Oliver Cowdery, after his excommunication, became a wanderer for a number of years, unsettled and restless, though following the profession of the law. It was impossible for a man who had once tasted the glories of the Celestial Kingdom of God, as Oliver Cowdery had, to be satisfied with the dry husks of the beggarly elements of the world; and hence after some ten years of wandering outside The Church of Christ he at last found his way back to the fold of God, to the house of his father, and begged to be admitted as a humble member of The Church. This was in the early part of November, 1848, before a High Council over which Elder Orson Hyde presided. On that occasion Oliver Cowdery said: "Brethren, for a number of years I have been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humbly and be one in your midst. I seek no station, I only wish to be identified with you. I am out of The Church. I am not a member of The Church, but I wish to become a member of it. I wish to come in at the door. I know the door. I have not come here to ask precedence. I come humbly and throw myself upon the decisions of this body, knowing as I do, that its decisions are right and should be obeyed." Soon after this he was re-baptized. He was on his way to join the main body of The Church when he stopped at Kanesville, Iowa, where the above occurred. Before continuing his journey west he resolved to visit his wife's friends, the Whitmers, then living at Richmond, Missouri; and while there he was taken with an illness from which he died, on the 3rd of March, 1850, in his forty-fifth year. According to the testimony of Phineas Young, who was present at his death, "his last moments were spent in bearing testimony of the truth of the gospel revealed through Joseph Smith, and the power of the holy Priesthood which he had received through his administration." David Whitmer never denied his testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, through all the years of his separation from The Church, but repeatedly reaffirmed it, especially in the closing years of his life. Three days previous to his death, which occurred on the 25th of January, 1888, he called his family and a number of his friends to his bedside, and turning to his physician, said: "Dr. Buchanan, I want you to say whether or not I am in my right mind, before I give my dying testimony." The doctor answered: "Yes, you are in your right mind, for I have just had a conversation with you." He then addressed himself to all around his bedside in these words: "Now, you must all be faithful in Christ. I want to say to you all, the Bible and the record of the Nephites (Book of Mormon) is true, so that you can say that you heard me bear my testimony on my death-bed. All be faithful in Christ, and your reward will be according to your works. God bless you all. My trust is in Christ forever, worlds without end. Amen." [C] [Footnote C: Richmond Democrat, February 2, 1888.] CHAPTER XXX.