The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon

The Coming Forth Of The Book Of Mormon

By Elders E. Cecil McGavin and A. S. Reynolds

CONDENSED FROM THE LIAHONA

Note: Elder McGavin, author of many books of Church interest, is; collaborating with Elder Reynolds in a new book to be called Joseph Smith, an Inspired Translator. This article is from the manuscript, and will be augmented by other excerpts from time to time.

MORE than a century ago a bulky manuscript was offered to the editor of a country newspaper for publication in book form. This strange story had attracted considerable attention before it was ready for the press. It seemed to strike fear into all who knew of it as if it were destined to plague all who came in contact with it. The natives about Palmyra- looked upon it as a bearer of malevolent tidings that would bring affliction to its readers.They considered it their sacred duty to prevent its publication, thus protecting the public against its evil influence.

The strange book was to be: known as the Book of Mormon. Palmyra, New York,, was the village where it would be published. Long before the manscript was ready for the press the enterprise had been bitterly opposed by the irate citizens of the community.

The spirit of persecution was so bitter that a second manuscript copy of the lengthy document was made as a precaution in case one copy should be destroyed by the enemy. When editor Grandin of Palmyra finally agreed to undertake the task of publication it was deemed wise to take but a small portion of the manuscript to him at a time, a guard always accompanying the bearer of the sheets of the strange book.

While the book was in process of printing it was discovered that the editor of another country newspaper had been taking sections from the manuscript of the Book of Mormon and publishing them in his paper. He promised his readers that if they would subscribe for his paper he would print “Joe Smith’s Gold Bible” in serial form so they would not be obliged to buy the book when it came from the press.

His garbled extracts were distorted and interwoven with stupid material of his own composition in an effort to create an unfavourable impression upon all who read his column. About eight numbers of his country paper bore these pilfered extracts to the public before Mr. Cole was forced to desist from his nefarious course.

Men of the community entered into a solemn covenant that they would never purchase a single copy of the book in case it ever issued from the press nor would they permit their families to purchase or read the book.

The editorial opinions of the time expressed sorrow and contempt for the strange book. Nobody believed that it would survive its generation or be known beyond Palmyra, save as a stupid fabrication. What would these opponents have thought if Joseph Smith had told them that the book they so bitterly opposed would become the second best-seller in the world; no book, save the Bible, holding an abiding and universal appeal more than the Book of Mormon was destined to hold? Joseph Smith was credited with predicting some startling prophecies, yet none of them would have seemed more untenable than the above.

In the mass meetings in Palmyra when it was agreed that none of the citizens would read the book in case it finally was issued from the press, what would they have said if Joseph Smith had predicted that the blind would be privileged to read the Book of Mormon? Yet scarcely a century after it came from the Palmyra press it was published in Braille—an elegant edition of seven large volumes—that the blind may not be denied this fascinating message which in popular favour is second only to the Bible.

Though the prejudiced population at Palmyra refused to read A the book, it has gone to every civilized nation of the earth where its pious readers have been touched by its magic spell, and have hearkened to its secret call to “go up to the mountain of the Lord, and the house of the God of Jacob.”

The citizens of Palmyra likely thought that an edition of 5,000 would never be sold; that no other edition of the book would ever be published; that the Palmyra edition would last until the end of time.

Though the experienced editors are in touch with the likes and dislikes of the public they hesitate to issue a large first edition of any book. Most firms limit their most favourable books to a first edition of 2,500 copies.

In every civilized nation today are thousands of cultured people who reverently read the sacred book which Palmyra’s enraged citizens pledged themselves not to read. The first edition, though of surprisingly large proportions, was sold among the Bible readers upon the frontier. Successive editions have taken more than a million copies to the nations of the earth.

More people have read the book in far off Iceland than there were citizens in Palmyra in 1830. More readers in South Africa have been touched by the Nephite Record than there were settlers in Wayne County when the bitterly-opposed book came from Grandin’s press. More American Indians have read the hook in recent years than there were prejudiced petitioners in Palmyra who protested against its publication.

This book of scripture has been read by more people in the past century than there are citizens in New York state at the present time. For every petitioner in Palmyra who protested against the publication of the strange book, untold thousands have read and revered it.

The bitterly-opposed book which first issued from the press in Palmyra became a never-dying book. In vast numbers it has been borne to the civilized nations of the earth, having been published in eighteen languages, as follows: English, Danish, German, French, Italian, Welsh, Hawaiian, Swedish, Spanish, Maori, Dutch, Samoan, Tahitian, Turkish, Japanese, Czecho-Slovakian, Arabic and Armenian.

The Book of Mormon has been translated but not published in Greek; Hindoostanee, Hebrew, Bulgarian and Russian languages. In 1869 it was published in the Deseret Alphabet; in 1936 in the Braille system for the blind.

As unbiased scholars study the Book of Mormon they see evidence on every page that acclaims it a divine revelation. The scholarships of the present generation will yet reveal a mine of precious evidence in support of the divinity of this book of scripture which our parents did not know, yet the spirit of testimony in the hearts of the present generation cannot be greater than was that of our fathers.