Again referring to this circumstance near the close of the sketch of his father's life, John W. Rigdon relates how, in the fall of 1863, he visited the territory of Utah, where he spent the winter among the "Mormon" people. He was not favorably impressed with their religious life, and came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon itself was a fraud. He determined in his own heart that if ever he returned home and found his father, Sidney Rigdon, alive, he would try and find out what he knew of the origin of the Book of Mormon. "Although," he adds, "he had never told but one story about it, and that was that Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery presented him with a bound volume of that book in the year 1830, while he (Sidney Rigdon) was preaching Campbellism at Mentor, Ohio." What John W. Rigdon claims to have seen in Utah, however, together with the fact that Sidney Rigdon had been charged with writing the Book of Mormon, made him suspicious; "and," he remarks, "I concluded I would make an investigation for my own satisfaction and find out if I could if he had all these years been deceiving his family and the world, by telling that which was not true, and I was in earnest about it. If Sidney Rigdon, my father, had thrown his life away by telling a falsehood and bringing sorrow and disgrace upon his family, I wanted to know it and was determined to find out the facts, no matter what the consequences might be. I reached home in the fall of 1865, found my father in good health and [he] was very much pleased to see me. As he had not heard anything from me for some time, he was afraid that I had been killed by the Indians. Shortly after I had arrived home, I went to my father's room; he was there and alone, now was the time for me to commence my inquiries in regard to the origin of the Book of Mormon, and as to the truth of the 'Mormon' religion. I told him what I had seen at Salt Lake City, and I said to him that what I had seen at Salt Lake had not impressed me very favorably toward the 'Mormon' Church, and as to the origin of the Book of Mormon I had some doubts. You have been charged with writing that book and giving it to Joseph Smith to introduce to the world. You have always told me one story; that you never saw the book until it was presented to you by Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery; and all you ever knew of the origin of that book was what they told you and what Joseph Smith and the witnesses who claimed to have seen the plates had told you. Is this true? If so all right; if it is not, you owe it to me and your family to tell it. You are an old man and you will soon pass away, and I wish to know if Joseph Smith, in your intimacy with him for fourteen years, has not said something to you that led you to believe he obtained that book in some other way than what he had told you. Give me all you know about it, that I may know the truth. My father, after I had finished saying what I have repeated above, looked at me a moment, raised his hand above his head and slowly said with tears glistening in his eyes: 'My son, I can swear before high heaven that what I have told you about the origin of that book is true. Your mother and sister, Mrs. Athalia Robinson, were present when that book was handed to me in Mentor, Ohio, and all I ever knew about the origin of that book was what Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith and the witnesses who claimed they saw the plates have told me, and in all my intimacy with Joseph Smith he never told me but the one story, and that was that he found it engraved upon gold plates in a hill near Palmyra, New York, and that an angel had appeared to him and directed him where to find it; and I have never, to you or to anyone else, told but the one story, and that I now repeat to you.' I believed him, and now believe he told me the truth. He also said to me after that that Mormonism was true; that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and this world would find it out some day. After my father's death, my mother, who survived him several years, was in the enjoyment of good health up to the time of her last sickness, she being eighty-six years old. A short time before her death I had a conversation with her about the origin of the Book of Mormon, and wanted to know what she remembered about its being presented to my father. She said to me in that conversation that what my father had told me about the book being presented to him was true, for she was present at the time and knew that was the first time he ever saw it, and that the stories told about my father writing the Book of Mormon were not true. This she said to me in her old age and when the shadows of the grave were gathering around her and I believe her." (Life of Sidney Rigdon, by his son John W. Rigdon, Ms, pp. 188-195)
Our author also mentions in his sketch of his father's life, an affidavit given to him by his sister, Athalia Robinson, to the same effect as the statement of Sidney Rigdon and his wife, relative to the coming of Pratt and Cowdery to their home in Mentor, and presenting to her father a bound copy of the Book of Mormon. Athalia was ten years old at the time, and distinctly remembered throughout her life the circumstance. (Ibid, Ms. pp. 195-6).
16. Frederick Granger Williams was born in Suffield, Hartford county, Connecticut, October 28th, 1787. He was therefore a man of forty-three years of age when the Gospel was brought to him at Kirtland by Oliver Cowdery and associates. He was a man of considerable influence in the community where he resided. He owned a farm near Kirtland, but at the time the Gospel found him he was practicing medicine, and was widely known as Dr. Williams. He abandoned the practice of his profession, however, for the work of the ministry, and accompanied the Lamanite mission to Missouri.
CHAPTER XII.
Lost Books of Ancient Scripture—Commandment to the Church in New York to Move to Ohio.
Readiness of the Lord to Impart Knowledge.
The Lord who is ever ready to instruct such as diligently seek in faith gave the following revelation at Fayette, New York:
Revelation to Ezra Thayre and Northrop Sweet, given October, 1830. 1
1. Behold I say unto you, my servants Ezra and Northrop, open ye your ears and hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, whose word is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow, soul and spirit: and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
2. For verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye are called to lift up your voices as with the sound of a trump, to declare my Gospel unto a crooked and perverse generation:
3. For behold, the field is white already to harvest: and it is the eleventh hour, and the last time that I shall call laborers into my vineyard.
4. And my vineyard has become corrupted every whit; and there is none which doeth good save it be a few; and they err in many instances, because of priestcrafts, all having corrupt minds.
5. And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this Church have I established and called forth out of the wilderness:
6. And even so will I gather mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, even as many as will believe in me, and hearken unto my voice:
7. Yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, that the field is white already to harvest; wherefore, thrust in your sickles, and reap with all your might, mind, and strength.
8. Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness;
9. Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you:
10. Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying—Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make His paths straight, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;
11. Yea, repent and be baptized, every one of you for a remission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost.
12.