"President Taylor was a man who could not get down to grovel with the low-lived, the vicious, the ribald, nor any who indulged in the follies and vanities of mortal life. When the gospel found him, he was aspiring from the measure of grace that existed among the most devout religious worshipers, and hungering and thirsting for something nobler and better; and the testimony of the glorious truths again revealed came to his ears by the Elders of the Church, and soon by the blessed testimony of the Prophet Joseph. "Brother Parley P. Pratt had the distinguished honor to sound the gospel of Jesus Christ in his ears. He was the instrument to lead him into the Church of Christ. Brother Pratt found in him that right heart, and that open hand by which he was led to go right forward in the truth, and the new wine in the old vessel did no harm. President Taylor was a man bold and daring for the truth. He knew no fear. I recollect well when he and I were on our missions in Europe together, he labored in France--on the coast of infidel France--if I mistaken not in Havre. [1] He labored in that vicinity diligently; and at one time a number of religious divines combined together to put down this heresy, as they term it. President Taylor, with that boldness which ever characterized him, consented to meet a whole pack of them, all that were willing to conspire together to silence and turn away the testimonies from reaching the hearts of the people. I recollect well my feelings when in Liverpool at the time. Morally speaking it was like Paul when he writes about fighting wild beasts at Ephesus. He withstood them and he brought forth the truth, and souls were given him as the fruit of his labors; an interest was awakened, and some were gathered out. His labors were continued and incessant until he obtained a translation of the Book of Mormon in the French language.