? The subject was discussed at length, and what was strange to us all, a good deal of ill feeling was manifest.
"I have often thought of it. It seemed as though each one thought that the salvation of the church depended on the decision being made according to their respective views, so we argued, so we debated, till the close of the second day, when we began to think the work was lost; and would to God that all Latter Day Saints could know the situation of the church at this time; our feelings; our deep distress; our great anxiety. I considered all was lost-lost-lost! We could not organize. Oh, the bitterness of that moment! We could not see 'eye to eye.' God had commanded us to do what we absolutely could not do. To my mind, and to the mind of others, our effort was a failure. Kind reader, when your eye falls upon these lines, know that at that time the one who is now penning this asked God to remove him from the earth. Men who hitherto had been united, had seen 'eye to eye,' had labored together as one man for the cause of truth, were now opposed to each other, and after a discussion of two days, learned to their mortification and sorrow, that they, to all human appearances, were forever separate. The Spirit the night before had told a few in a prayer meeting that to-morrow they should see 'eye to eye.' But the day closed, and we were farther apart than on the former evening. Our attempts were a failure. I repeat, Oh, the bitterness of that moment! Never, never can I forget it. Although since that time, darkness, like Egyptian
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