The Story of Mormonism and The Philosophy of Mormonism | Page 3

days; He has shut Himself away from the people,
closed the windows of heaven, and has suspended all direct
communication with the people of earth."
The persecution thus originating with those who called themselves
ministers of the gospel of Christ spread throughout the community; and
the sects that before could not agree together nor abide in peace,
became as one in their efforts to oppose the youth who thus testified of
facts, which though vehemently denounced, produced an effect that
alarmed them the more. And such a spectacle has ofttimes presented
itself before the world--men who cannot tolerate one another in peace
swear fidelity and mutual support in strife with a common opponent.
The importance of this alleged revelation from the heavens to the earth
is such as to demand attentive consideration. If a fact, it is a full
contradiction of the vague theories that had been increasing and
accumulating for centuries, denying personality and parts to Deity.
In 1820, there lived one person who knew that the word of the Creator,
"Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness," had a meaning
more than in metaphor. Joseph Smith, the youthful prophet and
revelator of the nineteenth century, knew that the Eternal Father and the
well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, were in form and stature like unto
perfect men; and that the human family was in very truth of divine
origin. But this wonderful vision was not the only manifestation of
heavenly power and personality made to the young man, nor the only
incident of the kind destined to bring upon him the fury of persecution.
Sometime after this visitation, which constituted him a living witness

of God unto men, and which demonstrated the great fact that humanity
is the child of Deity, he was visited by an immortal personage who
announced himself as Moroni, a messenger sent from the presence of
God. The celestial visitor stated that through Joseph as the earthly agent
the Lord would accomplish a great work, and that the boy would come
to be known by good and evil repute amongst all nations. The angel
then announced that an ancient record, engraven on plates of gold, lay
hidden in a hill near by, which record gave a history of the nations that
had of old inhabited the American continent, and an account of the
Savior's ministrations among them. He further explained that with the
plates were two sacred stones, known as Urim and Thummim, by the
use of which the Lord would bring forth a translation of the ancient
record. Joseph further testifies that he was told that if he remained
faithful to his trust and the confidence reposed in him, he would some
day receive the record into his keeping, and be commissioned and
empowered to translate it. In due time these promises were literally
fulfilled, and the modern version of these ancient writings was given to
the world.
The record proved to be an account of certain colonies of immigrants to
this hemisphere from the east, who came several centuries before the
Christian era. The principal company was led by one Lehi, described as
a personage of some importance and wealth, who had formerly lived at
Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah, and who left his eastern home about
600 B.C. The book tells of the journeyings across the water in vessels
constructed according to revealed plan, of the peoples' landing on the
western shores of South America probably somewhere in Chile, of their
prosperity and rapid growth amid the bounteous elements of the new
world, of the increase of pride and consequent dissension
accompanying the accumulation of material wealth, and of the division
of the people into factions which became later two great nations at
enmity with one another. One part following Nephi, the youngest and
most gifted son of Lehi, designated themselves _Nephites_; the other
faction, led by Laman, the elder and wicked brother of Nephi, were
known as Lamanites.
The Nephites lived in cities, some of which attained great size and were

distinguished by great architectural beauty. Continually advancing
northward, these people in time occupied the greater part of the valleys
of the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Magdalena. During the thousand
years covered by the Nephite record, the people crossed the Isthmus of
Panama, which is graphically described as a neck of land but a day's
journey from sea to sea, and successively occupied extensive tracts in
what is now Mexico, the valley of the Mississippi, and the Eastern
States. It is not to be supposed that these vast regions were all
populated at any one time by the Nephites; the people were continually
moving to escape the depredations of their hereditary foes, the
Lamanites; and they abandoned in turn all their cities established along
the course of migration.