History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

TEMPLES PLANNED. 95
Ohio, by Sidney Rigdon, who sometimes proves himself
unruly. Dr Hurlbut is tried before the bishop's
council of high priests on a charge of unchristianlike
conduct with the female sex, and condemned, but
on confession is pardoned. 30
Temples are ordered built in the city of Zion, in
Missouri, as follow : a house of the Lord for the presidency
of the high and most holy priesthood after the
order of Melchisedec ; the sacred apostolic repository,
30 Four years after the first printing of the Booh of Mormon, at Palmyra,
New York, was issued in Ohio the following work: Mormonism Unveiled:
or, A faithful account of that singular Imposition anil Delusion, from its rise to
the present time. With sketches of the characters of its Propagators, and a full
detail of the manner in which the famous Golden Bible was brought before the
World. To which are added inquiries into the probability that the historical
part of the said bible was written by one Solomon Spaulding, more than twenty
years ago, and by him intended to have been published as a romance. By E. D.
Howe. Painesville, Printed and Published by the Author, 1S34- 12mo, 290
pages. Painesville is situated but a short distance from Kirtland, then the
headquarters of Mormonism, where about that time was ordained the first
quorum of the twelve apostles, and Sidney Rigdon was delivering Joseph
Smith's famous lectures on faith, subsequently printed in Doctrine and Covenants,
already noticed. Here also, shortly afterward, the first Mormon temple
was dedicated. Great excitement prevailed throughout that section regarding
religion, and the book was widely circulated. It was a powerful weapon,
and promptly and skillfully handled; yet it seems to have been no serious barrier
to the dissemination of the new doctrines. The work is well written;
and while not vehement in its denunciations, it brings forward a large mass
of evidence to prove, as he says, 'the depths of folly, degradation, and superstition
to which human nature can be carried.' He observes that 'the difficulty
of procuring, or arriving at the whole truth, in relation to a religious
imposition which has from its birth been so studiously veiled in secrecy, and
generally under a belief that the judgments of God would follow any disclosures
of what its votaries had seen or heard, will be readily discovered.
The author begins with some account of the Smith family. Their thoughts
turned greatly toward gaming possession of hidden treasures. Young Joseph
'had become very expert in the arts of necromancy, juggling, the use of the
divining rod, and looking into what they termed a peep-stone, by which
means he soon collected about him a gang of idle, credulous young men, to
perform the labor of digging into the hills and mountains, and other lonely
places in that vicinity in search of gold.' After comments on Cowdery, Harris,
and Whitmer, Mr Howe gives a commentary on the golden bible. Some
63 pages are devoted to this, and to observations on the credibility of the
three and the eight witnesses. Sarcasm is the weapon employed, and generally
with effect; the exposition in regard to contradictions and historical
inaccuries might apply with equal force to the bible, the koran, or any other
sacred book. Mention is next made of Pratt's conversion, which, he intimates,
was not accidental, followed by an account of the expedition to the Lamanites.
Thus the line of events is followed by Mr Howe to the time of the
publication of his book, at the end of which are given letters and testimonials
to disprove the statements and doctrines of the Mormons, and also to prove
that the book of Mormon was the work of Spaulding. On the whole, besides
being the first book published in opposition to the Mormons, it is also one of
the most ably written, the most original, and the most respectable.
'