The Book of Mormon

THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(From the “Times and Seasons.”)

“The following article was forward­ed to President Joseph Smith, by A.G. Gano, Esq., of Cincinnati, (Ohio.) It originally appeared in the “New Yorker,” and is from the pen of “Josephine,” supposed Gen. Sandford’s daughter. We consider it one of the most candid articles that has ever appeared in relation to our peo­ple; though there is one error into which the learned and impartial authoress has fallen—it is in comparing the Book of Mormon to the Koran of Mahomet. Mahomet had not the ad­vantage of the Urim and Thummim by which the ancients were consti­tuted seers—the article, however, is candid, and from the pen of a ready writer, and gives the most indubitable evidence that persons of taste, and high literary acquirements, are willing to give us an impartial hear­ing. Truth, naked truth, is all we ask, and we are ready for trial at the bar of reason.”

“THE BOOK OF MORMON.”

One of the greatest literary curio­sities of the day, is the much abused “Book of Mormon.” That a work of the kind should be planned, ex­ecuted, and given to the scrutiny of the world by an illiterate young man of twenty—that it should gain nu­merous and devoted partizans here and in Europe, and that it should agitate a whole State to such a de­gree, that law, justice, and humanity were set aside to make a war of extermination on the new sect, seems scarcely credible in the nineteenth century, and under this liberal government; yet such is the fact.

The believers in the book of Mor­mon now number well nigh 50,000 souls in America, to say nothing of numerous congregations in Great Britain. They style themselves Lat­ter-day Saints, as it is a prominent point in their faith that the world is soon to experience a great and final change. They believe, and insist upon believing, literally, the Old and New Testament; but they also hold that there are various other in­spired writings which, in due season, will be brought to light. Some of these (the Book of Mormon for example) are even now appearing, after having been lost for ages. They think that in the present generation will be witnessed the final gathering together of all the true followers of Christ into one fold of peace and pu­rity—in other words, that the Millen­nium is near. Setting aside the near approach of the Millennium and the Book of Mormon, they resemble in faith and discipline the Methodists, and their meetings are marked by the fervid simplicity that characterizes that body of Christians. It is in be­lieving the Book of Mormon in­spired that the chief difference con­sists; but it must be admitted that is an important distinction.

This is their own declaration of faith in that point: A young man named Joseph Smith, in the western part of New York, guided, as he says, by Divine Inspiration, found in 1830, a kind of stone chest or vault contain­ing a number of thin plates of gold held together by a ring, on which they were all strung, and engraved with unknown characters. The cha­racters the Latter-day Saints believe to be the ancient Egyptian, and that Smith was enabled by inspiration to translate them—in part only, however, for the plates are not entirely given in English. This translation is the Book of Mormon, and so far it is a faint and distant parallel of the Koran. In much the same way Mahomet presented his code of religion to his followers, and on that authority the sceptre-sword of Islamism now sways the richest and widest realms that ever bowed to one faith. But the Saints have a very different career before them: their faith is opposed to all violence, and, from the nature of their peculiar doctrines, they must soon die of themselves if they are wrong. If the appointed signs that are to announce the approach of the Millennium do not take place immediately, the Lat­ter-day Saints must, by their own showing, be mistaken, and their faith fall quietly to the ground. So, to persecute them merely for opinion’s sake is as useless as it would be un­just and impolitic.

The Book of Mormon purports to be a history of a portion of the chil­dren of Israel, who found their way to this continent after the first de­struction of Jerusalem. It is conti­nued from generation to generation by a succession of prophets, and gives in different books an account of the lost nation. The Golden Book is an abridgment by Mormon, the last of the prophets, of all the works of his predecessors.

The style is a close imitation of the scriptural, and is remarkably free from any allusions that might betray a knowledge of the present political or social state of the world. The writer lives in the whole strength of his imagination in the age he portrays. It is difficult to imagine a more diffi­cult literary task than to write what may be termed a continuation of the Scriptures, that should not only avoid all collision with the authentic and sacred word, but even fill up many chasms that now seem to exist, and thus receive and lend confirmation in almost every book.

To establish a plausibly-sustained theory that the aborigines of our continent are descendants of Israel without committing himself by any asser­tion or description that could be con­tradicted, shows a degree of talent and research that in an uneducated youth of twenty is almost a miracle in itself.

A copy of the characters on some of the golden leaves was transmitted to a gentleman of this city, who of course was unable to decipher them, but thought they bore a great resem­blance to the ancient Egyptian cha­racters. 

If on comparison it appears that these characters are similar to those recently discovered on those ruins in Central America which have attract­ed so much attention lately, and which are decidedly of Egyptian ar­chitecture, it will make a strong point for Smith. It will tend to prove that the plates are genuine, even if it does not establish the truth of his inspiration, or the fidelity of his translation.

In any case our constitution throws its protecting ægis over every reli­gious doctrine. If the Saints have violated the law, let the law deal with the criminals; but let not a mere opinion, however absurd and delu­sive it may be, call forth a spirit of persecution. Persecution, harsh daughter of cruelty and ignorance, can never find a home in a heart truly republican. Opinion is a household god, and in this land her shrine is inviolate  JOSEPHINE.