At the DO, Taylor was subjected to increasing pressure from within the Church for a compromise that would be acceptable to Washington. Although Congress had adjourned without passing the harsh Edmunds-Tucker Act, it would be certain of enactment at the next session. The Utah Commission in its annual report had called for a constitutional amendment forbidding polygamy.

At a meeting of prominent brethren assembled at the DO 26 September, they discussed the proposed manifesto at length, but were unable to come to a decision. Finally George Q. Cannon suggested that President Taylor take the matter up with the Lord and make a decision the following day.

That night two guards at the DO, Lorin C. Woolley and Henry Charles ("Little Charlie") Barrell, bore witness to a remarkable event. Although Lorin had checked the locked door and windows of the President's bedroom, a light of intense brilliance appeared under the door. Lorin "was at once startled to hear the voices of men talking there." He distinguished "three distinct voices," one that of "the Boss," the other two strangers. "The three voices continued until about midnight, when one of them left, and the other two continued."

Lorin's father and other members of the household witnessed the brilliant light and heard the voices beyond the door, which continued until dawn. When President Taylor emerged from his room that morning, "we could scarcely look at him because of the brightness of his countenance," Lorin said.

"He stated, 'Brethren, I have had a very pleasant conversation all night with Brother Joseph <Smith>.'"

"I said, 'Boss, who is the man that was there until midnight?'" . . .

"He said, 'Brother Lorin, that was your Lord.'"

John Taylor had received a revelation, which he wrote in his own hand: [reprint of the 1886 revelation]

His son, John W. Taylor, found the revelation in his father's desk after President Taylor's death. He made a copy in his own hand, and was instrumental in placing the original at the Church Historian's Office. Its existence there was confirmed by Raymond W. Taylor, 21 April 1972, when he found a copy of the revelation, with the notation that it was "copied from the original manuscript" by Church Historian Joseph Fielding Smith, 3 August 1909. Subsequently, Raymond found ten more copies.

While the existence of the revelation has been established, it has never been presented to and adopted by the Church.

. . .

Meanwhile, the revelation of 1886 has exactly the same status as more than half of Joseph Smith's revelations, which were "never presented to and adopted by the Church," and "could have no validity."

"Today President John Taylor is seventy-eight years of age," the Deseret News reported on 1 November 1886. He was "vigorous, robust, in the full enjoyment of his faculties."