Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1879-02-01
THE SENTINEL.
TIE BOOK OF MORMON.


mon Bible, which Joseph Smith the
founder of Mormonisn', claimed to
have received direct from an anglo
Of the Lord, was. as lie said, a re-
cord written upon golden plates
nearly eight inches long by seven
wide, a little thinner than ordinary
tin, and bound together by three
rings running through the WHOLE
AS the record was engraved in
language known as the Reformed
Egyptian, it was not transltable to
the illiterate Joseph, and so two
transparent stones, anciently called
the Urin and Thurium, set in sill,
YER bows after the manner of spec
tacles, were handed down at the
same time. These made the gol-
den plates Ineligible, and sitting
behind blanket hung across his
room to keep the sacred records
from profanc eyes, Joseph Smith
read off the Book of Mormon or
Golden Bible, while diciple.
Oliver Cowdery, wrote it down.
1t was printed in 1880, in a volume
of several hundred pages, and the
signatures of Cowdery and two 9TH
ers appended as testimony of its
genuineness. Later Smith and the
three witnesses quarreled tho lat>
ter renowned Mormorism and
avowed the falsity Of their testimo-
ny. Another intimate of Smiths
testified that the Mormon founder
had acknowledged to him that the
records and book were all hoax.
The Smiths were known among
their neighbors in Palmyra and
Wayne counties, N. Y, where
Joseph grew to manhood, as per-
sons who avoided honest pursuits,
and engaged chiefly in digging
hidden treasures, stealing sheep
and robbing their neighbours hen
roosts, and were accounted false,
immoral and fraudulent characters.
of which Joseph was said to be the
worst. Nevertheless; Mormonism
grew and aourished, though it was
proven that the real author of the
book was Solomon Spalding, a
quondam preacher and cratic lit
erary,. genius, who lived in Con-
neaut, Ohio, in 1909 who wrote
a romantic account of the popping
of America, tracing the American
Indians to the lost tribes of Isreal.
He entitled his work Manuscript
Found, and further increased it's
interest by a fictitious account of it's
discovery in a cave in Ohio. he
placed the manuscript in a printing
Office at Pittsburg with which Sid>
ney Rigdon. an accomplish of
Smiths, was connected. Rigdon
copied it, often mentioning the fact
himself; and when the Book of
Mormon made its appearance, a
comparison Of the two revealed
their almost exact likeness, with
the exception of the pious express
sions added to the latter. The
Mormon Bible traces the origin of
the American indian to Lehi,
Jew, who lived in Jerusalem about
900 B. G. In obedience to Divine
instruction he found in America a
New Jerusalem, and, dying soon
after his arrival, the dissensions
among his sors resulted in the SUI
premacy of the younger, Nephi,
and the others for their rebellious-
ness were condemned to have dark
skins and 'sbecome an idle people,
full of mischief and subtlety, seek
ing in the wilderness for beasts of
prey Nehi became the father of
race of primitive kings. who kept
their records upon golden plates
and finally, one of their descend
ants, Mormon by name, gave his
namo to tho religion which Joseph
Smith left his sheep-stealing and