A NEW DISPENSATION OF THE GOSPEL.
The true test of moral courage is to stand alone against the world and maintain what one believes or knows to be the truth. It is easy enough to join in the chorus that cries "Amen" to orthodox doctrines, or even to lead in advocating opinions that the multitude by very force of tradition accept with applause. Even unpopular opinions are maintained and that stoutly by men whose moral courage falls very far short of the sublime, if only they are supported by a following. Just as men of indifferent physical courage will sometimes show a spirit of desperate daring, and rush into the jaws of death, borne up against the danger by the sheer consciousness of moving upon it with a large number of their fellows. Examples are furnished by armies in battle. Not a few of those who charge the enemy with apparent reckless bravery are borne along by the strength which comes from the support of numbers. The charge upon the enemy, therefore, even in the face of a galling fire, is not the truest test of the courage of the soldier. A better evidence of courage is given by the solitary sentinel upon his beat; when alone under the quiet stars he walks the path of danger, uncertain where it may be lurking or from what quarter it may come; when the shouts of his comrades are hushed in slumber; when the soul-stirring drum and ear-piercing fife are silent; when the excitement which comes from action, and the tumult of glorious battle no longer sustains him—then if his spirit fails him not, and he calmly and alone faces the danger and does his duty, he gives his commander a better evidence of his courage than he will ever give in the mad recklessness of the charge.
As dogs best hunt in packs, so men best fight in armies; and so, too, do men best stand by their convictions when strengthened by that moral support which comes from the approval of their fellows. But, as I remarked, the truest test of moral courage is to stand alone and maintain what one either knows or believes to be the truth against the sneers and ridicule of the world.
When the one who stands alone against millions is young, and the influences brought to bear against him are the most powerful that can be employed; if he break not down, but steadily holds to the assertion or principle which gives offense, his courage and integrity must stand as presumptive evidence that he either has the truth or what he believes to be the truth, for out and out falsehood has no such heroes. The truth alone, or what is honestly taken for it, can support men in such an issue as this. And more especially is this the case if the one undergoing the trial, in addition to tender years, is also unschooled in the vices of the world, is of quick sympathies and easily persuaded.
Such was Joseph Smith when he received that vision of the Father and the Son described in a preceding chapter. He had but just completed his fourteenth year. The conditions amid which he spent his childhood—not yet ended—were such as to keep him innocent; and his deep filial love and strong affection for brothers and sisters gave evidence of the existence in him of those quick sympathies which in later life developed into that deep universal love for his fellow-men so characteristic of him; while the disposition to yield to the persuasion of his friends was so prominent in him as well nigh to amount to weakness.[1] Thus in him were all those qualities of character, and about him were all those conditions, which make his stand for the truth of his story of such great force as presumptive evidence of its correctness; for notwithstanding his youth, his inclination to yield to the persuasions of friends, his deep sympathetic soul, which was pained at the abuse heaped upon his parents as well as upon himself for asserting that he had seen a vision—notwithstanding all this, he never could be induced either by persuasion, by threats, by scoffs, by scorn or ridicule, or religious influence, or abuse heaped upon himself and family, to retract his declaration that he had seen a heavenly vision in which he beheld both God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
He made no secret of the vision. Only a few days after receiving it, being in company with a prominent Methodist minister, he gave him an account of the revelation which he had received from God, when to the boy's astonishment the minister railed most viciously against it. "He treated my communication not only lightly," says the Prophet, writing of those early experiences later in life, "but with contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there was no such thing as visions or revelations in these days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that there never would be any more of them. I soon found, however, that by telling the story I had excited a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase, and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and create a hot persecution, and this was common among all the sects, all united to persecute me.
"It has often caused me serious reflection, both then and since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, a little over fourteen year of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, so as to create in them a spirit of the hottest persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and was often a cause of great sorrow to myself. However, it was, nevertheless, a fact that I had had a vision. I have thought since that I felt much like Paul when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light and heard a voice, but still there were but a few who believed him; and some said he was dishonest; others said he was mad, and he was ridiculed and reviled; but all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew and would know to his latest breath that he had both seen a light, and heard a voice speaking to him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.
"So it was with me; I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two personages, and they did in reality speak unto me, or one of them did; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely, for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute for telling the truth? I had actually seen a vision, and who am I that I can withstand God? Or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision. I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dare I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God and come under condemnation."[2]
This statement the boy maintained alone (save such support as came from the belief of his own family, none of the immediate members of which, so far as I have learned, ever doubting his story), against the world for three years; without even the encouragement of a further spiritual manifestation. It would be improper, as I believe, to say that God did this to prove him. The Almighty, who is also All Knowing, knew before the test was made that he would endure it. God knew his spirit and its nobility and strength as he knew Messiah's or Abraham's; He knew it as he knew the spirit of Jeremiah and ordained him, too, to be a prophet to the nations before he was born.[3] But if God needed no new evidence of the strength of character possessed by his New Witness; if he needed no proof of his integrity, his devotion to the truth—the world did; and during that period of three years of sore trial, when alone he maintained the truth against scoffing priests, the gibes of his companions, and the sneers, ridicule and unbelief of the world, he gave to the generation in which he lived and to all generations succeeding, such evidence of his integrity to the truth, or what at least he believed to be true, as ought and will secure the respectful attention of sincere men to the testimony he bears for God.
The constancy of the lad, under all the circumstances, laid deep the foundation for faith in the man, and in the work which, under God, he founded. There were so many interests—the peace of himself and family; his own and his family's good name and standing in society; the applause of religionists who would have hailed with delight his renunciation of the vision as a delusion of the devil—all these things cried out, "Renounce it!" But the fact that to all such demands the lad shouted back, "'Tis God's truth, I saw the vision!"—will go far towards making men believe that he did; for had he been base enough to invent such a story, when he found that it made against his interest and brought nothing but reproaches, without doubt, he would have denied it; for men seldom persist in conscious falsehood which works only to their disadvantage. And in this instance the renunciation would have been so easy by calling it a delusion wrought by the adversary of men's souls, by which he had been deceived. But neither ease of denial nor the seeming advantages to accrue from it moved him; against it all he was supported by the consciousness of having told the truth. Unless indeed we can believe him so insane as to have been a candidate for disgrace and ambitious of the contempt of his fellows.
At the end of three years' silence, viz., on the 21st of September, 1823, he was blessed with another vision. During the three years he was left to stand alone he lays no claim to perfect sanctity, but freely confesses to have fallen frequently into "foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the corruption of human nature." In consequence of these things he often felt condemned; and on the above mentioned 21st of September, he betook himself to prayer to Almighy God, sought a remission of his sins, and asked for a manifestation of his standing before the Lord.
While thus calling upon God in prayer, the room in which he knelt was filled with light, and an angel stood in his presence, who announced himself a messenger sent from God to inform him that the Lord had a work for him to do; and that his name should be had for good and evil among all nations; or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.[4]
Moroni, for such was the angel's name, was one of the ancient prophets who had lived in America; he was now raised from the dead,[5] and had come to make known the existence of the record of the ancient inhabitants of the western hemisphere. Besides giving an account of the ancient peoples who inhabited America and the source from whence they sprang, this record also contained the fullness of the gospel as delivered by the Savior to them. Hidden with the record were two stones in silver bows, and the bows fastened to a breast-plate, constituting the Urim and Thummim. The ability to use the Urim and Thummim was what constituted seers in ancient times, and they had been deposited with this record for the purpose of translating it.
After these explanations, Moroni began quoting and explaining a number of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Following are the passages in the order in which he quoted them: Part of the 3rd chapter of Malachi, 4th chapter of Malachi; 11th chapter of Isaiah—saying it was about to be fulfilled; 3rd chapter of Acts, 22nd and 23rd verses, saying that the prophet therein named was Jesus Christ, but the time when those who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people had not yet come, but would soon come; 2nd chapter of Joel, from 28th verse to the last: this was not fulfilled, but soon would be.
Some of the passages he quoted differently from the way they read in our English version. Malachi 3rd chapter, 1st verse, for example, he quoted as follows: "For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, and it shall leave them neither root nor branch."
The 5th and 6th verses he quoted thus: "Behold I will reveal unto you the priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers; if it were not so the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."
This heavenly messenger appeared to him three times during that night and each time related the same things to him, the interviews occupying nearly the whole night.
The next day while working beside his father in a field Joseph was taken ill. His father observing it advised him to go to the house. This the boy started to do, but in climbing over the fence, which separated the field from the house, his strength utterly failed him, and he sank to the ground unconscious. He was aroused by some one calling his name, and when he regained consciousness the messenger of the night before stood near him. Again the things of the night before were repeated; and he received a commandment to go and tell his father the vision. This he did and his father encouraged him to do as he had been commanded. He accordingly went as directed in his vision to the place where the record of the ancient Americans was concealed—to a hill called by them Cumorah.
Removing the grass and soil which was about the edges of the stone box that contained the ancient record, with a lever he raised the lid and there saw the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim. He was about to take them from the box, when the angel Moroni again stood before him, and forbade his taking them out, as the time for them to be given to him for translation had not yet come, nor would it come until four years from that date. He was commanded to come at the end of each year to that place, and the angel would meet him to give the necessary instruction.
This Joseph did for four successive years, and each time met the same heavenly messenger and received instruction. On the occasion of the fourth meeting, viz., on the 22nd of September, 1827, the record was given into his hands to translate. This work of translation, through the grace of God, he accomplished, and in 1830 the Book of Mormon was published to the world.
Before it was published, the plates of gold on which it had been engraven by the ancient inhabitants of the land, were shown by the angel Moroni to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris, together with the Urim and Thummim through which the translation was effected; and their testimony to this fact was printed over their signatures on the fly-leaf of the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith himself exhibited the plates to eight other persons, viz: Christian, Jacob, Peter and John Whitmer; Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sen., Hyrum Smith and Samuel H. Smith. The testimony of these eight witnesses to the effect that they had seen, and handled the plates from which the Book of Mormon had been translated, and examined the characters engraven thereon, was also printed in the first and all subsequent authorized editions of the book.[6]
It must be understood that during the progress of the young Prophet's work, persecution was continuous; and slander with her thousand tongues was inventing falsehood to destroy the work of God. But while opposition was strong, the Lord from time to time raised up friends to assist him in his labors and share his responsibilities. Among such persons was one Oliver Cowdery, a young school teacher, who while following his profession in the town of Manchester, was boarding in the family of Joseph Smith's parents, from whom he learn............