Reminiscences from The Life of a Pioneer by Ira Ayer I
God in the creation of man, saw fit, in his wisdom and in the exercise of His goodness towards him, to give him a lesson of instruction, that he might know where his place was, not only as regards his maker, but also in relation to all animal creation. In this instructive lesson man found that he had a place very near his Creator, so that we find nothing in all animal creation that intervenes between the Creator and the Created man; more than this, God, in the creation of all things that had life placed within them the fear of man, and still more, has taught man to love and obey his Creator, and to rule well over the created. God, knowing the aptness of man to forget, and to let many important things drop by the way, caused it to be written out in a Book, that man might read and know in all generations to come, what the Lord had taught their Fathers; also in order to gratify their aspiration to know the particulars concerning the experience of the Fathers these four thousand years.
Aspirations in the human heart to know the experience of the Fathers of their own family, in generations long since gone by, have not abated in the least; this fact together with the fact, that my son Ira and daughter Sarah are very desirous that I should write out in detail the experiences of my early life, has induced me, in a circumscribed manner, to comply with their wishes.