Show biogia biography phy of brigham young and history of the mormon church by M R WERNER reprinted by permission from the ladies home journal continued from last week martin harris was questioned by a lawyer in palmyra concerning nib view of the golden plates did you see the plates and the engravings on them with your bodily eyes harris replied yes I 1 saw them with my eyes they were shown to me by the power of god and not of man but did you see them with your natural your bodily eyes just as you see this pencil case in my hand now say yes or no to this harris replied why I 1 did not seo see them as I 1 do that pencil case yet I 1 saw them with the eye of faith I 1 saw them just as aa distinctly as I 1 see bee anything around me though at the time they were wera covered over with a cloth this testimony of the three witnesses was followed by a testimonial of eight additional witnesses this was in conformity with the policy of the he early mormons cormons to make everything as it was in the early days of the christian religion the total number of witnesses eleven is the same number as those who abo bore witness to the original christian miracles the eight additional witnesses ies saw the plates without any special spiritual manifestations on tile the part of god and they had the plates I 1 in their hands according to their testimony the testimony of eight witnesses be it known unto all nations kindreds tongues and people unto whom this work shall come that joseph smith sinith jr the author and proprietor of this work has shown unto us the plates of which have been spoken which have the appearance 0 of f gold and as many of the leaves as said smith has translated we did handle with our hands and we also saw the engravings thereon all of which has the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship and this we bear record with words of soberness that the said smith has shown unto us tor for we have seen and hefted and know of a surety that the said smith has got the plates of which we have s spoken p ken and we give our names u unto nao the world to witness unto the world that which we have seen and we lie not god bearing witness ol of it christian whitmer jacob whitmer peter whitmer jr john whitmer hiram page joseph smith sen hyrum smith samuel H smith concerning this testimonial billal which professor riley said has the suspicious uniformity of a patent med icino testimonial mark twain wrote and when I 1 am tar far on the road to conviction and eight men be they grammatical or otherwise come forward and tell me that the they have seen been the plates too loo and not only seep those plates but hefted them I 1 am convinced I 1 could not feel more satisfied and at rest it if the entire whitmer family had testified those who were not Whit mers were smiths father and his two faithful brothers the only outsider brought in to make up the necessary eleven hiram page was the man who went to toronto to sell the canadian copyright of the book of mormon A story of the ho wanderers although all three of the main witnesses to tho the authenticity of the golden plates were either expelled from the church or left it in anger a few years after their testimony was given each of them retained his superstitious belief in the book ot of cormons mormons Mor mons divine origin and each of them maintained that belief on his deathbed newspapers awaited the deaths of these men eagerly in the very earnest hope that as the they y were dying they would confess to fraud and numerous attempts were made after their apostasy apo stacy to persuade them to reveal the truth all such attempts were unsuccessful the book of mormon Is the story of the wanderings of three ancient peoples one of them the jare aites came directly from the tower of babel and the other two came originally anally from jerusalem or there about these people after prolonged sufferings dissensions and wars finally arrived on the am american continent the two tribes from jeru were headed by one lehi who led his people forth about the year B G C ile he died in the wilderness and bequeathed the leadership ot of the expedition to his youngest son nepal but the other brothers disputed their fathers will and the family split into the ne philes advocates of the youngest son and the Lama nitea followers tol lowers of the eldest son laman there was constant war between these two peoples and finally the wicked la manutes wiped out their righteous brothers after both tribes had arrived in america in A D the whole A american m e r I 1 c a n continent was in possession of the Lama from whom according to the book of mormon the american indians indiana are descended it was the task of joseph smith jr to redeem tho thep continent which by the way Is the promised land tor for the righteous Nep hites thus the book of mormon has an unhappy ending but bul it otters offers the promise that everybody will live happily forever alter after the time of the proper redemption before they were annihilated the Nep hites had kept accounts on metal tablets of their wanderings and their wars mormon who was the last of his race and who lived in about A D was comman COmM commanded ln by god to take care of all the plates deposited by hla his ancestors from th time of the first lehl lehi ile he was wag also appointed by god to be editor ot of these plates and it was the abridge ment of them which he made bade that joseph smith jr found deposited in the hill of cumorah near palmyra new york mormon died before his work was finished but his son moroni carried it on and eventually completed ft when he was asked the meaning of th the 6 n name amo mormon joseph smith was not content to let it rest as a proper name ile he said that it was derived from the english more and the egyptian mon the latter meaning good and that therefore mormon means more good in tho the first edition the book or of mormon took closely printed pages to tell its simple story the book is padded with material from the old testament and the new testament and with predictions ot of ruin and accounts of lamie famine it is one of 0 the dullest books in world literature and according to one writer who was a faithful mormon tor for many years even many devout mor mons have been unable to read it through consecutively mark twain said ot of it it is chloroform in print it joseph smith composed this book the act was a mi miracle keeping awake while he did it was at any rate sir richard F burton who took a great interest in the Alor cormons mormons mons and who spent some time among them in salt lake city was unsuccessful in his attempts to read all ot of the book ot of mormon had mormonism scrapped entirely all the elements of christianity it would have died in america in less than a year one of its great attractions was that it allowed those who became convinced to retain almost every belief they had been taught to accept in 1 n church since manhood and in sunday school since childhood besides retaining all the old rites and privileges mormonism added some highly attractive promises ot of eventual monopoly of righteousness in an alleged promised land thus a convert to ito the 1 book of mormon was asked to give I 1 up nothing that was a habit and was offered much additional advantage such a proffer was certain to be attractive to a man who bel belie veed in orthodox christianity tor for he had nothing to lose and it if the mormons cormons were right he had much to gain it was very worth while hile taking a chance it is not surprising that mormonism eventually drew off many thousands of pious christians from the old sects the reasons why it ft did not get more of them was as we shall see the rapidity with which those sects fought with fiery propaganda and political persecution se any efforts of this ignorant upstart to progress at their expense the fact that joseph smith was uneducated is the greatest argument used in his favor by his follo followers weri and against him by his detractors once devout mormons cormons accepted by faith the idea they he was divinely dl di vinel inspired they were able to point with pride to his lack of education as proof that he was a miracle but there Is nothing in the book of mormon that could not have been written by an uneducated man and the claim that smith was incapable of writing the book of mormon Is weakened by his later literary performances for mances his revelations are as finished and far more interesting than the book of mormon and during the ensuing years he was the author or as help referred to call it the translator tra slator ot of the visions of moses a revised translation ot of the I 1 j old and new testaments and the book ot of abraham it Is true that he then had assistants but they were useful mainly to correct grammar tor for the mark of his personality Is indelible in his revelations whatever else he was joseph I 1 smith was not commonplace A aa a boy he was conspicuous tor for his inck lack of conformity to the ordinary ways of making a living on oil a farm by the sweat ot of his brow and we shall see that as a man he was conspicuous as a prophet a general a lover and a self constituted candidate tor for president of the united states continued |