Remarks on the Book of Mormon

REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON.

By Elder William Gibson.

(Continued from page 228.)

I shall now turn to the late discoveries in America, by Stephens and others, and also to the traditions of the Indiana themselves, as corroborative evidence of the truth of what has been already advanced, and of other things contained in the Book of Mormon.

The following is from a work on the origin of the American Indians, by C. Col­ton, published by him in London, in the year 1833:—“They assert that a book was once in the possession of their ancestors, and along with this recognition they have traditions that the Great Spirit used to foretell to their fathers future events, that he controlled nature in their favour; that angels once talked with them; that all the Indian tribes descended from one man, who had twelve sons; that this man was a notable and renowned prince, having great dominions; and that the Indians, his posterity, will yet recover the same dominion and influence; they believe by tra­dition, that the spirit of prophecy and miraculous interposition once enjoyed by their ancestors will yet be restored to them, and that they shall yet recover the book, all of which has been so long lost.”

Here then is Ephraim at the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, where his seed has become a multitude of nations; here shut out for ages from the rest of mankind, he has been as a wild ass, alone by himself; and here God has revealed unto him the great things of his law, “but they have been counted as a strange thing.”

How beautiful and plain the prophecies of the Bible are, and how exactly fulfilled, if we believe in the Book of Mormon; and how dark and mysterious must many of them for ever be to those who reject it. If it takes two witnesses to esta­blish a thing, then here we have them, the one giving the prophecies, and the other their fulfilment.

Before the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, the American Indians were looked upon by men in general, with the exception of a very few writers, to be a race of savages, who being shut out from the rest of the civilised world, had continu­ed from age to age without a knowledge of the arts and sciences, without any means of transmitting to posterity their history as a people except by tradition, and there­fore when the Book of Mormon was first published, declaring that the American Indians were a remnant of Israel, of the seed of Joseph; that they had once been a civilised people; that the arts and sciences had flourished among them; that they once had a knowledge of the true and living God; that they had built great and mighty cities, and even gave the location where some of these cities once stood; that they used to engrave their records on plates of gold or brass, and thus hand down their history to posterity, and that the language they used in writing was called by them the reformed Egyptian, and known to no other people; the wise men laughed at these absurdities, as they called them, and wondered that any could be found foolish enough to believe them. But time rolls on, and at length Mr. Stephens astonishes the world by publishing his discoveries of the ruins of large and mighty cities, magnificent temples, and statues, covered with hieroglyphics; some of them found on the very location pointed out years before in the Book of Mormon as the place where great and mighty cities once stood. Hear the remarks of Mr. Stephens, on viewing the ruins of Copan, “We sat down on the very edge of the wall, and I strove in vain to penetrate the mystery by which we were surrounded. Who were the people who built the city? In the ruins of Egypt, even in the long lost Petra, the stranger knows the story of the people whose vestiges are around him. America, says historians, was peopled by savages, but savages never reared these structures—savages never carved these stones. We asked the Indians who made them, and their dull answer was, Quien sabe, (who knows)? There were no associations connected with the place, none of those stir­ring recollections which hallow Rome, Athens, and ‘the world's great mistress on the Egyptian plain.’ But architecture, sculpture, and painting, all the arts which em­bellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest, orators, warriors, and statesmen, beauty, ambition, and glory, had lived and passed away, and none knew that such things had been, or could tell of their past existence. Books, the records of know­ledge, are silent on this theme, the city was desolate.” How fitly does the words of Isaiah in his 29th chapter apply to them, “And thou shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust.” The history of that people lies inscribed on these fallen ruins; it speaks to men from the ground, and whispers from the dust, but none can understand it till the sealed book comes forth, to declare their origin, their history, and their fall.

The Book of Mormon is the history of that people. In the second European edi­tion, which is the one I will use on this occasion, page 515, we are told that the ancient inhabitants of America used to engrave their records on plates, and that the language they used in doing so was called by them the reformed Egyptian, and that it was known to no other people.

Let us now look at the testimony of some recent discoveries, corroborative of these two things; first, then for proof that the ancient inhabitants of America did engrave their records on plates. Hear the following testimony of the discovery of other plates by people not one of whom belonged to the church of Latter-day Saints, about sixteen years after those discovered by Joseph Smith.

“To the editor of the Times and Seasons.—We, citizens of Kinderhook, whose names are annexed, do certify and declare, that on the 23rd of April, 1843, while excavating a large mound in this vicinity, Mr. M. Wiley took from said mound six brass plates of a bell shape, covered with ancient characters, the plates were very much oxidated, the bands and rings on said plates mouldered into dust on a slight pressure. The above described plates we have handed to Mr. Sharp, for the pur­pose of having them taken to Nauvoo.

The Quincy Whiff, after recording this discovery, remarks, “The plates above alluded to were exhibited in this city last week, and are now, we understand, in Nauvoo, subject to the inspection of the Mormon Prophet, and if Smith can decipher the hieroglyphics on the plates, he will do more towards throwing light on the early history of this continent than any man now living.

Again, we find their ancient monuments covered with hieroglyphics. Is it then

an unreasonable thing to believe that a people who could engrave their history on their monuments, wont do the same on plates of gold or brass, seeing the disco­veries made, show us they knew the use of the various metals with which the country abounds? certainly not; the unreasonableness would lie in believing the contrary; thus we see that subsequent discoveries have corroborated this part of the testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Again, the language they used in engraving was said to be the Egyptian, altered by them, and called the reformed Egyptian, and that no other people knew it. I well remember some ten years ago the Rev. C. J. Kennedy, in Scotland, using this as one of his strongest arguments to prove the Book of Mormon false, that it was said to have been engraved in Egyptian characters, but recent discoveries have proved this would-be wise man wrong.

I take the following from the Edinburgh Evening Courant, of October 16th, 1848, in an article on the discoveries in America, the writer says:—"We shall here simply remark, that whoever looks at the able drawings in Stephens’s book on Cen­tral America, will perceive them to be covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Hamyaratic letters, such as those lately discovered in Southern Arabia, and at once perceive that the figures and lineaments are those of superior Asiatic nations."

Again, we see the testimony of the Book of Mormon is true, for men are forced to own these hieroglyphics are Egyptian, yet still no man can read them.

No, their language is lost, their cities are desolate,—their prophets—their rulers —their seers, are gone, and the vision, the history of all is a sealed book, the words of which are delivered to the learned, but he cannot read them; he saith it is sealed, and the book is delivered to the unlearned, saying, read this, I pray thee, but he saith I am not learned, wherefore the Lord had to do a marvellous work and a wonder in making the unlearned to understand and read the words of the book, and thus made the wisdom of the wise to perish, and the understanding of the prudent to be hid. How beautifully does the testimony of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and discoveries now making agree together.

I shall now take a look at some other things recorded in the Book of Mormon. In page 40 we are told that the ancient inhabitants of America were acquainted with the writings of Moses and the prophets, for Nephi says:—“And I did read many things unto them, which were written in the Book of Moses, but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer, I did read unto them that which is written by the prophet Isaiah:” these writings we are told in the 11th page were taken with them from the land of Jerusalem, and contained the five Books of Moses, and the writings of the prophets, till the days of Zedekiah. Com­pare this with the following. Mr. C. Colton in the work already referred to, speaking of their sacrifices, says:—“On certain occasions the victim must not only be white, but a single coloured hair, or a blemish of any sort would be sufficient to condemn it.” He also says that while they sing and dance around the sacrifice, the Hebrew sacred name of Je-ho-vah can be plainly distinguished, and they have also the Hebrew A-la-heem, in substantial forms, applicable to the Great Spirit, and in their sacred songs Ha-le-lu-jah is often heard as perfectly as in any Christian choir; they have also a sacred vessel or Ark of the Covenant, which is employed on some occasions, and is regarded with the most religious veneration.

In the discourse of M. M. Noah on the evidences of the American Indians being descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel, published in New York, in 1837, we find him quoting among others the following authors. Mr. Adair, who after giving a number of Hebrew words in use among them, says:—“The Indians have leir prophets, and high priests, the same as the Jews had, not hastily selected, but chosen with caution from the most, wise and discreet, and they ordain their high priests by anointing, and have a most holy place in their sanctuaries like the Holy of Holies in the temple. The Archimagus or high priest wears, in resemblance to the ancient breastplate, a white conch shell, ornamented so as to resemble the pre­cious stones in the Urim, and instead of the golden plate worn by the Levite on his forehead, the Indian binds his brow with a wreath of swans feathers, and wears a tuft of white feathers which he calls Yatira. The Indians have their Ark, which they invariably carry to battle with them, well guarded. It is also worthy of notice that they never place the Ark on the ground,—on hilly ground, where large stones are plenty, they rest it thereon, but on level prairies, on short logs, on which they also seat themselves.” This statement of Mr. Adair in relation to the Ark is cor­roborated by several travellers. Major Long, a more recent traveller, in his expe­dition to the Rocky Mountains, says in relation to the Ark, “It is placed upon a stand, and is never suffered to touch the ground. Tradition informs them that curiosity induced three different persons to examine the mysterious shell, who were immediately punished for their profanation with constant blindness.” This, then, is corroborative testimony that the Indians were acquainted with the law of Moses, and to show that they had also some knowledge of the Now Testament, I quote the following from a work printed in Loudon 200 years ago, by one Matthew Costerden, entitled Christianographie—“It seemeth that the Americans had some knowledge of Christ before the coming of the Spaniards. Francis Lopez de Comora writes, that the people there honoured the cross. I read also in Postel that a certain Quezel Covatsian, clothed with a white garment, covered with red crosses, preached the fear of one God, and that there should be a retribution of everlasting punish­ment and reward after this life.”

Gomora in his history of the Indians, describing the conference of Nicaragua with Gil Goncales, introduces this chief as putting a variety of questions to the Spaniards. He inquired if the Christians were acquainted with the great deluge which had swallowed up the earth, men, and animals? Whether the earth was to be revolutionized or the firmament to remove, what was the honour due to the triune God, where souls go after death, and what would be their occupation?

The next thing I shall notice is that the Book of Mormon gives an account of the two distinct races of people who inhabited the American continent; the first a people who came from the Tower of Babel, and the other a part of the seed of Jacob, who came from Jerusalem, in the days of Zedekiah, king of Judah. M. Noah, in his discourse on the origin of the American Indians, alter endeavouring to prove the present Indians descendants of Israel, declares that some of the ancient ruins found there must be the work of another people, he says; — “But who were the Tultequans and Azeteques, the founders of this empire in America? Who built the Pyramids of Cholula and city of Palenque? Not the Jews. Here we have a most singular diversion from the path on which we originally set out, (that was to prove the Indians Israelites); another most ex­traordinary discovery, marked too by events no less extraordinary than amazing.” Here, again, the testimony of the Book of Mormon is corroborated.

In the Book of Mormon, from page 503 to 509, we have an account of a wicked and idolatrous race, who sacrificed women and children unto their idols, and of the destruction by them of a nation, en masse, from the earth by war.

In corroboration of this I will give an extract from the New York Sun, of June 8th, 1848.                   “Yucatan is the grave of a great nation, that has mysteriously passed away, and left behind no history. Every forest embosoms the remains of vast tem­ples, sculptured over with the symbols of a lost creed, and noble cities whose stately palaces and causeways attest in their mournful abandonment the colossal grandeur of their builders; they are the gigantic tombs of an illustrious race; but they bear neither name nor epitaph; the conscience stricken awe with which the Indian avoids them, as he relates the confused tradition of a whole people extinguished in blood and fire by his forefathers, a ferocious and cannibal race, delighting in human sacrifices, are all that even conjecture can say of the manner in which the ancient occupants of Yucatan were blotted, en masse, from the page of existence.”

In the Book of Mormon, page 501, we find that the place where the cities stood, and where this people were exterminated, is said to be the narrow pass that led to the land southward, (or that divides North and South America); now look to your maps and you will there find Yucatan where the ruins of these cities still are found, and where according to this extract from the New York Sun, Indian tradition still confirms the truth of the Book of Mormon, on the 346th page of the Book of Mormon, we find an account of their manner of fortifying their cities. “And it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war, or to defend his people against the Lamanites, for he caused that they should commence digging up heaps of earth, round about all the cities throughout all the land possessed by the Nephites.” By reading the next page, you will find that the cities here spoken of as being thus fortified, were in North America.

I shall now give an extract from a work on American antiquities, by Josiah Priest, who, in speaking of these mounds, quotes the testimony of Mr. Breckenridge, who says, “These tumuli, as well as the fortifications, are to be found at the junc­tion of all the rivers along the Mississippi, in the most eligible positions for towns, and in the most extensive bodies of fertile land; their number exceeds, perhaps, three thousand; the smallest not less than twenty feet in height, and three hundred in circumference.” At the base, he says, further, “I am perfectly satisfied that cities similar to those of ancient Mexico, of several hundred thousand, have existed in this western country.” Thus, another part of the Book of Mormon is corrobo­rated.

In page 141, of the Book of Mormon, we read of a portion of the Nephites, (who were white), leaving their brethren, and going away by themselves, so that they were not destroyed, when the rest fell by the hands of the red men, the Lamanites.

In an extract from the American Sun, of November 26, 1846, we are told that a work has been recently published, in which there is a full account of a race of white savages, called Munchees, who are said to be actually in existence, in a valley among the Sierra los Mimbros. Here, again, it is confirmed. The reader will perceive that a great number of these discoveries have been made and published after the Book of Mormon was in print; and every discovery that is made is ano­ther proof of its truth; and not one discovery has been made that contradicts a single statement that it contains; it agrees with them; it agrees with tradition; it agrees with reason; it agrees with the Bible; its prophecies are fulfilling; its doc­trines are pure; and thousands can testify that the Book of Mormon is true.

For the benefit of the Saints, I may say, that they will find many of the fore­going extracts more fully given in some of the former volumes of the Millennial Star.

(To be continued.)