2,000,000 of men slain.
Hill Ramah.
Cries rend the air.
SleiJt on their swords.
Coriantumr slew Shiz.
Do. fell to the earth.
Records hid by Ether.
Book of Mokoni. Christ'swords to the Twelve. Sufi'erings of women and
Manner of Ordination. Order of Sacrament. Order of Baptism. Faith, Hope, Charity. Baptism nC little children. Wouieu fed on their hus- !
h-dUiW llc.-h. Daughters murdered and eat. !
children. Cannot recommend them to
God. Moroni to the Lamanites. 420 years since the Sign. Records sealed up (Moroni). Gifts of the Spirit. God'sWord shall hiss
forth.
With the history, as will be noted from the synopsis furnished above, are mixed up long exhortations, visions, parables, religious meditations. Tiicse are in language imitating that of the English Bible, and some 300 pas- sages, including large portions of Isaiah, the Sermon on the Mount, and some verses of St. Paul's Ejjistles, bear such strong resemblance that non-Mormon critics claim these passages to be directly copied, sometimes with slight variations which do not improve the sense (see Stenhouse, p. 538-543). The narrative, as a whole, is most tedious; there is not a trace of elevated, poetic, or religious feeling. The style is that of an uneducated person, glaring grammatical errors appearing on nearly every page, besides gross absurdities and anachronisms. IJeyond the assertions that the book is the work of in- spired writers teaching true religion, and that revelations, miracles, and gifts of tongues are ever with the faithful, few of the doctrinal peculiarities of Jlormouism can be gleaned from it. Materialistic notions of the Deity are hinted at {Ether, c\\. i, § 8, p. .521,522). and infant baptism is forbidden (Moroni, ch. viii, § 2, p. 5.')7), but with these exceptions it is free from heretical statements or novel dogmas. It a.sserts the perpetuity of miracles in the Church, and on this account the Irvingites were induced to send a deputation in the early stages ofMormonism to express their sympathy with Joseph Smith. It is also most explicit in its condemnation of jiolygamy and free- masonry. It will be remembered from the account fur- nished by Jlr. Pratt of the early history of this strange work, that the original copy. ongrave<l on golden plates, was in a tongue then unknown to the world, and that
MORMONS
631
MORMONS
by the aid of the " Urim and Thummim" the English version ^vas obtained. According to the Jlormon au- thority, the book was placed in Smith's hands in the reformed Egyptian language, and we are also told tliac the way in which Smith translated was as foUo^vs : He sat behind a blanket liung across the room to keep the sacred records from profane eyes, and read off, by the help of his "Urim and Thummim," to Oliver Cowdery, of whom we have had occasion to speak before, who wrote down what the invisible "Prophet" gave as a translation, Smith himself being, as he confesses, but a " poor writer." A farmer by the name of Jlartin Har- ris supplied Smith with the necessary funds to get the work printed. But before he so supplied Smith he went to New York to consult the late Prof. Anthon regarding the correctness of the Prophet's translation, and took with him a copy of the characters on one of the plates. The Mormons assert that the professor declared the characters to be Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian, and Ar- abic, and asked to see the original {Pearl of Great Price, p. 45). But, according to Gentile authoritj'. Prof. An- thon pronoimced the extract furnished him to consist "of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in col- umns, and evidentl}' prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alpha- bets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters, inverted or placed sideways, were ar- ranged and placed in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican calendar given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived," and warned Harris against being the victim of roguery {Letter in Mackey, p. 32-34). A fac-simile, alleged to be identical with that shown to Prof. Anthon, is published in the Millennial Star (xv, 510), and is here reproduced. It will be noticed by the philological student that these charac- ters have no resemblance to any existing ones, and are like nothing else but the scratches made by children for amusement when they begin to learn writing. Harris, however, lost not his faith by Prof. Anthon's persua- sions, and, returning to Smith, continued to assist the preparation of the English version of the Book of Mor- mon until about 116 pages had been completed. The MS. of these Harris one day took to his house to show to his wife, probably to satisfy her that the money which he was furnishing for Smith's support, and which he was expecting to supply for its publication, was well-spent. Herself a non-believer, she connived with others for the secret removal of the MS. On this the "Prophet" produced a "revelation" ordering him not to retranslate the portion lost in the English version, lest the wicked, finding the two translations to dlflFer, should scoff at God's work (Doctr. and Gov. xxxvi, p. 178 sq.). Shortly after Harris was moreover superseded in his position as scribe by Oliver Cowdery, but he remained faithful to Smith ; and when the work was ready for publication he furnished, as we have stated, all needed pecuniary aid, having even, in obedi- ence to a revelation {Doctr. and Gov. xliv, 3, p. 194-5), sold his farm to procure means for this purpose. In 1830, finally, the Book of Mormon appeared, accompa- nied, as has been stated above by Mr. Pratt, with a decla- ration from eleven persons that they had seen the orig- inal plates from which this version had been prepared. This statement was necessary, as these were the only persons so privileged. No other human being has ever seen them. Like Macpherson's Ossianic ^ISS., they Jiave never been forthcoming, however loudly demand- ed, and of late years all knowledge of them has become traditional. The Mormons declare that no one else was allowed to see them ; and Joseph himself informs us that after he had " accomplished by them what was required at his hand," ..." accoi-dimi to arranz/ements, the messemjer called for them, and he \_the anr/el] has them in his charge until this day" {Autohiog. ch. xiv).