After an adjournment of three-quarters of an hour, the president instructed the speakers not to seek to excel, but speak according to truth and equity; and that they ought to chase darkness from their minds, and be exercised on the subject upon which they were to speak, in order that they might touch upon points of doctrine, bring hidden things to light, and make dark things, clear, etc. [Sidenote: Decision of the Council in the Hulet Branch Case.] After councilors had spoken, the president said: "As for the gift of tongues in the manner it was used in the Hulet Branch, the devil deceived them, and they obtained not the word of the Lord, as they supposed, but were deceived; and as for the gift of 'seeing,' as held by the Hulet Branch, it is of the devil, saith the Lord God." The council were unanimous in sanctioning the decision, and appointed Amasa Lyman and Simeon Carter to go and labor with Brother Hulet and Sister Crandall, and others of like faith, and set the truth in order before them. I have been thus particular in giving the history of this council, as the gift of tongues is so often made use of by Satan to deceive the Saints. [Sidenote: Elders Sent Forth to Preach.] The council adjourned to the 7th, when about twenty Elders were sent forth to preach the Gospel to the world, but not in Jackson or Clay counties or their vicinity. [Sidenote: The Case of William Batson.] President David Whitmer testified to the council that William Batson was not capable of filling his office of Elder, because he had not discretion and understanding sufficient to act wisely in that capacity, whereupon the council voted unanimously, that his office and license be taken from him; to which he consented, and gave up his license. Elias and Isaac Higbee, and Jesse Hitchcock, were ordained to the High Priesthood, and council adjourned to the 21st of August. Footnotes 1. Vol. 1, p. 491. 2. The closing words in the decision signed by David Whitmer and W. W. Phelps as moderators and John Whitmer, clerk, are: "Therefore Brother Brown stands as a private member in this Church--all this by the voice of the councilors." (Far west Record of High council (Ms.), p. 57.) {142} Chapter X. Charges Against the Prophet on his Return from Zion's Camp Expedition--Trial of Elder Sylvester Smith. _Minutes of a Council held at Kirtland, August 11, 1834_. This day a number of High Priests and Elders of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, assembled in the new school house, for the purpose of investigating a matter of difficulty growing out of certain reports, or statements, made by Elder Sylvester Smith, one of the High Councilors of this Church, accusing President Joseph Smith, Jun., with criminal conduct during his journey to and from Missouri this spring and summer.