The Rocky Mountain Saints/Chapter 48

The circumstances under which this singular work was brought to the knowledge of the public, together with its claims to a divine origin, as believed by the Latter-Day Saints, have been given in the first chapters of this work. Of the book itself, something may now be stated.

"The Book of Mormon claims to be the sacred history of ancient America written by a succession of ancient prophets who inhabited that vast continent. The plates of gold containing this history were discovered by a young man named Joseph Smith, through the ministry of a holy angel. . . . With the plates were also found a Urim and Thummim. Each plate was not far from seven by eight inches in width and length, being not quite so thick as common tin. Each was filled on both sides with engraved Egyptian characters; and the whole was bound together in a volume as the leaves of a book, and fastened at one edge with three rings running through each. This volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed. The characters or letters upon the unsealed part were small and beautifully engraved. Mr. Smith, by the Urim and Thummin, and by the gift and power of God, translated this record into the English language."^[1]

​Controversial writers against Mormonism are unanimous in discarding this whole story of angel visits and gold plates as a pure invention, and they characterize Joseph Smith as an impostor.

The statement of the modern Prophet as to the origin of the book cannot, however, well be invalidated. What he says may be sheer falsehood, and as such the world regards his statement, but of itself it furnishes no opportunity for disproof. He asserts that an angel visited him and instructed him where to find the plates; that he went to the place designated on several occasions during a period of four years, saw and handled the plates, and finally took them as instructed. This is a simple assertion and admits of no argument.

That Joseph had at one time in his possession metallic plates of some kind, with engraved characters upon them, there appears no reason to doubt, if human testimony is to be accepted as evidence; but where and how he got the plates which he exhibited to a number of persons, and whether the Book of Mormon is a veritable interpretation of the characters on those plates, and whether or not the narrative presented is true and of any importance to the world, are subjects purely of faith.

It is claimed by the Mormon preachers that both Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon were objects of inspired prediction about three thousand years ago. The unromantic name of Smith is not said to be a biblical subject, nor is that of Mormon stated; but one of the Hebrew prophets,^[2] relating his vision of matters interesting to the scattered Israelites, narrates that, while an angel talked with him, another angel came forth and said: "Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls," etc., and another inspired prophet^[3] tells of something that "shall speak out of the ground . . . . and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." Joseph Smith was a young man, and the golden plates were taken out of the ground; hence the argument.

​By referring to these passages of Scripture, and taking into account the subjects occupying the attention of Zechariah and Isaiah, the reader may have difficulty in seeing the relevancy of the predictions to the Book of Mormon. These were, however, favourite passages in the dawn of the Mormon movement, and served the excellent purpose of exercising the faith of the young converts! There is nothing so powerful in the founding of a sect as large doses of obscure Scripture, and a plentiful supply of mystery, and of the abundance of both the first Mormons might well have proudly boasted.

Of the evidences of the "Divine Authenticity" of this book, Orson Pratt furnishes the student with ninety-six octavo pages, and with much satisfaction asserts that "the witnesses of the Book of Mormon are not only equal in number, but superior in certainty to those which this generation have of Christ's resurrection." He concludes a long series of elabaorate arguments with the statement that "this generation have more than one thousand times the amount of evidence to demonstrate and for ever establish the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, than they have in favour of the Bible."

Elder Pratt has three grand sermons: the Fulfilment of prophecy in the mission of Joseph Smith, Polygamy, and the Book of Mormon, and, whenever he ascends the rostrum, he is certain to launch out with one of the three. He ignores all thought of opposition to the last named, and announces "that the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation, for the voice of the Lord hath declared it unto me." He further asserts that there are "many thousands of witnesses to whom God has revealed the truth of the Book of Mormon by heavenly visions, by angels, by the revelations of the Holy Ghost, by His own voice and by the miraculous gifts and powers of His kingdom."

With the burden of such a revelation upon his soul, this apostle bears his "humble testimony to all the nations of the earth," and warns "all mankind to repent," and enter into the Mormon Church; failing which they "shall be damned," and shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God, for this message shall condemn them at "the last day." In the mean ​time there are terrible visitations to be looked for among those who refuse to believe, and no one is to escape.

The Book of Mormon forms a large-sized volume consisting of between five and six hundred pages of closely printed matter. It is divided into fifteen books, some of which are again divided into chapters. The Author has read most of the arguments for and against the genuineness and authenticity of this remarkable production. He does not desire to combat or support any theory, but as, of course, the reader will expect to learn something of the groundwork of the Mormon faith, he presents without unnecessary comment a brief abstract of the whole work, together with a few quotations which will help the truth-seeker to arrive at a correct conclusion of his own.

The plates from which the book is said to be "translated" are stated by Nephi, the author of the first two books, to be written "in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" [Nephi, p. i.]. Nephi possibly understood better than the reader can be expected to, how "the learning of the Jews" added to the "language of the Egyptians" could form the speech of any people, and also how Nephi, himself a Hebrew, came to call the tongue of the bitterly-hated Egyptian "the language of my father."

The whole work is supposed to contain, besides a large amount of incidental doctrinal matter, the record of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent.

According to the Book of Mormon, America was first peopled by the family of one Jared, who after the confusion of tongues at Babel set out for this hemisphere. Here they grew and multiplied, but in course of time became sinful and finally exterminated one another in battles, in one of which two millions of men are said to have been slain. This took place six hundred years before Christ.

The second emigration consisted of the family of Lehi of the tribe of Manasseh, who left Jerusalem during the troubles of Zedekiah's reign and came over in eight "barges." Here they flourished and became exceedingly numerous, but, like their predecessors, falling into evil ways, dissensions and exterminating wars ensued, ending tragically about A. D. 420.

​Besides these a third migration is mentioned of certain Jews who came over about eleven years after Lehi, with whose descendants they mingled and whose fate they shared. The period by these transactions, reckoning from Jared's migration, is about 2,500 years, or 1,000 years from the migration of Lehi to the putting-up of the gold plates by Moroni in the hill Cumoral. The details of the immigration of Jared and that of Lehi are both given in extenso, and are of an extraordinary description. A brief outline will interest the reader, as throwing Mormon light upon that vexed question—the original peopling of America.

Jared, who lived just after the flood, left the Tower of Babel when the confusion of tongues took place, and made for the sea-shore. The reader is told [p. 517] that "Jared and his brother were not confounded." Jared and his brethren with their servants and followers remained near the coast about four years, and, "at the end of four years, the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him"—[p. 519].

The time at last arrived when the Jared family should leave the Eastern Continent, and seek for homes in the New World, and they began to build a navy. They accordingly made eight "barges," in which they proposed to cross the ocean. The following is a description of the outfit"—[pp. 519, 520]:

"And the Lord said, Go to work and build after the manner of barges which ye have hitherto built. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, after the instructions of the Lord. And they were small, and they were light upon the water, like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water; and they were built like unto a manner that they were exceeding tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish, and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof when it was shut was tight like unto a dish. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me. And behold, O Lord, in them is no light, whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air that is in them; therefore we shall ​perish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared, Behold thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof, and also in the bottom thereof; and when thou shalt suffer for air, thou shalt unstop the hole thereof and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold ye shall stop the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according as the Lord commanded."

The eight air-tight barges of the emigrants were totally destitute of light, a fact which it appears the Lord had as yet not provided for. Jared stated the matter to him [p. 520], and the Lord said, "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" at the same time informing Jared that ordinary windows [!] would be dashed to pieces by the waves. Jared does not appear to have continued the conversation, for, without making any reply to the Lord's question, he "went forth into the mount" and "did moulten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and. they were white and clear even as transparent glass; and he did carry them in his hands" to the Lord, who "touched" "one by one with his finger" [p. 521], and they miraculously gave forth light of themselves. Jared then placed one at each end of every barge.

As the Lord was touching these wonderful stones, Jared saw visibly the divine finger, and, not only so, but, after some little preliminary conversation, was more highly privileged than ever was seer before or since. Moses is recorded to have seen the "back parts" of the Almighty, but might not see His glory; three Apostles saw Christ transfigured, and even Joseph Smith saw "the Lord" in a vision. But Jared excelled them all, for, although previous to his interview, it is said [p. 521], "he knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood," yet now the Lord showed Himself unto him, saying at the same time, "I am Jesus Christ—I am the Father and the Son!!! Behold this body which ye now behold is the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh"—[p. 521].

In these "barges," after they "did also lay snares" to catch fowl and wild beasts, they placed pairs of all created animals, after the fashion of Noah—"all manner of that which was upon the face of the land"—every kind of seed, with ​"deseret" [which by interpretation is a honey-bee], "swarms of bees," and "fish of the waters," and "flocks and herds" [p. 525]. In addition to all these, food and fodder were also stored up for man and beast [including the wild ones] for nearly a year! Yet, all this enormous burthen was placed, as before stated, in eight barges, "small," and "like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the waters!!"

The dish-like barges were without sails or rigging, but were miraculously driven through the sea by a "furious wind," which "did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind" [p. 526], and "no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale could mar them." The voyage occupied 344 days—very nearly a year—and when they had reached the promised land, they bowed themselves in worship before the Lord.

On the American Continent they grew and multiplied, founded mighty cities, and became a great people; but, becoming exceedingly sinful, great divisions and strife sprang up among them, and they separated into various nations. Devastating wars depopulated the country,^[4] and finally the contending parties utterly exterminated each other.

The second migration occurred just about the time when the descendants of the Jaredite emigrants were annihilated—i. e., 600 years before Christ. According to the Book of Mormon, Lehi, an Israelite of the tribe of Manasseh, with his family, left Jerusalem early in Zedekiah's reign. His son, Nephi, a pious young man, according to his own testimony [p. 6], desired to possess certain plates of brass, upon which were engraved the records of his family, the law of Moses, the prophets, etc., which were in possession of Laban, his kinsman. Laban refused to sell them and tried to obtain the property of the emigrants without any transfer of the plates [p. 7]. Nephi went up to Jerusalem to see what could be done in the matter, ​and found Laban in the street near his own house, where "he had fallen to the earth, for he was drunken with wine." The good Nephi appears to have had some little compunction about attacking his kinsman while he was in that helpless condition, but after a little equivocation he resolved to seize the opportunity, and "constrained by the Spirit" [p. 8], and arguing "it is better that one man should perish, than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief," he "took Laban by the hair of his head, and smote off his head with his own sword." He then took Laban's sword, garments, and armour, and, arrayed in them, set out for the dead man's "treasury." On his way he met with Laban's servant, and, passing himself off for his master, obtained the objects of his visit—viz., the plates, records, etc.—and enticed the servant himself away to the outside of the city, where he made him prisoner. For all these exploits, Lehi and the emigrant party gave God thanks.

They then "did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness," and "did slay wild beasts," and in this manner subsisted. "So great," says Nephi, "were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that, while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto men." Yet as they journeyed some of the brethren "did rebel against us; yea, against I Nephi, and Sam!" p. 12.—[I. Neph. v., par. 17.]

Regardless of all difficulties, Nephi and his brethren travelled towards the sea-shore, but what sea it was can only be conjectured, as he calls all the rivers, mountains, and other prominent landmarks, which they passed, by other names than those generally known either in ancient or modern geography. On their way they made a great discovery, which Nephi thus relates:

"It came to pass that as my father arose in the morning and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles: and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness."

This "ball" elsewhere described as a "compass" [p. 314] did not point to the pole, but "if they had faith to believe that ​God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold it was done." This was a marvellous and convenient ball; it served alike to direct them to good hunting-grounds and to indicate their way, and afterwards it was their guide overland and across the ocean. It also had another quality and served as a divine instructor, for upon the "pointers" were written from time to time, as their spiritual necessities demanded, various divine counsels and directions. One only of the pointers served as a guide: the use of the other is not stated.

Nephi in course of time began to build a ship, and "did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock;" and his brethren said: "Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship: yea, he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters," and they said to him, "we knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment, wherefore thou canst not accomplish so great a work" [p. 37]. Nephi, however, argued with them, and "they were confounded." The Lord also promised to "shock" them [p. 41], which he did so effectually that they fell down before their brother and were about to worship him. The "shock" greatly improved them, and they then assisted him in the preparation of his ship, of which he says that he did not build it "after the manner of men," but "after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me." Ill-feeling was for a time forgotten; they accomplished their task, took in ample stores, and then set sail in Nephi's vessel, and in due course arrived near the American coast.

The Jaredites had been driven to this country on the surface and beneath the water propelled by the "furious wind" which the Lord caused to blow upon their bare "barges;" but this was not the case with the Nephite migration. They had sails, etc., and needed guidance which they obtained by means of the before-mentioned interesting brass ball. After they "had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days," the brothers of Nephi went back to their old ways again "and began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance and sing and to speak with much rudeness." The result was that when Nephi interrupted their merriment they ​were angry with him, and he says: "It came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind me with cords." They kept him bound prisoner for four days, during which time he states that they were "driven back" [p. 43], though how he knew it, as "the compass did cease to work," he does not state. A tempest arose and the hard-hearted brethren released Nephi, who says: "It came to pass that after they had loosed me, behold I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it." After this performance the emigrants arrived safely in "the promised land," and there settled as their predecessors had done before them.

As far as can be conjectured from the story of the Book of Mormon, the journey of the emigrants, after travelling by land along the coast of the Red Sea, was through the Gulf of Aden, and by way of India and Australasia over the Pacific eastward to America, landing a little north of what is now called the Isthmus of Panama.

On reaching this "isle of the sea" [p. 78] they tilled the ground and erected habitations. They also found in the forests "both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals that were for the use of man" [p. 44]. In another place it is stated [p. 533] of the Jaredites that they had "all manner of cattle, of oxen and cows, and of sheep and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man; and they had also horses and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms." What the latter beasts were it is impossible to determine, but scientific men are unanimously agreed that elephants never existed on this continent, and that horses, asses, oxen, and swine, were introduced by the European settlers within the last three hundred years. Had they existed at the times alluded to by the Mormon writer, some vestiges of them would certainly ere this have been discovered. Theologians will stand aghast at swine being spoken of among Hebrews as "useful for the food of man." But in all things these wandering Israelites appear to have had a taste for repudiating their nationality. It has been already seen how they rejected their beloved Hebrew tongue which they believed sacred, and ​adopted the language of their detested Egyptian oppressors. In one place they defile themselves with swine's flesh, and in another place break the holiest commandments and commit murder in God's service [p. 8], and elsewhere they are spoken of as building temples and consecrating priests [p. 208], and even in domestic affairs forgetting the weights and measures of their fathers, the omer, the ephah, the hin, the bath, the cab, and the shekel, and using the "seon, the senine, the senum, the onti, limnah, ezrom, shum, shiblon, shiblum, leah, antion, shublon, etc."

Soon after their arrival in this country they increased and multiplied exceedingly and became a great nation. They were, however, constantly divided among themselves and engaged in fierce warfare with each other.

Like the Jews, they had their prophets and teachers to whom they sometimes listened, but whom they more frequently persecuted and put to death. The great mission of these prophets appears to have been to foretell the coming of Christ. This they did, not in that shadowy and mystic fashion common to the Hebrew prophets of Palestine, but in the plainest words which could be used. On page 335, it is stated that "all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them gladly the name of Christ or Christians, as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come." This was a century before the coming of Christ! This, however, is not more strange than another passage where an angel speaks of "the mouth of a Jew" when speaking of an Israelite of the ten tribes, and that too before the Babylonish captivity when the remnant of the Israelites were first called Jews, or on the other hand to talk of the "Gospel" and "Churches" as long as 600 years before Christ! These singular pre-historic American Christians experienced much the same difficulties as the early converts of Peter and Paul in Europe, and were persecuted much after the fashion described in Fox's "Book of Martyrs" [p. 179].

At the time when Christ was born the people had "dwindled away in unbelief" [a favourite expression in the Book of Mormon, apparently meaning the reverse of what it says]. Many of them doubted whether Christ would ever really ​come [p. 450.]. They were informed that "the kingdom of heaven was soon at hand," and on the plates which formed their sacred records the exact time was minutely foretold. Five years before the birth of Christ, it was predicted that "the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness. There shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day, and there shall be no night" [p. 426]. And thus it is represented to have been. On that night, the land being full of unbelievers in the coming of Christ, and many saying, "It is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come" [p. 431], "Nephi cried mightily unto the Lord," and in return was told, "On the morrow come I into the world." The prophet announced this to his people, and "at the going down of the sun there was no darkness, and the people began to be astonished, because there was no darkness when the night came". . . . and "there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day" [p. 434]. It is to be regretted that all the ancient European historians of those times, who must have known of such an extraordinary occurrence, even if they did not witness the phenomenon themselves, have all without exception preserved a profound silence respecting it.

As might be expected, the people were "so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth. . . . and began to fear because of their iniquity and unbelief" [p. 434]. "A new star also did appear." Nephi made the most of the occasion, and preached and baptized, and many were "converted unto the Lord."

This good work, however, did not continue very peaceably, and wars, disputes, and fightings, followed until the thirtyfourth year [p. 450], when there arose a storm such as was never heard of either in ancient or modern times. Cities were swallowed up, mountains sunk, multitudes were carried away in a whirlwind, and "the whole face of the earth became deformed," while "behold the rocks were rent in twain." After this "behold there was darkness upon the face of the land. . . . Thick darkness. . . . The inhabitants could feel the vapour of darkness. . . . No light. . . . Neither candles nor torches. . . . Neither could there be fire kindled with ​their fine and exceeding dry wood. . . . Neither fire nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars. . . . It did last for the space of three days. . . . There was great howling" [p. 451]. During the three days of darkness the people heard voices which are stated to have proceeded from Christ, attendant upon whose crucifixion these signs are supposed to have been [p. 451].

After this a great assemblage met "in the land bountiful" [p. 455]; and while the people talked over the marvellous events which had just transpired they heard a voice, and they "saw a man descending out of heaven." This "man" was Christ, who announced himself to them and they fell down and worshipped him [p. 456]. He then told the whole multitude to "Arise and come forth unto me that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world" [p. 456]. Then "the multitude went forth and did thrust their hands into His side, and did feel the prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one, until they had all gone forth." The multitude in another place [p. 469] is said to have numbered 2,500 souls! Now, even allowing the time occupied by each individual to have been only one-quarter of a minute (a calculation far too low, when arrangements for order and precedence, and some degree of decent respect for his person are considered), the time occupied must have been over ten hours and a quarter, and, after all, it is difficult to see what proof this thrusting of hands into the side of Christ and seeing the print of the nails would afford that he was Christ. Thomas a Didymus refused to believe that his Master was raised from the dead unless he saw and touched him; but Thomas knew Christ personally, and the evidence that he sought was not at all inconsistent, for he believed that such demonstration would convince him that what he saw was the real body of Christ with which he was familiar, and not a phantom. How touching Christ's body could convince the multitude in America who had never before seen him that He was indeed the "God of Israel" is ​not so plain. Thomas when he saw Christ was more than satisfied, but the vast multitude in America, it is said, actually did "thrust their hands into His side, and felt the nail-prints in His hands and feet," and this, too, not by proxy, but personally, for "this they did do, going forth one by one, until they had all gone forth" [p. 457].

Nephi then states that "the Lord" explained to him and to the whole multitude the office of baptism with the most minute details, for, in order that "there should be no disputations," He told them that they should be immersed after repentance and expressing a desire to be baptized in His name. He then repeated his sermon on the mount with numerous additions, enlargements, and quotations, from the New Testament [p. 465], and afterwards "their sick, and their afflicted, and their lame and their blind, and their dumb, and all they that were afflicted in any manner," were brought before him, and "he did heal them every one" [p. 468]. Then "it came to pass that he commanded that their little children should be brought." The people were then commanded to kneel "down," and "he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written;" he wept, and "he took their little children one by one and blessed them." "And as they looked to behold, they cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were, in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them." He then re-instituted the Sacrament and "when the multitude had eaten [i. e., of the bread] and were filled," he explained the nature and administration of the rite, and gave the wine to the multitude, and they "did drink of it and were filled" [p. 469]. His address was then continued at considerable length, after which "he departed from them and ascended into heaven" [p. 472].

The next day the multitude re-assembled, and the twelve apostles who had previously been appointed "did pray unto the Father" and angels came down and "did minister unto them," and "Jesus came and stood in the midst and ministered unto them" [p. 473]. The Sacrament was then again par​taken of, and the multitude "were filled with the Spirit." Christ then began a new sermon, which is related on pp. 475 to 483. "And he did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time when he should come in his glory." "And now there cannot be written in this book even a hundreth part of the things which Jesus did truly teach unto the people. . . . Behold I were about to write them all . . . . but the Lord forbid it."

After this came a repetition of the old scenes in this marvellous history. The prophets and apostles taught with such effect that a Church was again formed, and by the year 36, after Christ, "the people were all converted unto the Lord," had all things in common, were blessed with miracles and wonders [p. 492], and "did multiply exceeding fast, and became an exceeding fair and delightsome people." But the evil spirit returned among them. They became luxurious and proud, and began to be divided into classes; division and strife arose among them; the righteous decreased in numbers, while the wicked increased; and "all dwindled in unbelief from year to year" [p. 494]. Robbers spread over all the land, and fearful battles were fought between the Lamanites and Nephites. At last the Nephites, who were the more righteous people, gathered for a final struggle with the Lamanites [the wicked] round the hill Cumorah, between what is now called Palmyra and Manchester, in the State of New York, and there encamped in readiness for the foe. It was then that Mormon received from his father the plates of Nephi, which contained the sacred records of his people, and which had been religiously transmitted from father to son. These he "hid up in the hill Cumorah," after he had written an abridgment of them which he gave to his son Moroni. After this the "tremendous battle" [p. 507-9] was fought, upwards of 230,000 men were slain, and the Nephites were utterly destroyed. Only twenty-four escaped, besides Mormon, and perhaps a few of whose fate he says he was uncertain. Moroni having, as has been seen, received the abridged plates from his father Mormon, who was soon after slain, added to them a short account of his own, together with an abridged account of the Jaredite expedition, and then buried the whole in Cumorah, about the year 400 [p. 510]. ​Moroni soon after died, the last of his nation, and with him the Nephites became extinct, and descendants of the successful but wicked Lamanites, who were distinguished [p. 66] by the peculiar colour of their skin, are now known as the North American Indians.

The plates remained in their hiding-place over 1,400 years, until finally discovered to Joseph Smith, through "the ministry of an angel," on the 22d of September, 1823.

After such a remarkable history of the peopling of the American Continent, it is proper that the reader should have placed before him a few extracts from the Book of Mormon, exhibiting how singularly the people in the New World were familiar with, and used the same religious sentiments as, the people of the Old World! For convenience of comparison the following extracts from the Book of Mormon are placed side by side with similar passages from the Old and New Testaments. These extracts are taken from speeches, exhortations, and sermons, said to have been delivered by American prophets and apostles, who, of course, never saw, or could see, the English Bible as it now exists in its modern translations. The reader will probably be struck with the very close resemblance of these expressions to texts with which most persons are familiar, but which were first written in the shape of translation many centuries after they are claimed to have been spoken by the prophets of America; and still more strange is the reproduction in the Book of Mormon of the errors of translation existing in the English edition, which was produced twelve hundred years after the death of the last of the American seers.

Any person acquainted with the history of the "camp meetings" in rural districts fifty years ago, and the peculiar expressions of the preachers, will be somewhat astonished at reading in the Book of Mormon so many of those familiar phrases from the mouths of the fathers of the Indians. The following are a few examples:

"I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love," p. 55. [About 570 years before Christ.]^[8]

"Have ye spiritually been born of God?" p. 222. [80 years before Christ.]

"If ye have experienced a change of heart," p. 222.

​"Ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation," p. 531.

"For the arms of mercy are extended towards you," p. 222.

"Many died firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ," p. 337. [About 70 years before Christ.]

"Have they not revealed the plan of salvation?" p. 136. [More than 400 years before Christ.]

"The own due time of the Lord," pp. 102, 17, etc. [600 years before Christ.]

"Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse?" p. 221. [80 years before Christ.]

"Thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice," p. 304. [About 75 years before Christ.]

"If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love," p. 222. [About 80 years before Christ.]

In another place [p. 18], Nephi tells of his father speaking "by the power of the Holy Ghost; which power he received by faith on the Son of God; and the Son of God was the Messiah." This was very nearly six centuries before Christ!

Nephi, writing 545 years before Christ, says: "I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell" [p. 113]. "Enter into the narrow gate, and walk in the straight path, which leads to life;" and of the Gentiles he writes: "For none of these can I hope, except they shall be reconciled to Christ."

But perhaps the best point in the book is the plagiarism of Hamlet's well-known speech, "To be, or not to be." Five hundred and seventy years before Christ, Lehi, in his last hours, addressing his sons, spoke of "the cold and silent grave "from whence no traveller can return" [B. of M., p. 55]. Two thousand two hundred years later, Shakespeare, who had never read Lehi's writings, spoke of "the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns." Hamlet, Act iii., scene i.

The Scripture story of Joshua commanding the sun: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon," has always been a subject of grave dispute among the learned, and upon it unbelievers have based many arguments against the veracity of the Scriptures. According, however, to the Book of Mormon, the words of Joshua admit of a very easy explanation, and were understood ages ago to have a very different interpretation from what is commonly supposed. Not only so, but the fact that the earth revolves round ​the sun, of which the ancients are supposed to have been ignorant, was not only a matter of common knowledge here, but was used as an argument which every one was sure to understand. The prophet Helaman says: "According to his word, the earth goeth back, and it appeareth unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold this is so; for sure it is the earth that moveth, and not the sun."—[B. of M., p. 421.] On this subject, Elder John Hyde says: "Here are all the prophets transcended; Ptolemy refuted; Copernicus and all his discoveries anticipated 2,000 years before he was born. The only pity is, that this was not published, however, until 200 years after he was dead!" It is an undoubted fact that the astronomical system of Ptolemy was universally received by the ancients. The earth, they believed, was the stationary centre of the system, and round it sun, moon, and stars revolved. All the Scripture allusions to the heavenly bodies support this statement, for the distinction between the planets [the word "planet" itself] and the fixed stars was then utterly unknown. The prophet Alma, however, wiser, even in scientific matters, than Joshua and David, Solomon, Job, the captive of Patmos, and all the sages of antiquity, says: "The Scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion; yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form."

The simplicity of many portions of the Book of Mormon is very touching; witness the following:

"And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth among the people, waving the rent of his garment in the air, that all might see the writing which he had wrote upon the rent!!!"^[9]—[page 334.]

"I beheld wars and rumours of wars."—[p. 21.]

"I saw wars and rumours of wars. . . . And in wars and rumours of wars I saw many generations pass away."—[p. 23.]

"There were no robbers nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, or any manner of ites!!!"—[p. 493.]

"Now the joy of Ammon was so great, even that he was full; yea, he ​was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhaustion of his strength; and he fell again to the earth. Now was not this exceeding great joy?"—[p. 285.]

"The Lord provided for them. . . . He also gave them strength that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ!"—[p. 298.]

"They all did swear unto him . . . that whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head, and whoso should divulge whatsoever thing Akish should make known unto them should lose his life."—[p. 530.]

Many opponents of the faith of the Saints have devoted considerable time to the discussion of the origin of the Book of Mormon, and the general conclusion reached has been that Joseph Smith had before him the manuscript of a religious novel, written by one Solomon Spaulding, and that he interpolated all through it the portions which bear evidence of his own lack of education, while the body of the story remained intact.

There is evidence that this Spaulding actually did write something about the ancient inhabitants of America, and it is asserted by one of his brothers, from his recollection of the portions of the manuscript, that it was identical with the Book of Mormon, and that the latter was indeed the bona-fide work of his deceased brother. It is further said that several of Mr. Spaulding's personal friends sustain this statement from their remembrance of the readings to which they had frequently listened.

Those who accept such statements as the true solution of the origin of this book must necessarily conclude that Joseph Smith was "a deliberate falsifier and wilful impostor." There is no avoiding this. The most incisive writer on this subject—John Hyde, formerly an elder in the Church—unhesitatingly announces this as his own conclusion. His "Analysis of the Book of Mormon," and its "Internal Evidences," is a masterly work, to which no Mormon elder has attempted a reply. The only man among the Mormons capable of the effort is Orson Pratt, and, by an attempt at refutation, he would only exhibit common honesty, for he is morally under obligations to that long-suffering people in the Tabernacle to do so.

At the moment of writing this, there is before the Author ​"brother Orson's" last discourse on the Book of Mormon, delivered in the Tabernacle on the 22d of September, 1872. It is undoubtedly the best sermon that could be preached on "the forthcoming" of that notable book, but, by the side of the unanswered "Analysis" of Elder John Hyde, it is very unsatisfactory. But, while the Anthor frankly admits the unanswerable and powerful arguments of Mr. Hyde, he dissents from his conclusion that Joseph Smith was a wilful impostor.

To conclude that there was "wilful" imposture in the origin of Mormonism is, in an argumentative sense, to "take arms against a sea of troubles" to which there is no limit. There is, however, an easy solution of the difficulty respecting the origin of the book—i. e., to admit honest credulity in Joseph Smith, in the persons who "witnessed unto the world" of that which they saw, and in all that follows in the history of the Mormon movement. Probably, if Mr. Hyde were now to write on the subject, while he would undoubtedly preserve the same powerful arguments against the divinity of the book he would conclude that Joseph Smith was after all only an extraordinary "spirit medium," and had been subjected to all the vagaries and caprices of that peculiar condition.

In this solution of the difficulty respecting Joseph's claims, there is a perfect consistency, and it harmonizes completely with the testimony, both of the orthodox and the heterodox. It admits the claim of honesty in Joseph Smith, and in his "witnesses," and equal honesty in those who have rejected their testimony, and denounced the folly of their assertions. In brief, when Joseph Smith said that he had visions, dreams, and revelations, it is best to allow that he probably had all that experience; but when he clothed his communications with the sanctity of absolute and divine truth, the acceptance or rejection of which was to be "the salvation or damnation of the world," it was simply the operation and assertion of that yet uncomprehended mysterious influence that has been experienced by both good and bad men in all ages and in all countries within the historical ken of man.

With the developments which have followed, the life of the Mormon prophet is easily understood. He was but the vehicle of "spirit communication," and when he erred it was not in​tentional imposture or deliberate fraud, but in the native honesty of his simple nature he believed too much.^[10] Than that he was imposed upon or ignorantly imposed upon himself in the "translation" of the Book of Mormon, nothing seems more certain to those who have fully studied his career, while his assertion that the English "translation" of the plates is the history of the ancient inhabitants of the country, of the people who built the temples and palaces of Central America, and constructed the gigantic works, the mounds and ruins which are met with all over this continent, is assuredly untrue. The American Indians never descended from those builders, nor did Jared or Lehi give that posterity birth. With faith, any thing, however extravagant or unreasonable, can be accepted; but no rational being, looking upon the past as he does upon the present, can behold the evidences of the existence of a great and civilized people upon this continent long ages ago, and believe that the Book of Mormon story of Jared and Lehi is the true record of the buried past. That history has yet to be written.

Calmly regarding the plagiarisms from the New Testament in the Book of Mormon, the frequent use of the expressions and thoughts of Methodists in the nineteenth century, and the use of republican political sentiments, all of which Joseph Smith, notwithstanding his youth and lack of education, did know, there can be no doubt that the title-page of the first edition of the Book of Mormon stated something near the truth when it bore the announcement: "Joseph Smith, Author and Proprietor."

The Singularly enough, no Mormon authority has ever related how Joseph Smith claimed to translate the plates, and what is still more strange of the hundreds of men who personally knew Joseph, and who could have very properly asked him that question, the Author, to his inquiries addressed to them, ​never got an answer. One man only acknowledged that he had asked the Prophet, but forgot what the answer was.

The reader may long ere this have arrived at the conclusion that the whole story is a stupendous fraud, and a wicked fabrication, but, to the Author's mind, Joseph is still defensible against the charge of wilful imposture. It does not seem possible that he could have borne up through his whole life of persecution, and have lived and died maintaining the truth of his story, if the book had been a fraud.

At the time of its professed translation he was not capable of dictating the whole of it without aid. Though it all passed from his tongue to the ears of his scribes, and bears throughout in its language the impress of his scanty education, whatever there is of plot in the book was far beyond him. Ridiculous as may be the story of the Jaredite "barges," the spindle-compass, the traversing of three oceans from the Red Sea to the southern portion of North America, and the many other grotesque stories about the first inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, yet there is pervading the whole book another mind than that of young Joseph Smith.

The ruins found in Central America, the great mounds in the valley of the Mississippi, and in several States of the Union, establish beyond the possibility of a doubt that a great population once existed on this continent, which has long ages ago passed away. They who built the colossal temples, the magnificent palaces, and the great aqueducts, have left, in the ruins that now meet the gaze of the explorer, the evidences of a civilization that astonishes the student. That some of those ancient inhabitants may have made and engraved plates, and that they did so for a purpose—whatever that might be—is very possible. The relics of sculpture and painting suggest also the probability of engraving. Other persons besides Joseph Smith have discovered in the ground similar plates,^[11] bearing evidence of a great antiquity, and, as time rolls on, there may yet be many similar discoveries. There need be no difficulty, then, in accept​ ​ing Joseph's story of finding the plates; it is what is claimed to be the contents of the plates that is incredible.

If no living person fabricated for Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon, and if Joseph did not use the manuscript of Solomon Spaulding, the Mormon may very properly ask: "Who, then, was the author of the book?" To this query, the Book of Abraham is the answer. In the preceding chapter, the Prophet's "translation" of the papyrus, found with the Egyptian mummies, is evidently untrue; yet Joseph Smith sat with his amanuensis, and, by "the gift of God," believed he was giving a truthful translation. The scientist says that the whole story is untrue, that the Prophet's version of the hieroglyphics is a perfect romance, that the hieroglyphics had no more allusion to the Abraham of Mosaic history, than they had to do with Abraham the martyred President of the United States.

When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the means of his Urim and Thummim, the "reformed Egyptian" was evidently not transformed before his eyes into the translated text, or "the gift and power of God" used peculiarly bad English. He gazed upon that Urim and Thummim until his mind became psychologized, and the impressions that he received he dictated to his scribe. With such a conclusion, the anachronisms of the book, the quotations from the Old and New Testaments, and the language of modern preachers and writers, are accounted for.

That there is such a mental condition in human life as clairvoyance, in which persons are strangely operated upon, and can mentally perceive what to the natural eye is unseen, is a belief as old as the history of man, and that, when the mind is psychologized by a condition of its own, or by the operation of external influences, singular impressions or revelations are had, few people to-day dispute. That Joseph Smith was in these experiences one of the most remarkable men that ever lived, those outside of Mormonism altogether, who knew him intimately, testify. He believed that his gifts were divine, and his impressions were revelations from the Almighty Creator.

To insist that there were deliberate imposture and deliberate falsehood at the origin of Mormonism is to challenge the vera​city and honesty of the hundreds and thousands of persons who accept that faith and who testify that they know of its truth. It is more rational and consistent to admit that what such a body of people allege that they have experienced is probably true in statement, than to deny it and brand it as imposture, but it does not follow that the interpretation which any of them put upon their experience is itself true. They may be fully persuaded that they have had visions, dreams, the ministering of angels, and have heard the "voice of God," all witnessing to the truth of the divinity of Mormonism, for all this has been asserted again and again by very many others besides Joseph Smith—men, and women too, who have claimed to have received divine missions. Outside of all religious enthusiasm, also, there are tens of thousands of men and women, sober, reliable, and truthful in every relation and business of life, with as unchangeable convictions as ever the Mormons had that they have personally experienced all these extraordinary phenomena.

The trouble with the Mormons and with all this class of believers is, not in what they have experienced, but the after-interpretation that they may have put upon it. If the reader turns to pages 33–35 of this volume, he will find the key to the Mormon testimony and the explanation of the whole movement. There it is illustrated by this very Orson Pratt, the champion expounder of the evidences of the Book of Mormon.

Joseph Smith relates that he cast a devil out of Newell Knight in the name of Jesus. Judge Edmonds innocently relates that he too "cast out devils" frequently without any such invocation. Orson Pratt, in commenting upon Joseph's "first miracle," flies to the conclusion that those persons who witnessed the experience of Newell Knight, tortured with an evil influence and afterwards "overwhelmed with the good spirit," had from these circumstances "a knowledge" that "Joseph Smith was a great prophet and seer, and that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation!" Nothing could be more preposterous. The experience of Newell Knight had its cause and its issues, but these had no more bearing upon the seership of Joseph Smith and the divinity of the Book of Mormon than upon any and all of the assumptions of his life.

​On just such statements and arguments have the Mormons been fed for over forty years, till "hundreds of thousands of witnesses," as Elder Pratt boasts, can testify that to them "God has revealed the truth of the Book of Mormon."

A great man once said: "Let me write the songs of the people, let others make their laws." The apostle Orson Pratt has written the testimony of the Book of Mormon, and the "Saints" have reiterated his statements, and no one has had better opportunities than he of knowing the worthlessness of such evidence and the fallacy of such arguments as he has adduced from the devil in Newell Knight.

Of the "hundreds of thousands of witnesses to whom God has revealed the truth of the Book of Mormon," he knows full well that comparatively few indeed have ever read that book, know little or nothing intelligently of its contents, and take little interest in it. He has written and spoken extensively of the "divine evidence" respecting it, to the Mormons; and they have read and listened to his arguments. They have, of course, been pleased with his display of "testimony." With the "eye of faith" everything was clear to them, and to them it was "The Holy Ghost witnessing of the divinity of the 'book.'" Some "brother" or "sister" is "possessed by devils" and thrown into convulsions, and an "apostle" or "elder" "lays hands" upon the possessed, "conjures" the evil spirit to depart from the troubled soul, and it becomes tranquil—ergo, the Book of Mormon is divine, and Joseph Smith is "a great prophet and seer." Such is the argument!

Brigham Young has "cast out devils," yet, for all that, it is well known that Orson Pratt himself is not over-strong in the belief that Brigham is "a great Prophet and seer," and all the devils that Brigham has ever cast out have never convinced Orson of the divinity of Brigham's Adam-deity! If the whole world is to be "damned" for rejecting the claims and assertions of Joseph about himself and his Book of Mormon, while it has had no opportunity of seeing him "cast out devils," Orson Pratt is certain to find himself at "the bottom of the lowest hell," to use Tabernacle language, for rejecting Brigham's "Adam," after all the evidence before him of Brigham "casting out devils."

​Intelligent people in Utah, who have rejected Mormonism, can trace their first awakening to reason and common-sense to the first consideration of such assumptions of the evidences of divinity set forth by the Mormon apostles.

While the time and attention of the masses are wholly absorbed in procuring the bare means of existence, and their only time for reflection is demanded for the Tabernacle and the ward meetings, the "evidences" of divinity upon anything may pass unchallenged. But, the moment the mind is awakened and stretches beyond Mormonism, the acceptance of such evidences is very doubtful.

There have been multitudes of persons in the world who have believed and asserted that to them, and to them only, God gave visions, dreams, angel-visits, the power of healing the sick and "casting out devils"—and they have declared that these were proofs of the heavenly origin of the faith which they proclaimed, and this it is that the Saints have been taught by the modern apostles to regard as special and particular to them, while it has been a peculiarity common to the religious experience of all the world, and is an evidence of nothing more than a certain condition of mind that renders such manifestations possible with persons adapted naturally to receive them.

Probably no enthusiast ever left the Mormom Church without a rich experience in the shape of visions, angels, and "miracles;" and seldom are such persons found without "the voice of God" whispering something to them. The "Reorganized Church," at the head of which is the eldest son of Joseph Smith, is peculiarly "favoured" with "visions," and "visits of angels" and "gifts of tongues," "interpretations" and "powers of healing;" and these worshippers "cast out" all the "devils" that come in their way. It is undeniable that the great "evidences" that are adduced by Orson Pratt in favour of the truth of the Book of Mormon and the mission of Joseph Smith are more abundantly manifest to-day in "Young Joseph's church" than among the Rocky Mountain Saints. Yet "Young Joseph" and his "Saints" denounce Brigham Young as a "usurper" and a "fraud" upon the Mormon people.

​Brigham Young and his apostles, backed up by visions, dreams, revelations, miracles, and "the voice of God," preach and teach to the Mormons in Utah that "Young Joseph" in Illinois is an aspiring, ambitious youth, an emissary of the devil, seeking to lead away the faithful from the "true fold." Joseph Smith—the young man—sustained by as credible witnesses as Orson Pratt can produce, supported by "angel revelations," the "voice of God," and any amount of "miracles," is with his apostles now praying earnestly, long, and loud, and sending missionaries all through Utah Territory, warning the people against that ruin of soul and body to which they assert Brigham Young and his apostles are leading them. The claim, therefore, of such a host of witnesses testifying to the truth of the Book of Mormon because of visions, dreams, revelations and miracles, is unworthy of a moment's consideration.

That Joseph thought Moroni and some of those ancient personages whom he mentions in his biography appeared to him, is, no doubt, true; that they used him for their purposes Spiritualists all believe, and, when the origin of some of the great religions of the world is considered, there is not much cause for wonder that those persons who have accepted Mormonism, with all its crudities, should have honestly believed it. Millions have accepted Mohammed and his visions; many millions more have lived and died in the faith of Buddha; Confucius has swayed a spiritual empire from ages long before the Christian era; and by these and other founders of religious systems, and by many of their disciples, visions and revelations, gifts and miraculous powers, have all been claimed.