John Davis Rejects the Rev. Mr. Rees's Phosphorus Miracle-Deception After It Burns His Fingers, and Joins the Saints at Victoria, Monmouthshire (1849)

John Davis, a former Baptist, was instructed by the Rev. Mr. Rees to use phosphorus to deceive people into thinking a miracle occurred. Upon attempting to use the substance, Davis found it burned his fingers unmercifully, leading him to doubt his minister and subsequently join the Saints.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I was a member of the Baptist denomination, and a teacher in their Sunday school, at Victoria, Monmouthshire. My minister, the Rev. Mr. Rees, was very much opposed to the Latter-day Saints, and used every exertion to prevent his flock from hearing them. He told me that the Saints were impostors, and that they performed their miracles by the use of phosphorus. He gave me a small bottle of that article, and told me to use it, and I should be able to deceive the people, and make them believe that I had performed a miracle. But when I went to put in practice what I had been taught, I found that the article burnt my fingers sadly; then I began to think, and believe it impossible to be true, that the Saints should use such an article on themselves, because it burnt so unmercifully. I then went to hear the Saints for myself, and was convinced of the truth of their doctrine, and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.