Show rio fio DISCOURSE 4 t I 1 1 i llyl orson onson pratt jan 21 2 1859 1 1 I 1 1 REPORTED BY ga GD D WATT it 7 I 1 I 1 I 1 wil wll commence my discourse by reading the testimony 0 of three witnesses of the book I 1 CIBE BE it known unto all nations kind kindreds reds redo tongues tongue and people unto whom this work shall come that we through the grace of god the Father Fi ther and our lord jesus christ have seen the plates which contain this record record re cord corO which is a record of the people of nephi and also of the Lama sy their brethren bret brei hren and ard also of the people of oJ ared jared who came from the tower of which hath bath been spoken apo epo keri kerl and we also know that they have been translated trani by the kift gift and power of god for his voice hath bath declared it into unto us wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true and we also testify testily that we have seen the engravings eg ravings which are upon the plates and they have been obern unto us by the power of god and not tot man and we declare with words of po bernees berness that an angel of bf god came down from rom heaven and be brought and laid before pur eyes that we beheld and saw the plates end und the engravings there oi and we know I 1 hat that it is is by the grace of god the father and our bord jesus christ brist that we beheld and beal pear record that these things are true aid it is s i in our eyes nevertheless the voice of the lord commanded us no that we should bear renord record of it wherefore to be obedient unto the commandments of god we bear testie nony of these things and we iv krow know that if we are faithful in chrit christ we shall rid our farmel Farmen garments til tit of the blood of all men and alid be found spot spotless ieso leso before the judgment seat of christ and shall dwell with hlin blin eternally in the heavens beavens ancl and the honor be to the P father ather and to the son arld and to the holy ghost which is one god amen OLIVER COWDERY DAVID WHITMER MARTIN HARRIS sl irvill I 1 will also read the testimony of 61 eight witnesses be it known unto all nations kindreds toi tongues lies lles and people unto whom this work s shall shail b 1 ili iii come that joseph smith jr translator bt bf this work has chewn unto us the plates platea of which hath bath been spoken which have the appearance pe arance of gold and as many of the leaves as lne the said smith has translated we did handle with our hands and we also saw the engravings thereon all of which has the appearance ot of ancient work and of curious workmanship and this we bear record with words of sober ness that the said smith has chewn unto us for we have seen and hefted and know of a surety that the said smith has got the plates of which we have spoken and we give our camp names unto the world to witness unto he wo ili lil that which we have been seen and ive we lie not G god d bearing witness of it CHRISTIAN WHITMER JACOB WHITMER PETER WHITMER jr JOHN WHITMER HIRAM PAGE JOSEPH SMITH sen HYRUM SMITH SAMUEL H SMITH brethren and friends I 1 appear before you today to day for the first time for many months feeling grateful to our father fathe r in n heaven for his condescension conde cension and mercy unto us as a people that we are once more through his kind providence permitted to ass assemble able ourselves together in this tabernacle for the purpose of public worship whether I 1 say enuch or little it is my sincere desire to be dictated by the spirit of the living g god the church of jesus christ of latte latter r D day ta a S saints aln ain is was waa established upon the earth earth in the year 1830 had hail it not been for the book of mormon which I 1 now hold in my hands bands such a church would not have had an existence the probability is there would have been no settlements formed in this territory no cities to adorn these dreary wastes no tabernacles erected for divine worship and ana no congregations assembled to hear the words of life the vast solitudes of these deserts would have been interrupted oni only odly y by the howling of wild beasts or the still more dismal ye bellg Is of the ferocious savage but thi this s wonderful book ook has wrought a vast change and these sterile regions now rejoice and blossom as the rose this book professes to be sent forth as a divine revelation from god if it be an imposition many of our op posers say then this church is an imposition also and our faith fath and hope are vain on the other hand if the book of mormon be a divine revelation as the witnesses have testified it if god has indeed brought forth the ancient history of the american continent and writings of the aa ancient prophets and apostles that once inhabited I 1 this land if be he has baa done this and reestablished his kingdom ald ard church upon the earth dearth 6 then en our op posers that condemn the book hook will be found under condemnation if this book be of god it must have sufficient evidence accompanying it to convince the minds of all reasonable persons that it is a divine revelation if it it has been translated by the gift and power of god through the means of the Uru mand Thum minand angels have been sent from heaven to bear testimony of its troth truth then all the inhabitants of the world are concerned and have an interest in it it is not the few individuals only who are within the walls of this tabernacle that are interested in its truths it is not the few individuals only who inhabit this terri territory tere a and n d the few saints abroad in the world w who h a are interested te to rested in it but all the nations of the earth without one exception their emperors kings and nobles their presidents governors and ruler berei their popes archbishops arch bishops and bishops their learned and arid unlearned of every religious society whether jews Mahome dans pagans or christians are all equally interested in it if it be what it professes to be if the lord will assist and strengthen me by his bis holy spirit which I 1 believe he be will do through your prayers I 1 will endeavor to bring forth some few of the evidences which establish the divine authenticity of the book of mormon I 1 shall compare this evidence with the evidence for the divine authenticity of the bible if the two books are supported by an equal amount of evidence then all are required to have the same faith aith in the one as the other but if the divinity of the book of mormon does not rest upon ao art sure a foundation as the bible hen then the people will have some little reason for rejecting it in the first place I 1 shall examine what evidences the present generation have to believe the various books incorporated in the holy scriptures of the old an and d lew bew new testaments to tor be of divine origin it must be recollected that the book called the bible was translated from manuscripts years ago by king james I 1 translators T the h e manuscripts from wh ich 1 the bible was taken are not now in e existence xi stence I 1 up jp to the year 1749 they were deposited epo sited at a spanish university called alcala anciently named the librarian sold them to one joryo who dealt in fireworks fire works as materials for making sky rockets rackets for authority see marshs marahs michelis Mich nich aeils vol 2 part 1 page the oldest manuscripts of 0 any of the books of the old testament at the present day date from the twelfth century of the christian era you will find proof of this in ia the owdia britannica the eighth edition vol 4 page adge which series is now being published in edinburgh scotland that celebrated work says the sacred books of theold testament have havercome come down to our times in MSS the oldest of which date from twelfth century nothing is known of the history of the text previous to that period after the return of the jews from their captivity itis believed by the learned that the old testament scriptures were all destroyed by the As syrians nearly six bix hundred years before christ the apocrypha a informs us that esdras was inspired to rewrite re write them in this manner it is conjectured that the jews again came in possession of their sacred writings these books again perished in the great persecution of Anti ochus for further information upon this subject see bretts dissertation it in watsons collect vol 3 page 5 0 the history of the inspired writings anterior to the captivity is very brief the number of copies were very few in the days of josiah all of the jews beem seem to have been destitute of a copy of the law during the reign of that king in repairing the house honse of the lord a copy of the book of th the e law w was a 9 found and when presented to the king he sent five messengers to huldah the kroph prophetess f Vs saying go inquire of the lord form for me V and for them that are left in israel and in judah concerning the words 0 of f the book that is found the messengers returned and reported to the king that the book found was indeed a divine revelation and the king caused all ail a the inhabitants of jerusalem to be assembled to hear the words of the book see 11 chron 34 for a long period previous to finding the book the jew jews 8 h had ad been ignorant of the scriptures and had bad fallen into the grossest idolatry A new revelation through the prophetess hul hui dah seems to have been sufficient to convince the king and all israel of the divinity odthe book they must haye have been inclined in that age of the world to believe the history of the servants of god more than in this age for now the people generally require a vast amount of evidence the testimony test mon y of a dozen witnesses is scarcely regarded I 1 have already abse observed arved through the perse cautions raised against the house bouse of Israel their books bonks were destroyed yes even the tables of stone for some reason were taken from them and all ail all ail israel were left without even a copy of the law until accidentally they happened to find one oae that had been hid bid in the house of the lord as I 1 have already named and they were so ignorant with regard to this copy they were obliged to send for huldah the prophet esses in israel to inquire of the lard tornow if it really was his word they found a book but they did not know whether it was true di or false and they thought it important that it should be determined by the immediate word of god why not this generation go and do likewise why not inquire of th the e lord whether the book of ot mormon is t a divine revelation the copy found anci ancl eniy euly enly contained the words of the lord and the people were so rejoiced that the whole nation of jews gathered together to hear bear it read and rejoiced over it and gave heed to its precepts they were not like the present generation they did not fight it and testify all manner of evil against it and anti pub jibb lies against it but they believed it on the testimony of the prophetess it is very probable that the jews copied these sacred writings upon various materials bishop watson informs us that the the hebrews went so far as to write their sacred books in gold lold old as we may learn from josephus compared with pliny ile he further says those books which were inscribed on tablets of wood lead brass or ivory were connected together by rings at the back through which a rod was passed to carry them by the inthe first books continue continued 3 bishop watson were in the form of blocks and tables of which we find frequent mention in scripture under the appellation of SEPHER that is square tables that form which obtains among us he quotes from pliny is the square composed of separate leave leaves which waa was also known though little used among the ancients these copies of the scriptures were destroyed so that the jews jegg were again left destitute debi deai tute of the sacred writings how they again obtained a copy this generation are not informed esdras informs us in the apocrypha i that he was vi as ins inspired red of god to write a great number number of the boor book books s of the old testament scriptures so that the jewish people mi might ht a again ain aln be in in possession of them but how are re this generation to know mow whether esdras was a true prophet or not how are they to know that he was actually inspired of god to perform so great a work it seems that the learned have no confidence in in him or they would not have placed ils bis books among the apocryphal writings as being doubtful but soon after the days of esdras the sacred books again perished how did the jews again obtain copies none of the learned can answer this question for seventeen long centuries the history of the sacred text is is unknown we are informed int ormed by learned writers that about three centuries before christ the hebrew scriptures were translated into greek called the septuagint but have we any copies of the septuagint no you may search all the arc archives hives bives of the nations and you cannot find one of these theme ancient copies fifteen hundred years after this supposed translation you yoli find fidd some greek and hebrew manuscripts let us inquire into the situation of the manuscripts from which our present hebrew and greek bibles were formed we are informed by st chrysostom an ancient christian writer who lived soon after the days ays of christ that many of the prophetical monuments have perished for the jews being careless and not only careless but also impious have carelessly lost some of these monument monuments others they have partly burned partly torn in pieces we are also informed by st justin another early christian writer that the jews actually did destroy a great number of the prophetical books in in order that the world might not perceive the agreement between the ancient prophets in in the old testament and christianity here then we have the testimony of early christian h r stian 8 writers that man many of the prophetical books of the old testament were destroyed we are also informed by the he catholics carbol cs that many and very many of the canonical books of scripture have quite perished and not so much as appeared in the days of the very ancients fathers so that nothing but the names of those books have come unto unions its see Mum fords question of questions sec see 1 ia 7 we are also informed by those manuscripts that are dated from the century of the christian era that the few books that were preserved during the long reign of persecution and error had bad become very much altered and mutilated so much so that when the learned learne d gathered a large number of manuscripts together they found no two that agreed A great variety of readings in these manuscripts discouraged many of our translators some three centuries ago from translating the old testament lest the world should turn to atheism ism if they had translated them all they would woul I 1 h have ave had several hundred bibles all clashin clashing gand and differing from each other it must be decol recollected lecter that the catholic canon canah of scripture was not formed until the year prior to that period the people pe aogle were left e some of them to believe in in t this thib is manuscript and some in that some to re reject act this one and andt some that and dankof many manx of the e christian fathers in the second and t third ird celi cefi tunes of the he christian era were eimire entirely ly uru 10 I 1 able to determine what manuscripts were spir spurious and what ones to receive as divine speaks thus upon this subject if it you fly to the tradition of the church only orly of the first four hundred years remember that the council of carthage Carth age aee juit just after the end of thos those yearb years alleged the ancient aridi tradition of their fathers which they judged buma bumm acier icier t for denning our canon they who were so near those first four bl indred hundred years yeara knew far better the more |