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Show -THE UTAH EVANGELIST.- <br><br> REPLY TO MR. BRAND. <br> BY REV. R. G. M'NIECE. <br> In Mr. Royle's absence from the city, the foregoing article by Mr. Brand has been put into my hands for a reply. He takes exceptions to three items in Mr. Royle's article, and alleges that the statements made in them are not true, although he acquits the writer of any intentional mis-statement. <br> I. He claims that Mr. Royle is mistaken in saying that they "only testified to the fact of the existence of engraved plates." Undoubtedly Mr. Royle meant that that was the substance or central idea of their testimony. But Mr. Brand says they went much farther in their testimony and testified "that the voice of God declared it unto them, that they saw the angel who laid the plates before them, and that they saw the engravings on the plates." Now Mr. Brand is himself mistaken, for the three witnesses did not say that an angel laid the plates before them. Here are their words, taken from the Book of Mormon: "And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon.""Brought" and "laid" what? These verbs have no object. That part of the sentence states nothing. But even granting that the witnesses did mean to say that "an angel brought and laid the plates* before our eyes," this very statement makes their testimony incredible and absurd. What did they need of an angel on this occasion, when it is claimed by Joseph Smith himself that he had the plates in his own possession? Angels are not in the habit of going forth on senseless and superfluous errands. This one thing is enough to show that these three witnesses were not telling the truth. And if any one will take the trouble to turn to the 32d section of the "Doctrine and Covenants" he will there discover that these three witnesses were simply mumbling over in 1830 the substance of a pretended revelation received by Joseph Smith in 1829, about the testimony that was to be given by three witnesses, Martin Harris being one. Any disinterested person, by reading this pretended revelation in connection with the testimony of these three witnesses, would be forced to the conclusion that they were simply carrying out a cunning trick arranged for them by Joseph Smith. For they repeat the peculiar phraseology put into their mouths by Joseph Smith, like those acting a part. <br> Mr. Brand further claims that Mr. Royle is mistaken in saying that they "impeached their own testimony by declaring it was not true."‘Well, the American Cyclopedia confirms Mr. Royle's statement, for it declares that "all three of these witnesses quarrelled [sic] with Smith, renounced Mormonism, and avowed the falsity of their testimony." But it is useless to spend time on this point. For if they did not impeach themselves, they were most thoroughly impeached by the authorities of the Church of which they were members. For in 1838, Cowdery and Whitmer were excommunicated from the Church for falsehood and all sorts of immorality. They were publicly accused by good orthodox Mormons of "being connected with a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars, and blacklegs of the deepest dye." Martin Harris had been previously excommunicated and "turned over to the buffetings of Satan" for his general worthlessness. And so, on good Church authority, these three witnesses were posted before the world as liars and villains.-Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, chap. xiii. <br> But Mr. Brand tells us that the divine origin of the Book of Mormon does not depend upon the testimony of the "three witnesses," for we have the testimony of "eight witnesses" in addition. So we have. They testily that Joseph Smith "has shewn unto us the plates of which hath been spoken"; that "as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated, we did handle with our hands"; that "we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken." Grant all that these men say and it proves nothing more than that Smith had some metallic plates in his possession, such as many other men have had. The point at issue is whether the engraving on these plates was in the reformed Egyptian language, as the followers of Joseph Smith claim, and whether the Book of Mormon is a translation of this Egyptian language. Now these eight witnesses did not know Egyptian from Choctaw. They couldn't tell whether these plates contained a Chinese almanac or Mother Goose in Greek. How could they tell whether the Book of Mormon is a translation of the engraving on the plates or not, when they hadn't sense enough to know that there is no such language as "reformed Egyptian"? It is surprising that a man of Mr. Brand's intelligence should be caught with such silly deception. What if these men had seen* and hefted* these "plates"? So have I and others seen and hefted plates with strange hieroglyphics upon them. But that hardly proved that they were of Divine origin. <br> 2. Mr. Brand objects to Mr. Royle's statement that the printers lost some of the leaves of the translation which Smith could not duplicate, and so the imposture was discovered. Now Mr. Royle is entirely correct about the fact of a part of Smith's translation being lost, whether the loss was caused by the printers or not. Mr. Brand's denial seems to me a technical quibble, for he qualifies his denial by the expression "since the work was ready for publication." Joseph Smith himself declared, in the first edition of the Book of Mormon, that he did lose 116 pages of his translation, which he declared "some person or persons have stolen and kept from me." And Mr. Royle could make a very convincing argument that Joseph Smith's pretended translation was a positive imposture and swindle out of the circumstances connected with the loss of these 116 pages. <br> 3. Mr. Brand objects to Mr. Royle's statement that the Book of Mormon was manufactured out of Spaulding's manuscript. But Mr. Royle is thoroughly correct; and the proof of this is the fact that since the Book of Mormon was published no less than eleven reliable witnesses have testified that they themselves heard the substance of the Book of Mormon read by Mr. Spaulding from his manuscript prior to 1816. These are all witnesses of worthy character, whose testimony has never been impeached. And until they can be shown to be unreliable witnesses, what is the use of spending time in public debate over Mr. Brand's proposition? It will be high time to do that when Mr. Brand satisfactorily disposes of the foregoing points concerning the worthless testimony of his eleven witnesses. <br><br> We listened to a remarkable address delivered by George Q. Cannon in the Twelfth Ward school house, on the evening of April 13th, on the subject ‘‘Is plural marriage a tenet of the Mormon faith, and if so should there be any legal interference." <br> The position taken by the speaker was that he to whom this new doctrine is revealed "must obey or be damned," and that the Government has no right to interfere with this exercise of religious belief. Let the nation know that the issue is now fairly and squarely taken by the leaders of this Utah delusion. What shall the end be? <br><br> CLIFT HOUSE, <br> SAM. C. EWING, Proprietor. <br> Main St., Salt Lake City. <br> Rates $2.00 per day. Special rates by the week or month. <br><br> WALKER BROS., Bankers. <br> Established A. D. 1859. <br> We do a general Banking business and solicit ac-accounts [sic] of merchants, mining companies and country dealers. Our facilities for collecting are the best, having correspondents in nearly every town in this and adjoining Territories. We draw exchange on all the leading cities of Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, German Empire, Italy, Russia, Spain, Austria, Belgium, France, Holland, Sweden and Switzerland. <br> AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS. <br> New York…Imp. and Traders' Nat. Bank. <br> Chicago…First National Bank. <br> St. Louis…State Savings Association. <br> Omaha…Omaha National Bank. <br> San Francisco…Bank of California. <br> Denver…German National Bank. <br><br> PENDLETON & RIDEOUT <br> BAY HORSE SHOEING SHOP. <br> 55 S. Commercial Street. <br><br> RUDOLPH ALFF, <br> Dealer in <br> French China, Crockery, Glassware, <br> Plated Ware, Cutlery and Fancy Coods [sic]. <br> Salt Lake City, Utah. <br> Established 1870. <br> P. 0. Box 276. <br><br><br> * words are italicized <br><br> |
