Here then is the conditional prophecy that it concerns the proud Gentile races now inhabiting the American continents to know. These continents are a promised land; they are given primarily to the descendants of the Patriarch Joseph as an inheritance, but the Gentile races are also given an inheritance in them with the descendants of Joseph. The whole land, however, is dedicated to righteousness and liberty, and the people who possess it, whether of the house of Israel or Gentiles, must be a righteous people, and worship the "God of the land, who is Jesus Christ." In that event God stands pledged to preserve the land and the people thereof from all other nations, and to bless them with very great and peculiar blessings guaranteeing to them freedom and peaceful possession of the land forever. If the Gentile races shall observe these conditions they and their children are to share in the blessings of the land in connection with the descendants of the Patriarch Joseph. If they depart from justice, reject righteousness and Jesus Christ, then the judgments decreed will overtake them until they are wasted away. This is the decree of God respecting the Western hemisphere, and is one of the important messages that the Book of Mormon has to deliver to the present generation.
Nor is it the Book of Mormon alone that bears this message. So far as the people of the United States are concerned, I might say, if not one of their own prophets, at least their greatest statesman, gave substantially the same warning to the people of that nation, and I believe his utterances are equally applicable to the people occupying the other parts of the American continents. Read the following quotation from the speech delivered a few months before its author's death, and tell me if the American statesman, Daniel Webster, did not catch the same glow of inspiration when predicting the terms upon which the people now occupying our country may hold their heritage, as that which warmed the hearts of the Book of Mormon writers and speakers, whose words are quoted in the preceding passages. Mr. Webster's speech was delivered before the "New York Historical Society," on February 22nd—Washington's birthday—1852; as the great American died in October following, the address was one of his last speeches.
Unborn ages and visions of glory crowd upon my soul, the realization of all which, however, is in the hands and good pleasure of Almighty God; but, under his divine blessing, it will be dependent on the character and the virtues of ourselves, and of our posterity. If classical history has been found to be, is now, and shall continue to be, the concomitant of free institutions, and of popular eloquence, what a field is opening to us for another Herodotus, another Thucydides, and another Livy!And let me say, gentlemen, that if we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion—if we and they shall live always in the fear of God, and shall respect his commandments, if we and they shall maintain just, moral sentiments, and such conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart and life—we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country; and if we maintain those institutions of government and that political union, exceeding all praise as much as it exceeds all former examples of political associations, we may be sure of one thing—that, while our country furnishing materials for a thousand masters of the historic art, it will afford no topic for a Gibbon. It will have no Decline and Fall. It will go on prospering and to prosper.But, if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. Should that catastrophe happen, let it have no history! Let the horrible narrative never be written! Let its fate be like that of the lost books of Livy, which no human eye shall ever read; or the missing Pleiad, of which no man can ever know more, than that it is lost, and lost forever!
Unborn ages and visions of glory crowd upon my soul, the realization of all which, however, is in the hands and good pleasure of Almighty God; but, under his divine blessing, it will be dependent on the character and the virtues of ourselves, and of our posterity. If classical history has been found to be, is now, and shall continue to be, the concomitant of free institutions, and of popular eloquence, what a field is opening to us for another Herodotus, another Thucydides, and another Livy!
And let me say, gentlemen, that if we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion—if we and they shall live always in the fear of God, and shall respect his commandments, if we and they shall maintain just, moral sentiments, and such conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart and life—we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country; and if we maintain those institutions of government and that political union, exceeding all praise as much as it exceeds all former examples of political associations, we may be sure of one thing—that, while our country furnishing materials for a thousand masters of the historic art, it will afford no topic for a Gibbon. It will have no Decline and Fall. It will go on prospering and to prosper.
But, if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. Should that catastrophe happen, let it have no history! Let the horrible narrative never be written! Let its fate be like that of the lost books of Livy, which no human eye shall ever read; or the missing Pleiad, of which no man can ever know more, than that it is lost, and lost forever!
I think my statement will be within reasonable limits when I say that this sublime doctrine and warning of Mr. Webster's has the same source of inspiration as the utterances of the Book of Mormon writers. I believe that all who read and compare these passages will conclude there is something more than mere coincidence in their agreement.
As before stated, it is not my purpose in calling attention to these conditional prophecies to point to their fulfillment, either accomplished or prospective, in evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon. Their worth as evidence to the truth of the book rests solely upon the importance of the matter with which they deal. The demand of the world is, and it is a reasonable one, that a book purporting to be a revelation from God should deal with subjects that it is important for men to know, and I regard the terms that constitute the conditions upon which the American continents may be securely held by the people who possess them, as a matter of the highest importance for the people to know, and hence worthy to be found in a book purporting to be a revelation from God. Such knowledge is no less important than to know the source whence the continents of America are peopled; the providences of God in dealing with them; and the fact that the Son of God visited the western hemisphere, and taught to the inhabitants thereof the gospel, and established here his church for the perpetuation of the truth and for the salvation of men. All this is revealed in the Book of Mormon, and makes up a mass of knowledge that it concerns mankind to know, and hence is worthy of God to reveal. Had the Book of Mormon dealt with light or trivial things—things unworthy of God to reveal, mankind would require no further evidence that its claims to a divine origin were baseless; and conversely: if the book reveals a mass of knowledge—worthy of God to reveal and important for man to know—then it is evidence of considerable weight that the book is of God.
1. II. Nephi xxx: 3-11.
2. II. Nephi xxx: 12-15.
3. "Descendants of the Jews." This expression, I believe, is used in this instance as equivalent to "Descendants of the house of Israel." That is, the American Indians will know they are Israelites. This sense of the phrase "the Jews" is used in other parts of the Book of Mormon: for instance, "That the father may bring about * * * his great and eternal purposes, in restoring the Jews, or all the House of Israel, to the land of their inheritance." We have already pointed out in previous foot notes that according to the Book of Mormon the American Indians are a mixture of the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah (see pp. 95, 325-6); and therefore we think the phrase "descendants of the Jews," does not mean to confine native American race descent to the Jews alone, but merely to say that they are descendants of the House of Israel, for which "Jews" here stands as equivalent.
4. See Doc. & Cov. Section xxix and Section xxxii.
5. History of the Church, Vol. I, p. 185, note. Aut. P. P. Pratt, pp. 56-61.
6. It may be suspected that Elder Pratt colored his account of this speech to fit the prophecy of the Book of Mormon, but if that were so some reference to its fulfillment of the prediction—"then shall they rejoice"—would naturally be looked for; but it is a singular thing that nowhere in the early literature of the Church is reference made to this prophetic page. The full account of this first Indian mission will be found in the "History of the Church," Vol. I, pp. 111-120, and pages 182-185.
7. "History of the Church," Vol. I, pp. 184-5.
8. "History of the Church," Vol. V., Chapters xxiv and xxv. The prophet had been visiting relatives in Dixon, and while there fell into the hands of his enemies, who sought to take him to Missouri. He escaped them, however, by a writ of habeas corpus, on which he was tried and acquitted at Nauvoo.
9. "Millennial Star," Vol. XXI, pp. 634-5.
10. Amos ix: 14.
11. Obadiah i: 17.
12. Deut. vii: 6.
13. Zechariah ii: 12.
14. Isaiah xiv: 1.
15. Ezekiel xxxvii: 21-27.
16. Isaiah xix: 21.
17. "In the opinion of some, it may become a training-ground for those who are eventually to go to Zion. * * * Whatever solution the East African scheme may find, it can be but a temporary one. The eye of the people's soul cannot be turned from the object upon which it has rested for centuries and centuries. * * * The soul of Israel has always felt, and when occasion offered has always said, that such a concentration at such a rallying-point, can be induced only in the ancient home of the children of Israel, in Palestine."—Richard J. H. Gottheil.
18. See Doc. & Cov., Sec. 110.
19. "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 496.
20. Since the foregoing was written the following press dispatch from Jerusalem, under date of July 28th, 1906, appeared in the daily papers of the United States: Jerusalem, July 28—The Zionist movement—the return of the Jews to Palestine—is being carried actively on, and during the last few months there has been a remarkable influx of Israelites into the Holy Land.
A fertile region, east of the Jordan, toward Kerak, has been inspected by a party of Jewish financiers, with the idea of colonizing it. * * * * * * The intending colonists are negotiating with the government for the purchase of land and for guarantees of protection against the Bedouins. Five thousand Jewish emigrants from Russia and the Balkan States recently landed at Jaffa. They will be distributed among the various Jewish colonies, which are to be found in all the fertile districts of Palestine. It looks as if the Chosen People are literally coming to their own again.
21. "A mighty dawn of ideas is peculiar to our own age (nineteenth century)."—Victor Hugo.
22. "No previous century ever saw anything approaching to the increase in social complexity which has been wrought in America and Europe since 1789. In science and in the industrial arts the change has been greater than in the ten preceding centuries taken together. Contrast the seventeen centuries which it took to remodel the astronomy of Hipparchus with the forty years which it has taken to remodel the chemistry of Berzelius and the biology of Cuvier. * * * How small the difference between the clumsy wagons of the Tudor period and the mailcoach in which our grandfathers rode, compared to the difference between the mail-coach and the railway train! How rapid the changes in philosophic thinking since the time of the Encyclopedistes, in comparison with the slow though important changes which occurred between the epoch of Aristotle and the epoch of Descartes! In morality, both individual and national, and in general humanity of disposition and refinement of manners, the increased rapidity of change has been no less marked."—Cosmic Philosophy (Fiske), Vol. IV., p. 54, 55.
23. III. Nephi 20.
24. III. Nephi, chapter 21.
25. II. Nephi i: 5-12.
26. Ether i: 42.
27. III. Nephi 20: 14-20.
28. III. Nephi 20: 27, 28.
29. III. Nephi xxi: 11-25.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES.—THE SPIRIT OF THE BOOK.
"I can no more remember the books I have read than the meals I have eaten," said Emerson, "but they have made me." In this way the American philosopher recognizes the simple truth that the reading of books has something to do with the making of a man—that they affect the mind. A book has a spirit as distinctly as a painting or of a piece of sculpture has "feeling"—of course I mean a real work of art into which something from the soul of the artist has passed. The best thing about a painting or piece of sculpture is said to be that which cannot be described; so also the best part of a book is the spirit of it, which may not always be describable. And that elusive, mysterious quality we call its spirit may arise from something quite apart from its rhetoric, or logic or diction. It may be even as the voice of God: not in the strong wind, that rends the mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks before the Lord; not in the earthquake nor in the fire; but in the still, small voice which follows the wind and earthquake and fire.[1]So with a book: its spirit may owe its existence to its simple truth—to the spirit of truth in them that made it.
"Do you ever think," said a writer in one of our popular magazines—"Do you ever think what is the effect of a book on your mind? * * * * Is your mind purer for it, or clearer? Has it filled your mind with good or bad images? Has it raised your standard or lowered it? * * * * * Every book you read and understand affects you for better or worse. It has some effect upon you, and if you are sane you are bound to find out what that is."
In common with all books the Book of Mormon has its spirit, produces its effects upon the minds of men; and as it claims to be a work originally written and also translated through the inspiration of God, and deals primarily with sacred things, it is to be expected that the spirit of this book will have not only a good, but even a divine influence; that it will be of a faith-promoting, doubt-dispersing, comfort-bringing character. Its effects upon the minds of men, therefore, may be another test of its claims to a divine origin; and to that test I now submit it.
In his work entitled "My First Mission," the late President George Q. Cannon makes the following statement respecting the influence exerted over his spirit by reading the Book of Mormon under the trying conditions in which he was placed while serving as a missionary in the Hawaiian Islands:
Some of my readers may be placed in circumstances similar to those which surrounded me a part of the time on the Sandwich Islands, and it may be profitable to tell them how I kept from losing courage and becoming home-sick. My love for home is naturally very strong. For the first year after I left home I could scarcely think about it without my feelings getting the better of me. But here I was in a distant land, among a people whose language and habits were strange to me. Their very food was foreign to me, and unlike anything I had ever before seen or tasted. I was much of the time separated from my companions, the Elders. Until I mastered the language and commenced preaching and baptizing the people, I was indeed a stranger among them.Before I commenced holding regular meetings I had plenty of time for meditation and to review all the events of my short life, and to think of the beloved home from which I was so far separated. It was then I found the value of the Book of Mormon. It was a book which I always loved. If I felt inclined to be lonely, to be low spirited, or home-sick, I had only to turn to its sacred pages to receive consolation, new strength and a rich outpouring of the Spirit. Scarcely a page that did not contain encouragement for such as I was. The salvation of man was the great theme upon which its writers dwelt and for this they were willing to undergo every privation and make every sacrifice.What were my petty difficulties compared with those afflictions which they had to endure? If I expected to share the glory for which they contended, I could see that I must labor in the same Spirit. If the sons of King Mosiah could relinquish their high estate, and go forth among the degraded Lamanites to labor as they did, should not I labor with patience and devoted zeal for the salvation of these poor red men, heirs of the same promise?Let me recommend this book, therefore, to young and old, if they need comfort and encouragement. Especially can I recommend it to those who are away from home on missions. No man can read it, partake of its spirit and obey its teachings, without being filled with a deep love for the souls of men and a burning zeal to do all in his power to save them.
Some of my readers may be placed in circumstances similar to those which surrounded me a part of the time on the Sandwich Islands, and it may be profitable to tell them how I kept from losing courage and becoming home-sick. My love for home is naturally very strong. For the first year after I left home I could scarcely think about it without my feelings getting the better of me. But here I was in a distant land, among a people whose language and habits were strange to me. Their very food was foreign to me, and unlike anything I had ever before seen or tasted. I was much of the time separated from my companions, the Elders. Until I mastered the language and commenced preaching and baptizing the people, I was indeed a stranger among them.
Before I commenced holding regular meetings I had plenty of time for meditation and to review all the events of my short life, and to think of the beloved home from which I was so far separated. It was then I found the value of the Book of Mormon. It was a book which I always loved. If I felt inclined to be lonely, to be low spirited, or home-sick, I had only to turn to its sacred pages to receive consolation, new strength and a rich outpouring of the Spirit. Scarcely a page that did not contain encouragement for such as I was. The salvation of man was the great theme upon which its writers dwelt and for this they were willing to undergo every privation and make every sacrifice.
What were my petty difficulties compared with those afflictions which they had to endure? If I expected to share the glory for which they contended, I could see that I must labor in the same Spirit. If the sons of King Mosiah could relinquish their high estate, and go forth among the degraded Lamanites to labor as they did, should not I labor with patience and devoted zeal for the salvation of these poor red men, heirs of the same promise?
Let me recommend this book, therefore, to young and old, if they need comfort and encouragement. Especially can I recommend it to those who are away from home on missions. No man can read it, partake of its spirit and obey its teachings, without being filled with a deep love for the souls of men and a burning zeal to do all in his power to save them.
In the experience and sentiments expressed in the foregoing passage, Elder Cannon but voices the experience and sentiments of very many Latter-day Saints, including thousands of missionaries who have felt all that he has described with reference to the effects of the Book of Mormon upon his spirit. The experiences of this host of believers may be properly appealed to as evidence for the effect of the book upon their minds; and I cannot believe but that it is also an evidence of its truth. Men have gone to the Book of Mormon in despondency, and have come away cheered; they have gone to it in sorrow, and have come away comforted; they have gone to it at times when overwhelmed for the moment by the mists which the speculations of men sometimes throw over truth, and have come away from it enlightened—with faith and hope and charity renewed. It created for them a firmer faith in God. In the presence of its spirit doubt took wings. Its moral and spiritual standards they find to be the highest and noblest. Indeed so perfect is its morality that no one has yet been able to bring a complaint against it on the ground of moral defect; and it was doubtless a consciousness of its moral excellence that led the Prophet Joseph Smith himself to declare on one occasion, when in council with the Twelve Apostles, that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and that a man could get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by following any other book whatsoever.[2]If in its historical parts believers find it dealing with events that exhibit selfishness, unholy ambitions, and all the follies and crimes common to all times and all nations and races of men, they never find its treatment of such things of the kind that blazons evil deeds, or consecrates crime, much less of the kind that cannonizes the vicious. In its pages they see things in their true light. There is no shuffling, but evil deeds receive their proper condemnation in the simple, straightforward language of its inspired men. For believers the Book of Mormon differs from the books of men, as the works of nature differ from the works of men. And with what relief men of deep spiritual natures turn from the works of men to the works of nature! From artistic parks, to nature's jumbled wilderness; from well kept gardens, to even desert plains or wild valleys; from grass-lined, men-made lakelets to some huge waterbody, mountain rimmed, of unknown depths and wonderous coloring; from crowded cities with their din and strife to mountain tops, or lonely ocean's shore, where the freed soul in solitude can hold communion with his God—where deep may call to deep, and inspiration gather for life's battles!
All this and more believers find in the pages of the Book of Mormon, and the book that breathes such a spirit must surely have somewhat of divinity in it; and the existence of the divine spirit in the book must be somewhat of evidence that its claims are honest, and its contents true. This, or else we must believe that men gather grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles; that impure fountains send forth pure streams!
I shall be told, however, that the class of witnesses here appealed to, viz., those believers in the Book of Mormon who receive from its pages this spiritual comfort, are for the most part simple folk, who bring little or nothing in the way of scholarship to the examination of the book; and few of them ever stop to consider it in a thoroughly analytical manner at all. I shall not deny the charge, in truth, I rather rejoice in the fact; and I think I am justified in such rejoicing since I must needs think it takes on some of the coloring of that joy which Jesus expressed when he said, on the occasion of some of his simple minded disciples exulting in the possession of certain spiritual graces—"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight."[3]The fact that this spiritual grace and comfort from the volume of American scripture is enjoyed chiefly by people of humble spirit, is an evidence to me that a certain truth expressed by ancient apostles is universal in its nature—good in all ages and among all people, viz. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."[4]
When men speak of pride, their hearers have in mind, chiefly, the "purse-proud"—the pride of the rich made haughty by the power which wealth gives; or else they think of "birth-pride"—the distinction that comes from the accident of birth; or of "political-pride," that comes from civic position; or perhaps the "pride of the brave and strong," gratified by recognition in high martial stations. But there is another pride more offensive to God perhaps, than pride in any one of the forms mentioned. I mean "intellectual pride," the pride of knowledge, of opinion, the pride which so often attends upon the worldly learned man who has not as yet progressed so far in learning as to bring to the mind that humility of spirit which rightly belongs to, and will at last be found with, profound learning. For my own part I can think of nothing that could be a greater offense against the majesty of God than for a man with his limited intellectual power presuming to pass judgment upon and reject the things of God, because, forsooth, these things do not conform to his opinion of what the things of God should be like; or because the way in which they are revealed does not conform to the manner in which he thinks God should impart his truths. Such pride always has and always will separate men from receiving knowledge by divine communication. While the meek and humble of spirit, borne down with the sense of their own limitations, find grace and spiritual enlightenment and comfort in the things which God reveals; and often arrive at hidden treasures of knowledge, and even of wisdom, unknown to the intellectually proud whom God resisteth.
In this connection, too, it should be remembered the class of people for whom the Book of Mormon was especially prepared. While a revelation to all the world, and containing profound truths the depths of which man by human wisdom has not yet sounded, it is primarily designed for the benighted, native American races, fallen from the high station their forefathers once held in God's favor; and its simple plainness and faith-promoting power will yet constitute it a mighty instrumentality in bringing those races to a knowledge of God, and a true understanding of their relationship to him. Hence I say, it is pre-eminently fitting that this book should be of such character as to appeal to the understanding of the simple, and those who are willing and happy to be taught of God. And then, in any event, religion is and ought to be a simple business, since among even highly civilized nations there are many unlearned people who can understand only that which is simple, and religion concerns alike the ignorant and the learned, the poor and the rich. But plain to the point of being simple as the Book of Mormon is, when men are made aware of its power to rest the mind, to cheer the heart, to uplift the soul, they go to its pages for help as the lame and blind and sick were wont to go to old Bethsaida's pool, to whose waters an angel's touch had imparted healing virtues.
The spirit of the Book of Mormon, then, its beneficent influence upon men's minds, are among the strongest evidences of its truth. This will appear all the more if the reader will call to mind the fact that this influence does not arise from the cleverness of its construction; for its structure, as men view books, is complex, confusing and clumsy. Its spirit and influence do not arise from its strictly logical treatment of historical events, much less from its philosophical treatment of them; compared in these particulars with the works of Hume, Macaulay, Gibbon, Hallan or George Bancroft, it could be esteemed contemptible. Nor do the beneficent effects of the book upon the minds of men arise from its rhetoric, its beauty of diction, or the pleasing correctness of its language; in all these particulars it is admitted to be faulty; it has few or none of these merely human excellencies for which it may be desired. Whatever power it possesses to cheer, comfort and encourage men; whatever power to build up hope, create faith or promote charity, exists not by virtue of its human excellencies, but in spite of their absence; therefore such influence for good as it possesses must be attributed to the Spirit of God in which it was written, and by which it is permeated; and by reason of the presence of that spirit in it, the book itself must be accorded a divine origin.
As might be expected, the Book of Mormon has inspired considerable poetry among those who have accepted it as a revelation from God; and as some idea of its influence upon minds of poetic temperament may be revealed by these effusions, I present some of them.
I first quote Parley P. Pratt, one of the earliest poets of the New Dispensation, and one of its most zealous Apostles. In his Key to Theology, one of the most luminous works yet published by the Church, when treating of the "Rise, Progress and Decline of the Science of Theology in the Western Hemisphere"—he opens that chapter with the following:
The spirit world is moved, the silence broken,The ancient Seers from out the ground have spoken.The appointed years on time's fleet wings have fled,And voices whisper from the ancient dead.Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield,The past, the glorious future, stand revealed.
The spirit world is moved, the silence broken,The ancient Seers from out the ground have spoken.The appointed years on time's fleet wings have fled,And voices whisper from the ancient dead.Volumes of truth the sacred archives yield,The past, the glorious future, stand revealed.
It was the revelation of the Book of Mormon and the historical truths which it reveals respecting the blessings of the Lord upon Israel that inspired the following hymn:
The morning breaks, the shadows flee;Lo! Zion's standard is unfurled!The dawning of a brighter dayMajestic rises on the world.The clouds of error disappearBefore the rays of truth divine;The glory, bursting from afar,Wide o'er the nations soon will shine.The Gentile fulness now comes in,And Israel's blessings are at hand;Lo! Judah's remnant, cleansed from sin,Shall in their promised Canaan stand.Jehovah speaks! let earth give ear,And Gentile nations turn and live;His mighty arm is making bare,His cov'nant people to receive.Angels from heaven and truth from earthHave met, and both have record borne;Thus Zion's light is bursting forth,To cheer her children's glad return.
The morning breaks, the shadows flee;Lo! Zion's standard is unfurled!The dawning of a brighter dayMajestic rises on the world.
The clouds of error disappearBefore the rays of truth divine;The glory, bursting from afar,Wide o'er the nations soon will shine.
The Gentile fulness now comes in,And Israel's blessings are at hand;Lo! Judah's remnant, cleansed from sin,Shall in their promised Canaan stand.
Jehovah speaks! let earth give ear,And Gentile nations turn and live;His mighty arm is making bare,His cov'nant people to receive.
Angels from heaven and truth from earthHave met, and both have record borne;Thus Zion's light is bursting forth,To cheer her children's glad return.
The following hymn was also inspired by the Book of Mormon:
An angel from on high,The long, long silence broke,Descending from the sky,These gracious words he spoke:Lo! in Cumorah's lonely hill,A sacred record lies concealed.Sealed by Moroni's hand,It has for ages lain,To wait the Lord's command,From dust to speak again.It shall again to light come forth,To usher in Christ's reign on earth.It speaks of Joseph's seed,And makes the remnant knownOf nations long since dead,Who once had dwelt alone.The fulness of the gospel, too,Its pages will reveal to view.The time is now fulfilled,The long expected day;Let earth obedient yield.And darkness flee away;Open the seals, be wide unfurledIts light and glory to the world.Lo, Israel filled with joy,Shall now be gathered home,Their wealth and means employTo build Jerusalem;While Zion shall arise and shine,And fill the earth with truth divine.
An angel from on high,The long, long silence broke,Descending from the sky,These gracious words he spoke:Lo! in Cumorah's lonely hill,A sacred record lies concealed.
Sealed by Moroni's hand,It has for ages lain,To wait the Lord's command,From dust to speak again.It shall again to light come forth,To usher in Christ's reign on earth.
It speaks of Joseph's seed,And makes the remnant knownOf nations long since dead,Who once had dwelt alone.The fulness of the gospel, too,Its pages will reveal to view.
The time is now fulfilled,The long expected day;Let earth obedient yield.And darkness flee away;Open the seals, be wide unfurledIts light and glory to the world.
Lo, Israel filled with joy,Shall now be gathered home,Their wealth and means employTo build Jerusalem;While Zion shall arise and shine,And fill the earth with truth divine.
Also the following on the destruction of the Nephites and the glory that is yet to come to their posterity.
O, who that has seen o'er the wide spreading plain,And read o'er the last scenes of woe?Four-and-twenty with Mormon were left to beholdTheir nation lie mould'ring below.The Nephites destroyed, the Lamanites dweltFor ages in sorrow unknown,Generations have passed till the Gentiles at last,Have divided their lands as their own.O, who that has seen o'er the wide spreading plain,The Lamanites wander forlorn,While the Gentiles in pride and oppression divideThe land they could once call their own;And who that believes does not long for the hourWhen sin and oppression shall cease,And truth, like the rainbow, display through the shower,That bright written promise of peace?O, thou sore afflicted and sorrowful race,The days of thy sorrow shall end!The Lord has pronounced you a remnant of His,Descended from Abra'm His friend.Thy stones with fair colors most glorious shall stand.And sapphires all shining around,Thy windows of agates, in this glorious land,And thy gates with carbuncles abound.With songs of rejoicing to Zion return,And sorrow and sighing shall flee,The powers of heaven among you come down,And Christ in the centre will be.And then all the watchmen shall see eye to eye,When the Lord shall bring Zion again,The wolf and the kid down together shall lie,And the lion shall dwell with the lamb.The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God,And nothing shall hurt nor destroy,And these are the tidings we have to proclaim,Glad tidings abounding with joy.
O, who that has seen o'er the wide spreading plain,And read o'er the last scenes of woe?Four-and-twenty with Mormon were left to beholdTheir nation lie mould'ring below.
The Nephites destroyed, the Lamanites dweltFor ages in sorrow unknown,Generations have passed till the Gentiles at last,Have divided their lands as their own.
O, who that has seen o'er the wide spreading plain,The Lamanites wander forlorn,While the Gentiles in pride and oppression divideThe land they could once call their own;
And who that believes does not long for the hourWhen sin and oppression shall cease,And truth, like the rainbow, display through the shower,That bright written promise of peace?
O, thou sore afflicted and sorrowful race,The days of thy sorrow shall end!The Lord has pronounced you a remnant of His,Descended from Abra'm His friend.
Thy stones with fair colors most glorious shall stand.And sapphires all shining around,Thy windows of agates, in this glorious land,And thy gates with carbuncles abound.
With songs of rejoicing to Zion return,And sorrow and sighing shall flee,The powers of heaven among you come down,And Christ in the centre will be.
And then all the watchmen shall see eye to eye,When the Lord shall bring Zion again,The wolf and the kid down together shall lie,And the lion shall dwell with the lamb.
The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God,And nothing shall hurt nor destroy,And these are the tidings we have to proclaim,Glad tidings abounding with joy.
After Elder Pratt the most prolific of the early poets in the Church, and one who perhaps caught most truly the genius of the work and reduced it to poetic expression, was W. W. Phelps. He contributes the following inspired by the Book of Mormon.
O, stop and tell me, Red Man,Who are you, why you roam,And how you get your living;Have you no God, no home?With stature straight and portly,And decked in native pride,With feathers, paints and brooches,He willingly replied:"I once was pleasant Ephraim,When Jacob for me prayed,But O, how blessings vanish,When man from God has strayed!Before your nation knew us,Some thousand moons ago,Our fathers fell in darkness,And wandered to and fro.And long they've lived by huntingInstead of work and arts,And so our race has dwindledTo idle Indian hearts.Yet hope within us lingers,As if the Spirit spoke,He'll come for your redemption,And break your Gentile yoke,And all your captive brothers,From every clime shall come,And quit their savage customs,To live with God at home.Then joy will fill our bosoms,And blessings crown our days,To live in pure religion,And sing our Maker's praise."
O, stop and tell me, Red Man,Who are you, why you roam,And how you get your living;Have you no God, no home?
With stature straight and portly,And decked in native pride,With feathers, paints and brooches,He willingly replied:
"I once was pleasant Ephraim,When Jacob for me prayed,But O, how blessings vanish,When man from God has strayed!
Before your nation knew us,Some thousand moons ago,Our fathers fell in darkness,And wandered to and fro.
And long they've lived by huntingInstead of work and arts,And so our race has dwindledTo idle Indian hearts.
Yet hope within us lingers,As if the Spirit spoke,He'll come for your redemption,And break your Gentile yoke,
And all your captive brothers,From every clime shall come,And quit their savage customs,To live with God at home.
Then joy will fill our bosoms,And blessings crown our days,To live in pure religion,And sing our Maker's praise."
Of our later poets Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve, has most celebrated the Nephite volume of scripture in his great poem "Elias." One canto (VI) is wholly devoted to the Book of Mormon under the caption "From Out the Dust." In this Canto Elder Whitney treats the whole theme of America as a land of promise—
The Old World, not the New,—this soil misnamed;Cradle of man and grave of nations vast,Whose glory, wealth, and wisdom had outfamedThe mightiest of known empires, present, past;The land where Adam dwelt, where Eden castForth from her flaming gate the fateful pairWho fell that man might be; a fall still chaste,Albeit they sinned, descending death's dread stairTo fling life's ladder down, Love's work and way prepare.
The Old World, not the New,—this soil misnamed;Cradle of man and grave of nations vast,Whose glory, wealth, and wisdom had outfamedThe mightiest of known empires, present, past;The land where Adam dwelt, where Eden castForth from her flaming gate the fateful pairWho fell that man might be; a fall still chaste,Albeit they sinned, descending death's dread stairTo fling life's ladder down, Love's work and way prepare.
Of the decrees of God respecting the land, he writes.
The God of freedom, God of justice, sworeNo tyrant should this chosen land defile;And nations here, that for a season boreThe palm of power, must righteous be the while,Or ruin's avalanche ruin on ruin pile.* * * * * * * * * * * * * *Race upon race has perished in its pride,And nations lustrous as the lights of heavenHave sinned and sunk, in reckless suicide,Upon this soil, since that dread word was given.Realms battle-rent and regions tempest-riven;The wrath-swept land for ages desolate;A wretched remnant blasted, crust, and drivenForth by the furies of revengeful fate;Till wonder asks in vain, What of their former state?Wouldst know the cause, the upas-tree that boreThe blight of desolation? 'Tis a themeTo melt Earth's heart, and move all Heaven to pourWith sorrow's heaving flood, as when supremeO'er fallen Lucifer, the generous streamOf grief half quenched the joy of victory.Mark how the annals of the ages teemWith repetition? Time, eternity,The same have taught; but, few, alas! the moral see.There is a sin called self, which binds the worldIn fetters fell, than all save truth more strong;A sin most serpentine, round all men curled,And in its fatal fold earth writhes full long;Crime's great first cause, the primal root of wrong,Parent of pride and tree of tyranny.To lay the axe doth unto thee belong.Strike, that the world may know of liberty,And Zion's land indeed a land of Zion be!
The God of freedom, God of justice, sworeNo tyrant should this chosen land defile;And nations here, that for a season boreThe palm of power, must righteous be the while,Or ruin's avalanche ruin on ruin pile.* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Race upon race has perished in its pride,And nations lustrous as the lights of heavenHave sinned and sunk, in reckless suicide,Upon this soil, since that dread word was given.Realms battle-rent and regions tempest-riven;The wrath-swept land for ages desolate;A wretched remnant blasted, crust, and drivenForth by the furies of revengeful fate;Till wonder asks in vain, What of their former state?
Wouldst know the cause, the upas-tree that boreThe blight of desolation? 'Tis a themeTo melt Earth's heart, and move all Heaven to pourWith sorrow's heaving flood, as when supremeO'er fallen Lucifer, the generous streamOf grief half quenched the joy of victory.Mark how the annals of the ages teemWith repetition? Time, eternity,The same have taught; but, few, alas! the moral see.
There is a sin called self, which binds the worldIn fetters fell, than all save truth more strong;A sin most serpentine, round all men curled,And in its fatal fold earth writhes full long;Crime's great first cause, the primal root of wrong,Parent of pride and tree of tyranny.To lay the axe doth unto thee belong.Strike, that the world may know of liberty,And Zion's land indeed a land of Zion be!
The poet treats successively the Jaredite and Nephite occupancy of the western world in the same noble strain of poetry. He closes the Jaredite period with these verses, celebrating the last acts of the two survivors of the Jaredite nation, Ether the Prophet, and Coriantumr the last of the Jaredite kings.
Usurping treason seized the civic helm,Wrong trampled right, and justice, judgment, fled.Then strife, division, hosts to battle led;The prophets, mocked, lift warning voice in vain;A blood-soaked continent, a sea, of dead,And of that mighty nation, fallen, self-slain.A prophet and a king, a solitary twain.That prophet saw the coming of the LordUnto the Old, the New, Jerusalem;Saw Israel returning at His wordFrom wheresoever His will had scattered them;The realm's wide ruin saw, and strove to stem.That king, sole scion of a slaughtered race,Casting his blood-stained sword and diadem,Lived but to see another nation placeFirm foot upon the soil, then vanished from its face.
Usurping treason seized the civic helm,Wrong trampled right, and justice, judgment, fled.Then strife, division, hosts to battle led;The prophets, mocked, lift warning voice in vain;A blood-soaked continent, a sea, of dead,And of that mighty nation, fallen, self-slain.A prophet and a king, a solitary twain.
That prophet saw the coming of the LordUnto the Old, the New, Jerusalem;Saw Israel returning at His wordFrom wheresoever His will had scattered them;The realm's wide ruin saw, and strove to stem.That king, sole scion of a slaughtered race,Casting his blood-stained sword and diadem,Lived but to see another nation placeFirm foot upon the soil, then vanished from its face.
The advent of the Nephite colony is told in the following manner.
Again athwart the wilderness of waves,Surging old East and older West between,Where the lone sea the flowery Southland laves,And crowns o'er many climes the Chilean queen,Braving the swell, a storm-tossed bark is seen.From doomed Jerusalem, to Jacob dear,Albeit a leper, groping, blind, unclean,Goes forth Manasseh's prophet pioneer,Predestined to unveil the hidden hemisphere.His lot to reap and plant on this far shoreThe promise of his fathers. Joseph's bough,From Jacob's well, the billowy wall runs o'er.Abides in strength the archer-stricken bow,Unto the utmost bound prevailing now,Of Hesper's heaven-inviting hills. Bend sheavesOf Israel, as branches bend with snow,Unto his sheaf as mightiest; and as leavesFor multitude, the son the great sire's glory weaves.
Again athwart the wilderness of waves,Surging old East and older West between,Where the lone sea the flowery Southland laves,And crowns o'er many climes the Chilean queen,Braving the swell, a storm-tossed bark is seen.From doomed Jerusalem, to Jacob dear,Albeit a leper, groping, blind, unclean,Goes forth Manasseh's prophet pioneer,Predestined to unveil the hidden hemisphere.
His lot to reap and plant on this far shoreThe promise of his fathers. Joseph's bough,From Jacob's well, the billowy wall runs o'er.Abides in strength the archer-stricken bow,Unto the utmost bound prevailing now,Of Hesper's heaven-inviting hills. Bend sheavesOf Israel, as branches bend with snow,Unto his sheaf as mightiest; and as leavesFor multitude, the son the great sire's glory weaves.
The cataclysms which took place in this western world during the crucifixion and entombment of Messiah and His subsequent advent in the western world, His teaching the gospel here, and the establishment of His Church is told by our poet in the following strains.
All this and more the prescient monarch saw;Messiah's self, Jehovah, Him beheld;The Lamb of God, in whom was found no flaw,Though Hate's black billows round Him surged andswelled;Life's deathless tree—deathless, though demon-felled;The crash resounding to this far-off shore,Whose winnowed remnant welcomed Him revealedIn risen glory, when had ceased the roarAnd raging of the tempest heralds sent before.At whose rebuke the haughty mountains bowed,Shorn by the whirlwind, sunk, or swept away,No more their frown the lowly valleys cowed,Rising like billows 'mid the wrathful fray,And dashing 'gainst the skies their dusty spray.Rocks, boulders, hills, no Titan strength could lift,Hurtle as pebbles in the storm-fiend's play.Earth opes her jaws, and through the yawning rift,Cities, peoples, vanish, of hope, of life, bereft.Three hours of tempest and three days of night;Thick darkness, thunder-burst, and lightning flash;Millions engulfed, millions in prostrate plight,Grovelling as slaves that feel or fear the lash,Mingling their groans and cries with grind and crashOf crags the cyclone's catapult impels,Whose shrieking flails the fields and forests thrash.Wild o'er the land roused Ocean's anger swells;Fierce Flame's prophetic tongue the final doom foretells.Three hours of stormful strife;—then all is still.Save for a Voice that universe might hear,Proclaiming what hath happed as Heaven's high will,Dispensing pardon and dispelling fear,Drawing the righteous nearer and more near.Anon He lifts the curtain of the sky!The midday sun no more their minister;Greater hath arisen; and glories multiplyAs angels in their gaze earthward and heavenward fly.He greets them as a shepherd greets his flock;Shows them His wounded side, His hands, His feet;Then builds His Church upon the stricken Rock,Where flow life's healing waters, limpid, sweet,As infant innocence, that joys to meetIts great Original. With holy handHe ministers, bids death and hell retreat,And singles twelve from out the sainted bandTo sow with gospel light the furrowed, tear-worn land.
All this and more the prescient monarch saw;Messiah's self, Jehovah, Him beheld;The Lamb of God, in whom was found no flaw,Though Hate's black billows round Him surged andswelled;Life's deathless tree—deathless, though demon-felled;The crash resounding to this far-off shore,Whose winnowed remnant welcomed Him revealedIn risen glory, when had ceased the roarAnd raging of the tempest heralds sent before.
At whose rebuke the haughty mountains bowed,Shorn by the whirlwind, sunk, or swept away,No more their frown the lowly valleys cowed,Rising like billows 'mid the wrathful fray,And dashing 'gainst the skies their dusty spray.Rocks, boulders, hills, no Titan strength could lift,Hurtle as pebbles in the storm-fiend's play.Earth opes her jaws, and through the yawning rift,Cities, peoples, vanish, of hope, of life, bereft.
Three hours of tempest and three days of night;Thick darkness, thunder-burst, and lightning flash;Millions engulfed, millions in prostrate plight,Grovelling as slaves that feel or fear the lash,Mingling their groans and cries with grind and crashOf crags the cyclone's catapult impels,Whose shrieking flails the fields and forests thrash.Wild o'er the land roused Ocean's anger swells;Fierce Flame's prophetic tongue the final doom foretells.
Three hours of stormful strife;—then all is still.Save for a Voice that universe might hear,Proclaiming what hath happed as Heaven's high will,Dispensing pardon and dispelling fear,Drawing the righteous nearer and more near.Anon He lifts the curtain of the sky!The midday sun no more their minister;Greater hath arisen; and glories multiplyAs angels in their gaze earthward and heavenward fly.
He greets them as a shepherd greets his flock;Shows them His wounded side, His hands, His feet;Then builds His Church upon the stricken Rock,Where flow life's healing waters, limpid, sweet,As infant innocence, that joys to meetIts great Original. With holy handHe ministers, bids death and hell retreat,And singles twelve from out the sainted bandTo sow with gospel light the furrowed, tear-worn land.
Then follows the story of the Nephite golden age, and this by a period of apostasy from God and the final overthrow of the people, concluding with the coming of the Gentile races to the promised land and the advent of the Seer, Joseph Smith, who shall make known through the Book of Mormon the otherwise unknown history of the western world.
The Gentile comes, as destiny decrees,To Joseph's land of wonders held in store.Freedom his watchword, sons of Freedom these,Like to the favored bands that long beforeA refuge found upon this sheltering shore.But champions of right oft wrong the right;Oppressed become oppressors in an hour;And now, as day that pushes back the night,The strong the weak assail, enslave, and put to flight.Nor yet can fate forsake them. Japheth's hand'Gainst Jacob's wrath-doomed remnant still prevails.Tyrants oppress him from the motherland;The Lord of hosts a champion arms and mails,To match whose might no human power avails;Nor grander cause or chieftain e'er came forth.Him as its sire a new-born nation hails,And fain would crown him, spite his will, his birth,Did Heaven vouchsafe such king to shame most kingsof earth—Real though oft recreant sons of Deity,Builders, o'erthrowers, of imperial thrones,In wrongful act of rightful agencyDrenching with blood, paving with human bonesThe path to power, gruesome with tears and groans.Their lives a failure? God a failure? Nay;What'er betide, the soul that sins atones;And He who casts the parts all mortals play,Succeeds He ever, His the night, and His the day.Thine antecedents, thy forerunners, these,Prophet of Ephraim, Joseph's namesake seer!More than those ancient bridgers of the seas,Unveiler of the long-hid hemisphere,Whose secret 'tis lies booked and buried here.Bring forth that word of Joseph, now to joinWith Judah's word, Messiah's throne to rear;That high may rise and holily may shineGod's house, the pure-in-heart, kingdom of King divine.
The Gentile comes, as destiny decrees,To Joseph's land of wonders held in store.Freedom his watchword, sons of Freedom these,Like to the favored bands that long beforeA refuge found upon this sheltering shore.But champions of right oft wrong the right;Oppressed become oppressors in an hour;And now, as day that pushes back the night,The strong the weak assail, enslave, and put to flight.
Nor yet can fate forsake them. Japheth's hand'Gainst Jacob's wrath-doomed remnant still prevails.Tyrants oppress him from the motherland;The Lord of hosts a champion arms and mails,To match whose might no human power avails;Nor grander cause or chieftain e'er came forth.Him as its sire a new-born nation hails,And fain would crown him, spite his will, his birth,Did Heaven vouchsafe such king to shame most kingsof earth—
Real though oft recreant sons of Deity,Builders, o'erthrowers, of imperial thrones,In wrongful act of rightful agencyDrenching with blood, paving with human bonesThe path to power, gruesome with tears and groans.Their lives a failure? God a failure? Nay;What'er betide, the soul that sins atones;And He who casts the parts all mortals play,Succeeds He ever, His the night, and His the day.
Thine antecedents, thy forerunners, these,Prophet of Ephraim, Joseph's namesake seer!More than those ancient bridgers of the seas,Unveiler of the long-hid hemisphere,Whose secret 'tis lies booked and buried here.Bring forth that word of Joseph, now to joinWith Judah's word, Messiah's throne to rear;That high may rise and holily may shineGod's house, the pure-in-heart, kingdom of King divine.
The whole Canto, and indeed the whole poem, should be read in order to get the full beauty and power of the poet's theme, in which the Book of Mormon is so large a factor of inspiration.
This is all I intend to say directly on the subject of the Internal Evidences of the truth of the Book of Mormon; what else remains that could properly fall under this division of the subject will be said in connection with the answers to objections to the claims of the book. Before leaving the subject, however, I ask the reader to recall in one view the various internal evidences considered up to this time, that it may be remembered how numerous they are, and how strong and conclusive they are when massed.
The Internal Evidences of the Book of Mormon consist in the following facts:
The book in style and language is consistent with the theory of its construction;
It responds to the demands both of unity and diversity in its style, under the theory of its structure;
It has all the characteristics of an abridgment;
It meets all the requirements of the circumstances in the matter of names, originality in names, differences between Jaredite and Nephite names, and the custom of Hebrew peoples with reference to names;
Its governments are in harmony with the political principles of the age in which those governments are said to have existed;
The events to which importance is given are such as would be expected from the character of its writers;
The complexity of its structure is in harmony with the theory of its origin;
It meets the requirements in originality of structure, manner of coming forth, theory of peopling America, the nativity of its peoples, accounting for Christian truths in America, and in its doctrines;
Its prophecies, so many and important, so far as the wheels of time have brought them due, are fulfilled, and others are in course of fulfillment;
It deals with subjects worthy of God to reveal, and important for man to know;
It has an atmosphere about it, a spirit, that bears witness of its truth.
1. See I. Kings xix.
2. The Prophet's Journal, November 28, 1841.
3. Luke x: 21.
4. James iv: 6. Peter v: 5.
Objections to the Book of Mormon
COUNTER THEORIES OF ORIGIN.
"No sane man dreams of maintaining that a religion is true because of the difficulties which it involves; the utmost that can reasonably be maintained is that it may be true in spite of them."[1]
The necessity for a counter theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon was early recognized. Sectarian Christendom felt that Joseph Smith's story of the book's origin must be overthrown, else what would come of this new revelation, this new dispensation of God's word? Joseph Smith's account of the origin of the book was a direct challenge to the teachings of modern Christendom that revelation had ceased; that the awful voice of prophecy would no more be heard; that the volume of scripture was completed and forever closed; and that the Bible was the only volume of scripture. Hence Christendom must find some other origin for this book than that given by Joseph Smith. The first objection then to be considered is the objection to the book's origin by examining the counter theories.
Alexander Campbell, founder of the sect of the "Disciples," or "Campbellites," as they are more commonly called, was the first who in any formal, public manner assailed the Book of Mormon, and proposed a counter theory of its origin than that given by Joseph Smith.
Alexander Campbell was born in Ireland, 1788, but educated at Glasgow University, Scotland, where he graduated with the title of Doctor of Divinity. He came to the United States in 1809, settling in Bethany, Virginia, and for some time filled the position of pastor of the Presbyterian church at that place. He soon parted from this communion, however, and began religious work on independent lines; and organized a society whose doctrine was that the Bible should be the sole creed of the church. This led to the establishment of a "Reformed Baptist Church," which finally took the name of "Disciples" or "Christians." Mr. Campbell has generally been accounted—and indeed was—one of the most learned divines of the country and century in which he lived. He founded a college at Bethany, Virginia; and was also the founder of the "Christian Baptist," which finally merged (1830) into the "Millennial Harbinger," both as their titles indicate being religious periodicals. He was the author of a number of works on religious subjects, but is generally remembered through his public debates with Robert Owen, the celebrated English Deist and social reformer; Archbishop Purcell, of the Roman Catholic Church, whose diocese was Cincinnati and vicinity; Rev. N. L. Rice, of the Presbyterian Church; and the Rev. William McCalla.
It will be seen from the foregoing sketch of this celebrated man, that so far as scholarship and trained ability in religious controversy is concerned, he was competent to analyze and make a severe criticism of the Book of Mormon. Before going into that, however, I think there is one other fact bearing on his career that should be noted. It will perhaps be remembered that Walter Scott and Sidney Rigdon were associated with Mr. Campbell in his reform operations in the state of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Up to 1830, the last named gentleman was as energetic in the interests of the "Disciples" as Mr. Scott or Mr. Campbell.
Cardinal points in the reformation proposed by these gentlemen were, first: the recognition of the Bible as the only creed of the church; and after that faith in God and Christ, and the Holy Spirit; repentance of sin, and baptism in water by immersion for the remission of sins. It will be seen at once that in these doctrines the reformers were really preaching a number of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel; and when Sidney Rigdon became interested in Mormonism and visited the Prophet Joseph in New York, December, 1830, a revelation was given through the Prophet to Sidney Rigdon, in which the Lord claimed this reform work, in a way, as his:
Behold, verily, verily, I say unto my servant Sidney, I have looked upon thee and thy works. I have heard thy prayers and prepared thee for a greater work. Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things. Behold, thou wast sent forth, even as John, to prepare the way before me, and before Elijah which should come, and thou knewest it not. Thou didst baptize by water unto repentance, but they received not the Holy Ghost. But now I give unto thee a commandment, that thou shalt baptize by water, and they shall receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, even as the apostles of old.[2]
Behold, verily, verily, I say unto my servant Sidney, I have looked upon thee and thy works. I have heard thy prayers and prepared thee for a greater work. Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things. Behold, thou wast sent forth, even as John, to prepare the way before me, and before Elijah which should come, and thou knewest it not. Thou didst baptize by water unto repentance, but they received not the Holy Ghost. But now I give unto thee a commandment, that thou shalt baptize by water, and they shall receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, even as the apostles of old.[2]
From this it appears that Sidney Rigdon was unconsciously inspired of God in teaching faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins. In evidence that the work of these reformers was a preparatory work to the coming forth of the fullness of the gospel, I may say that perhaps more people joined the Church in an early day from this sect of "Disciples" than from any other denomination whatsoever. But if Sidney Rigdon was inspired of God in this work, and was sent forth even as John the Baptist to prepare the way for the incoming of a still greater work, may it not also be true that Alexander Campbell was inspired of God, and in like manner sent forth to prepare the way for the coming forth of the greater work? Undoubtedly; for if Sidney Rigdon could be thus sent forth, one could easily believe that Alexander Campbell, with his larger knowledge and greater capacity, would more likely be sent forth on such a mission. When, however, the new dispensation of the gospel was brought to his attention, and he came in contact with the Book of Mormon, instead of accepting it, as Sidney Rigdon did, he rejected it; pride of opinion, pride of intellectual attainments, pride as a leader of men, and the founder of a sect are doubtless the causes which induced the spiritual darkness that prevented him from seeing the truth; or, if he saw it, prevented him from accepting it; and hence he chose to reject it, and assail it, and for a number of years was its most pronounced antagonist.
I have already remarked upon the educational and intellectual abilities of Mr. Campbell as fitting him for the work of thorough analysis and criticism of the Book of Mormon; but when one compares his criticism of the book with his debate with Robert Owen, in which he makes a most masterful defense of historic Christianity; or with his debate with Archbishop Purcell which, at the time it took place, was called "The Battle of the Giants"—one can but feel that his performance with reference to the Book of Mormon was wholly unworthy of him. Unworthy both of his great intellect and high character. In his assault upon that book there is a bitterness, and even a vulgarity, entirely absent from his other works, and utterly unaccountable for, unless one can think that in the background of his consciousness there was a realization that the work he assailed was true, and hence his assault is tinged with a bitterness likely to result from such a circumstance.
I shall have occasion to refer to several, in fact to all of Mr. Campbell's objections, in the course of this division of my treatise, but at present I shall confine myself to his theory of the Book of Mormon's origin.
His theory respecting the origin of the book was that Joseph Smith was its author. This he repeats at various places in his criticism.
"Smith," he says, "its real author, as ignorant and as impudent a knave as ever wrote a book, betrays the cloven foot in basing his whole book upon a false fact, or a pretended fact, which makes God a lair," etc.
Again:
The book proposes to be written at intervals and by different persons during the long period of 1020 years, and yet for uniformity of style, there never was a book more evidently written by one set of fingers, nor more certainly conceived in one cranium since the first book appeared in human language, than this same book. If I could swear to any man's voice, face, or person, assuming different names, I could swear that this book was written by one man. And as Joseph Smith is a very ignorant man, and is called the "author" on the title page, I cannot doubt for a single moment but that he is sole author and proprietor of it.[3]
The book proposes to be written at intervals and by different persons during the long period of 1020 years, and yet for uniformity of style, there never was a book more evidently written by one set of fingers, nor more certainly conceived in one cranium since the first book appeared in human language, than this same book. If I could swear to any man's voice, face, or person, assuming different names, I could swear that this book was written by one man. And as Joseph Smith is a very ignorant man, and is called the "author" on the title page, I cannot doubt for a single moment but that he is sole author and proprietor of it.[3]
From this it appears that the reasons which induced Alexander Campbell to conclude that Joseph Smith was the "sole author and proprietor" of the Book of Mormon, are,
First: that he is called the Author and Proprietor of it on the title page,[4]and
Second: that there is a uniformity of style throughout the book.
The reason for Joseph Smith calling himself "Author and Proprietor" of the Book of Mormon is easily accounted for. The copyright law of the United States, in force at the time of the publication of the Book of Mormon, secured the rights to copies of maps, charts, and books, "to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned," but the law said nothing respecting the rights of translators of books, hence Joseph Smith adopted the legal phraseology of the law, and secured the copyright to the Book of Mormon as "author and proprietor," since he could not obtain the copyright as "translator."[5]
That Joseph Smith from the first claimed only to be the translator of the Book of Mormon is evident from the preface to the first edition, where he says:
"I would inform you that I 'translated' by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written 116 pages [of manuscript] which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi by the hand of Mormon," etc.
Throughout the preface he speaks of his work as a "translation." So that it cannot be said that Joseph Smith claimed at any time to be other than a translator of the work, hence any argument based upon Joseph Smith announcing himself as "author and proprietor" of the Book of Mormon merely to comply with the phraseology of the copyright law, is technical and without force.[6]
As to the argument based upon the uniformity of literary style throughout the book, I have already called attention to the requirements both of unity and diversity of style, resulting in the conclusion that the construction of the book does not require a wide diversity of literary style, because of the fact that it is composed chiefly of four writers, two living in the sixth century B. C., and the other two living 400 A. D.[7]
Moreover, it is conceded in these pages that the translation by Joseph Smith was made in such language and literary style as he was competent to execute, and hence uniformity in literary style is to be looked for in the translation since the English is his.[8]
Campbell's theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon, nothwithstanding his learning and acknowledged literary ability, failed to be convincing; the evidence of the fact is seen in this that his theory was soon abandoned for another, hence it can be concluded that it was entirely unsatisfactory—that is, failed. Indeed Mr. Campbell himself, as soon as the "Spaulding Theory" of the book's origin was launched, abandoned his own and gave to that his support.[9]
Taking its source in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and flowing generally in a north-westerly course into Ohio, thence northward through Ashtabula county, Ohio, until it empties into Lake Erie, is Conneaut Creek. It meanders through a country somewhat rich in mounds and other evidences of the existence of civilized races that anciently inhabited America. Very naturally the people inhabiting that section of the country were interested in these subjects. Here resided in the early years of the nineteenth century one Solomon Spaulding, a graduate, it is said, of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. According to those who have recorded his history, he was born in Ashford, Connecticut, 1761, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1785 with the degree of A. B. He subsequently studied theology, and began preaching in 1800, but on account of failing health he went into the merchandise business at Cherry Valley, New York. He failed in merchandising, and moved to New Salem, Ashtabula county, Ohio, 1807 or 1808.
New Salem is on the banks of the Conneaut Creek, and sometimes is called "Conneaut." Here Spaulding went into the iron foundry business, but failed in that also. In 1809 he began writing a religious romance, incited to the undertaking by reason of the numerous evidences of the civilized races by which he was surrounded at Conneaut. This work, from the concensus of the recollections of those who claimed to have heard portions of it read, he called the "Manuscript Found," from the circumstance of his romance being based upon the pretended finding of the manuscript of it in a cave in the vicinity of New Salem. It feigned also to give an account of the migration of a colony to America in ancient times.
Mr. Spaulding continued to live in New Salem until 1812, when he removed from that place to Pittsburg, Penn., where it is supposed that he resided some two years. It is claimed that while living here Mr. Spaulding placed his manuscript story in the hands of a Mr. Patterson, a printer and publisher of Pittsburg, who retained it for some time; read it and urged Mr. Spaulding to write a title page and preface for it, saying that he would publish it, and that it might be "a source of profit." This, for some unaccountable reason, Mr. Spaulding refused to do. At length the manuscript was returned to its author, "and soon after," said Mrs. Spaulding in a narrative attributed to her, "we moved to Amity, Washington county, Penn., where Mr. Spaulding in 1816 died."
It is claimed, by the advocates of this Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon, that Sidney Rigdon, through a Mr. Lambdin, an employe of Patterson's publishing establishment, became acquainted with this manuscript story; "borrowed" it and copied it, as some say; "stole" it according to the theory of others. Afterwards by some means unexplained, and as I think unexplainable, Sidney Rigdon, it is claimed, became associated with Joseph Smith living in Manchester Township, New York, or in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania—from 250 to 300 miles distant from any point where Sidney Rigdon resided during those years when the Book of Mormon was coming forth,—collaborated with him, and published Spaulding's romance, with religious doctrinal matter added by Rigdon, as the Book of Mormon. This is the theory most generally accepted by those who recognize the importance of overthrowing the account of the book's origin given by Joseph Smith.
I wish now to call attention to the circumstance under which this theory came to be substituted for the much more tenable, though inadequate one, advanced some years earlier by Alexander Campbell.
This settlement on Conneaut Creek, called New Salem, was on the route usually traveled by the Saints and Elders in their journey from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, and from Kirtland, Ohio, to the branches of the Church, established in Canada, New York, and Pennsylvania, hence the people of that neighborhood were frequently brought in contact with Mormonism, and the story of its origin was often before them.
In the fall of 1833, a number of affidavits were taken from the former neighbors and friends of Solomon Spaulding, and one was given by his brother, John Spaulding, and one by the latter's wife, Martha Spaulding. They at the time were residing at Crawford, Pennsylvania, and both testified they had "recently read the Book of Mormon," and recognized in it the general outlines of Solomon Spaulding's story, claiming especially to remember the names "Nephi and Lehi;" the words "Nephites and Lamanites;" and also the ancient scriptural style and the frequent use of the phrase "and it came to pass;" and that the American Indians are descendants of the Jews, or "lost tribes of Israel."
Mr. Henry Lake, an associate in business with Mr. Spaulding, living at Conneaut in the fall of 1833, in connection with others that will be named, living in the same neighborhood, testified that Solomon Spaulding read to him the "Manuscript Found;" that it represented the American Indians as the descendants of the "lost tribes" of Israel, and that he suggested to Mr. Spaulding that the frequent use of the phrase "and it came to pass" rendered the book ridiculous.
John N. Miller testified substantially to the same things saying in addition that Spaulding's story landed his colony near the "Straits of Darien," which he was confident he called "Zarahemla."
Aaron Wright testified to substantially the same things as the foregoing. That the American Indians, according to Spaulding's story, were descendants of the "lost tribes" of Israel, and claims especially that the historical part of the Book of Mormon is substantially what he heard read from the "Manuscript Found," though he excepts out of the work, as not being Spaulding's, the religious matter.
Oliver Smith testified substantially to the same things, saying in effect that on reading the Book of Mormon he at once recognized it as the writings of Solomon Spaulding.
Nahum Howard, testified that he had recently read the Book of Mormon, and believed that all but the religious part of it was the same as that written by Spaulding.
Artemas Cunningham, living in Perry, Geauga county, Ohio, testified that in 1811 he waited upon Solomon Spaulding at his home in New Salem, to collect debts, and that the latter read to him on that occasion some parts of his manuscript story, partially examining the Book of Mormon he became convinced that Spaulding had written its outlines before he left Conneaut.[10]
It is upon the testimony of these parties that the Spaulding theory rests. Subsequently many others claimed to have information upon the subject, and gave statements to newspapers almostad infinitum, constantly varying the claims and adding items that so burdened the theory with inconsistencies and contradictions that it breaks down, as we shall see, under the accumulation. But now as to the manner in which this theory came to be exploited.
As in former dispensations of the gospel, so in this last dispensation, the gospel net gathers of all kinds. Some are fit for the Master's use, and some fit only to be cast back into the world, as worthless fish are cast back into the sea. Of such was one "Doctor" Philastus Hurlburt. He made his first appearance in Kirtland in the early spring of 1833, where, after investigating Mormonism, he accepted it, and on the 18th of March of that year was ordained an Elder. Soon afterwards he went on a brief mission to the east, where he was guilty of unchristianlike conduct in his deportment with women. On his return to Kirtland he was confronted with this charge, and at a conference of High Priests was deprived of his license as an Elder, and excommunicated from the Church. From this decision he appealed to the Council of the First Presidency, and because of his confession and apparent repentance he was restored. Shortly afterwards, however, he boasted of having deceived both the Prophet and the council, and he was again excommunicated from the Church, after which he avowed himself the enemy of the Prophet Joseph and of Mormonism, and sought by all means within his power to destroy both. His threats against the Prophet's life became so violent that he was arraigned before the court in Chardon, the county seat of Geauga county, and bound over in the sum of two hundred dollar bonds, to keep the peace, and to pay the cost of the proceedings.[11]
The title of "Doctor" given to this man, and which when rightfully held gives evidence of respectability as well as of professional standing, did not grow out of the fact that he was a physician, nor was it a little of honor at all with him, but was given to him because he was the "seventh son" in his family, who, according to the old folklore, should be made a physician, hence he was called "Doc" or "Doctor." According to the statement of Joseph E. Johnson, who was acquainted with him at Kirtland, Hurlburt was a man of fine physique, very good looking but pompous and ambitious, which lead him to seek position in the Church and solicit marriage with the "first families;" but his evil character thwarted all such efforts.
It is this man who is chiefly responsible for the Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Having heard of Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" on Conneaut Creek, he immediately entered into negotiations with the Prophet's enemies in and about Kirtland, and by them was employed to gather up the statements to which reference has been made, as also, if possible, to secure the Spaulding manuscript for the purpose of comparing it with the Book of Mormon. He also went to the former home of the Prophet, for the purpose of collecting all the scandal and rumors that could be gathered up or manufactured against the Smith family; as also all the stories and neighborhood gossip which became current about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Meantime, however, the true character of Hurlburt became so generally known and was so unsavory, that those who had employed him to gather this material for the contemplated anti-Mormon book found it necessary to drop Hurlburt, and leave the publication in the hands of others.
Among those who had interested themselves in these plans for the destruction of the Book of Mormon and the Church, was E. D. Howe, of Painsville, Ohio. Painsville is but a few miles distant northwest of Kirtland. One of Mr. Howe's reasons for anger against the Church was the fact that both his wife and sister had become converts to the new faith. He purchased the materials that had been gathered for Hurlburt's Anti-Mormon book, and published them under the title of "Mormonism Unveiled," (1834). It is the first Anti-Mormon book of any pretentions, and has been the chief source of "information" for all the Anti-Mormon publications which have followed it, that pretend to relate at all the early events connected with the coming forth of the great latter-day work. It took some six years to dispose of the first edition, as the second edition was not issued until 1840. So little influence, however, did "Mormonism Unveiled" have that many people in the very region of its origin continued to accept the Book of Mormon, and became members of the Church of the Latter-day Saints.