Show biography of brigham young and history of the mormon church by M R WERNER reprinted by permission from the ladles ladies home journal continued from last week before long the lord gave joseph smith jr a in ia harmony county pennsylvania in which he told him to take up from page and not lot to worry about the lost pages which had been stolen by his enemies tu to confound him smith and harris both believed that mrs airs martin harris had stolen the pages and that she had burned them but tantalizingly she refused to admit or to deny eny the accusation her only answer to all her husbands threats and entreaties was joe smith may peek for it it might be thought that since he still had the golden plates and since he still had bad the aurim and Thum mim joseph smith could begin at tho the beginning and retranslate the lost pages but ho he was wa afraid that after lie he had published the book of mormon the pages would be made public and it would be discovered that they were not lot exactly the same BS as those contained in the book of mormon when hi le began to translate the golden plates again ha was assisted by oliver cowdery cowder had been a schoolmaster and a blacksmith and la in the course of his travels in new york state he met joseph smiths father who told him of the gold bible cowdery visited smith at harmony pennsylvania and two days after his arrival joseph and his new amanuensis began to translate however differences of opinion arose there was one tor for example john the apostle i another difference of opinion arose concerning baptism tor for toe tae remission of sins smith and cowdery went into the woods to inquire ot of the lord and a messenger appeared from heaven and told joseph tt baptize oliver and oliver to baptize joseph he also commanded them to lay hands on each other and ordain each other into the priesthood the messenger soon proved to be no other than john the baptist who since he knew more about baptism than any onto else had been sent from heaven to enlighten thiem them on the subject he said that he acted under the direction of peter james and john who held the keys of the priesthood of Alel which priesthood the highest of all would be conferred on smith and cowdery in due time when they came up out of the water after baptism they felt spiritual improvement we were filled wrote joseph smith with the holy ghost and rejoiced in the god of our salvation they immediately began to prophesy many things to each other but what these were they did not say brothers Ex others converted soon afterward smith and cowdery began to make converts but only among members of the smith family Josep josephs lils older brother hyrum and his younger brother samuel harrison smith visited him and after special revelation trot the lord for their benefit became convinced of thela tr vr others divine inspiration and thereafter became his enghu enthusiastic bastie followers in june of 1829 smith and cowdery went to payette fayette seneca county new york where they were invited by peter whittier whitmer and his sons to board with them tree free of charge one of the whittier whitmer boys also offered to help them in their writing gradually the divine translation was finished the actual writing appears to have taken about seven months from december 1827 to february 1825 from april 12 1828 to juno ll it 1823 ati at al i 1 from april aar 7 1829 to june 11 1829 taking the first addition of pages as a guide this allows about two or three pages each day in order to insure privacy to the proceedings ce a blanket which served as a portiere port lere was stretched across the whittier whitmer family living room tu shelter the translator and the golden plates from the eyes of any who might call while the work was in progress sometimes emma smith sometimes oliver cowdery and sometimes christian whittier whitmer acted as scribe to josephs dictation david whittier whitmer I 1 in a an interview published in the chicago tribune ot of december 15 1885 1835 gave this description crip tion of the method ot of work after prayer smith would sit on one jie side of 0 a table and the aman lenses lr ir turn as aa they became tired n th tho other those present and not lot actively engaged in the work seated themselves around the room affixing the magical spectacles to his hl lyes eyes smith would mould take the plates and translate the characters one at a time the graven charac tern would appear in succession to the ter when viewed through the glasses would be the translation in eng would bo be a single word end and frequently quint ly an entire sentence in translating the characters smith who was illiterate and but little versed in biblical lore was compelled to spoil spell the words out not knowing the correct pronunciation nuncia tion and mrs whitmer ta recalls the fact that at that time smith did tot not evien even know that jerusalem was a walled city cowdery however being a school teacher rendered invaluable aid in pronouncing hard words and giving their proper definition joseph smith once said that he be could see the printed characters which he translates translated into the book of mormon just as well with his eyes closed as with his oyes eyes open whenever he was asked in what language the characters were en engraved joseph always replied reformed egyptian the three witnesses at last joseph smith and his earthly collaborators finished their translation they secured tho the copy right ot of the book in the name oi 0 joseph smith jr author and pro krietor etor and mads made arrangements for printing five thousand copies tot foi three thousand dollars the manuscript was guarded carefully so that there might be no 0 cown danger of 0 loss by fire oliver cowdery d took only a few pages each day to the th printers shop land and on chest trips to the printer he was accompanied by a bodyguard meanwhile the people of 0 palmyra organized a mass meeting and pledged themselves before it was printed not to buy the book ol of mormon after it was published this caused the printer to cease work until he ha was assured that he would receive his money daniel hendrix who read proof on the book ot of mormon testified that the penmanship ot of the manuscript was good but that the grammar and spelling were tope hopelessly lessly ina inaccurate accurate cc and that punctuation and paragraphs were entirely missing many impartial non mormons cormons havo have won wondered dered what became of joseph smiths golden plates of 0 the beolk of 0 mormon after he had translated them into english joseph smith always said that the same angel of 0 god who had given them to him took look them back again toward the end of their work joseph smith and his hia ass assistant I 1 sta ut translators discovered a notation on the golden plates that they were to be shown to three witnesses who would thereafter testily testify before the world that they had seen real gold god plates it seemed to oliver cowdery martin harris and david whitmer that they had earned this privilege and they requested smith to ask god it he was willing that they should be the three witnesses accordingly joseph smith received a revelation in june 1829 that it if oliver cowdery martin harris and david whittier would remain faithful they would see sea the golden plates the arim and thum mira mim and the sword ot of laban the second paragraph of 0 this revelation Is significant and it Is said god by your faith that you shall shah obtain a view of them even by that faith which was had byitte by ithe prophets of old it is a question whether the three men were to accept the plates by faith or to see the plate as a reward tor for their faith A few days later the tour four retired to the woods to seek fulfillment of this revelation they prayed but received no answer they prayed again separately and in rotation but received no answer then martin harris sugg that he withdraw tor for he felt that this profane presence was the obstacle ile he withdrew withdraw and the remaining three prayed again and wrote smith had not been many minutes engaged in prayer when presently we beheld a light above us in the air ot of exceeding brightness and behold an angel stood before us in his hands he held the plates which we had been praying for these to have a view of he turned over the leaves one ane by one so that we could see bee them land and discern the engravings thereon distinctly they theard h b voice from out of the bright light above us saying these plates have been revealed by the power of god the translation of them which you have seen is correct and I 1 command you to bear of what you now see sea and hear wibb with the eyes of cfaith 11 joseph smith then went to ito seek martin harris whom he found at some distance fervently engaged in prayer he asked joseph to join him and after they had prayed together they received the same vision and the same message as the others had just received cormons mormons have explained that because martin harris lost part of the translation he was not forgiven without an extra prayer according to his mother joseph smith returned from the woods very happy that be had NN ft it nesses besides himself to bear the burden before the world of the authenticity of the golden eolden plates prof Wod bridga bridgle riley has contended tended that the vision of the three witnesses Is that form of hallucination which may occur either in the normal state stale or be induced in the state of light hypnosis the ideas and interests which were uppermost in the mind were projected outward harris toad had received the first transcription ot of the gold plates wiltmer had been saturated with notices ot of ancient engravings cowdery for weeks at a time had listened to the sound ot of a voice translating the record ot of the neph ites when that voice was again heard in the grove when the tour four sought by fervent and humble prayer to have a view ot of the plates there Is little wonder that there arose a psychic mirage complete tn in every detail furthermore the rotation in praying the failure ot of the first two attempts the repeated workings ot of the prophet over doubting harris but serve to bring out the additional incentives to the hypnotic hallucination repetition steady stead y attention absence ot of mistrust self belt surrender to the will ot of the principal all the requisites are present not as formulae but as facts the founder ot of mormonism A psychological study ot of joseph smith jr by 1 woodbridge riley pp ap tobe continued |