A Testimony from the Dust

A TESTIMONY FROM THE DUST

James E. Talmage

OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE

ON SEPTEMBER 22, 1827, Joseph Smith, a youthful resident of Manchester, New York, took from the side of a hill in that vicinity a book made up of thin leaves of beaten gold, held together by rings after the fashion of our modern loose-leaf records. As described by the finder, and by others to whom they were shown, these golden leaves or plates were engraved with line characters having all the appearance of ancient and curious workmanship.

The engraved plates had been laid away with care and attention to preservation; for, when uncovered, they were found, together with certain other antique objects, resting in a small vault or box of stone. “The box in which they lay,” wrote Joseph Smith, “was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.” The top slab or lid of the box “was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.”

As subsequent examination proved, the graven characters Avere of the Egyptian type, and the writing constituted a history of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Continent, of whom the existing tribes of American Indians are the posterity. A part of the ancient record has been translated into English and the modern version was first published in 1830 as The Book of Mormon. Since that time editions have been multiplied, and the book is now printed in every modern language of prominence, and in several of the more primitive tongues still spoken on the isles of the sea. Many millions of copies have been issued and the book is easily accessible.

The Book of Mormon is an abridgment of the writings of a long succession of scribes; and the compilation was deposited by Moroni, the last of the recorders, about 420 A.D., after he had attested with his own hand the genuineness of the record. He laid it away in the prepared receptacle of stone and cement, on the side of the hill known to him and his people as Cumorah and currently called ‘‘Mormon Hill” by the people of the vicinity—in and about Palmyra and Manchester, New York.

The Book of Mormon contains pointed and specific predictions of its own coming forth in the latter days; and these prophecies harmonise with the Bible Scriptures. The ancient peoples whose voice is again heard among the living were of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and therefore of the family of Joseph, son of Jacob. With this fact in mind, the thoughtful student finds profound significance in the otherwise obscure words of (37:15-20):

“The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.”

To the puzzled questioners who would ask the meaning of all this, the prophet was told to declare the Lord’s purpose in this wise:

“Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.”

Plainly the record of Judah, which we recognise as the Holy Bible, was to be supplemented by the record of Joseph; and the bringing forth of the latter was to be effected by the direct exercise of Divine power, for the Lord said “I will take the stick of Joseph and of the two He averred “they shall be one in mine hand," even as the prototypes had become one in the hand of Ezekiel.

If the testimony of scholars as to Biblical chronology be reliable, Lehi and his colony had already crossed the great waters and become well established in America when Ezekiel voiced this significant prophecy concerning the “stick” or record of Joseph as being distinct from that of Judah. The prediction has been fulfilled. The Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon, the records of Judah and Joseph respectively, are before the world, each attesting the authenticity of the other, and each standing as an irrefutable testimony of the atoning life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A century and a half earlier, Isaiah had cried wo unto Ariel, the City of David; and had made distinction between Judah who then occupied Ariel or Jerusalem, and another people with whom comparison is made. Note the prediction:

“And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” (Isa. 29:4).

The nation thus “brought down” has spoken “out of the ground”; her speech has come forth “out of the dust”; for the original of the Book of Mormon was actually taken out of the ground, and the voice of the sacred record is as that of one speaking from the dust of the past.