MORMONS
621
MORMONS
The above quotation is an extract from a letter writ- ten by elder Oliver Cowdery, which was published in one of the numbers of the Latter-day Saints' Messenr/er and A dvocate.
Although many more instructions were given by the mouth of the angel to Mr. Smith, for which we have not space here, yet the most important items are con- tained in the foregoing relation. During the period of the four following years he frequently received instruc- tions from the mouth of the heavenly messenger. On the morning of the 22d of September, A.D. 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records into his hands. These records were engraved on plates which had the appearance of gold. Each plate was not far from seven by eight inches in width and length, being not quite as thick as common tin. They were tilled on both sides with engravings in Egyi)tian characters (see Book of Mormon, Mormon, chap, iv, § 8, p. 515), and bound to- gether in a volume as the leaves of a book, and fasten- ed at one edge with three rings running through the whole. This volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed. The characters or letters upon the unsealed part were small and beauti- fully engraved. The whole book exhibited many marks of antiquity in its construction, as well as much skill in the art of engraving. With the records was found " a curious instrument, called bj^ the ancients the Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones, clear as crystal, set in the two rims of a bow. This was in use in ancient times by persons called seers. It was an instrument by the use of which they received rev- elation of things distant or of things past or future." (See Biogr. Sketches, p. 101; Book of Mormon, Ether, eh. i, § 7-11, p. 520 sq. See also Nephi, § 20, p. 5 sq.) In the mean time the inhabitants of that vicinity, having been informed that Mr. Smith had seen heav- enly visions, and that he had discovered sacred records, began to ridicule and mock at those things. After having obtained those sacred things, Avhile proceed- ing home through tlie wilderness and fields, he was waylaid by two ruffians, who had secreted themselves for the purpose of robbing him of the records. One of them struck him with a club before he perceived them; but being a strong man and large in stature, with great exertion he cleared himself from them and ran towards home, being closelj' pursued until he came near his father's house, when his pursuers, for fear of being detected, turned and fled the other way. Soon the news of his discoveries, spread abroad throughout all those parts. False reports, misrepresentations, and base slanders flew as if upon the wings of the wind in every direction. The house was frequently beset by mobs and evil-designing persons. Several times he was shot at, and very narrowly escaped. Every device was used to get the plates away from him. Being con- tinually in danger of his life from a gang of abandoned \vretches, he at length concluded to leave the place and go to Pennsylvania; and accordingly packed up his goods, putting the plates into a barrel of beans, and proceeded upon his journey. He had not gone far be- fore he was overtaken by an officer with a search-^var- rant, who flattered himself with the idea that he should surely obtain the plates ; after searching very diligently, he was sadly disappointed at not finding them. Mr. Smith then drove on, but before he got to his journey's end he was again overtaken by an officer on the same business, and after ransacking the wagon very carefully, he went his way as much chagrined as the first at not being able to discover the object of his research. With- out any further molestation Smith pursued his journey until he came into the northern part of Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River, in which part his father- in-law resided. Having provided himself with a home, he commenced translating the record, as he himself tells us in his ^4 utobiographi/, " by the gift and power of God, through the means of the Urim and Thummim;" and being a poor writer, he was under the necessity of em-
ploying a scribe to write the translation as it came from his mouth. (See, for criticism, editorial appendix be- low, and Stenhouse, p. 23.)