The Visitation of Moroni--Existence of the Book of Mormon Made Known.
[Sidenote: Interval of Three Years 1820-23.]
I continued to pursue my common vocation in life until the twenty-first
of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, all the time
suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both
religious and irreligious, because I continued to affirm that I had
seen a vision.
[Sidenote: Confession of Errors.]
During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the
vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three--having been
forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being
of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have been
my friends, and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me
to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner
to have reclaimed me,--I was left to all kinds of temptations; and
mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish
errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human
nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations,
offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one need
suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A disposition to
commit such was never in my nature. But I was guilty of levity, and
sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with
that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of
God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any {10}
one who recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery
temperament. [1]
[Sidenote: Appearing of Moroni.]
In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my weakness
and imperfections; when, on the {11} evening of the above-mentioned
twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the
night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for
forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to
me, that I might know of my state and standing before Him; for I had
full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I previously
had done. While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered
a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the
room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared
at my bed side, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the
floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a
whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe
that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and
brilliant. His hands were naked and his arms also, a little above the
wrist, so, also were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above
the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he
had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could
see into his bosom. Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his
whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly
like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright
as immediately around his person.
[Sidenote: Moroni's Message.]
When first I looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me.
He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent
from the presence of God to me and that his name was Moroni; [2] that
God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good
and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be
both {12} good and evil spoken of among all people. He said there was
a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the
former inhabitants of this continent, and the sources from whence they
sprang. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was
contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
also that there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones,
fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and
Thummim--deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these
stones were what constituted "Seers" in ancient or former times; and
that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.
[Sidenote: Ancient Prophecies Quoted.]
After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies
of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of
Malachi, [3] and he quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same
prophecy, though with a little variation from the way it reads in our
Bibles. Instead of quoting the first verse as it reads in our books, he
quoted it thus:
For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the
proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble: for
they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of hosts, that it
shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus:
Behold I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah
the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord.
He also quoted the next verse differently:
And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made
to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their
fathers; if it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted
at his coming.
In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying
that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted {13} also the third
chapter of Acts, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as
they stand in our New Testament. He said that that Prophet was Christ;
but the day had not yet come when "they who would not hear his voice
should be cut off from among the people," but soon would come. He also
quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the
last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be.
And he further stated that the fullness of the Gentiles was soon to
come in. He quoted many other passages of Scripture, and offered many
explanations which cannot be mentioned here.
[Sidenote: Plates not to be Shown.]
Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had
spoken--for the time that they should be obtained was not yet
fulfilled--I should not show them to any person; neither the breast
plate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be
commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he was
conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind
that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so
clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.
[Sidenote: Second Appearing of Moroni.]
After this communication, I saw the light in the room began to gather
immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and
it continued to do so, until the room was again left dark, except just
around me, when instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up
into heaven, and he ascended until he entirely disappeared, and the
room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its
appearance. I lay musing on the singularity of the scene and marveling
greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger;
when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room
was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the
same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside. He {14} commenced,
and again related the very same things which he had done at the first
visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed
me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great
desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous
judgments would come on the earth in this generation. Having related
these things, he again ascended as he had done before.
[Sidenote: The Third Appearing of Moroni.]
By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep
had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I
had both seen and heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld
the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat
over again to me the same things as before; and added a caution to me,
telling me that Satan would try to tempt me, (in consequence of the
indigent circumstances of my father's family,) to get the plates for
the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must
have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God,
and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building
His kingdom; otherwise I could not get them. After this third visit, he
again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on
the strangeness of what I had just experienced; when almost immediately
after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me the third time,
the cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our
interviews must have occupied the whole of that night.
[Sidenote: Fourth Appearing of Moroni.]
I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary
labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I
found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My
father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be
wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention
of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of
the {15} field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I
fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of
anything. The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking
unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger
standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again
related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night,
and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and
commandments which I had received. I obeyed; I returned to my father in
the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that
it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger.
I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me
the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision
which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I
arrived there.
[Sidenote: The Hill Cumorah.]
Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York,
stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in
the neighborhood. [4] On the west side of this hill, not far from the
top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a
stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper
side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it {16}
was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with
earth.
[Sidenote: The Nephite Record.]
Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under
the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I
looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and
Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in
which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of
cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crosswise of the
box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.
[Sidenote: Four Annual Visits to Cumorah.]
I made an attempt to take them out, but was for bidden by the
messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth
had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that
time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one
year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I
should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the
plates. Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each
year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received
instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews,
respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner
His kingdom was to be conducted in the last days.
[Sidenote: Story of Being a Money Digger.]
As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under
the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day's work and
otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home,
and sometimes abroad, and by continued labor, were enabled to get a
comfortable maintenance. In the year 1824 [5] my father's family met
with a great affliction by the death of my eldest brother, {17} Alvin.
In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the
name of Josiah Stowel, who lived in Chenango county, state of New York.
He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the
Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, state of Pennsylvania; and
had, previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible,
to discover the mine. After I went to live with him, he took me, with
the rest of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued
to work for nearly a month, without success in our undertaking, and
finally I prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging after it.
Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.
[Sidenote: The Prophet's Marriage.]
During the time that I was thus employed, I was put to board with
a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife
(his daughter), Emma Hale. [6] On the 18th of January, 1827, we were
married, while I was yet employed in the service of Mr. Stowel. Owing
to my continuing to assert that I had seen a vision, persecution still
followed me, and my wife's father's family were very much opposed to
our being married. I was, therefore, under the necessity of taking her
elsewhere; so we went and were married at the house of Squire Tarbill,
in South Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York. Immediately after my
marriage, I left Mr. Stoal's and went to my father's, and farmed with
him that season.
Footnotes
1. With this agrees a letter which the Prophet addressed to Oliver
Cowdery upon hearing that it was the intention of the latter to publish
a series of articles in the _Saints' Messenger and Advocate_, on "Early
Scenes and Incidents in the Church." The letter referred to appeared
in vol. 1, no. 3, of the _Messenger and Advocate_, 1834. Letter of
Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery:_Dear Brother_: Having learned from the
first number of the _Messenger and Advocate_, that you were not only
about to "give a history of the rise and progress of the Church of the
Latter-day Saints;" but that said history would necessarily embrace
my life and character, I have been induced to give you the time and
place of my birth; as I have learned that many of the opposers of those
principles which I have held forth to the world, profess a personal
acquaintance with me, though when in my presence, represent me to be
another person, in age, education, and stature, from what I am. I was
born (according to the record of the same kept by my parents) in the
town of Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23rd of December,
1805. At the age of ten my father's family removed to Palmyra, New
York, where, in the vicinity of which, I lived, or, made it my place
of residence, until I was twenty-one; the latter part in the town of
Manchester. During this time, as is common to most, or all youths, I
fell into many vices and follies; but as my accusers are, and have been
forward to accuse me of being guilty of gross and outrageous violations
of the peace and good order of the community, I take the occasion to
remark that, though as I have said above, "as is common to most, or
all youths, I fell into many vices and follies," I have not, neither
can it be sustained, in truth, been guilty of wronging or injuring any
man or society of men; and those imperfections to which I allude, and
for which I have often had occasion to lament, were a light, and too
often, vain mind, exhibiting a foolish and trifling conversation. This
being all, and the worst, that my accusers can substantiate against my
moral character, I wish to add that it is not without a deep feeling
of regret that I am thus called upon in answer to my own conscience,
to fulfil a duty I owe to myself, as well as to the cause of truth,
in making this public confession of my former uncircumspect walk,
and trifling conversation and more particularly, as I often acted in
violation of those holy precepts which I knew came from God. But as the
"Articles and Covenants," of this Church are plain upon this particular
point, I do not deem it important to proceed further. I only add, that
I do not, nor never have, pretended to be any other than a man "subject
to passion," and liable, without the assisting grace of the Savior, to
deviate from that perfect path in which all men are commanded to walk.
By giving the above a place in your valuable paper, you will confer
a lasting favor upon myself as an individual, and, as I humbly hope,
subserve the cause of righteousness. I am, with feelings of esteem,
your fellow-laborer in the Gospel of our Lord,[Signed] Joseph Smith.
2. In the original publication of the history in the _Times and
Seasons_ at Nauvoo, this name appears as "Nephi," and the _Millennial
Star_ perpetuated the error in its republication of the History. That
it is an error is evident, and it is so noted in the manuscripts to
which access has been had in the preparation of this work. See also
_Book of Doctrine and Covenants_, section 27, par. 5, and section 128,
par. 20.
3. Most likely the first part of the chapter; as that deals with the
coming of a messenger to prepare the way for the glorious coming of
Messiah.
4. The following description of Cumorah is from the pen of Oliver
Cowdery:
You are acquainted with the mail road from Palmyra, Wayne county, to
Canandaigua, Ontario county, New York, and also, as you pass from the
former to the latter place, before arriving at the little village of
Manchester, say from three to four, or about four miles from Palmyra,
you pass a large hill on the east side of the road. Why I say large,
is because it is as large perhaps, as any in that country. To a person
acquainted with this road a description would be unnecessary, as it is
the largest and rises the highest of any on that route. The north end
rises quite sudden until it assumes a level with the more southerly
extremity, and I think I may say an elevation higher than at the south
a short distance, say half or three-fourths of a mile. As you pass
toward Canandaigua it lessens gradually until the surface assumes
its common level, or is broken by other smaller hills or ridges,
water-courses and ravines. I think I am justified in saying that this
is the highest hill for some distance round, and I am certain that its
appearance, as it rises so suddenly from the plain on the north, must
attract the notice of the traveler as he passes by.--_Messenger and
Advocate_, 1834.
5. A genealogy of the Prophet's family in the Church records gives the
date of Alvin's death, November 19, 1825. Lucy Smith's _History of the
Prophet_ agrees with the text above.--1824, November 19.
6. Emma Hale was born in the town of Harmony, Susquehanna county,
Pennsylvania, July 10, 1804. It will therefore be observed that Emma
Hale was in her twenty-third year at the time of her marriage with
the Prophet; hence of age; hence, under the law, mistress of her own
actions. This is remarked because the Prophet, in works written against
him, is charged with having abducted his wife.
{18}