In attempting to exercise this gift of translation, however, Oliver Cowdery failed; and in a revelation upon the subject the Lord explained the cause of his failure to translate: Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it [_i. e._ the gift of translation] unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me. [14] While this is not a description of the manner in which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, it is, nevertheless, the Lord's description of how another man was to exercise the gift of translation; and doubtless it is substantially the manner in which Joseph Smith did exercise it, and the manner in which he translated the Book of Mormon. That is, the Prophet Joseph Smith looked into the "Interpreters" or "Seer Stone," saw there by the power of God and the gift of God to him, the ancient Nephite characters, and by bending every power of his mind to know the meaning thereof, the interpretation wrought out in his mind by this effort--"by studying it out in his mind," to use the Lord's phrase--was reflected in the sacred instrument, there to remain until correctly written by the scribe. We see something akin to this also in the manner in which the Nephites used Liahona, their Urim and Thummim--the instrument through means of which they were directed of the Lord upon their journey to the promised land of America--it worked "according to the faith and diligence and heed" they gave unto it. (I Nephi 16:28.)