Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/850

 832 MORMONS farmer in Ontario (now Wayne) co., N. Y., be- gan to have visions. On the night of Sept. 21, 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to him three times, informing him that God had a work for him to do, and that a record written upon gold plates, and giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America and the dealings of God with them, was deposited in a particular place in the earth (a hill in Manchester, On- tario co., N". Y.), and, with the record, two transparent stones in silver bows like specta- cles, which were anciently called the Urim and Thummim, on looking through which the golden plates would become intelligible. On Sept. 22, 1827, the angel of the Lord placed in Smith's hands the plates and the Urim and Thummim. The plates were nearly 8 in. long by 7 in. wide, and a little thinner than ordi- nary tin, and were bound together by three rings running through the whole. Altogether they were about 6 in. thick, and were neatly engraved on each side with hieroglyphics in a language called the reformed Egyptian, not then known on the earth. From these plates Smith, sitting behind a blanket hung across the room to keep the sacred records from pro- fane eyes, read off, with the aid of the stone spectacles, the "Book of Mormon," or Golden Bible as he sometimes called it, to Oliver Cow- dery, who wrote it down as Smith read it. It was printed in 1830, in a volume of several hundred pages. Appended to it was a state- ment signed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whit- mer, and Martin Harris, who had become pro- fessed believers in Smith's supernatural pre- tensions, and are called by the Mormons "the three witnesses." They said : " We declare with words of soberness that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon." Several years afterward all three of these witnesses quar- relled with Smith, renounced Mormonism, and avowed the falsity of their testimony. Immedi- ately on the appearance of the " Book of Mor- mon " many of Smith's neighbors testified that he had repeatedly made contradictory state- ments about the plates and the Golden Bible. The "Book of Mormon" is a collection of 16 distinct books professing to be written at dif- ferent periods by successive prophets. Its style is a verbose imitation of that of the common English translation of the Bible, portions of which, to the number in all of 300 passages, are incorporated without acknowledgment, and are frequently cited by Mormons as specimens of the book. A multitude of names are in- troduced, some Hebrew and Biblical, others Greek and Latin, and the rest imitations of the former. The first book professes to be the work of Nephi, a Jew, the son of Lehi, who dwelt at Jerusalem in the days of King Zede- kiah, about 600 B. C. In obedience to the command of the Lord, who appeared to him in a dream, he went into the wilderness of Arabia and dwelt there a long time with his family. At length, still under divine instruc- tion, Lehi and his family set out in search of a promised land, and after travelling " nearly eastward" for eight years, "through a wil- derness," they reached the ocean. Here they built a ship, and, guided by a compass, sailed to America. The Book of Mormon itself gives no indication of the part of the continent on which they landed, but later Mormon inter- pretations or revelations declare it to have been the coast of Chili. Those who arrived in America were Lehi and his wife, his four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, and their four wives, two "sons of Ishmael" and their two wives, and Zoram, a servant, and his wife ; in all, eight adult men with as many wives. Besides these, there were two infant sons of Lehi born during the journey through the wilderness, Jacob and Joseph. In Ameri- ca they found "beasts in the forest of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the ass, and the horse, and the goat." Soon after his arrival in America Lehi died, and dissensions speedily ensued between Nephi and his elder brothers Laman and Lemuel ; and, separating from them, Nephi moved into the wilderness accompanied by Sam and Zoram and their families, the boys Jacob and Joseph, and such of the women and children as took his side. Laman and Lemuel and the " sons of Ishmael" and their families, as a punishment for rebel- ling against Nephi, whom the Lord had ap- pointed to be their ruler, were cursed by the Lord, and they and all their posterity con- demned to have dark skins and to "become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, which did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey." This was the origin of the American Indians, who are consequently believed by the Mormons to be of Jewish race. Nephi died about 50 years after his arrival in America, and his people continued to be called Nephites and to be governed by kings bearing the name of Nephi for many generations. The record of their history was continued on golden plates by Jacob the brother of Nephi, Enos the son of Jacob, Jarom the son of Enos, Omni the son of Jarom, and finally by Mormon, whose name is given to a single book, as well as to the whole volume, and who, "many hundred years after the coming of Christ," transmitted to his son Moroni the plates containing the writings of the authors already mentioned, together with those of Mosiah, Zeniff, Alma, Helaman, Nephi the Second, and Nephi the Third. These books consist almost wholly of a narrative of transactions in North and South America, chiefly of wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites or red men, and of revolu- tions in the land of Zarahemla, which was near the isthmus of Darien, where there was an exceeding great city. At length, in the days of Nephi the Second, a terrible earthquake announced the crucifixion of Christ at Jerusa- lem, and three days afterward the Lord him- self descended out of heaven into the chief