o, and cannot leave
them unless I restore the whole." In this way I might have contrived to
take what I wished. Yet I did not so answer him, but declared to him the
truth, how much wages I had received, and which was nothing
extraordinary.

He then gave me a paper from his holiness the patriarch, in which he
says, "You will have received from us an answer, requesting that when we
come to Alma, you will come up and see us. We expect your presence, and,
if God please, we will provide you some proper situation, with an income
that shall be sufficient for your sustenance. Delay not your coming,
lest the present happy opportunity should pass by." Knowing, as I did,
that many people supposed my object, in continuing with the English, to
be gain, I did not delay fulfilling the request of his reverence, hoping
to remove this suspicion, and to enjoy an opportunity of speaking the
truth without being hired to do it.

So, about the 7th of January, I left Beyroot, with Hoory Nicolas, and
arrived at Der Alma the same night. His holiness, the patriarch, was not
there. On the next day, when he came, I met him, and saluted him in the
road. In the evening he called me into his chamber, and began to ask me
questions, that he might discover what I was; and I answered him telling
him the whole truth, although this course was opposed to my personal
convenience. At this he seemed surprised, for he must have perceived it
was contrary to what he had been accustomed to see in me. Afterwards,
when I declared to him, that I never had before been a believer,
according to the true living faith, he was probably still more
astonished. He then asked me if I believed as the Romish church
believed. I again told him the truth, that I did not. He asked then what
was my faith, and I answered to the following purport, "True and living
faith must be divine, connected with hope, love and repentance, and that
all these virtues are the gift of God &c.; that I believed the truth as
God had inspired it; and that it would be but a lie, if I should say
that I believed as the Romish church does, while in fact I do not. I
must have proofs."

After some conversation like this, he told me that this doctrine of mine
was heretical, and that as long as I remained in this state of opinion,
he would suffer no one to have intercourse with me in buying and
selling, &c. This prohibition of his brought to my mind the words in the
Revelation, xiii, 17.[G] Then he gave me to u