Nor should it be matter for wonderment that the Three Witnesses, after receiving such a marvelous revelation from God, and beholding the demonstration of such almighty power, turned away from the Church, and lost their places. Their case does not stand alone. They are not the first servants and witnesses for God that wandered from the path direct, and fell into error and perhaps sin. Seeing a heavenly messenger or hearing the voice of God, by no means places men beyond the power to do evil, nor does it give them immunity from the temptations of the adversary. Noah received revelations from God, and yet after being preserved from the flood, and enjoying other special favors, he so far forgot himself as to get drunk. David, a man after God's own heart, after enjoying sweet communion with God, and receiving many revelations from him, was at last guilty of the heinous sin of defiling another man's wife, and deliberately planning the injured man's murder! Peter, after going into the mountain and witnessing the glorious ministrations of Moses and Elias to the Messiah, and hearing the voice of God declare that Jesus was his beloved Son, was so weak, under the influence of fear, that he denied having any knowledge of him, and emphasized his denial by cursing and swearing. I do not refer to these incidents in the lives of these characters to weaken the esteem any one may have for them, but to show that neither a revelation from God nor the visitation of angels takes from man the power of doing wrong. It was so in the case of Oliver Cowdery, and his fellow witnesses. They transgressed the laws of God, and the Church was in duty bound to withdraw fellowship from them, and did so, confident that God was able to preserve his work though these men should turn traitors, and deny the truth. I repeat that this circumstance--the fact that the Three Witnesses persisted in their testimony, though excommunicated from the Church, and their relations with Joseph Smith disrupted, is strong presumptive evidence that there was no collusion among these men to deceive the world by their solemn testimony to the Book of Mormon.