About the same time several business enterprises which the Saints inaugurated at Kirtland, including a banking establishment, went down before the wave of financial disaster which swept over the country; and as the Presidency of the Church were heavily involved in consequence of these failures, Elder Taylor was appointed to collect funds in the district over which he presided, to relieve them from their embarrassment. He accomplished this labor to the entire satisfaction of the Presidency. In the fall of 1837, Elder Taylor received word from the Prophet Joseph that he would be chosen to fill one of the vacancies in the quorum of Apostles. [1] This call to the Apostleship, found Elder Taylor busily engaged in the ministry. He had previously received a manifestation that he would be called to that high office in the Church, but fearing that it might be from the devil he wisely kept it hidden in his own breast. Now, however, he had been chosen to that place by the voice of God through His Prophet; but while his heart rejoiced at the thought that he was known of the Lord, and considered worthy by Him to stand in this exalted station in the Church of Christ, he bore his new honors with becoming modesty. Commenting upon the appointment, and the prospect which now opened before him, he remarks: "The work seemed great, the duties arduous and responsible. I felt my own weakness and littleness; but I felt determined, the Lord being my helper, to endeavor to magnify it. When I first entered upon Mormonism, I did it with my eyes open. I counted the cost. I looked upon it as a life-long labor, and I considered that I was not only enlisted for time, but for eternity also, and did not wish to shrink now, although I felt my incompetency." Having received notice of his appointment, and instructions from the Prophet to make his way to Far West as soon as possible, he appointed a time to leave, and in the interim made a farewell visit to the branches of the Church he had presided over, for the purpose of setting them in order. Some time previous to being called to the Apostleship, in connection with a brother by the name of Henry Humphrey, Elder Taylor had purchased a house and barn and five acres of land within a quarter of a mile of the Kirtland Temple, where they had anticipated going into business together as soon as he should be released from presiding in Canada. This, with his expenses during nearly two years that he had been preaching in Canada without remuneration, left him with very little means. "But," he writes, "I put my trust in the Lord." He told his wife to make preparations for leaving at a certain time. "But how are you going to perform a journey of thirteen or fourteen hundred miles by land, and to a wilderness country without means?" "I don't know; but the Lord will open out the way."