A Treasured Volume

A TREASURED VOLUME

By Lulu Greene Richards

VALUED—and justly so—above all common price, this copy of the Book of Mormon is. It is the one identical which Hyrnm Smith, the martyred Patriarch, took in his hand upon the morning of that fateful day when the Prophet Joseph, and Hyrum, Patriarch, were seized and taken prisoners to Carthage Jail. There, on the twenty-seventh day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-four, ninety years ago this present year, those two brave, noble aud heroic meu, spotless and innocent of any wrong, valiant and true defenders of Jesus’ faith and cause, like Him were sacrificed for that same truth. Their testimony with their blood was sealed. They were shot down by murderers who knew not what they did.

On being taken from his home the Prophet said: “I go like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer's morning.” His brother martyr, Hyrum, took this Book of Mormon from the shelf. The book was opened in the Patriarch’s hands at page six hundred and ten of that, the third edition. And there he read and marked, prophetically, the noted lines which have been often told, and are again repeated here, marked as he marked them then. He folded down a corner of the leaf which still remains as it was left by him.

The Book of Ether, chapter five of that edition, contains those words, appropriate, which Hyrum marked. They follow here copied from that same leaf:

“And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that He would give the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said nnto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not nnto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

“‘And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also nnto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.”

This copy of the Book of Mormon was a gift from Hyrum to his sister-in-law, Mercy Fielding Thompson. By her the book was cherished carefully, through all the after persecutions of the saints, and brought intact unto their place of refuge near the Great Salt Lake.

Her grandson, Robert B.T. Taylor, owns it now, and through his courtesy it is shown to me. With reverential and appreciative touch I hold the book and read again those words significant, marked by Hyrum's hand. Realizing that this privilege now granted me may not be reached by thousands who would prize it, I offer as a substitute these truthful lines, that many interested may behold and read again the works which Hyrum read and marked, and see a duplicate of the marks he made and left as a last testimony of his love, his loyalty and faithfulness to God, and to his Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. Hyrum’s brother and companion martyr, Joseph.—(Relief Society Magazine, 19.)