The Nevada journal., 1852-01-22

/ ing utierance to manifest, wilful, un-
mitigated --- ahcm AMEN.
A SKETCH OF THE M0RM0y HISTORY.
In the little town of Sharon, in
/ Windsor Co, Vermont, in the mon h
of December, 1905. child was born
of unpretending and obscure parent
age and in an old time-worn and di
lapidated dwelling, with many cracks
and openings, through which howled
the angry spirits of the storm, as if in
early prediction of the stormy and
eventfuI life which lay in the future
for him who was here ushered into
the world amid the wild whirl of CON
tending elem nts
That obscure and low born babe af-
terwards astoni-hed thousands by the
announcement of his discoveries, and
founded a sect which gradually grew
and waxed strong" through the oppo>
sing ranks of persecution, and is now
making more proselytes TO its peculiar
doctrines than almost any in the
known world
] Joseph Smith gave no very early
indications of the talents which his af
ter course fully proved that he pos
sessed His education was very limit
ed. and his opportunities for mental
improvement mea2re in the extreme.
True, in the revelations which he
makes in after life, he shows conrlu-
sively that his youthful mind was ac-
tive and far reaching in its. aspira-
tions; for he tells Us that in 1928,
when only Is he was 50 highly favor
/ ed Of the Lord that he sent an angel
from the courts above TO proclaim TO
4 his " well beloved" servant an "indul-
gence for sins committed" and to,tell
him that the Gospel had not yet been
preached in its purity, but that he
would be made the "ckosen instru
ment in Gods hands, in revealing the
truth in its tullness, 10 adj natons."-
Christ had died in vain, inasmuch as
the Book of Mormon, craven upon
golden plates. still rested beneath the
sod that grew green upon the hill Of
Cumoah, in W4yne county, n. Y,
intact and unviolated in Il massive
chest OF stone.
In 1927 these "platcs" were deliv-
cred into his hands, aud we now first
catch glimpse OF TIE keen and ac.
lively inventive mind Of the uneduca-
Gated boy. Even at an early age he
felt the full force of what we have
written in reference to the power Of
religious frenzy in it, operation on the
mind.
Imagination can et.ilj fancy Joseph
going alone in the pale moonlight to
the hill of Cumorah, when the might
is at is noon, and spadclul by spade
ful, unearlhing the Ghost which con-
tains the Sacred Record. Long and
silently he works. Deeper and deep
er sinks the spade into the bowels Of
the hill, as the mound rises higher and
! higher upon its surface At length a
/ phosphorescent light breaks like II
1 streaming halo into the grave'hke
cavity the moon rashes away behind
the dark clouds; the precious treas
ure is grasped, and with It the pair of
pebble-stone spectacles--thc Urim and
Thummim whose talismanic powers
are 10 make the hieroglyphics engra
ven on those plates as legble and easy
of solution TO his inspired vision as is
to ours the segmants composing the
word hun bug
Imagination might do all this, we
say: 1t has doae more wonderful
things. 1t is strange, then, that, when
this gceat discovery was noised abroad,
credulous multitudes should throng
about the Prophet, and that some even
/ should become so enthusiastic AS to de-
sire to possess themselves OF these
marvellous plates? No. Smith knew
what would be the INN ediate result OF
his announcement he knew also
how to turn it to advantage. The
translation had not yet been made
the time for the publica ion OF his
book mad not yet arrived 1t was pol
icy to prepare public sentiment for
snch work, however. Had he pro
cured his plates and made his transla
ton before revealing his discovery,
men would have been skeptical, espc-