| CHAPTER V.
THE DIVINE MESSAGE TO JOSEPH SMITH. When convinced that both the Roman and Protestant churches were acting without divine authority, I naturally inquired of the Latter Day Saints for the proof that God had divinely commissioned them to preach the gospel, and administer in the ordinances thereof. Elder John Shippy was preaching there for a few days, and he informed me that an angel from God conferred the priesthood on Joseph Smith. I had read this in some of the books or papers the Saints had furnished me, but it was hard for me to believe. I could believe that a heavenly messenger surrounded by a light had appeared to Moses in the bush, much easier than that the messenger did appear to Joseph Smith encircled in light in the forest. The reader will doubtless say I was traditioned to believe the case of Moses, but prejudiced against the story of Joseph Smith. I confess I was guilty of the charge. I was already convinced of the complete apostasy, [46] and therefore was soon converted to the doctrine of the restoration of the gospel and the priesthood of the latter days. Elders Shippy, Cornish, and others took much pains in showing and explaining the texts of scripture supporting these facts. I shall not take time to present to the reader the arguments used. But they proved to my satisfaction that in “the hour of God’s judgment,” “the eleventh hour of the world,” “just before the harvest time,” “when men would be worshiping dumb idols” (a god that would not or could not speak), “a little while before Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,” God would send “an angel” to earth, and the right and power of the priesthood would be conferred on men; that the gospel would then be preached in its full ness; that all the spiritual blessings of apostolic times would again be enjoyed; that the church would be organized upon the original platform, that is, with “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, bishops, and deacons”; that the angel would “appear to a young man”; that this young man would be “unlearned”; that this unlearned man would get a “sealed book” “out of the ground”; that God would give him power to translate it; and that when translated it would speak familiar words, that is, that the doctrine taught in this book would sound familiar because it would be the same as other revelations of God’s will, given in the Bible; it would teach the same doctrine and church organization as found in the Bible. They then explained much that I had read in their printed works, and showed that the angel did appear to Joseph Smith; that we were living in the [47] hour of God’s judgments, and from the signs of the times and fulfillment of prophecy that we are living in the “latter days”; that the priesthood was by angelic hands conferred on Joseph Smith; that he “was an unlearned young man”; that he by the authority of God organized the church according to scriptural pattern; that he taught every principle of the doctrine of Christ; that as a church the Latter Day Saints were enjoying the spiritual blessings promised the true believers and followers of Christ; that the sealed book that was to come out of the ground and speak with a “familiar spirit,” referred to by the Prophet Isaiah in his twenty-ninth chapter, was the Book of Mormon; that an angel from God showed Joseph Smith where the book was deposited “in the ground”; that it was the history of a people who had come from the eastern world many centuries ago, and settled on this continent, how they came, and that they built large cities on this land. (The remains of many of their cities are described as discovered in the jungles of North and South America by Catherwood and Stephens, Captain Del Rio, Baldwin in Ancient America, and Priest in American Antiquities, and others who have published large volumes, “all going to show that this country has been inhabited by a people who possessed a knowledge of the arts and sciences, and who were in possession of a written language.) This record was written (say Joseph Smith and others who saw it) upon plates which had the appearance of gold, each plate being not far from seven by eight inches in width and length, being not quite as thick [48] as common tin, filled on both sides with engravings in Reformed Egyptian characters, bound together in a volume as the leaves of a book, and fastened at the edge with three rings running through the whole.” The elders showed me further that this book contains a record of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught to the ancient inhabitants of this land by Christ after his resurrection; that after the gospel had been preached to them, and the church of Christ established in their midst, they in process of time fell into great wickedness, God withdrew his Spirit, and wars and contentions ensued until all the members of the church were destroyed, prior to the death of the last prophet, the sacred record being deposited in the earth, where it remained from A. D. 420 to September 22, 1827, at which time it was found by Joseph Smith, he being directed by an angel of the Lord to go and obtain it; that the wicked people who still lived on the land and who had destroyed the people who were favored of God (till they rebelled against him) were “a dark and loathsome people,” but were of the same parentage as those whom they had destroyed, but had been cursed of the Lord with a dark skin years before because of their sins, the American Indians being a remnant of these. They read to me a number of pages in different parts of the Book of Mormon which convinced me that the teachings of the book were pure, and that none could live up to the teachings of the hook without being God-fearing persons in every sense of the word. I was also informed that this book did not take the place of the Bible, [49] but rather confirmed the Bible, “another witness” with the Bible, and that its mission was to prove certain prophecies to be true and “to convince Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.” |
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