The often mentioned catalogue of the 144 witnesses which appears in the English translation of my 4th German volume, entitled “The one thing needful,” from the 533d till 538th page, is a concentration of wonders and signs, which were effected under the control of the 144,000 martyrs, Revelation xiv:  1.  In reference to this mystery as well as in reference to the 144 cubits of the wall of the New Jerusalem, Revelation, xxi:  17, their number is exactly 144.  They were the stones used while we were performing in the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church what was required according to prophecies for the removal of Babylon and bilding of the New Jerusalem.  “Behold I come as a thief.”  Revelation xvi:  15.  He came so secretly, that neither on the 7th Jan., 1838, while those 144 witnesses were signing their names into my catalogue nor afterwards, while they were performing each his task, we understood much of what was behind the vail, till after the great excommunication on Easter Sunday, 1838, the great mystery commenced gradually to be developed, and I received on the third Sunday after Easter, 1838, directly before the service, from my guardian the direction to deliver the valedictory sermon in order that all which, was to be executed in that church according to prophecies, had been accomplished.  The church had prepared for our use on that Sunday the 16th chapter of John.  And I selected the text:  “A little while, and ye shall not see me:  and again a little while and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”  John, xvi:  16.

If you have comprehended this book to this page, you know, that I am Jesus Christ’s first-born son in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times.  Ephes. 1:  10.  But also after having been publicly initiated to this ministry on Sunday Sexagesima, February 18th, 1838, at the altar of the Cathedral Church of Boston, I progressed slowly in the development of the mystery.

All disclosures which I give are preparatory for an easier understanding of the great testimony of the three witnesses named at the caption of this treatise.  I am partly going around and applying to all kinds of mediums in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and in all directions is somewhat prepared for an illustration of the testimony of the three extraordinary witnesses.  On Sunday, 24th inst., when the message of “the Treaty of Peace” between the Emperors of Austria and France arrived in America but was not communicated to us on that day, I wrote some of the last disclosures before this paragraph.  After that I wrote two letters.  But before having finished the second, I was inspired to go and I thought that I was going to a Conference meeting of Spiritualists; but on my way I met with one who is holding his own meetings publicly to draw the incautious into private “Free Love Meetings,” and I went with him to his public meeting.  When I returned to my room I was tired, went to bed, and then I arose yesterday, July 25th, and finished at fish-oil light