" before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God ; yea,
" even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it,
" yea, and its motion ; yea, and also all the planets which, move
" in their regular form."
The simplicity of many portions of the Book of Mormon
is very touching ; witness the following : .
" And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth among the
people, waving the rent of his garment in the air, that all might see the
writing which he had wrote upon the rent III " * [page 334.]
" I beheld wars and rumours of wars." [p. 21.]
" I saw wars and rumours of wars. . . . And in wars and rumours of
wars I saw many generations pass away." [p. 23.]
" There were no robbers nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites,
or any manner of ites ! 1 1 " [p. 493.]
"Now the joy of Ammon was so great, even that he was full ; yea, he
* That a " rent " can be visible sometimes too visible is an undoubted fact,
but how a man could write upon a, rent is not so easy of demonstration. Possibly
corroborative evidence of the practicability of this performance might have been
given by the Irishman who gave as a recipe for making a cannon : " Take a round
hole and pour melted iron around it."
JOHN HYDE ON THE BOOK OF MORMON. 545
was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhaustion of his
strength ; and he fell again to the earth. Now was not this exceeding
great joy ? [p. 285.]
" The Lord provided for them. ... He also gave them strength that
they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in
the joy of Christ ! "[p. 298.]
" They all did swear unto him . . . that whoso should vary from the
assistance which Akish desired should lose Ms head, and whoso should di-
vulge whatsoever thing Akish should make known unto them should lose
his Uf e . n \p. 530.]
Many opponents of the faith of the Saints have devoted
considerable time to the discussion of the origin of the Book
of Mormon, and the general conclusion reached has been that
Joseph Smith had before him the manuscript of a religious
novel, written by one Solomon Spaulding, and that he inter-
polated all through it the portions which bear evidence of his
own lack of education, while the body of the story remained
intact.
There is evidence that this Spaulding actually did write
something about the ancient inhabitants of America, and it is
asserted by one of his brothers, from his recollection of the por-
tions of the manuscript, that it was identical with the Book of
Mormon, and that the latter was indeed the bona-fide work of
his deceased brother. It is further said that several of Mr.
Spaulding's personal friends sustain this statement from their
remembrance of the readings to which they had frequently
listened.
Those who accept such statements as the true solution of
the origin of this book must necessarily conclude that Joseph
Smith was " a deliberate falsifier and wilful impostor." There
is no avoiding this. The most incisive writer on this subject
John Hyde, formerly an elder in the Church unhesitatingly
announces this as his own conclusion. His " Analysis of the
" Book of Mormon," and its " Internal Evidences," is a mas-
terly work, to which no Mormon elder has attempted a reply.
The only man among the Mormons capable of the effort is
Orson Pratt, and, by an attempt at refutation, he would only
exhibit common honesty, for he is morally under obligations to
that long-suffering people in the Tabernacle to do so.
At the moment of writing this, there is before the Author
546 THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS.
" brother Orson's " last discourse on the Book of Mormon, de-
livered in the Tabernacle on the 22d of September, 1872. It
is undoubtedly the best sermon that could be preached on
" the forthcoming " of that notable book, but, by the side of
the unanswered " Analysis " of Elder John Hyde, it is very un-
satisfactory. But, while the Author frankly admits the unan-
swerable and powerful arguments of Mr. Hyde, he dissents
from his conclusion that Joseph Smith was a wilful impostor.
To conclude that there was " wilful " imposture in 'the
origin of Mormonism is, in an argumentative sense, to " take
" arms against a sea of troubles " to which there is no limit.
There is, however, an easy solution of the difficulty respecting
the origin of the book i. e., to admit honest credulity in Jo-
seph Smith, in the persons who " witnessed unto the world " of
that which they saw, and in all that follows in the history of
the Mormon movement. Probably, if Mr. Hyde were now to
write on the subject, while he would undoubtedly preserve the
same powerful arguments against the divinity of the book he
would conclude that Joseph Smith was after all only an ex-
traordinary "spirit medium," and had been subjected to all the
vagaries and caprices of that peculiar condition.
In this solution of the difficulty respecting Joseph's claims,
there is a perfect consistency, and it harmonizes completely
with the testimony, both of the orthodox and the heterodox.
It admits the claim of honesty in Joseph Smith, and in his
" witnesses," and equal honesty in those who have rejected
their testimony, and denounced the folly of their assertions.
In brief, when Joseph Smith said that he had visions, dreams,
and revelations, it is best to allow that he probably had all
that experience ; but when he clothed his communications with
the sanctity of absolute and divine tru^h, the acceptance or re-
jection of which was to be " the salvation or damnation of the
" world," it was simply the operation and assertion of that yet
un comprehended mysterious influence that has been experi-
enced by both good and bad men in all ages and in all coun-
tries within the historical ken of man.
"With the developments which have followed, the life of the
Mormon prophet is easily understood. He was but the vehi-
cle of " spirit communication," and when he erred it was not in-
HEBER'S OPINION OF JOSEPH SMITH. 547
tentional imposture or deliberate fraud \ but in the native hon-
esty of his simple nature he believed too much.* Than that he
was imposed upon or ignorantly imposed upon himself in the
" translation " of the Book of Mormon, nothing seems more
certain to those who have fully studied his career, while his
assertion that the English " translation " of the plates is the
history of the ancient inhabitants of the country, of the people
who built the temples and palaces of Central America, and
constructed the gigantic works, the mounds and ruins which
are met with all over this continent, is assuredly untrue. The
American Indians never descended from those builders, nor
did Jared or Lehi give that posterity birth. "With faith, any
thing, however extravagant or unreasonable, can be accepted ;
but no rational being, looking upon the past as he does upon
the present, can behold the evidences of the existence of a great
and civilized people upon this continent long ages ago, and be-
lieve that the Book of Mormon story of Jared and Lehi is the
true record of the buried past. That history has yet to be
written.
Calmly regarding the plagiarisms from the New Testament
in the Book of Mormon, the frequent use of the expressions
and thoughts of Methodists in the nineteenth century, and the
use of republican political sentiments, all of which Joseph
Smith, notwithstanding his youth and lack of education, did
know, there can be no doubt that the title-page of the first
edition of the Book of Mormon stated something near the truth
when it bore the announcement : " Joseph Smith, Author and
Proprietor."
Singularly enough, no Mormon authority has ever related
how Joseph Smith claimed to translate the plates, and what is
still more strange of the hundreds of men who personally knew
Joseph, and who could have very properly asked him that
question, the Author, to his inquiries addressed to them,
* One of the Mormon elders called upon a spirit-medium in New York, and in
seeking communion with the dead the medium immediately became entranced, and
to this Elder, Heber C. Kimball is reported to have said : " The difficulty with
brother Joseph was that he kept a spiritual hotel and entertained all comers." The
reader can take such a professed report from the dead for what it is worth, but in the
light of Mormonism this statement from whatever personage, in the flesh or out of it,
is exceedingly suggestive of the truth.
548 THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS.
never got an answer. One man only acknowledged that he
had asked the Prophet, but forgot what the answer was.
The reader may long ere this have arrived at the conclusion
that the whole story is a stupendous fraud, and a wicked fab-
rication, but, to the Author's mind, Joseph is still defensible
against the charge of wilful imposture. It does not seem pos-
sible that he could have borne up through his whole life of
persecution, and have lived and died maintaining the truth of
his story, if the book had been a fraud.
At the time of its professed translation he was not capable
of dictating the whole of it without aid. Though it all passed
from his tongue to the ears of his scribes, and bears throughout
in its language the impress of his scanty education, whatever
there is of plot in the book was far beyond him. Ridiculous
as may be the story of the Jaredite " barges," the spindle-com-
pass, the traversing of three oceans from the Red Sea to the
southern portion of North America, and the many other gro-
tesque stories about the first inhabitants of the "Western Hemi-
sphere, yet there is pervading the whole book another mind
than that of young Joseph Smith.
The ruins found in Central America, the great mounds in
the valley of the Mississippi, and in several States of the Union,
establish beyond the possibility of a doubt that a great popu-
lation once existed on this continent, which has long ages ago
passed away. They who built the colossal temples, the magnifi-
cent palaces, and the great aqueducts, have left, in the ruins that
now meet the gaze of the explorer, the evidences of a civiliza-
tion that astonishes the student. That some of those ancient
inhabitants may have made and engraved plates, and that they
did so for a purpose whatever that might be is very possible.
The relics of sculpture and painting suggest also the probabil-
ity of engraving. Other persons besides Joseph Smith have
discovered in the ground similar plates,* bearing evidence of
a great antiquity, and, as time rolls on, there may yet be many
similar discoveries. There need be no difficulty, then, in accept-
* On the opposite page is an engraving of two (out of six) bell-shaped plates,
which were actually and unquestionably discovered by one Mr. R. Wiley, in April,
1843, while excavating an ancient mound in the neighbourhood of Kinderhook, Ohio.
They have never been translated.
HOW JOSEPH TRANSLATED MORONI. 551
ing Joseph's story of finding the plates ; it is what is claimed
to be the contents of the plates that is incredible.
If no living person fabricated for Joseph Smith the Book
of Mormon, and if Joseph did not use the manuscript of Solo-
mon Spaulding, the Mormon may very properly ask : " Who,
" then, was the author of the book ? " To this query, the
Book of Abraham is the answer. In the preceding chapter,
the Prophet's " translation " of the papyrus, found with the
Egyptian mummies, is evidently untrue ; yet Joseph Smith sat
with his amanuensis, and, by " the gift of God," believed he
was giving a truthful translation. ' The scientist says that the
whole story is untrue, that the Prophet's version of the hiero-
glyphics is a perfect romance, that the hieroglyphics had no
more allusion to the Abraham of Mosaic history, than they
had to do with Abraham the martyred President of the United
States.
When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by
the means of his Urim and Thummim, the " reformed Egyp-
" tian " was evidently not transformed before his eyes into the
translated text, or " the gift and power of God " used peculiar-
ly bad English. Jte gazed upon that Urim and Thummim un-
til his mind became psychologized, and the impressions that he
received he dictated to his scribe. With such a conclusion, the
anachronisms of the book, the quotations from the Old and
New Testaments, and the language of modern preachers and
writers, are accounted for.
That there is such a mental condition in human life as
clairvoyance, in which persons are strangely operated upon,
and can mentally perceive what to the natural eye is unseen, is
a belief as old as the history of man, and that, when the mind
is psychologized by a condition of its own, or by the operation
of external influences, singular impressions or revelations are
had, few people to-day dispute. That Joseph Smith was in
these experiences one of the most remarkable men that ever
lived, those outside of Mormoiiism altogether, who knew him
intimately, testify. He believed that his gifts were divine, and
his impressions were revelations from the Almighty Creator.
To insist that there were deliberate imposture and deliberate
falsehood at the origin of Mormonism is to challenge the vera-
552 THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS.
city and honesty of the hundreds and thousands of persons who
accept that faitli and who testify that they know of its truth.
It is more rational and consistent to admit that what such a
body of people allege that they have experienced is probably
true in statement, than to deny it and brand it as imposture,
but it does not follow that the interpretation which any of
them put upon their experience is itself true. They may be fully
persuaded that they have had visions, dreams, the ministering
of angels, and have heard the " voice of God," all witnessing to
the truth of the divinity of Mormonism, for all this has been
asserted again and again by very many others besides Joseph
Smith men, and women too, who have claimed to have re-
ceived divine missions. Outside of all religious enthusiasm,
also, there are tens of thousands of men and women, sober,
reliable, and truthful in every relation and business of life,
with as unchangeable convictions as ever the Mormons had
that they have personally experienced all these extraordinary
phenomena.
The trouble with the Mormons and with all this class of
believers is, not in what they have experienced, but the after-
interpretation that they may have put upon it. If the reader
turns to pages 33-35 of this volume, he will find the key to the
Mormon testimony and the explanation of the whole move-
ment. There it is illustrated by this very Orson Pratt, the
champion expounder of the evidences of the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith relates that he cast a devil out of Newell
Knight in the name of Jesus. Judge Edmonds innocently
relates that he too "cast out devils " frequently without any such
invocation. Orson Pratt, in commenting upon Joseph's " first
" miracle," flies to the conclusion that those persons who wit-
nessed the experience of Newell Knight, tortured with an evil
influence and afterwards " overwhelmed with the good spirit,"
had from these circumstances " a knowledge " that " Joseph
" Smith was a great prophet and seer, and that the Book of
" Mormon was a divine revelation ! " Nothing could be more
preposterous. The experience of Newell Knight had its cause
and its issues, but these had no more bearing upon the seer-
ship of Joseph Smith and the divinity of the Book of Mormon
than upon any and all of the assumptions of his life.
THE WORTHLESSNESS OF VISIONARY TESTIMONY. 553
On just such statements and arguments have the Mormons
been fed for over forty years, till " hundreds of thousands of
" witnesses," as Elder Pratt boasts, can testify that to them
" God has revealed the truth of the Book of Mormon."
A great man once said : " Let me write the songs of the
"people, let others make their laws." The apostle Orson
Pratt has written the testimony of the Book of Mormon, and
the " Saints " have reiterated his statements, and no one has
had better opportunities than he of knowing the worthlessness
of such evidence and the fallacy of such arguments as he has
adduced from the devil in Newell Knight.
Of the " hundreds of thousands of witnesses to whom God
" has revealed the truth of the Book of Mormon," he knows
full well that comparatively few indeed have ever read that
book, know little or nothing intelligently of its contents, and
take little interest in it. He has written and spoken exten-
sively of the " divine evidence " respecting it, to the Mormons ;
and they have read and listened to his arguments. They have,
of course, been pleased with his display of " testimony." With
the " eye of faith " everything was clear to them, and to them
it was " The Holy Ghost witnessing of the divinity of the
" l book.' ' Some " brother " or u sister ? ' is " possessed by
" devils " and thrown into convulsions, and an " apostle " or
" elder " " lays hands " upon the possessed, " conjures " the
evil spirit to depart from the troubled soul, and it becomes
tranquil ergo, the Book of Mormon is divine, and Joseph
Smith is " a great prophet and seer." Such is the argument !
Brigham Young has " cast out devils," yet, for all that, it
is well known that Orson Pratt himself is not over-strong in
the belief that Brigham is " a great Prophet and seer," and all
the devils that Brigham has ever cast out have never con-
vinced Orson of the divinity of Brigham's Adam-deity ! If
the whole world is to be " damned " for rejecting the claims
and assertions of Joseph about himself and his Book of Mor-
men, while it has had no opportunity of seeing him " cast out
" devils," Orson Pratt is certain to find himself at u the bottom
" of the lowest hell," to use Tabernacle language, for rejecting
Brigham's " Adam," after all the evidence before him of Brig-
ham " casting out devils."
554 THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS.
Intelligent people in Utah, who have rejected Mormoiiism,
can trace their first awakening to reason and common-sense
to the first consideration of such assumptions of the evidences
of divinity set forth by the Mormon apostles.
While the time and attention of the masses are wholly
absorbed in procuring the bare means of existence, and their
only time for reflection is demanded for the Tabernacle and the
ward meetings, the " evidences " of divinity upon anything
may pass unchallenged. But, the moment the mind is awak-
ened and stretches beyond Mormonisin, the acceptance of such
evidences is very doubtful.
There have been multitudes of persons in the world who
have believed and asserted that to them, and to them only,
God gave visions, dreams, angel-visits, the power of healing
the sick and " casting out devils " and they have declared
that these were proofs of the heavenly origin of the faith which
they proclaimed, and this it is that the Saints have been
taught by the modern apostles to regard as special and partic-
ular to them, while it has been a peculiarity common to the
religious experience of all the world, and is an evidence of
nothing more than a certain condition of mind that renders
such manifestations possible with persons adapted naturally to
receive them.
Probably no enthusiast ever left the Mormom Church with-
out a rich experience in the shape of visions, angels, and " mira-
" cles ; " and seldom are such persons found without " the voice
" of God " whispering something to them. The " Reorganized
" Church," at the head of which is the eldest son of Joseph
Smith, is peculiarly " favoured " with " visions," and "visits
" of angels " and " gifts of tongues," " interpretations " and
" powers of healing ; " and these worshippers " cast out " all
the " devils " that come in their way. It is undeniable that
the great "evidences" that are adduced by Orson Pratt in
favour of the truth of the Book of Mormon and the mission
of Joseph Smith are more abundantly manifest to-day in
" Young Joseph's church " than among the Rocky Moun-
tain Saints. Yet " Young Joseph " and his " Saints " de-
nounce Brigham Young as a" " usurper " and a " fraud " upon
the Mormon people.
YOUNG JOSEPH SMITH PRAYS FOR BRIGHAM. 555
Brigham Young and his apostles, backed up by visions,
dreams, revelations, miracles, and " the voice of God," preach
and teach to the Mormons in Utah that " Young Joseph " in
Illinois is an aspiring, ambitious youth, an emissary of the
devil, seeking to lead away the faithful from the " true fold."
Joseph Smith the young man sustained by as credible wit-
nesses as Orson Pratt can produce, supported by " angel reve-
u lations," the " voice of God," and any amount of " miracles,"
is with his apostles now praying earnestly, long, and loud, and
sending missionaries all through Utah Territory, warning the
people against that ruin of soul and body to which they assert
Brigham Young and his apostles are leading them. The claim,
therefore, of such a host of witnesses testifying to the truth of
the Book of Mormon because of visions, dreams, revelations
and miracles, is unworthy of a moment's consideration.
That Joseph thought Moroni and some of those ancient per-
sonages whom he mentions in his biography appeared to him,
is, no doubt, true ; that they used him for their purposes Spirit-
ualists all believe, and, when the origin of some of the great
religions of the world is considered, there is not much cause for
wonder that those persons who have accepted Mormonism, with
all its crudities, should have honestly believed it. Millions
have accepted Mohammed and his visions; many millions
more have lived and died in the faith of Buddha ; Confucius
has swayed a spiritual empire from ages long before the Chris-
tian era; and by these and other founders of religious sys-
tems, and by many of their disciples, visions and revelations,
gifts and miraculous powers, have all been claimed.
CHAPTER XLIX.
THE PKIESTHOOD IN ZION Its Organizations, Apostolic, Judicial, and Po-
liticalThe Prayers of the Saints The Surveillance of the Teachers The Eyes
of the Priesthood over all The Missionaries abroad The Elders travel " with-
out Purse or Scrip" How Mormonism is introduced among the Gentiles For-
eign Missions His Satanic Majesty attacks the Apostles in England "Devils"
attack Brother Heber Success in Britain The Emigration to Zion Baptizing
Converts in the Atlantic The Journey through the States.
IN the Mormon Church there are two priesthoods, the Mel-
chisedec and the Aaronic the latter an appendage to the for-
mer. The lowest rank in the Priesthood is the office of " Dea-
" con : " his duties, without anything sentimental, are some-
what menial. In all u the branches " of the Church, outside of
Zion, the deacon is expected to look after the public halls or
places of preaching ; he " keeps the door," sees that no disorder-
ly persons enter to disturb the meeting, takes up the collections,
and is the treasurer on a small scale for " the branch ; " besides
which he inquires into the necessities of the widows and the
fatherless, and renders them what aid he can. The deacon
should physically be a strong man, not on account of the
weight of the pennies that he carries home, but on account of
the practical manner in which he has frequently to " cast out
" devils." The Author well remembers attending a " council
" meeting " of the Mormon priesthood, in Birmingham, Eng-
land, when one of the brethren proposed that a number of the
heaviest men among the Saints should be that evening ordained
deacons. The proposer of that motion set forth that they
were all strong men ; one of them used a forge-hammer in a
smithy, another was a drayman, a third had been on the police
force, and there were two carpenters. Others were also named
whose strength was equal to the office. The presiding officer
CASTING OUT DEVILS. 557
over the conference, who had but newly arrived among the
Birmingham Saints, wanted to learn what necessity there was
for so many ordinations, and why the quality of strength was
dwelt upon. His predecessor had been a great preacher, and
had attracted a great deal of attention, and persons of a certain
class, not afraid to go anywhere, were his attendants. Every
Sunday night Father Crooke was unhappy without " a row."
His attacks upon other religionists were sure to bring up some
of the audience on their feet in opposition, and then the dea-
cons were called for : " Deacons, this man challenges me to
" show him a miracle, and asks me to cast out devils. We
" can do it. Deacons, cast Mm out ! " That unfortunate oppo-
nent was in a moment clutched by the neck and hands, and
hurried to the door. If he was resolute and opposed the