Mormonism : Its Origin and Doctrines 137 family for a number of years while they resided near this place, and we have no hesitation in saying that we consider them destitute of that moral character which ought to entitle them to the confidence of any community. . . . Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son Joseph, were, in particular, considered entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious hahits”. There is much more evidence of a similar character. (2) Mormonism tries to palm off on the world a counter feit Bible, which it calls the “Book of Mormon” and sets forth as a revelation from God, putting it on the same level with our own Christian Bible, placing the two side by side in the Mor mon pulpit. Now the Book of Mormon is simply a poor and weak imitation of our English Bible—a lifeless counterfeit. Where did the Book of Mormon come from? Let all that absurd, fictitious yarn of Joseph Smith, about an angel disclosing to him the box hidden in the hill of Cumorah, New York, on whose golden plates, in the reformed Egyptian language, was contained the material out of which he translated the Book of Mormon—let all that be cut out as having not a particle of foundation. There was no angel. The only plates Joseph Smith ever dug out of the hill of Cumorah, or any other hill, were put there by himself or by one of his agents. While the literature in regard to the origin of the Book of Mormon is quite voluminous, the real facts about its origin can be stated in small compass. In 1808-09 the Rev. Solomon Spaulding settled down as a citizen in the town of Conneaut, in northeastern Ohio. He was a man of education, having graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1785. He studied theology, and for a number of years was a minister of one of the Christian denominations in western New York. He had given up preaching, and had settled down in Conneaut as a business man, seeking to establish an iron foundry. Being fond of Bible literature and religious romance and archaeology, he became interested in the many Indian mounds
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker