5. _Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt_, p. 117. 6. The fact that the Prophet took these two men into his confidence is supported by the testimony of Mr. John Reid, Esq., in a speech before the state convention held in Nauvoo, at which Joseph Smith was nominated to be president of the United States. Mr. Reid had known the Prophet in an early day when he was working for Mr. Stoal in Chenango county, and thus speaks of him: "After living in that neighborhood about three years, enjoying the good feelings of his acquaintances, as a worthy youth, he told his particular friends that he had had a revelation from God to go to the west about eighty miles, to his father's, in which neighborhood he would find hid in the earth an old history written on golden plates, which would give great light and knowledge concerning the destiny of all nations, kindreds, and tongues; he said that he distinctly heard the voice of him that spoke. Joseph Knight, one of the fathers of your church, a worthy man and my intimate friend, went with him. * * * In a few days his friends returned with the glad news that Joseph had found the plates and had gone down to his father-in-law's for the purpose of translating them." _History of the Church_, vol. I, p. 94. 7. _History of the Prophet Joseph_, by Lucy Smith, ch. 23. 8. The original of Mrs. Campbell's letter is on file at the Church Historian's Office, package 4. CHAPTER XXIII. THE PROBABILITY OF JOSEPH SMITH'S STORY OF THE ORIGIN, TRANSLATION AND FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE PLATES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. I. _The Ministration of Angels is Neither Unscriptural nor Unreasonable._ By the probability of Joseph Smith's story, I mean, of course, the probability of Moroni revealing the existence of the Book of Mormon to him; of Moroni's delivering to him the plates and the Urim and Thummim; of the Prophet's translating the record by the gift and power of God, by means of the Urim and Thummim; of his returning the plates to Moroni, who to this day, doubtless, has them under his guardianship.