doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, and thus have I
chastened you." And the negroes found fault, and murmurred against me,
saying that if they had my sense they would not serve any master in the
world. And about this time I had a vision--and I saw white spirits and
black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened--the thunder
rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams--and I heard a voice
saying, "Such is your luck, such you are called to see, and let it come
rough or smooth, you must surely bare it." I now withdrew myself as much
as my situation would permit, from the intercourse of my fellow
servants, for the avowed purpose of serving the Spirit more fully--and
it appeared to me, and reminded me of the things it had already shown
me, and that it would then reveal to me the knowledge of the elements,
the revolution of the planets, the operation of tides, and changes of
the seasons. After this revelation in the year 1825, and the knowledge
of the elements being made known to me, I sought more than ever to
obtain true holiness before the great day of judgment should appear, and
then I began to receive the true knowledge of faith. And from the first
steps of righteousness until the last, was I made perfect; and the Holy
Ghost was with me, and said, "Behold me as I stand in the Heavens"--and
I looked and saw the forms of men in different attitudes--and there were
lights in the sky to which the children of darkness gave other names
than what they really were--for they were the lights of the Saviour's
hands, stretched forth from east to west, even as they were extended on
the cross on Calvary for the redemption of sinners. And I wondered
greatly at these miracles, and prayed to be informed of a certainty of
the meaning thereof--and shortly afterwards, while laboring in the
field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew
from heaven--and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in the
neighborhood--and I then found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic
characters, and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes,