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Show 12 FAITH AND CREDULITY. <br><br> Joseph Smith and his father lived in Wayne County, in the State of New York. More than sixty of their neighbors testified under oath that the Smith family were immoral and of false and fraudulent character, and that Joseph was the worst of them. At Palmyra, N.Y., Joseph's character was no better. He there pretended to have a magical stone, looking through which, as it lay in his hat, he could discover golden treasure hidden in the earth. He found believers, but found no gold. <br> In current literature we learn that at the time the golden bible was found Joseph Smith had "a well-authenticated character for dexterous knavery, astute lying, and gross drunkenness." <br> Immediately upon the appearance of the Book of Mormon many of Smith's neighbors testified that he had repeatedly made contradictory statements about the plates and the golden bible. <br> Peter Ingersoll, an intimate friend, declared under oath, "Smith told me the whole affair was a hoax: that he had no such book, and did not believe there was such a <br><br> FAITH AND CREDULITY. 13 <br><br> book in existence, ‘But,' said he, ‘as I have got the - fools fixed I shall carry out the fun.'" <br> Time would fail us if we went into the evidence which can be produced to show that the Book of Mormon was the manuscript of Solomon Spaulding, with interpolations and changes made therein by Smith and his friends. <br> Surely, enough has been said to show that there is no sufficient evidence of this new revelation, and that it rests for belief only upon the credulity of mankind. <br> And may we not safely conclude that only in God's holy Word, and the evidence which supports it, can we find the immovable foundations of Christian faith, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"? <br> If new revelations are set up by those who believe in the Bible, surely the burden of proof to establish these revelations as coming from God, and as being consistent with the revelations of the Bible, rests upon those who assert this new development of the will of God to man and the change in God's <br> [Continues on next page.] <br><br> |
