An Objection to the Book of Mormon Answered

AN OBJECTION TO THE BOOK OF MORMON ANSWERED.

Objectors to the Book of Mormon have tried in many ways to produce evidence that it is not a genuine ancient record. If one of the many thousand statements contained in it could be proven false no doubt those who oppose the book would be gratified. If it could be shown, for in­stance, that gold, silver and copper were not to be found in Chili, the country where Lehi and his little colony landed, those who seek to prove the Book of Mormon false would not be slow to proclaim it, because the record states that these metals were found there.

It has been claimed that the Book of Mormon was not true because it mentions that the horse was found on the American continent by the Nephites, while it was generally supposed that the first horses were intro­duced into the country by the Spanish conquerors. This claim has been silenced by the existing evidences that the supposition concerning the horse was not well founded.

In the eighth verse of the first chapter of the Book of Jarom it is re­corded that the people were rich in gold and silver and precious things, and also in “iron and copper, and brass and steel.” People still bring this as an evidence against the validity of the book. They insist that iron was unknown to the ancient peoples of America. This statement, if true, would contradict the assertion made by Jarom, the writer of one of the books compiled in the Book of Mormon. If modern explorations and dis­coveries revealed no trace of iron in the arts practiced by the ancient American inhabitants it would not affect the validity of the record. Iron is such a corrosive metal that it would not be preserved for so many cen­turies except under the most favorable circumstances. It is therefore not to be expected that much evidence of its use two thousand years ago could be found in this age.

There are instances on record, however, where iron has been discovered among the relics of the ancient inhabitants of America. These discoveries are not new ones. Accounts of them have been published years ago. They are without doubt authentic, and we reproduce some of them here for the benefit of those who may have the objection presented to them that the Book of Mormon is not true because it is supposed that iron was not known to the ancient Americans.

EXTRAORDINARY “FIND” OF PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS.

The Leeds Mercury, of April 11, 1882, under the above heading, published the appended article:

“In the excavations necessary for laying down a drain in the centre of the city of San Francisco, near the Church, the Antiquary says, perhaps one of the largest ‘finds’ of pre-historic bronzes ever made was unearthed.

“At a small distance below the surface, under a stratum of ashes and charcoal, the pick and shovel laid bare one of those immense urns of terracotta. The urn broke on contact with the air, displaying inside an extra­ordinary collection of bronze subjects all carefully packed, so as to occupy the least possible amount of space, the heaviest and largest at the bottom and against the sides, the lightest at the top and in the centre.

“There were found literally several hundreds of hatchets, representing all the Mediterranean and Danubian types—sickles, chisels, saws, files, gouges, knives, razors, bracelets, plaques covered with embossed ornaments, more than 2,000 fibulae, lance-heads, poniards, swords and ingots of metal.

“Altogether there were 14,000 objects, the weight exceeding a ton and a half. The greater part were well worn or purposely broken up. Some of the jewelry had been mended with iron rivets, that metal being then doubtless considered as precious.

“It was easy to recognize that either a foundry or the stock of a bronze­smith of the first Iron Age had been unearthed. This large quantity of old bronze, belonging to preceding periods, had, without doubt, been gathered in the neighborhood by some industrious metal-worker, who was perhaps on the point of re-smelting the whole, when, surprised by a war, by a siege, or an invasion, he determined to bury the mass in his work­shop, hiding the place with the ashes from his fire. The danger over, he intended to unbury his treasures; but the accidents of war, his death, or that of those to whom he may have confided the secret, prevented the dis­covery of the store, which was left to the present generation, to show us something of the otherwise undiscoverable existence of 3,000 years ago.

“Competent authorities agree in declaring that nothing comparable to this ‘find’ of pre-historic antiquities has ever been found.”

The following is abridged from a letter by Dr. S.P. Hildred, President of the American Antiquarian Society, dated Marietta, November 3, 1819.

“In removing the earth composing an ancient mound in the streets of Marietta (Ohio,) on the margin of the plain, near the fortifications, several curious articles were discovered. They were found buried with a person for whom the mound appears to have been erected. Among the articles found were three large circular ornaments for a belt or buckler, which are composed of copper plated with silver; also two small pieces of leather lying between the plates of these ornaments. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appears to have been the upper part of a sword-scabbard. It seems to have been fastened to the scabbard by three or four rivets, the holes of which remain in the silver. Two or three broken pieces of a copper tube were also found filled with iron rust. These pieces from their appearance, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword. No signs of the sword itself were discovered, except the appearance of rust above mentioned.”

“Also copper was known to the antediluvians. Copper was also known to the authors of the western monuments. Iron was known to the antedi­luvians, It was also known to the ancients of the west. However, it is evident that very little iron was among them, as very few instances of its discovery in their works have occured; and for this reason we draw a con­clusion that they came to this country very soon after the dispersion, and brought with them such few articles of iron as have been found in their works in an oxydized state.” (From Priest’s “American Antiquities,” published in 1835.)

“A young man by the name of Wiley, a resident in Kinderhook, Pike County, went by himself and labored diligently one day in pursuit of a supposed treasure, by sinking a hole in the centre of a mound.

“Finding it quite laborious, he invited others to assist him. A company of ten or twelve repaired to the mound and assisted in digging out the shaft commenced by Wiley. After penetrating the mound about eleven feet, they came to a bed of limestone that had been subject to the action of fire. They removed the stones which were small and easy to handle, to the depth of two feet more when they found six brass plates secured and fastened together by two iron wires, but were so decayed that they readily crumbled to dust upon being handled.

The plates were so completely covered with rust as to almost obliterate the characters inscribed upon them; but, after undergoing a chemical process, the inscriptions were brought out plain and distinct,”—Quincy Whig, 1842.

“While some hands were digging out a cellar in Botetourt County, Va., they came upon a quantity of coin, consisting of some eight pieces, in an iron box about 14 inches square. The coin was larger than a dollar, and the inscription in a language wholly unknown to any person in the vicinity. Upon digging some sixteen inches lower, they came to a quantity of iron implements of singular and heretofore unseen shape. Several scientific gentlemen have examined into the matter, and come to the conclu­sion that the coins, together with the other curiosities, must have been placed there at an extremely early date, and before the settlement of the country.”—New York Despatch.