History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

56 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
in the cavity of a rock; secret combinations; war in all the land; King Gilead
murdered by his high priest; the high priest murdered by Lib; Lib slain by
Coriantumr; dead bodies cover the land and none to bury them; 2,000,000
men slain; hill Ramah; cries rend the air; sleep on their swords; Coriantumr
slays Shiz; Shiz falls to the earth; records hidden by Ether.
'Book of Moroni. Christ's words to the twelve; manner of ordination;
order of sacrament; order of baptism; faith, hope and charity; baptism sf little
children; women fed on their husbands' flesh; daughters murdered and
eaten; sufferings of women and children; cannot recommend them to God;
Moroni to the Lamanites; 420 years since the sign; records sealed up (Moroni);
gifts of the spirits; God's word shall hiss forth.'
From a manuscript furnished at my request by Franklin D. Richards, entitled
The Book of Mormon, I epitomize as follows: Several families retaining
similar forms of speech were directed by God to America, where they
became numerous and prosperous. They lived righteously at first, but afterward
became sinful, and about 600 e. c. broke up as a nation, leaving records
by their most eminent historian Ether. During the reign of Zedekiah, king
of Judah, two men, Lehi and Mulek, were warned of God of the approaching
destruction of Jerusalem, and were directed how they and their families could
make their escape, and were led to this land where they found the records
of the former people. Lehi landed at Chili. His people spread to North
America, became numerous and wealthy, lived under the law of Moses which
they had brought with them, and had their judges, kings, prophets, and
temples. Looking confidently for the coming of Christ in the flesh, in due
time he came, and after his crucifixion organized the church in America as he
had done in Judea, an account of which, together with their general history,
was preserved on metallic plates in the language of the times. An abridgment
was made on gold plates about A. D. 400 by a prophet named Mormon, from
all the historical plates that had come down to him. Thus were given not
only the histories of the Nephites and Lamanites—his own people—but of
the' Jaredites, who had occupied the land before them, and his book was
called the Book of Mormon. Destruction coming upon the people, Mormon's
son, Moroni, was directed of God where to deposit the plates, the urim and
thummhn being deposited with them so that the finder might be able to read
them. And as Moroni had left them so were they found by Joseph Smith.
The Booh of Mormon was translated in 1851 into Italian, under the auspices
of Lorenzo Snow, and into Danish under the direction of Erastus Snow; in
1S52 John Taylor directed its translation into French and German, and
Franklin D. Richards into Welsh. In 1855 George Q. Cannon brought out an
edition in the Hawaiian language at San Francisco; in 1878 N. C. Flygare
supervised its publication in the Swedish, and Moses Thatcher in 1884 in the
Spanish language.
In December 1874, Orson Pratt, at that time church historian, prepared
an article for insertion in the Universal Cyclopedia, a portion of which is as
follows: 'The first edition of this wonderful book was published early in
1830. It has since been translated and published in the Welsh, Danish,
German. French, and Italian languages of the east, and in the language of
the Sandwich Islands of the west. It is a volume about one third as large as
the bible, consisting of sixteen sacred books . . . One of the founders of the
Jaredite nation, a great prophet, saw in vision all thhags from the foundation
of the world to the end thereof, which were written, a copy of which was engraved
by Moroni on the plates of Mormon, and then sealed up. It was this
portion which the prophet, Joseph Smith, was forbidden to translate or to
unloose the seal. In due time this also will be revealed, together with all
the sacred records kept by the ancient nations of this continent, preparatory
to the time when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters
cover the great deep.' Deseret News, Sept. 27, 1876. Orson Pratt afterward
stated that the book of Mormon had been translated into ten different languages.
Deseret News, Oct. 9, 1878. See also Taylder's Mormons, 10. For
further criticisms on the book of Mormon, see Millennial Star, xix., index v.;