An angel exhibits these same plates to other men, and permits them to examine the engravings thereon.
Eight other men see and handle the plates and examine the characters engraven on them.
Another angel, also a resurrected prophet, appears in broad day light and lays his hands upon the heads of two men, viz: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and ordains them to the Aaronic Priesthood.
Three of the ancient apostles appear and ordain the same men to the Melchisedek or higher Priesthood.
Jesus is seen by two men, viz., Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, at the right hand of God the Father, and a protracted conversation ensues.
Jesus is again seen in the Temple at Kirtland, by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and again his voice is heard.
On the same occasion Moses, Elias, and Elijah, the prophet, appeared and conferred certain keys of authority upon two men—Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Now all this appeals to the outward senses. It is matter of fact. It is tangible. It all occurred and is a solemn verity, or it is all wicked fabrication. A fabrication it is possible for it to be, but it can never be resolved into a mere mistake—a self-deception. The men who affirm all of it to have taken place may have been villains, bent on deluding mankind; for wicked men still lie in wait to deceive; but they can never be classed as well-meaning but mistaken men. Either what Joseph Smith and his associates affirm is true, or they are base and conscious imposters. The manifestations of which they proclaim themselves witnesses are so palpable to the senses—to sight, and touch and hearing; they occur at such times and places, and under such circumstances, and are so frequently repeated, that there can be no possibility of mistake. In the consideration of their testimony, therefore, there is no middle ground between the extremes of absolute truthfulness or absolute falsehood, and I ask the readers of this book to take up the investigation upon which we are about to enter in this spirit.
Footnotes
1. After the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated were delivered to the prophet Joseph, the Lord had occasion to reprove him several times for his disposition to yield to the persuasion of men. When he received the record of the Nephites the Lord put him under a covenant to show them to no one except to those to whom the Lord should command him to show them (Doc. & Cov., Sec. v. 3). When he had translated enough to make 116 pages of old foolscap manuscript, Martin Harris continually importuned him to be allowed to show that much of the work to his friends. This the Lord forbid, but Harris continuing his importunings, and Joseph in turn petitioning the Lord at Harris' request, permission was at last granted, and the MS. was stolen. Joseph, for thus yielding to the persuasion of Martin Harris after the word of the Lord was known, lost for a season his gift to translate, and the plates were taken from him. When they were returned, and permission given to continue the work of translation, the Lord thus reproved him for his disposition to yield to persuasion: "Behold, you have been intrusted with these things, but how strict were your commandments; and remember, also, the promises which were made to you, if you did not transgress them; and behold, how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God, and have gone on in the persuasions of men!" (Doc. & Cov., Sec. iii). And again the Lord said to him: "And now, I command you, my servant Joseph, to repent and walk more uprightly before me, and yield to the persuasions of men no more; and that you be firm in keeping the commandments wherewith I have commanded you, and if you do this, behold I grant unto you eternal life, even if you should be slain." (Doc. & Cov., Sec. v). But this characteristic was only manifested early in his career. Or if it appeared later in life, it was only in relation to things indifferent—that is, in things that did not involve a sacrifice of principle.
2. Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith, "Pearl of Great Price," (1888 edition), pp. 89, 90, 91.
3. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations"—The Lord to Jeremiah, Jeremiah ch. i:5.
4. Pearl of Great Price, p. 94 (ed. of 1888).
5. It certainly ought not to be difficult for Christians to believe in the existence of resurrected men; for in Matthew's Gospel we read: "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his (Christ's) resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" (Matt. xxvii: 52, 53). If the ancient saints on the eastern hemisphere who were worthy arose from the dead after the resurrection of Jesus, it is not improbable, but rather reasonable, that the worthy saints who had lived upon the western hemisphere also should be raised from the dead.
6. This is a very brief and imperfect account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. A fuller account will be given in a volume which will treat upon the Book of Mormon as a 'Witness for God, now in course of preparation by the author, and I shall then write in greater detail of its coming forth. I could not do so in this volume on account of the space it would require, and besides, such an account more properly belongs to the part of my work that will treat exclusively of that book.
7. Matt. x.
8. Matt. xvi.
9. Doc. & Cov., Sec. xxi.
10. Sidney Rigdon, born in Pennsylvania, 19th of February, 1793, had been prominently connected with what is known as the "Campbellite" or Reformed Baptist movement in the United States; but was converted to a belief in the restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith, by Elder Parley P. Pratt, who first presented him with the Book of Mormon. At the time indicated in the text he was a prominent Elder in the Church and closely associated with Joseph Smith.
11. In the English version of the New Testament the passage reads: "And shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." St. John v: 29.
12. Doc. and Cov. Sec. lxxvi.
13. Doc. and Cov., Sec. cx.
14. The revelations known to have been received through the Urim and Thummim are the following: Doc. and Cov. Sec. iii, Ibid, Sec. vi, Sec. vii, Sec. xi, Sec, xiv, Sec. xv, Sec. xvi, Sec. xviii. There were doubtless others received through that sacred instrument, but these are specially mentioned as being so received.
15. Autb. of Parley P. Pratt, p. 65, 66.
CHAPTER XII.
OBJECTIONS TO THE WITNESS CONSIDERED.
Since, as we have seen, a new dispensation of the gospel in the last days is to be given to man; and as neither the "Reformers" of the sixteenth century, nor any person since their day and before Joseph Smith has even made any pretension that God by a new revelation and the ministry of angels restored the gospel; and as that is the manner in which God has promised to restore the gospel, may not Joseph Smith be the prophet of the New Dispensation, the instrument in the hands of God to bring to pass his purpose in the great work of the last days? Some man must be chosen, why not he?
These questions lead me to the consideration of those objections urged against Joseph Smith as reasons for believing that he was not a prophet of God. First of all, I shall consider the one made against him on account of his humble birth and lowly station in life.
It would be well-nigh an endless, as also a useless task to repeat what has been said of Joseph Smith on this score. Not content with the facts in the case, malice has employed misrepresentation to degrade his family in the estimation of the world; and sneer and ridicule have done what they could to cast discredit upon his pretensions, by pointing to the rock from whence he was hewn, and the supposed pit from whence he was digged. His friends and followers are prepared to admit the whole truth in respect to his humble origin and lowly station in life. The