OCR Text |
Show 8 FAITH AND CREDULITY. <br><br> The evidence of the facts or fancies stated in the "golden bible, or Book of Mormon," is to be found in the golden plates alone. <br> The evidence that such facts were ever written on the plates and translated into the Book of Mormon comes from Smith alone. <br> The existence of engraved golden plates of any kind rests only on the testimony of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris (called the "three witnesses"), and of Joseph Smith. It is therefore evident that Smith is an important witness, without whose testimony this revelation cannot stand. <br> Now, let us very briefly examine this evidence and ascertain, if practicable, whether it is a groundwork on which may properly rest the faith of mankind. <br> If this is indeed a revelation of God to man, then the unchangeable God has reversed his entire method of dealing with man. Instead of seeking a multitude of witnesses, he confines himself to one; instead of selecting credible witnesses, he selects one who, as we show further on, is unworthy of belief; instead of speaking opening in a language that the people can <br><br> FAITH AND CREDULITY. 9 <br><br> understand, he shuns corroborative testimony and speaks in mysterious signs, to look upon which without the aid of the stones (as asserted by Smith) would bring instant death to the beholder; instead of the preserving ark or temple containing the law, the truth is hid in the rubbish of the earth for ages. To crown all, this new revelation was withheld from myriads of mankind and creates a huge and unaccountable gap of eighteen hundred years in which the will of God, held in reserve, came not to man. <br> Can it be said of this pretended revelation, (I) that it has "its appropriate relation and place in the vast complication of circumstances of which the affairs of men consist"? that "it owes its origin to the events which have preceded it"? that it was "intimately connected with all others which occurred at the same time and place," or "those of remote regions"? And if the Mormons assert that they can answer, Yes, to all these things, can they further say of the new revelation that "in all this almost inconceivable contexture and seeming dis- <br> [Continues on next page.] <br><br> |