Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-03-08
THE BOOK OF MORMON.
Two Accounts, Widely Different,
of Its Origin.
Smith, Prophet or Fraud-The Gentiles'
Account Makes Him Out a Fraud, the
Mormon Prophet-An Interest
ing Book and Its History.

ing Book and Its History.
1 On the Book of Mormon and the supple
mentary revelations succeeding II, reposcS
the authority of the Church of the Latter
Day Saints, says Rev. NJ. T. Lamb, Tor
merly Il Christian missionary among the
Mormons, who continues: The strange
religion already described That has been
built upon this seputedly sacred docu-
ment and the peculiar people that has ac-
Ceptcd its teachings as divine make IN
teresting a glance al what Is called their
INSPIRED literature. The germs Oh the
Christian Civilizations of to-day are found
within the covers of the Old and New
Testaments. The germs of the patriarcha'
CivilZa ton that is seated in the ROCKY
Mountain States are found In the 10 books
of records, prophecies and appeals pound
within the Book OF Mormon. This vol
ume within the last 20 years has been ac-
ceptcd as the word of God by perhaps one
million persons. Its followers receive the
Bible divine, 80 far as it is translated
correctly" but claim that their sacred
work is superior to IT because IT was
translated ~ an angel instead of by fall
BILE men; because it makes predictions as
to the last days of which the Bible gives
no intimation, and because II Is more eN-
plcit OH many points of doctrine. IL is
Gods word revealed to his people, the
Nephites, who lived anciently on this
Western continent.
Concerning this strange book the vaGuest
ideas prevail among Americans outside
the fold Of the Mormon church. Since the
present writer is believed to have spent
more time and careful study upon its ORR
gin. character and contents than almost
any man now living, he trusts that his
attempt to relate 80 much of the results
of his Investigations as limited space Will
allow will he received in the spirit in
which II is undertaken. On the truth or
falsehood Of this alleged revelation rests
the whole claim of Mormonism. For as
the noted Apostle Orson Pratt has said:
IF true, ii is one of the most important
. messages ever sent from God to man. If
false. II is one of the most cunning, wick
ed. bold, deep-laid impositons ever palm
ed upon the world"
MORMON ACCOUNT OF THE BOOK.
The Mormon and Gentle accounts of
this origin of the book differ The Mormon
account briefly told is about as follows:
, Tive families left the city of Jerusalem,
at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah,
KING OF Judah, 600 years before Christ,
and after wandering eight years In the
desert of Arabia embarked in a ship of
peculiar construction, drifted across the
Indian and the Pacific oceans and landed
upon the western shore of South America.
These two families having intermarried,
|, began rapidly to multiply. Within 20 years
I they divided into rival nations. known for
, a thousand years afterward as the Ne
phites and the Lamanites from the broth
crs Neph and Lamar. who led in tho
: quarrel and divided the two families.
. They rapidly increased, the Lamanites
; eventually covering the entire South Am
Q erican continent: the Nephitcs gradually
I extended northward until the greater por-
NJ Arnn .ino Ix,
them.
The Book of Mormon. with the excep-
ton OF the single Book of Ether, is the
= professed history OF these peoples. The
Laman!tes, at the very beginning of their
separate history, were cursed by the AL
mighty with a Skin OF blackness' be
b came a Wild. ignorant, ferocious people
I and the ancestors of the present Indian
/, races. The Nephtes are represented as
. Gods favortes. enjoying advantages and
perquisites such as no other people under
heaven ever had--furnishing a list OF
!. kings. Judges. prophets, apostles and
. martyrs such az have never been founc
a upon earth In any age or country.
few days after Jesus crucifAion, res
o erection and ascension in Judea He ap.
e reared 10 His people upon this continent
in His human body, and remained here A
h days preaching. performing miracles. or
h daining II apostles and otherwise estab
4 fishing the faith of His people And a few
years after the whole country was report
ed oonverted-the entire population Of
both continents, the Lamanites of Soutf
o An erica and the Nephites Of North Am
u erica. enrolled in Christian churches.
9 For nearly 200 years a millennium was en-
Il joyed. The arts of war were forgotten
q peace. purity and religious culture wer,
universal. But increased wealth arC
, prosperity brought religious declension
= and by and by apostasy from the faith
E' Lamarites and their ancient hatred of re
o ligion and religious people. The opposi
4 ton increased in numbers and in power
/. until war, relentless and cruel, filed n,
>. land with hoodshed and desolation.
a NEPHITEs DESTROYED.
:. This resulted, in the year 3S4 A. D., at
- battle on the sacred hill OF Cumorah, II
y Western New York, in which hundreds o
:, thousands were engaged on each side, II
y the complete destruction of the Nephite
= and all there was left of the religious Gle
ment. They We're cut off to man. leav
\ ing the infidel Lamanites. who had al
Y ready become wild. barbarous and blood
n thirsty. in full possession of both cont
l. nents, where they were found upon thu
n discovery of America by Columbus
Now, the commander-in-chief of the Ne
= phite forces was a prophet By the name o
u Mormon. Before this eXterminat ing wa
It records of his predecessors. the kings an,
?. prophets and Judges who had been IL
e spired of God to write either history o
10 prophecy, or vision or exhortation--an,
a made careful abridgment of their writ
=. inss down to his own time; and engraVe
- this abridged record upon golden plates
u These plates he turned over to his sol
e Moroni, who commanded one division o
e the Nephite army under his father. Thi
a son finished his fathers record, and. whe
S. completed, hid the whole in the sacre
e hill Cumorah, near Palmyra, n. Y.
Ie SMITHS DISCOVERY.
- There they remained 400 years unit
discovered by the prophet Joseph Smith
Moroni was raised from the dead in tn
form of an angel for the special purpos
of showing Smith where these plates ha
e been hid and to assist him In transatin
them
n on May s, 1888, Joseph Smith, whe
l.,.It IA. 81,