B. H. Roberts was a grand investigative scholar in his own right. His pragmatic methodology often led one to question what did Elder Roberts actually believe or not believe. But all in all, Elder Roberts never did allow his 'scholarly investions' to overwhelm his gospel testimony of the matters at hand. Yet his testimony did not stop him from 'objectively' questioning and digging for scholarly understanding. Thus he is unique as he could and did separate what scholarly evidence may have tended to portray and what the true a matter really was. So what did he believe concerning Cumorah?
B. H. Roberts is on record in many places as stating that Cumorah is Cumorah. In ‘The Deseret News,’ March 3, 1928, he concludes that 'the Hill Cumorah in New York, which had just recently been purchased by the Church, according to the facts was no doubt the hill Cumorah of the Book of Mormon anciently.' Certainly it was a great day when that ancient Hill of Cumorah was purchased by the Church and was securely within the hands of the Lord’s Church today.
As stated there are many statements of Elder Roberts which can be used. The one I will use seems to most clearly state the facts of the matter from Elder Roberts’ as taken from his Comprehensive History of the Church.
(A Comprehensive History of the Church, Volume One, p. 75)
“THE HILL RAMAH—CUMORAH”
“Encouraged by this repetition of
the vision of the previous night, and strengthened by the assurances of his
father that the visitation was of God, Joseph repaired that same day to the
hill he had seen in vision, the place where the sacred record was concealed,
some two miles distant from the Smith home. The hill is about four miles south
of the town of Palmyra, in Wayne county. It stands on the east side of the
Canandaigua road, and is the most conspicuous land mark in all that section of
New York. In the Book of Mormon the hill is known as Ramah, and Cumorah, referred to more
frequently, however, by the latter name. Approaching Cumorah from the north,
you are confronted by the bold face of the hill, which rises quite abruptly
from the common level of the surrounding country; and as the east and west
slopes of the hill, as viewed from the north, are about equal and regular, it
looks from a distance as if it might be a huge conical shaped mound. Ascending
its steep north side to the summit dispels the illusion, for one finds that he
has but climbed the abrupt north end of a ridge of hill having its greatest
extent from north to south, and which from its very narrow summit broadens and
slopes gently to the southward until it sinks to the level of the common
country. The east side of the hill is now ploughed, but the west side is
untouched by the husbandman; and about two or three hundred yards from the
north end there is on the west side a small, scattered grove of young trees,
with here and there a decaying stump of a large tree to bear witness that the
hill was once covered with a heavy growth of timber. Unquestionably Cumorah is
the most distinct land mark in all that section of country, the highest hill,
and the most commanding in what I should describe as an extensive plain sloping
northward, filled with numerous irregular hills, but which in the main have
their greatest extent, like Cumorah, from north to south; and which, also like
Cumorah, are generally highest at the north end.”
Now just one other reference to the Hill Cumorah to confirm
B. H. Robert’s total understanding that Cumorah was Cumorah and why.
(The Missouri Persecutions, p. 31)
“This book [The Book of Mormon],
which contained these things, was hid in the earth by
Moroni, in a hill called by him Cumorah, which hill is now in the
State of New York, near the village of
Palmyra, in Ontario County.”
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