The Book of Mormon Confirmed (10 February 1898)

THE BOOK OF MORMON CONFIRMED.

[Concluded from page 77.]

The Book of Mormon states that at the time of the Savior's crucifixion a great and terrible destruction took place upon the continent of America. It also contains a record of the Savior’s appearance and ministry on that continent after His resurrection. (See III Nephi).

Destruction at Time of the Crucifixion.

Concerning the destruction that occurred at the time of the crucifixion, the record says:

“And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, in the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land;

“And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terri­ble thunder, insomuch, that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder;

“And there were exceeding sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land.

“And the city of Zarahemla did take fire;

“And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned;

“And the earth was carried up upon the city of Moronihah, that in the place of the city thereof, there became a great mountain;

“And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward.

“But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward: for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings, and the light­nings, and the exceeding great quaking of the whole earth:

“And the highways were broken up and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough,

“And many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were burned, and many were shook till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate;

“And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof was exceeding great, and there were many in them who were slain;

“And there were some who were carried away in the whirlwind; and whither they went, no man knoweth, save they know that they were car­ried away;

“And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth.

“And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch, that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams, and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.” (III Nephi 8:5, 18).

Mr. William Niven, a well-known American mineralogist of New York gives the following account of discoveries he made in the mountains of the state of Guerrero, Mexico. His exploring trip was taken in the year 1894:

“About noon we camped at a spring in a deep canyon. The guide promised to show us the first sign of ruins at a place called Yerba Buena. We soon saw the first evidences of pre-historic structures, which, however, were little more than foundations. But the surprise at the top of the hill removed all doubts of the Indian’s veracity, for there before us was what was once evidently a great temple, occupying a space of 200 x 300 feet. In the centre was an altar of solid masonry ten feet square and in a good state of preservation. At each corner the foundations and part of the walls of circular towers, six feet thick, were plainly visible. Climbing to the top of one tower I found it covered with charcoal dust to the depth of eighteen inches. Then we mounted our horses and traveled till dusk, nearly ten miles, among the ruins of what was one time a great city. The houses, substantially built of stone and lime, had been from fifty to eighty feet square. The ruins were found only on the ridges of the mountains, while on the sides near the summit were visible many foundations. After descending from the summit 400 or 500 feet there were no signs of ruins of any description.”

* * * * * *

“The ruins which I was fortunate enough to discover in Guerrero are very extensive—much more so than I at first supposed. At a rather rough estimate I should say that territory of over 900 square miles was literally covered, foot by foot, with sections of ruins. Every ridge and hilltop bore the remains of ancient temples, some of them mammoth in proportions. In most instances these pre-historic structures, owing to the wind and rain of centuries, were little more than foundations, beneath which I invariably found some unique and curious objects. Still, many of them stand from three to eight feet high and are substantially built of stone and lime.

“The ruins have the appearance of belonging to one vast city, and subsequent investigations bore out my first impressions on the matter. During the time I was occupied in excavating I visited the ruins of twenty-two temples, with altars in the centre of all of them from five to twenty feet high and from ten to fifteen feet square.”

Mr. Niven, in giving his opinion about the destruction of the great city says:

“Who were these people and how came they to disappear I cannot answer. My impression is that once upon a time the country was one vast plain. It was probably submerged by a titanic convulsion of nature, and with it disappeared its people and their primitive civilization. Later the land was thrust up again, as we see it now, a barren, desolate waste. As the nearest water supply is several miles distant, and that only a small spring, it is evident that some great transformation in nature has taken place since the land was populated.”

How the ruined city visited by Mr. Niven came to be located upon mountain ridges can be understood from what is recorded in the Book of Mormon. The city of Moronihah is mentioned as one which was destroyed by being covered with earth and a mountain being raised in place of it. It is quite probable that this pre-historic city situated in the interior of Mexico met a similar fate to that of Moronihah, and was thrown up into its present position by some mighty upheaval of the earth’s crust, for it is not at all likely that the city was originally built upon a mountain. Mr. Niven’s impression that the country was once a vast plain is consistent with what may be inferred from the account given in the Book of Mormon; and his belief that the remarkable transformation of the country was caused by some great convulsion of nature is also in harmony with the statements made in the sacred book, and goes to confirm the truth of it.

Another testimony to the destruction that took place, evidences of which still remain, is given in the following extract from the San Fran­cisco Herald:

“Captain Walker assures us that the country from the Colorado to the Rio Grande, between the Gila and San Juan, is full of ruined habitations and cities, most of which are on the table-land. Although he had fre­quently met with crumbling masses of masonry and numberless specimens of antique pottery, such as have been noticed in the immigrant trail south of the Gila, it was not until his last trip across that he ever saw a structure standing. On that occasion he had penetrated about midway from the Colorado into the wilderness, and had encamped near the Little Red River, with the Sierra Blanca looming up to the south, when he noticed, at a little distance, an object that induced him to examine fur­ther. As he approached, he found it to be a kind of citadel, around which lay the ruins of a city more than a mile in length. It was located on a gentle declivity that sloped towards Red River, and the lines of the streets could be distinctly traced, running regularly at right angles with each other. The houses had all been built of stone, but all had been reduced to ruins by the action of some great heat, which had evidently passed over the whole country. It was not an ordinary conflagration, but must have been some fierce, furnace-like blast of fire, similar to that issuing from a volcano, as the stones were all burnt—some of them almost cindered, others glazed as if melted. This appearance was visible in every ruin he met with. A storm of fire seemed to have swept over the whole face of the country, and the inhabitants must have fallen before it. In the centre of this city we refer to rose abruptly a rock 20 or 30 feet high, upon the top of which stood a portion of the walls of what had once been an immense building. The outline of the building was still distinct, although only the northern angle with walls 15 or 18 feet long and 10 feet high were standing. These walls were constructed of stone, well quarried and well built. All the south end of the building seemed to have been burnt to cinders and to have sunk to a mere pile of rubbish. Even the rock on which it was built appeared to have been partially fused by the heat. Captain Walker spent some time in examining this interesting spot. He traced many of the streets and the outlines of the houses, but could find no other wall standing. As often as he had seen ruins of this character, he had never until this occasion discovered any of the implements of the ancient people. Here he found a number of hand-mills, similar to those still used by the Pueblos and the Mexicans for grinding their corn. They were made of light porous rock, and consisted of two pieces about two feet long and ten inches wide—the one hollowed out, and the other made convex like a roller to fit the concavity. They were the only articles that had resisted the heat. No metals of any kind were found. Strewn all round might be seen numerous fragments of crockery, sometimes beautifully carved, at others painted. This, however, was not peculiar to this spot, as he had seen antique pottery in every part of the country, from San Juan to the Gila. Captain Walker continued his journey, and noticed several more ruins a little off his route next day; but he could not stop to examine them. On this side of the Colorado he has never seen any remains except of the present races. The Indians have no traditions relative to the ancient people once thickly settled in this region. They look with won­der upon these remains, but know nothing of their origin. Captain Walker, who, we may remark, is a most intelligent and close observer, far superior to the generality of the old trappers, and with a wonderfully retentive memory, is of opinion that this basin, now so barren, was once a charming country, sustaining millions of people, and that its present desolation has been wrought by the action of volcanic fires.”

In an article which appeared in the San Francisco Bulletin just ten years ago, Dr. D.L. Yates says:

“It was said that California possesses some of the oldest known relics on the continent. The first authenticated record of the original occupants was found on the Table Mountain region in Tuolumne County, and is of an age prior to the great volcanic outburst. Fossil remains of the rhin­oceros and an extinct horse are found under the lava layers forming the Table Mountains, which are 1,400 feet thick, 1,700 feet wide and many hundreds of feet high, where the river beds have been washed out and have been covered again to the depth of from three thousand to four thousand feet more since the flow of the lava. This lava rests on a bed of detritus, which is often entered by running tunnels. The human relics and stone implements found in these formations give evidence of human habitants differing from any known since. There have been found spear heads, a pipe of polished stone, two scoops of stealetic rock (resembling the grocer’s scoop), an implement of aragonits, resembling an unbent bow, but the use of which is unknown and cannot be conjectured, a stone needle, with notches at the larger end, and the finest charmstones that have ever been found.

“There have been brought to light the fossils of nine mastodons, twenty elephants, various pachyderms in the Table Mountains, numerous evi­dences of animal life in the calcareous formations in the Texas flats, obsidian spear heads, fossils of the elephant, horse and camel about Hornites, bones and evidences of pre-historic Luman industry in Tulare, and in Trinity and Siskiyou many proofs of the contemporaneous existence of man and extinct mammals.”

The Philadelphia Record, a few years ago published the following des­patch from Fort Davis, Texas:

“A strange discovery has been lately made by a surveying party of the Kansas City, El Paso and Mexico Railroad, at a point in Southern New Mexico, not very far from Las Cruces. Here, amid a tremendous lava flow, a veritable sea of obsidian or black glass, a hidden city has been discovered. It is probably of Toltec origin, a race of people who lived and died before the new world was thought of. The surrounding country is the most desolate and God-forsaken region one can imagine. There is no soil about it.

“The obsidian, molten or black glass at the moment of cooling evidently became agitated, for it now lies in ragged waves and billows of fantastic shape, some of the ridges from twelve to fourteen feet high and capped like the sea waves with a combing crest of greenish white. The action of the winds and elements (I mean the dry, parching blasts of terrible force) have literally burned some parts of this region into powdered dust.

“At the northern extremity, where the unknown city lies partly un­covered, the ruins of gigantic stone buildings peer forth into the light of day. Some of these buildings are simply tremendous. One which appears to have been a sort of amphitheatre or colosseum covers about four acres, and was certainly constructed in a most substantial manner. … In this particular locality (I mean where the city is) the country is a waste of fine lava ashes, the sport of the winds.

“The whirlwind and sand augers have scooped out the dust, and thus exposed the city. No legend or story exists to show how or when it was founded, or whether it was abandoned or destroyed. The latter seems most likely, and probably, too, by an earthquake, at some remote period, which threw the lava and fire up. No volcano is known to exist in the neighborhood. The spot is forty miles from water, and out of the line of travel.”

Several months ago a pre-historic burying ground was discovered in the Choctaw Indian country, when the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railway was built through it. The workmen, in grading brought to light tons of human bones and a great number of implements of warfare.

An American archaeologist, Professor Walters, has made a scientific investigation of this burying ground. He found it to cover thirty acres, and estimates that it contained 75,000 skeletons of men slain in battle. They were buried in sand, and according to the statements of Professor Walters, as given recently in the New York Sun, there were two distinct strata of earth formations above the sand. This led the professor to the conclusion that if the strata were formed there after the ancient warriors were buried, they have lain there for twenty thousand years. But as it is out of reason to believe such is the case, the only conclusion that can be accepted is that some convulsions of nature have caused them to be thus covered.

Many discoveries have been made that give evidence of great eruptions in America. The San Francisco Herald stated some years ago that Mr. Butterfield, in running a tunnel in Table Mountain, near Sonora, Cali­fornia, found a trunk of a large pine tree, one hundred and ten feet from the surface of the ground.

Morse’s Universal Geography states that in Cincinnati the stump of a tree was found ninety-nine feet below the surface of the ground, and another stump containing marks of an ax and iron rust was found ninety- four feet deep in the earth. Ancient implements have been found at various depths in the earth, and in widely separated parts of the country, which all go to confirm the account given in the Book of Mormon con­cerning what happened upon the American continent at the time of the crucifixion.

The Messiah Known to the Ancient Inhabitants of America.

James Wells, D.D., in the Sunday Magazine, says:

‘‘A Savior, at once human and divine, has a supreme place in the creed of the Red-man. The thoughtful Indians also felt the pressure of the solemn facts and needs of life. They groped in the darkness, and stretched forth hands of entreaty to God. In their deep need, they yearned for a teacher and helper; and somehow or other, they believed that he had come, or would yet come to them. They had dim, confused suggestions and cravings that could find their realization only in Christ. Their traditions are rich in myths and legends which cluster round Hiawatha, the messenger and representative of God. They regard Hiawatha as the relative of the Great Spirit and they call him ‘uncle,’ that is, kinsman. Schoolcraft has col­lected the Hiawatha legend in a very interesting book.

“Hiawatha was a sort of Red Indian Messias. Though a heavenly being he was born a child on earth, and his birth was wondrous. He came into the world long ago and instituted ‘the Grand Medicine.’ He had super­human powers, and used them all to bless men. In sending him, the Creator smiled upon His helpless children. All the evil spirits strove against him, but he conquered them and gained strength from the struggle. He used to spend days in fasting and prayer, and he went about continually doing good. He taught the Indians picture writing and the art of healing. He gave them the Indian corn, and showed how to rear and use it. He brought them the pipe of peace, and persuaded them to bury the bloody hatchet and war club. He prophesied that, after he had left them, they would take to quarrelling and fighting, and that they would be driven from their hunting-grounds far westward, like the cloud-rack of a tempest, like the withered leaves of autumn. He told them of the isles of the blest and the land of the hereafter. They also believe that he conducts souls to the other world; and they expect him to come again to the earth.”

Prescott, in his “Conquest of Mexico,” page 465, speaks of the astonish­ment of the Catholic priests who accompanied the expedition of Cortez, and found Christian rites practiced by the Indians. He says:

“They could not suppress their wonder, as they beheld the cross, the sacred emblem of their own faith, raised as an object of worship in the temples of Anahuac. They met with it in various places; and an image of a cross may be seen at this day, sculptured in bas-relief on the walls of one of the buildings of Palenque, while a figure bearing some resemblance to that of a child is held up to it, as if in adoration. Their surprise was heightened, when they witnessed a religious rite which reminded them of the Christian communion, On these occasions, an image of the tutelary deity of the Aztecs was made of flour of maize mixed with blood, and, after consecration by the priests, was distributed among the people, who, as they ate it, ‘showed signs of humiliation and sorrow, declaring it was the flesh of the Deity.' How could the Roman Catholic fail to recognize the awful ceremony of the eucharist? .... With the same feelings they witnessed another ceremony, that of the Aztec baptism           

The Jewish and Christian schemes were strangely mingled together, and the brains of the good fathers were still further bewildered by the mixture of heathenish abominations, which were so closely intertwined with the most orthodox observances. In their perplexity they looked on the whole as the delusion of the devil, who counterfeited the rites of Christianity and the traditions of the chosen people, that he might allure his wretched victims to their own destruction.

Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, relates in his apology, which is in Ms., in the convent of St. Dominic, that when he passed through the kingdom of Yucatan, he found there a respectable ecclesiastic, of mature age; he charged him to proceed into the interior of their country, giving him a certain plan of instruction, in order to preach to them: at the end or a year, thus he wrote to the bishop—he had met with a principal lord, who in­formed him that they believed in God, who resided in heaven, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father was named Yeona, the Son Bahab, who was born of a virgin, named Chibirias, and that of the Holy Spirit was called Euach. Bahab, the Son, they said, was put to death by Eupuro, who scourged Him, and put on His head a crown of thorns, and placed Him with His arms stretched upon a beam of wood, and that on the third day He came to life, and ascended into heaven, where He is with the Father; that immediately after the Euach came in His place as a merchant, bringing precious merchandise, filling those who would with gifts and graces, abundant and divine.”—Antiquities of Mexico.

“The virgin is represented by the Indian paintings, of whom the great Prophet should be born, and that His own people would reject and medi­tate evil against him, and would put him to death; accordingly he is represented in the paintings with his hands and feet tied to the tree.”— Monarquia Indiana.

Rosales in the “History of Chili,” says, “the inhabitants of this extreme southern portion of America, situated at the distance of so many thousand miles from New Spain, and who did not employ paintings to record events, accounted for their knowledge of some doctrines of Christianity by saying, that in former times they had heard their fathers say, a wonderful man had come to that country, wearing a long beard, with shoes and a mantle such as the Mexicans carry on their shoulders, who performed many miracles, cured the sick with water, caused it to rain that their crops of grain might grow, kindled fire at a breath, healing the sick, and giving sight to the blind, and that he spoke with as much propriety and elegance in the language of their country, as if he had always resided in it, address­ing them in words very sweet and new to them, telling them that the Creator of the universe resided in the highest place of heaven, and that many men and women resplendent as the sun dwelt with Him."

Herrera, a Spanish historian of the sixteenth century, in his history of America, volume 4, page 172, says, “Baptism was known in Yucatan; the name they gave it signified to be born again.”

In the foregoing chapters under the above heading considerable secular proof has been presented to corroborate some of the principal statements made in the Book of Mormon; at the same time many less important statements made in that sacred record have been verified by this same testimony of profane writers. The proof adduced in support of the authen­ticity of the Book of Mormon by the discoveries and observations of modern explorers is made the more forcible by the fact that they who have fur­nished it were not believers in the divinity of the book. Many, if not all of them, published to the world the results of their researches, and their conclusions respecting them, without knowing anything about the con­tents of the book, and therefore they had no predilection for it. It might be truthfully added that among all the discoveries made that furnish any information respecting the ancient Americans nothing has been found to conflict with or disprove any assertion contained in that most remarkable volume, the Book of Mormon.