Mormonism Exposed (Hancock)/Chapter 18

We will now show that neither those plates nor the Urim and Thummim, prepared, they tell us, 2,500 years before, were of any benefit to Smith in making the Book of Mormon. David Whitmer testifies as follows:

"The tablets or plates were translated by Smith, who used a small oval or kidney-shaped stone called Urim and Thummim that seemed endowed with the marvelous power of converting the characters on the plates, when used by Smith, into English, who would then dictate to Cowdery what to write. Frequently one character would make two lines of manuscript, while others made but a word or two words."—M. of M. F. page 83.

Martin Harris says:

"By the aid of the seer stone sentences would appear and were read by the prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say 'written'; and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place; but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."

Again:

"The translation of the characters appeared on the Urim and Thummim, sentence by sentence, and as soon as one was correctly translated the next appeared."—M. of M. F., page 71.

In the Desert Evening News, Dec. 24, 1885, Whitmer says: "After affixing the magical spectacles to his eyes, Smith would take the plates and translate the characters one at a time. The graven characters would appear in succession to the seer, and directly under the character, when viewed through the glasses, would be the translation in English."

​If we credit these witnesses, there is one thing that is clearly established, namely, Smith was not responsible for the language of the Book of Mormon. No more so than a babe of today. Smith would look at the characters on the plates and the English of each would appear and would not leave till it was correctly written. Therefore, if sentences were awkwardly expressed, grammatically incorrect, contained useless verbiage, unnecessary repetitions or errors of any kind, none but the inspiration that guided the seer is to blame! The inspiration of heaven is infallibly correct in all that it does. It would not, hence palm off on any people a translation that was not infallibly correct. None could give an infallibly correct translation unless governed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

One thing that we now ask, and ask it in behalf of truth, and that is: How was it that thousands of sentences appeared to Smith from our Bible, and appeared in the precise language of the King James tranlation? One of two positions must here be taken, namely: The King James' translation is infallibly correct, the translators thereof being governed by the inspiration of heaven, or the Book of Mormon is a fraud.

The witnesses that we have introduced certify that the Book of Mormon was translated from the plates that were shown to Smith by the angel, and such is the claim of all Mormons; but the witnesses testify that the English of that book is the language that appeared to Smith through magical spectacles or the kidney shaped stone. Why is it that the inspiration that guided Smith and worked so magically through his Urim and Thummim was, in the translation of sentences that had been copied from our Bible, limited to the language of the Common Version? Did the angel that guided Smith have to depend upon the king's translators for his English? Of course, I suppose Joe's angel was "a pore, ignernt, unlarnt criter." Of course. Mormon inspiration will never tell us how it was that Smith's angel translated the passages that had been copied from the Jewish scripture in the precise language of the ​Common Version? And, as to the matter borrowed from the New Testament those Nephite preachers knowing all about Jesus long before he was named by the angel Gabriel, of course, they knew all about the New Testament hundreds of years before it was written!

If it be admitted that Smith turned from his plates to get a single sentence it will be fatal to the claims of Mormonism. They will escape the difficulty at this point just as easy as a man would dodge a stroke of lightning. Martin Harris says:

"The prophet possessed a seer stone by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone."—M. of M. F. page 91.

This informs us that the "interpreters" were somewhat inconvenient. Smith did not need them; and of course would never have used them at all, only out of respect for the feelings of his god! Of course the Lord did not know anything about that seer stone that was "hid up" in Mr. Chase's premises, or he could have saved the trouble of making those magical spectacles. And evidently the Lord did not know the size and shape of the Mormon prophet's head, for as those spectacles were inconvenient we conclude that they were not a good fit! I suppose that when Smith got a chance to slip that stone from among the trinkets of those children he just took it to be used as an expedient. And it does seem from the subsequent history of this stone that the expedients of men may be superior to the arrangements of the Almighty, for this stone was superior to the Urim and Thummim that the Lord prepared especially for Smith's use twenty and a half centuries before! Perhaps the Lord ought to have waited till he saw the size and shape of Smith's head before making those spectacles?! He evidently forgot to examine the seer's head the time he brought his Son to New York to introduce him to Smith! If he had not he certainly would have corrected the mistake before having them delivered to the prophet! However, as we have seen, according to Mormonism, the Lord makes mistakes!

​Mr. Hale, Smith's father-in-law, in whose house most of the translation was done, says that the curiosity and sometimes the wrath of the outside world was often such that the prophet would be obliged to take the plates into the woods several miles distant, and keep them hid for weeks at a time, but the translation would go on in the house all the same. Therefore Smith could translate just as well in the absence of the plates as in their presence!

David Whitmer, in Desert Evening News, Dec. 24, 1885, says that Smith offended the angel, and as a punishment the angel left him and took the plates and interpreters to heaven, and the work was stopped for awhile. He says:

"The angel being in possession of the plates and spectacles, finally when Smith had fully repented of his rash conduct, he was forgiven. The plates, however, were not returned; but instead Smith was given by the angel a Urim and Thummim of another pattern, it being shaped in oval or kidney form. This seer stone he was instructed to place in his hat, and on covering his face with the hat the character and translation would appear on the stone. This worked just as satisfactorily as the old method, but at no time thereafter was the backsliding Joseph intrusted with the precious plates. However, the entire portion of the golden volume which the angel said might be translated was reduced by the nimble amanuensis to readable manuscript."

It is now apparent to the reader, from the testimony of their own witnesses, that neither the plates or interpreters were of any use to Smith in making the Book of Mormon! That oval or kidney shaped stone did away with the necessity of plates and spectacles! Smith could, we are told, put that stone in his hat, place the hat over his face and translate just as well as when he had the plates and interpreters! Translate what? He had nothing to translate, for the plates were gone. As we are left to conjecture as to the workings of the Mormon prophet and his angel, we suppose that the Lord took those plates to ​heaven because he had a curiosity to see what was on them, and having found out something about Joe Smith he was afraid to risk them in his hands any more, so he just deputized an angel to bring those Egyptian characters one at a time, and drop them in Smith's old hat. Mormons talk about a second Daniel, in the person of Joe Smith! Reader, think of Daniel when he was called to the palace of Belshazzar to interpret the handwriting on the wall. See him stand before the king and the mighty ones of that realm, while he boldly tells the names of the characters, and gives the interpretation. If Daniel had crouched in some corner, behind a sheet, his hat over his face and a pebble in it that had been taken from some well in Babylon, and that he had taken from among the trinkets of some child—imagine him in that position, without any reputation in point of wisdom, not known as a prophet, but claiming to interpret by the magical power of that stone characters that were on a plate that he had taken out of the ground which he refused to let intelligent people examine. If Daniel had been thus represented, there would have been a parallel between him and Smith. As it is, however, there is none.

Orson Pratt, speaking in behalf of their argument that is based upon the 29th chapter of Isaiah says:

"All this was fulfilled before Mr. Smith was aware that it had been so clearly predicted by Isaiah. He sent the 'words of a book' which he found as before stated, to Professor Anthon. But it was a sealed writing to the learned professor—the aboriginal language of ancient America could not be deciphered by him. He was as much puzzled as the wise men of Babylon were to interpret the unknown writing upon the wall. Human wisdom and learning in this case, were altogether insufficient. It required another Daniel who was found in the person of Mr. Smith."

As this argument has been so elaborately given and relied upon by both the Utah and Reorganized branches of the Mormon ​fraternity. and as with it Mormonism, in the eyes of all intelligent and conscientious people, must stand or fall, we again give the testimony of Smith and Harris, which be it understood, forms a part of the inspired literature of all Mormons. Smith say:

"Some time in this month of February the afore-mentioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates and started with them to New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which was as follows: 'I went to the city of New York and presented the characters, which had been transcribed, with the translation thereof, to Professor Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian and Arabic, and he said that they were true characters. He gave me a certificate certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the transalation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. . . . I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.'"

Now let us remember this is Mormon inspiration speaking through the prophet of Mormonism. But, let us also remember that the same inspiration speaking through the entire Mormon family, Organized and Reorganized, says that the testimony through Joe Smith is a lie.

If a witness be called onto the stand who, in giving his testimony, stultifies himself, giving positive contradictory testimony touching the most important points in the suit, all intelligent jurors pronounce him a perjured being and reject his testimony. We have called Mormon inspiration onto the stand, ​but it has stultified itself, positively contradicted itself in the more important points under consideration. Therefore, all intelligent, conscientious people must reject the testimony of Mormon inspiration, it being the testimony of a perjured witness. If what Smith says regarding the testimony of Anthon and Mitchell was true why did he not get a number of such men to examine those plates and give to the world some reliable testimony in their behalf? Why did they not preserve that certificate that was given by Anthon and Mitchell? What heaven does is not done in a dark corner, under suspicious circumstances. The fact is, Mormonism is a humbug, the book of Mormon being a fraud of the deepest dye.

The testimony that we have given regarding the Anthon affair has all been from Mormon sources, and altogether unreliable, their inspiration being a perjured witness. Such being the case we will now hear some testimony from another and a reliable source. Remy and Brechesly, vol. 1, p. 245, gives the following:

"In a letter bearing date January 17, 1834, Professor Anthon distinctly denies having seen a translation of any kind, and asserts that the characters which Harris showed him were anything but Egyptian. Mr. Anthon says in this letter that the copy exhibited by Harris contained characters arranged in columns, imitating Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses, flourishes, Roman letters inverted, and that these perpendicular columns were terminated by a clumsily drawn circle, divided into several compartments, decked with various strange marks, evidently copied from the Mexican calendar given by Humboldt, but so copied as to conceal the source from which it was taken." Mene, Tekel.