Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-12-05

EDITOR lTlpuhN'
nine in the remarks made IN 'ne iao,
qua "oole on the sth of November could
o'"s ons,rued into challenge to
alscusslon of the Book Of Nor
on-as the writer's of headlines on
'.s .,o of The morning papers seem to
80. ,hcv could-when the challenge
tlnn" ,cented the courtesy or debate
was oorteinly require that the accept
No the challenge should be othef-
an non from ambush. l mean that
VIZ entitled 10 know the name OF my
l s that | may Judge somewhat
olpphts character and standing And
. ~. sbould the gentleman remain In
Nny ts no ashamed to be known as
"b,cirg IN such a discussion? Or Is II
tnssre'oution he takes so that II his ar
Hpont does not rise to the expectation
tuwJs friends. he may remain unknown
tind Inc mystery of single inltlal2
,ys"m, 0rst supDosition be true, II IL a
ian,,ltv he could easily have avoidedi
VIZ No sccond suggestion be the true
len for his remaining unknown, he
y. 90 no commended for his cunning. i
nosd say nothing Of his courage,
Ms IAfEt Ell
whom on Saturday my attention was
..ued 10 the editorial announcement
,sat the alleged challenge had been
tented and an article against the
poot of Mormon would appear In The
,rrIhure's Sunday issue, ! remarked to
friend that ! thought | could write
% ansWer 10 the much heralded article
"i,hont seeing IL; and when on Sunday
read the TnknOwns production ! felt
nod moi been over confident IN the as
s,r,ion. 20 closely has he followed in
,hp we'll. beaten, not to say worn out,
10Th of anti Mormon argument. What
world of trouble Alexander Campbell
would have saved many inferior ais
quarts had he only stereotyped the OBJ
isctiops he urged against the Book OF
harmon IN 1881. They then could have
polnted to his utterances and said
'Thens my arguments For from
,bo DAYS of Mr.. Campbell until now,
snti.Mormon geniuses have but re-
Mashed the great mans arguments,
Win a uniform decadence In theii
strength, in proportion to the distance
n time from which they are removed
rom him who first fashioned them.
But now to the Unknown's 'argu-
mpnts,'
THE TIME OF WRITING.
The Unknown states the fact that
NepM wrote between 600 and 500 b, G.,
and then presents what he calls the
first difficulty that am TO overcome,
How could q writer" he asks. claim
inc Ia i've at that time make repeated
quotations from the writings Of Christ's
apostles who were not born until 800
years after the time when Nephi
wrote?' He then charges that Nephl
quotes passage after passage from
the writings OF Christ's apostles, Mat
thew, John, Paul, Luke, Peter, etc, and
gives what he calls just two or three
examples" of such quotations. The
gentleman very much overstates the
difficulty he presents, by making II APP
near that the alleged quotations are
very numerous, when the fact IL that
the two or three cases he cites virtually
exhaust the alleged quoted passages so
far as the New Testament IL concerned.
In order that your readers may see how
hmsy the charge here made Is, | set
down The quotations IN question. (a)
Nephl describing his fathers vision of
the future coming of the Messiah says:
et who should come before the Messiah,
TO prepare the way Of the Lord. yea,
even he should go forth and cry In the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way Of the
Lord. and make His paths straight;
for there standeth one among you
whom We know not; and lie is mlghter
Than / whose shoes latchet | am not
worthy TO unloose. And much spake
my father concerning this thing To
make this appear as plagiarism from
The New Testament the Unknown puts
together two passages: 81 baptize with
water, but there standeth one among
you whom yc know not; he II Is, who
coming after me is preferred before me
whose shoes latchet | am not worthy
to unloose," (John l., 20, 2O. I'm those
days came John the Baptist preachinf
In the wilderness of Judea" (Matthew
Ill.,. OF course, the story OF the mar
who said he could prove that the Bible
commanded every one to hang himself
may be commonplace; but II illustrates
the methods of the Unknown in making
out his case of plagiarism. The proc
was supplied in this way He quoted
The passage "and Judas went out anC
hanged himself" Then from another
passage. from another book, he quoted
these words, "Go thou and do likewise.
II must be remembered that the Ne
phltes carried with them into the vii
deTness the Jewish Scriptures. and Leh
was doubtless familiar with the predic
uon Of Isaiah concerning this SAME
prophet that should go before our Lore
to prepare the way before him, trans
.aled In our English version as fol
lows "rhe voice of him that crieth II
The Wilderness. Prepare We the way o
the Lord. make straight in the deser
an highway for our God" isaiah ri,
G)ts 1t more remarkable that tn,
LORD should reveal TO Lehi what tn,
voice In the wilderness should cry thai
mat lie should reveal 1t to ISAIAH (b
win reference to the Unknown