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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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JOSEPH SMITH—HISTORY
EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET
History of the Church, Vol. 1, Chapters 1-5
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CHAPTER 1
Joseph Smith tells of his ancestry, family members, and their early
abodes—An unusual excitement about religion prevails in western New
York—He determines to seek wisdom as directed by James—The Father
and the Son appear and Joseph is called to his prophetic ministry. (Verses
1-20.)
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1 OWING to the many reports which have
been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation
to the rise and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of
aLatter-day Saints, all of which have been
designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church
and its progress in the world—I have been induced to write this
history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in
possession of the bfacts, as they have transpired, in
relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my
possession.
2 In this history I shall present the various events in relation
to this Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have transpired, or as
they at present exist, being now [1838] the aeighth
byear since the organization of the said Church.
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3 I was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
five, on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor
county, State of Vermont . . . My father, aJoseph Smith,
Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne)
county, in the State of New York, when I was in my tenth year, or
thereabouts. In about four years after my father's arrival in Palmyra, he
moved with his family into Manchester in the same county of Ontario—
4 His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father, Joseph
Smith; my amother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her
marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers,
bAlvin (who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of
his age), cHyrum, myself, dSamuel
Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and
Lucy.
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5 Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester,
there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the
subject of religiona. It commenced
with the Methodists, but soon became general among all
the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country
seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the
different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst
the people, some crying "aLo, here!" and others, "Lo, there!" Some were
contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for
the Baptist.
6 For, notwithstanding the great alove which
the converts to the different faiths expressed at the time of their
conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were
active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious
feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call
it; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to
another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and
the converts were more bpretended than real; for a scene of
great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against
priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for
another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a
contest about opinions.
7 I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family were
proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church,
namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister
Sophronia.
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A Revivalist 'Camp Meeting' of that Day and Age
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5a unusual excitement on the subject of
religion What may have seemed 'unusual' in the course of the life
of the common man for such a stir concerning religion was in fact a logical
result of the population's movement west into western New York and the Ohio.
Those lands were in the process of being settled by the westward movement of
the population. And with such a population movement and resettlement, the
peddlers of religion, those who practiced that 'priestcraft' of obtaining a
living from the propagation of their faith, rightly saw in such a population
movement into such lands, where religion was not well established toward any
particular sect, the grand opportunity to solicit converts unto their own
particular congregations. Thus the whole atmosphere, supposedly based upon
the goodwill of Christian love was but a fruitful competative marketplace of
obtaining new parishioners unto each of the convert hungery paid ministries
of the day. And it would be into this competing market that such a 'new
religion' which would claimed revelation from God, the ministering of angels,
and the old apostolic rights and powers of heaven, would be seen to be such a
great threat to the developing congregations sought after. It was the very
cause and reason that the Jewish religionist had seen the threat to their own
society of priestcraft so challenged by Jesus Christ that they would resolve
to crucify him.
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8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to
serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and
ofter poignant, still I keep aloof from all these parties, though I attended
their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time
my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire
to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and
astrife among the different denominations, that it was
impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and
things, to come to any certain conclusion who was bright
and who was wrong.
9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were
so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and
Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their
errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other
hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in
endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often
said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or,
are they all wrong together? If any one of them be aright,
which is it, and how shall I know it?
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11 While I was laboring under the difficulties caused by the contests
of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of
aJames, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If
any of you lack bwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
12 Never did any passage of ascripture come with more
power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to
enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it
again and again, knowing that if any person needed bwisdom
from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more
wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of
the different sects cunderstood the same passages of
scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the
question by an appeal to the Bible.
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13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain
in adarkness and confusion, or else I must do as James
directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to "ask
of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and
would bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God,
I retired to the awoods to make the attempt. It was on the
morning of a bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of
eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made
such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the
attempt to cpray dvocally.
15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously
designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled
down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely
done so, when immediately I was aseized upon by some power
which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as
to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick
bdarkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a
time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
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16 But, exerting all my powers to acall upon
God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me,
and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into
bdespair and abandon myself to destruction—not to
some imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen
world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any
being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of
clight exactly over my head, above the brightness of the
dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself
adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the
light rested upon me I bsaw two
cPersonages, whose brightness and dglory
defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of
them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the
other—[Joseph,] This is My fBeloved
gSon. Hear Him!a
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17a [Joseph.] This is My Beloved Son.
Hear Him! When God the Father introduced His Son, Jesus Christ,
to Joseph Smith, he called him by name, Joseph. This shows that the Father
knows us all by name. But the Father's address of introduction can be
considered as not only being one of personal address to Joseph Smith, but it
can also be taken to be a more general addressing and declaration to all who
are of the house of Joseph of Egypt, for it is in that Joseph and through
his son Ephraim, that all the blessings of the covenant of the Fathers did
remain and were in the beginning processes of being brought about through
the seed of Joseph of Egypt to the blessing of all the nations of the earth.
Thus the Father's address to Joseph to hear His Son Jesus Christ, is an
invitation to all who are of Joseph's seed to come and hear the voice of
restoration of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
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18 My object in going to ainquire of the Lord
was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to
join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able
to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which
of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my
heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all
awrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all
their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those
bprofessors were all ccorrupt; that:
"they ddraw near to me with their lips, but their
ehearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the
fcommandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they
deny the gpower thereof.
20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things
did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself
again, I found myself alying on my back, looking up into
heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering
in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace,
bmother inquired what the matter was. I replied, "Never
mind, all is well—I am well enough off." I then said to my mother, "I
have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true." It seems as though
the cadversary was aware, at a very early period of my
life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom;
else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the
dopposition and persecution that arose against me, almost
in my infancy?
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Some preachers and other professors of religion reject account of First
Vision—Persecution heaped upon Joseph Smith—He testifies of the
reality of the vision. (Verses 21-26.)
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21 Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in
company with one of the Methodist preachers, who was very active in the
before mentioned religious excitement; and, conversing with him on the
subject of religion, I took occasion to give him an account of the vision
which I had had. I was greatly surprised at his behavior; he treated my
communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of
the devil, that there were no such things as avisions or
brevelations in these days; that all such things had ceased
with the apostles, and that there would never be any more of them.
22 I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited
a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was
the cause of great apersecution, which continued to
increase; and though I was an bobscure boy, only between
fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to
make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would
take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a
bitter persecution; and this was common among all the sects—all united
to persecute me.
23 It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since,
how very strange it was that an obscure aboy, of a little
over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of
obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily blabor, should
be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of
the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to
create in them a spirit of the most bitter cpersecution and
dreviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often
the cause of great sorrow to myself.
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24 However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a
avision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul,
when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the
vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were
but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was
bmad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did
not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had,
and all the cpersecution under heaven could not make it
otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and
would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a
voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or
believe otherwise.
25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the
midst of that light I saw two aPersonages, and they did in
reality speak to me; and though I was bhated and
cpersecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was
true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all
manner of evil against me dfalsely for so saying, I was led
to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually
seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world
think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I
knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not edeny
it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend
God, and come under condemnation.
26 I had now got my mind satisfied so far as the sectarian world
was concerned—that it was not my duty to join with any of them, but to
continue as I was until further adirected. I had found the
testimony of James to be true—that a man who lacked wisdom might ask of
God, and obtain, and not be bupbraided.
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Moroni appears to Joseph Smith—Joseph's name is to be known for good
and evil among all nations—Moroni tells him of the Book of Mormon and
of the coming judgments of the Lord, and quotes many scriptures—The
hiding place of the gold plates is revealed—Moroni continues to
instruct the Prophet. (Verses 27-54.)
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27 I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the
twenty—first of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three,
all the time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men,
both religious and irreligious, because I continued to
aaffirm that I had seen a vision.
28 During the space of time which intervened between the time I
had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three—having
been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of
very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been my
afriends and to have treated me kindly, and if they
supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate
manner to have reclaimed me—I was left to all kinds of
btemptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I
frequently fell into many foolish cerrors, and displayed
the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to
say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. In making
this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant
sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty
of dlevity, and sometimes associated with jovial company,
etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one
who was ecalled of God as I had been. But this will not
seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with
my native fcheery temperament.
29 In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my
weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned
twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I
betook myself to aprayer and supplication to Almighty God
for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to
me, that I might know of my state and standing before him; for I had full
bconfidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I
previously had one.
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30 While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered
a alight appearing in my room, which continued to increase
until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a
bpersonage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for
his feet did not touch the floor.
31 He had on a loose robe of most exquisite
awhiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I
had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to
appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms
also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his
legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could
discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so
that I could see into his bosom.
32 Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was
aglorious beyond description, and his countenance truly
like blightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so
very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I
was cafraid; but the dfear soon left me.
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33 He called me by aname, and said unto me
that he was a bmessenger sent from the presence of God to
me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that
my name should be had for cgood and evil among all nations,
kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of
among all people.
34 He said there was a abook deposited,
written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this
continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the
bfulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as
delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these
stones, fastened to a abreastplate, constituted what is
called the bUrim and Thummim—deposited with the
plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted
"cseers" in ancient or former times; and that God had
prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.
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36 After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the
prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of
aMalachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of
the same prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in
our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he
quoted it thus:
37 For behold, the aday cometh that shall
bburn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do
wickedly shall burn as cstubble; for they that come shall
burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root
nor branch.
38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will
reveal unto you the aPriesthood, by the hand of
bElijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and
dreadful day of the cLord.
39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall
plant in the hearts of the achildren the
bpromises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the
children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth
would be utterly wasted at his coming.
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40 In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of
aIsaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He
quoted also the third chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses,
precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said that that
aprophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when
"they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,"
but soon would come.
41 He also quoted the second chapter of aJoel,
from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet
fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the
bGentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other
passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which
ccannot be mentioned here.
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42 Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he
had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet
fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate
with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to
show them; if I did I should be adestroyed. While he was
conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my
bmind that I could see the place where the plates were
deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again
when I visited it.
43 After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin
to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me,
and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just
around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into
heaven, and he aascended till he entirely disappeared, and
the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its
appearance.
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44 I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling
greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger; when, in
the midst of my ameditation, I suddenly discovered that my
room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the
same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.
45 He commenced, and aagain related the very
same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least
variation; which having done, he informed me of great
bjudgments which were coming upon the earth, with great
desolations by cfamine, dsword, and
pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this
generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he had done
before.
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46 By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind,
that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in
aastonishment at what I had both seen and heard. But what
was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and
heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before; and
added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to
btempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of
my father's family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting
crich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other
object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be
influenced by any other dmotive than that of building his
kingdom; otherwise I could not get them.
47 After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as
before, and I was again left to aponder on the strangeness
of what I had just experienced; when almost immediately after the heavenly
messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed, and I
found that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the
whole of that night.
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48 I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the
necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I
found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father,
who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and
told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but,
in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength
entirely failed me, and I bfell helpless on the ground, and
for a time was quite unconscious of anything.
49 The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking
unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger
standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related
unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to
go to my afather and tell him of the vision and
commandments which I had received.
50 I obeyed; I returned to my afather in the
field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He breplied
to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the
messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had
told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the
vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I
arrived there.
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51 Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New
York, stands a ahill of considerable size, and the most
elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far
from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited
in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper
side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was
visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.
52 Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got
fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I
looked in, and there indeed did I behold the aplates, the
bUrim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the
messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in
some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways
of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with
them.
53 I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the
messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not
yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me
that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that
he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time
should come for obtaining the plates.
54 Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of
each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received
instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting
what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his
akingdom was to be conducted in the last days.
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Joseph Smith marries Emma Hale—He receives the gold plates from
Moroni and translates some of the characters—Martin Harris shows
characters and translation to Professor Anthon, who says: "I cannot read a
sealed book." (Verses 55-65.)
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55 As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we
were under the necessity of alaboring with our hands,
hiring out by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity.
Sometimes we were at home, and sometimes abroad, and by continuous
blabor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance.
56 In the year 1823 my father's family met with a great
aaffliction by the death of my eldest brother,
bAlvin. In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old
gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, State of
New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the
Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania; and had,
previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to
discover the mine. After I went to live with him, he took me, with the rest
of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for
nearly a month, without success in our undertaking, and finally I prevailed
with the old gentleman to cease digging after it. Hence arose the very
prevalent story of my having been a money-digger.
57 During the time that I was thus employed, I was put to board with a
Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter),
Emma Hale. On the 18th of January, 1827, we were married, while I was yet
employed in the service of Mr. Stoal.
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58 Owing to my continuing to assert that I had seen a vision,
apersecution still followed me, and my wife's father's
family were very much opposed to our being married. I was, therefore, under
the necessity of taking her elsewhere; so we went and were married at the
house of Squire Tarbill, in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York.
Immediately after my marriage, I left Mr. Stoal's, and went to my father's,
and bfarmed with him that season.
59 At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim
and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of
another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly
messenger delivered them up to ame with this charge: that I
should be bresponsible for them; that if I should let them
go carelessly, or through any cneglect of mine, I should be
cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to
dpreserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for
them, they should be protected.
60 I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict
charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that
when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no
sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were
used to aget them from me. Every stratagem that could be
invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter
and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get
them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my
hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When,
according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up
to him; and he has them in his charge until this bday,
being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
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61 The excitement, however, still continued, and rumor with her
thousand tongues was all the time employed in circulating
afalsehoods about my father's family, and about myself. If
I were to relate a thousandth part of them, it would fill up volumes. The
persecution, however, became so intolerable that I was under the necessity of
leaving Manchester, and going with my wife to Susquehanna county, in the
State of Pennsylvania. While preparing to start—being very poor, and
the persecution so heavy upon us that there was no probability that we would
ever be otherwise—in the midst of our afflictions we found a friend in
a gentleman by the name of bMartin Harris, who came to us
and gave me fifty dollars to assist us on our journey. Mr. Harris was a
resident of Palmyra township, Wayne county, in the State of New York, and a
farmer of respectability.
62 By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my
destination in Pennsylvania; and immediately after my arrival there I
commenced copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable
number of them, and by means of the aUrim and Thummim I
translated some of them, which I did between the time I arrived at the house
of my wife's father, in the month of December, and the February following.
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63 Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin
Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates,
and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to
him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he
related them to me after his return, which was as follows:
64 "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which
had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon,
a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated
that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen
translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet
translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and
Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a certificate to the
people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of
such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate
and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon
called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold
plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had
revealed it unto him.
65 "He then said to me, `Let me see that certificate.' I
accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and
tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of
aangels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he
would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were
bsealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He
replied, `I cannot read a sealed book.' I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell,
who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters
and the translation."
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* * * * * *
Oliver Cowdery serves as scribe in translating the Book of
Mormon—Joseph and Oliver receive the Aaronic Priesthood from John the
Baptist—They are baptized, ordained, and receive the spirit of
prophecy. (Verses 66-75.)
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66 On the 5th day of April, 1829, aOliver
Cowdery came to my house, until which time I had never seen him. He stated to
me that having been teaching school in the neighborhood where my father
resided, and my father being one of those who sent to the school, he went to
board for a season at his house, and while there the family related to him
the circumstances of my having received the plates, and accordingly he had
come to make inquiries of me.
67 Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of
April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to
awrite for me.
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* * * * * *
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68 We still continued the work of translation, when, in the
ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray
and inquire of the Lord respecting abaptism for the
bremission of sins, that we found mentioned in the
translation of the plates. While we were thus employed, praying and calling
upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a
ccloud of light, and having laid his
dhands upon us, he eordained us, saying:
69 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I
confer the aPriesthood of bAaron, which
holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance,
and of cbaptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and
this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of
dLevi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in
erighteousness.
70 He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying
on hands
for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us
hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions
that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me.
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71 Accordingly we went and were baptized, I
abaptized him first, and afterwards he baptized
me—after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the
Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to
the same Priesthood—for so we were commanded.*
72 The amessenger who visited us on this
occasion and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John,
the same that is called bJohn the Baptist in the New
Testament, and that he acted under the direction of
cPeter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood
of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on
us, and that I should be called the first dElder of the
Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second. It was on the fifteenth day of
May, 1829, that we were ordained under the hand of this messenger, and
baptized.
73 Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had
been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly
Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell
upon him, and he stood up and aprophesied many things which
should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by
him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied
concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the
Church, and this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the
Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.
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74 Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the
ascriptures laid open to our understandings, and
btrue meaning and intention of their more
cmysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we
never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of. In the
meantime we were forced to keep secret the circumstances of having received
the Priesthood and our having been baptized, owing to a spirit of persecution
which had already manifested itself in the neighborhood.
75 We had been threatened with being mobbed, from time to time,
and this, too, by professors of religion. And their intentions of mobbing us
were only counteracted by the influence of my wife's father's family (under
Divine providence), who had become very afriendly to me,
and who were opposed to mobs, and were willing that I should continue the
work of translation without interruption; and therefore offered and promised
us protection from all unlawful proceedings, as far as in them lay.
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JSH F:1 Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: "These were days never to
be forgotten--to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of
heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued,
uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and
Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, `Interpreters,' the history or
record called `The Book of Mormon.'
JSH F:2 "To notice, in even few words, the interesting account given by Mormon
and his faithful son, Moroni, of a people once beloved and favored of heaven,
would supersede my present design; I shall therefore defer this to a future
period, and, as I said in the introduction, pass more directly to some few
incidents immediately connected with the rise of this Church, which may be
entertaining to some thousands who have stepped forward, amid the frowns of
bigots and the calumny of hypocrites, and embraced the Gospel of Christ.
JSH F:3 "No men, in their sober senses, could translate and write the
directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the precise
manner in which men should build up His Church, and especially when corruption
had spread an uncertainty over all forms and systems practiced among men,
without desiring a privilege of showing the willingness of the heart by being
buried in the liquid grave, to answer a `good conscience by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.'
JSH F:4 "After writing the account given of the Savior's ministry to the
remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be seen, as
the prophet said it would be, that darkness covered the earth and gross
darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it was as easy to be
seen that amid the great strife and noise concerning religion, none had
authority from God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel. For the question
might be asked, have men authority to administer in the name of Christ, who
deny revelations, when His testimony is no less than the spirit of prophecy,
and His religion based, built, and sustained by immediate revelations, in all
ages of the world when He has had a people on earth? If these facts were
buried, and carefully concealed by men whose craft would have been in danger if
once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no longer to us; and we
only waited for the commandment to be given `Arise and be baptized.'
JSH F:5 "This was not long desired before it was realized. The Lord, who is
rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of the humble,
after we had called upon Him in a fervent manner, aside from the abodes of men,
condescended to manifest to us His will. On a sudden, as from the midst of
eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the veil was
parted and the angel of God came down clothed with glory, and delivered the
anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the Gospel of repentance. What
joy! what wonder! what amazement! While the world was racked and
distracted--while millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while
all men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our
ears heard, as in the `blaze of day'; yes, more--above the glitter of the May
sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then his
voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, `I am thy
fellow-servant,' dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we admired! 'Twas
the voice of an angel from glory, 'twas a message from the Most High! And as we
heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon our souls, and we were wrapped
in the vision of the Almighty! Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty
had fled, doubt had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled
forever!
JSH F:6 "But, dear brother, think, further think for a moment, what joy filled
our hearts, and with what surprise we must have bowed, (for who would not have
bowed the knee for such a blessing?) when we received under his hand the Holy
Priesthood as he said, `Upon you my fellow-servants, in the name of Messiah, I
confer this Priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that
the Sons of Levi may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!'
JSH F:7 "I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor
the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you
will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time,
cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this
holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the
peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was contained in each sentence as they
were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-men,
deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have
power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the
many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave;
but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper
world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity,
strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind. The
assurance that we were in the presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard
the voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage,
dictated by the will of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look
upon this expression of the Savior's goodness with wonder and thanksgiving
while I am permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells
and sin never comes, I hope to adore in that day which shall never cease."
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