Mormon Classics | Spalding Library | Bookshelf | Newspapers | History Vault
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Rudolph Etzenhouser (1856-1918) From Palmyra to Independence (Independence: Ensign Pub., 1894) pp. 1-150 | pp. 151-300 | pp. 301-445 |
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1903 Etzenhouser Article | 1910 Etzenhouser Engravings | 1901 H. A. Stebbins book
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FROM PALMYRA, NEW YORK, 1830, TO Independence, Missouri, 1894, PART I. The Book Unsealed, Revised and Enlarged. PART II. Eleven Works Against Mormonism, Six United States School Histories, Four Leading Encyclopedias and Reissues Compared with Each Other and Reviewed in the Light of Facts on the Subject Treated. PART III. A Compendium of Evidences of Material Value Mainly from Outside Parties and Embracing Three Court Decisions. By ELDER R. ETZENHOUSER. OF THE Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. INDEPENDENCE, Mo ENSIGN PUBLISHING HOUSE. 1894. |
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[ not in original text ]
03 PREFACE
PART I. CHAPTER II. 17 Continents and Nations --CHAPTER III. 21 The Jaredites from Babel --CHAPTER IV. 29 Two Distinct and Highly Civilized Peoples.CHAPTER V. 41 Books, Weaving and Dyeing --CHAPTER VI. 48 Israel in America --CHAPTER VII. 63 Hebrew Relics, Customs and Language in AmericaCHAPTER VIII. 74 Egyptian Resemblance and Language in America --CHAPTER IX. 87 Plates & Records --CHAPTER X. 96 Metals, Implements and Instruments ---CHAPTER XI. 111 Dates of American Antiquities, when Published --CHAPTER XII. 116 Joseph Smith's Object: A Vision --CHAPTER XIII. 119 The Sealed Book to Come Forth --- Fulfillment of Psalm 85 and Isaiah 29 -- Palestine Restored --CHAPTER XIV. 136 An Admission: Witnesses Testify -- Prof. Anthon's Admission -- The Testimony of Three Witnesses -- The Testimony of Eight Witnesses -- The Death of The Three Witnesses --CHAPTER XV. 141 Conclusions --
PART II. 156 02. Female Life Among the Mormons 159 03. The Mormon Prophet and His Harem 168 04. P. Tucker's Rise and Progress of Mormonism 196 05. Life in Utah 204 06. Rocky Mountain Saints 211 07. Tell It All 217 08. Wife Number Nineteen 220 09. J. D. Lee's Mormonism Unveiled 226 10. Smucker's History of the Mormons 236 11. M. T. Lamb's Golden Bible 247 12. E. A. Allen's Prehistoric Races 255 13. Clark Braden's Mistakes 265 Contradictory Statements 273 Histories Compared 278 Encyclopedias Examined 287 References Relative to RLDS
PART III. CHAPTER II. 322 Accounts of Col. Pitcher and Gen. Doniphan, from Missouri NewspapersCHAPTER III. 334 1880 Joseph Smith III Interview -- 1893 Samuel Murdock Letter -- 1881 Kelley Brothers' Interview in PalmyraCHAPTER IV. 379 The Spalding Manuscript and Book of Mormon Authorship Claims, In BriefCHAPTER V. 386 Testimony: Katherine Salisbury, 1881 -- Bronson Family, 1872 -- William B. Smith, 1891 -- John Rigdon, 1891 -- E. L. Kelley's Rigdon Chronology, 1894 -- Emma Smith's Last Testimony, 1879CHAPTER VI. 404 Extracts: Thomas Ford, 1854 -- H. H. Bancroft, 1890 -- Emily M. Austin, 1882CHAPTER VII. 411 Court Decisions: Kirtland Temple Suit, 1880 -- Canadian Court, 1893 -- Temple Lot Case, 1893429 INDEX 445 NOTES |
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"Wherefore, my brothers, hear me, and harken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife: and concubines he shall have none, for I the Lord God delighteth in the chastity of women." -- Book of Mormon, p. 116 . (All 2. THE BOOK UNSEALED. citations from Plano edition except where other's works are quoted). The time the Book of Mormon covers is divided into two periods; the first, from the confusion of languages at Babel, from whence the first colony, the Jaredites came to the western continent, to the time they became extinct, which was wrought through a series of bloody wars before the Nephite colony came over from Jerusalem, which migration occurred during the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, about 600 B. C. This colony having become possessed of the Jaredite record, and having completed their own, added the record of the former people in an abridged form. The second colony, some years after their arrival here, divided, each party taking the name of its respective leader, and so were known as Nephites and Lamanites. The Jaredites, like the Nephites and Lamanites, were of the white race. The Lamanites, because of their rebellion against God and his appointments, were cursed with a dark or copper colored skin, their descendants being the American Indians of today. Both of the colonies were a highly civilized, enlightened and religious people, and attained excellence in art, science, architecture and agriculture. The Nephites lost their national existence in war with the Lamanites about the year 420 of the Christian era; the remnant of that people were then merged into the Lamanites. Their records were hidden in the place from which they were taken in 1827 by Joseph Smith, the translator of the book. From the preface to Delafield's work entitled u An inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America," THE BOOK UNSEALED. 3. which was published in 1839, at New York, London and Paris, by the Right Reverend Chas. P. McIlvaine, D. D., bishop of the diocese of Ohio: "Suppose that in searching the TUMULI that are scattered so widely over this country, the silent, aged, mysterious remembrance of some populous race, * once carrying on all the business of life where now are only the wild forests of many centuries, a race of whom we ask so often, who they' were, whence they came, whither they went; suppose that under one of those huge structures of earth which remain of their works, a book were discovered, an alphabetic history of that race for a thousand years, containing their written' language, and examples of their poetry and other literature, and all undeniably composed many hundreds of years before any of the nations now possessing this continent were here! What a wonder would this be! What intense interest would attach to such a relic! What price would not the learned be willing to give for it!" The Book of Mormon, published ten years before Mr. McIlvaine wrote, gave the facts he asked and sighed for. Josiah Priest, in American Antiquities, edition of 1838, p. 361, says: "But what has finally become of these nations, and where are their descendants, are questions which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying." Mr. Wm. Pidgeon, in his Traditions of De-coo-dah and Antiquarian Researches, edition of 1853, p. 11, says: "But it yet remains for America to awake her story from sleep, to string lyre, and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as seen in the relics of nations, coeval perhaps with the oldest works of man." 4. THE BOOK UNSEALED. These men, with all others who have written on American antiquity, while setting aside the Book of Mormon as a matter of nonsense, pile up the evidences of its divinity as the reader will see as he proceeds. Rev. John McCalman, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, preached in the Middle Street Christian church in that place, Sunday, March 4th, 1894, in the course of which sermon he said: "The word of the Lord is divine communication, teaching his children what to do under circumstances in which they find themselves at a given time and place. Sometimes we call it confidence. If today your hearts are open to receive divine communication, the word of the Lord will be present. You ask, how shall 1 know it is the word of God? Joseph Smith published to the world at large that he had received a divine communication. Now, what right have I to say that that communication was not a divine one?" "God moves in a mysterious way" in many things. The Book of Mormon he caused to come forth before the Antiquities of America were known, and in their discovery by those who did not accept the book he secures a cloud of witnesses. The Book of Mormon has been criticised on two lines: First, its literary inelegance, and second, that it is not a true record. Is Peter's part of the New Testament untrue because not so elegant as the writing of the learned Paul? Here is what some of the writers in the Book of Mormon say of this work: "And I know that the record which I make is true; and I make it with mine own hand; and I make it according to my knowledge." B. of M., p. 1, par. 1. The THE BOOK UNSEALED. 5. record was made according to Nephi's knowledge, not according to the knowledge of God, but the things recorded are true. "And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge." B. of M., p. 131, par. 8. "And whoso receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold, I am Moroni; and were it possible, I would make all things known unto you." B. of M. p. 495, par. 1. The same admission is made by Moroni on page 500, paragraph 8. The prophets and apostles were inspired of God to write and speak; and yet each one has his distinctive style of expression. This seems to plainly indicate that, as a rule, God gave the sentiment, the ideas but these men were left to express these ideas according to their own language, and their own knowledge. "Horne's Introduction," p. 115: "When it is said, that Scripture is divinely inspired, we are not to understand that God suggested every word or dictated every expression. From the different styles in which the books are written, and from the different manner in which the same events are related and predicted by different authors, it appears that the sacred penmen were permitted to write as their several tempers, understandings, and habits of life, directed; and that the knowledge communicated to them by inspiration on the subject of their writings, was applied in the same manner as any knowledge acquired by ordinary 6. THE BOOK UNSEALED. means. Nor is it to be supposed that they were even thus inspired in every fact which they related, or in every precept which they delivered. They were let-t to the common use of their faculties, and did not, upon every occasion, stand in need of supernatural communications; but whenever, and as far as divine assistance was necessary, it was always afforded." Also, page 521: "But with respect to the choice of words in which they wrote, I know not but they might be left to the free and rational exercise of their own minds, to express themselves in the manner that was natural and familiar to them, while at the same time they were preserved from error, in the ideas they conveyed. If this were the case, it would sufficiently account for the over observable diversity of style and manner among the inspired writers. The Spirit guided them to write nothing but truth concerning religion, yet they might be left to express that truth in their own language." Quoted by Home from "Parry's Inquiry into the Nature and Extent of the Inspiration of the Apostles." A few facts are now presented in a miscellaneous manner in the remainder of this chapter. "For sure it is the earth that moves and not the sun." -- B. of M., Helaman, 4:8. "The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion; yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form, doth witness that there is a Supreme Creator." -- B. of M., Alma, 16:7. Now let a voice from the World's Fair confirm this, for the Book of Mormon has been charged with having THE BOOK UNSEALED. 7. claimed to contain knowledge of the rotary motion of the earth before it had been discovered, and now it is authenticated:
"ANCIENT AMERICANS.
"The interpretation was made by a woman, Mrs. Zelia Nuttal, one of the judges of ethnology at the Fair, who explained the wonderful calendar to the anthropological congress. Dr. Daniel G. Drinton, A. B., president of the congress, said it would eventually lead to a translation of the hieroglyphics carved on the ruins of Mexico and Central America and thus reveal the history of the wonderful people who built them. "The accuracy and perfection of the calendar is convincing evidence of the civilization and mathematical attainments of the ancient inhabitants of America. It was estimated that no less than 4,000 years of astronomical observations would have been necessary to perfect the calendar. A complete cycle of the calendar referring to the revolution of the moon and earth about the sun covers a period of 1,094 years. It shows that the ancient inhabitants of America were familiar with the movements of the planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and perhaps Mars, as well as those of the Earth and Moon." The above clipping is from the St. Joseph, Missouri, weekly News, of September 1st, 1893. 8. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Book of Mormon, Nephi, 4th chapter, sets forth in a graphic manner the convulsions that took place on this continent of North America and says: "But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward: for behold, the whole face of the land was changed." (The reader is referred to the entire chapter.) John T. Short, in his American Antiquities page 233, writing of a race of giants says: "A great convulsion of nature which shook the earth, and caused the mountains and volcanoes to swallow up and kill them." On page 125, "In 1857, a portion of a human cranium was found associated with bones of the mastodon at the depth of one hundred and eighty feet below the surface in a mining shaft at Table Mountain, California." Baldwin, in his Ancient America, page 176, says of Central America: "The land was shaken by frightful earthquakes, and the waves of the sea combined with volcanic fire to overwhelm and engulf it." Josiah Priest describes three wells near Cincinnati, Ohio, the shallowest being eighty feet deep, in each of which when dug, the stump of a tree was taken out at that depth. The citations are given in chapter ten of this book. And in addition to the above a very singular discovery was reported in the Leadville, Colorado, papers in March, 1891. A man by the name of John Sunger had brought to the city an arrowhead, made of tempered copper, and a number of human bones, which were found in a mine, four hundred and sixty feet below the surface of the earth, imbeded in a vein of silver bearing oar. Over one hundred dollars worth of ore clung to the bones when they were removed from the mine. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 9. The arrowhead is four inches long, and one and one half inches wide at the widest part. The shank is one and one half inches long and has a hole pierced through the center by which the shaft was fastened to the spike. The oar clung to it when taken from the vein, and was with some difficulty removed." Any one who has crossed Wyoming on the Union Pacific railroad in day light has seen what is by many believed to have been the bottom of a great inland sea, which it appears clearly to have been. All who have seen the famous Salt Lake Valley of Utah, could trace what is called the water line. It is far up the Wasatch mountains, and is to be seen all around the valley and marks where the lake waters once stood. "The face of the land was changed." A number of works on Antiquity relate similar facts. See chapter nine of this work, citation from Pittsburg Leader, telling of brick and a coin found at the depth of one hundred and twenty five feet in a well at Helena, Arkansas. A remarkable corroboration of the above is found in a paper written by Dr. D. L. Yates, the same having been read by T. H. Hittel before the Historical Society, in a meeting of that body held in San Francisco. The same appeared in the Bulletin in March, 1888, as follows: "It was said that California possessed some of the oldest known relics on the continent. The first authenticated record of the original occupants was found on the table mountain region in Tuolumne county, and is of an age prior to the great volcanic outburst. Fossil remains of the rhinoceros and an extinct horse are found under the lava layers forming the table 10. THE BOOK UNSEALED. mountains which are 1,400 feet thick, 1,700 feet wide * * * where the river beds have been washed out, and have been covered again to the depth of from three thousand to four thousand feet more since the flow of the lava. This lava rests on a bed of detritus, which is often entered by running tunnels (in mining). The human relics and stone implements found in these formations give evidence of human habitants differing from any known since. There have been found spear- heads, a pipe of polished stone, two scoop of stalactite rock (resembling the grocer's scoop), an implement of aragonite, resembling an unbent bow, but the use of which is unknown and cannot be conjectured, a stone needle with notches at the larger end, and the finest charmstones that have ever been found. "There have been brought to light the fossils of nine mastodons, twenty elephants, various pachyderms in the Table Mountains, numerous evidences of animal life in the calcareous formations in the Texas flats, obsidian spearheads, fossils of the elephant, horse and camel about Hornitos, bones and evidences of prehistoric human industry in Tulare, and in Trinity and Sisklyon many proofs of the contemporaneous existence of man and extinct mammals. "In the San Jose Valley are deep layers of coniferous trees in such a carbonized state that they crumble into dust when exposed to the air. They are of the pliocene period, and show that the entire topography of the region has changed, and that where now the valleys and mountains are destitute of timber, they were once coniferous and deciduous trees, affording food and shelter to monster mammals in comparison to which, man was but an insignificant mite. In the layers THE BOOK UNSEALED. 11. of the miocene period are found in California the remains of amphibious animals not to be found elsewhere." Thus it is seen, that east, west, north and south, unmistakable evidences abound to show that "the face of the land was changed," as stated in the Book of Mormon. On pages 399, 408, 426-428, Book of Mormon, the Gadianton robbers are described and their strongholds in their mountain home in the cliffs. Any one who was at the World's Fair could well appreciate the account, having seen the exhibit of the Cliff Dwellers. The Independent Patriot of September 14th, 1893, contains the following: "In this exhibit may be seen what is intended to represent the mountain homes of the cliff dwellers; the methods by which they obtained ingress and egress: the rugs, mats, implements of war and peace which they had; some of the corn they raised, with cob, grain and husk quite well preserved. When we reached this point in the exhibit the lecturer was asked how long ago he supposed this race to have lived upon this continent. He answered, 'From two to four thousand years.''From what part of the earth, and what branch of the human family do you suppose these people to have come?' 'From the ancient Aryan branch of Asia, which sent out portions of its descendants to Africa. Europe, and I think also to America.' "The skulls of the cliff dwellers were exhibited in profusion, and presented, as we were told by the lecturer, the appearance of having belonged to a highly intelligent and well developed race of people. Some days previous to our visit, he informed us, a professional 12. THE BOOK UNSEALED. phrenologist had visited the room, and to him had been handed an Indian skull along with a cliff dweller's. He at once stated that the latter was a well developed type of a highly civilized and intelligent race; while the former looked more like the skull of an American Indian than anything else. These were handed the professor, as we were told, without his being. informed as to what race or races they belonged." All who saw the hair on skulls, and several bunches besides, will attest it was of fine texture and of various shades of brown and auburn. Very unlike Indian hair; but like that of the white race. Being there, I saw it. Baldwin, on page 173, says: "Tradition of the native Mexicans and Central Americans ^described the first civilizers as "bearded white men," who "came from the east in ships." This accords with the Book of Mormon, pages 502-505. Bancroft, volume 5, page 24, says: "There are numerous vague traditions of settlements -- or nations of white men who lived apart from the other people of the country, and were possessed of an advanced civilization." Josiah Priest, in his edition of 1838, page 390, American Antiquities, gives headlines for a chapter thus: "Traits of white nations in Georgia and Kentucky before Columbus' time and the traditions of the Indians respecting them." Donnely says of the Peruvians: "The native traditions said this city was built by bearded white men, who came there long before the time of the Incas, and established a settlement." -- Atlantis, p. 393. The Jaredites and Nephites were both white. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 13. AN ACCOUNT OF RELICS AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. Don McGuire, Chief Dept. Mines and Archaeology of Utah, contributing to Salt Lake Tribune, in its issue for October 29th, 1893, says."In the department of anthropology at Jackson Park, man has an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the remains and relics of many races. * * * In the Wisconsin state collection there is a fine lot of copper implements and arms, consisting of axes, chisels, lance heads, arrow points, needles, combs, cups, crowns, armlets, finger rings, and hundreds of articles, the use of which is wholly a mystery to us. From the same state comes stone axes and stone lance heads. The copper was taken from the present copper mines of Lake Superior; it was hammered into form, and this hammering rendered it quite hard. The tools are very well fashioned and show considerable skill. "There is a fine exhibit from south, central and northern Illinois, which comes from the mounds of this state. The work is well done and it is varied in its makeup. Flint, steatite, clay, limestone and copper were used as in Wisconsin, and amongst the Illinois collection we are struck with the beauty of the great array of pipes found in the mounds, some of which are exceedingly beautiful. "But when the collection of the Ohio Valley is reached we are before the greatest find, and at the same time most varied collection that has been made for many years from the mounds of that region, and one that surpasses in many ways all that we found in any of the state exhibits east of the Missouri river. 14. THE BOOK UNSEALED. One Charles Morehead for the two past years has been engaged in excavating in the great mounds of Central Ohio, around Marietta and through the Sciota valley. From a few mounds of that state we see here a collection of copper tools of every description, also of tools of obsidian and also of flint, and beautiful ornaments of abalone shell, and mother of pearl, and thousands of pearls, along with articles of bone, stone and copper, long since perished. There was cloth and feather work, but it is now in dust. "The fortress in which these were found would conveniently contain forty thousand people, and when we see the articles of agriculture we have little doubt but that this people who occupied this land in remote ages were a great commercial and far travelling race of men" Writes of Colorado relics; "These relics and discoveries consist of fifteen very well preserved mummies of the ancient cliff-dwellers, and a great variety of their pottery, stone weapons and wooden implements, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage, tanned leather, bone and shellwork, haircloth, hair cordage, and husk matting and carpets, corn, cotton seed, squash, pumpkin and gourd seed; in a word, it represents that ingenious and lost people as they were, and the mummies are. as they lie there, about as interesting, repulsive and ill-odored a lot of human junk as ever startled a weak-nerved mortal of this world." Of a Utah skeleton and relics: "It is the finest specimen of desiccated humanity ever discovered on the American continent, and with him were found the most interesting and valuable lot of relics yet brought THE BOOK UNSEALED. 15. forth from a cliff-dweller's tomb. They consist of pottery, corn, beans, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage of various kinds, wooden implements, pipes, arrow and lance heads." Of Central American ruins: "These remains were taken from the desolate and long abandoned cities that are buried deep amid the forests of Central America, where beyond question at one time remote in the bygone years a great city and a proud nation nourished As we look out of the building we behold sections of those old palaces that were built here as fac-similes of the architecture of these races that are found in Yucatan. Old palaces represented here show wonderful architecture, which even in our own day of great buildings compare favorably with the most substantial of man's work. There is a mystery, dark, deep, unfathomable in all these traces of a lost race, those altars rich in sculptured relief work, these raised inscriptions in an unknown and lost tongue, all are as a wild, undistinguishable voice coming back from vanished generations that have crossed the flood." Of Peruvian relics: "There is here also from Peru a large number of pots, vases, cups, dishes of very fine workmanship by the artisans of the Inca empire. Their cotton, their vicuna wool, their tanned leather, their corn, dried fruit, their weapons, arms and jewels of obsidian, jasper, copper, gold and silver. "No such exhibit was ever made outside of Peru, and as one gazes spellbound upon this rich and ancient lot of skeletons, mummies, pottery, gold and silver from Peru, he regrets that the fair is not to last twelve months longer." "The uniform and constant report of Peruvian tradition places the beginning of this old civilization 16. THE BOOK UNSEALED. in the valley of Cuzco, near lake Titicaca." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, page 236. "Those who criticise Montesinos admit that 'his advantages were great,' that 'no one equaled him in archaeological knowledge of Peru,' and that 'he became acquainted with original instruments which he occasonally transferred to his own pages * * * difficult to meet elsewhere.'" -- Ibid 263. Of Peruvian civilization he says: "'It was originated,' he says, 'by a people led by four brothers, who settled in the Valley of Cuzco. * * * The youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority and became the first of a long line of sovereigns.'" -- Ibid 264. The above agrees exactly to the Nephite colony as any one will discover by reading the Book of Mormon. Laman, Lemuel, Samuel and Nephi were the brothers, and position, no doubt, that of Peru. Nephi. the youngest of the four was the first of a long line of rulers. The Marqueis De Nadaillac in his work "Prehistoric People," on pages 268-9 and elsewhere, sets forth that the ancient American's trepanned skulls, tells of the skulls being fonnd showing the operation, he suggests it was done with stone. His imagination must be strong, trepanning is by no means a common piece of surgery with the instruments of to-day. The steel instruments of the ancient Americans all having decayed by rust, therefore stone would do for anything is concluded. The wonderful and extensive buildings of Central America, are passed by many in silence as to what the tools were that were used in their construction. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 17. It is recently admitted that the builders of Egyptian pyramids had some tools, possibly it will be, some day, that the Americans had also. "TOOLS OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS. "A two years study at Gizeh has convinced Mr. Flinders Petrie that the Egyptian stone workers of four thousand years ago had a surprising acquaintance with what have been considered modern tools. Among the many tools used by the pyramid-builders were both solid and tubular drills and straight and circular saws. The drills, like those of to-day, were set with jewels (probably corundum, as the diamond was very scarce), and even lathe-tools had such cutting edges. So remarkable was the quality of the tubular drills and the skill of the workmen, that the cutting-marks in hard granite give no indication of wear of the tool, while a cut of a tenth of an inch was made in the hardest rock at each revolution, and a hole through both the hardest and softest tnaterial was bored perfectly smooth and uniform throughout" -- American Analyst, New York.
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That this is clearly admissable, is evident from Acts 17: 24-27. "God that made the world, and all things * * * hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deterrnined the times before appointed, and the bounds 18. THE BOOK UNSEALED. of their habitation. That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not very far from every one of us." The following points are clear: 1st. -- All nations were from one source. 2d. -- By God's decree they were to inhabit "All the face of the earth." 3d. -- Their distribution as to "times" and bounds" God directs. 4th. -- "They should seek the Lord." He would not command them to seek unless it were possible that he should be found. Peter said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." -- Acts 10:34. As the nations of the eastern continent sought and found God, and had revelation and covenant relation with him, so could the nations of the western continent, in fulfillment of God's covenant to Abraham: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." -- Gen. 22:18. The Prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 37, mentions two "sticks," (records), one for Judah and the children of Israel his companions, "another stick (record) for Joseph and for all the house of Israel, his companions." The stick for Judah being the Bible, a similar record or "another stick" should appear for Joseph. This is realized in the Book of Mormon, which is a record of the dealings of God with the descendants of Joseph on the western continent. It is therefore of equal authority with other sacred writings, and throws light upon doctrine, promise and prophecy. For as THE BOOK UNSEALED. 19. Paul says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished in all good works." -- 2 Tim. 3:19. It does not in any sense supplant the Bible or take its place, but is a companion volume thereto. We quote Bishop McIlvaine again from preface to Delafield's work. He is right that American Antiquity is to confirm the Scriptures. The gospel of Christ had been taught here as the PRIESTS SUPPOSED. The universal and uniform traditions of the nations of both continents are strong evidence of a common origin as set forth in this chapter from the Bible: "Traditions have been distinctly traced, in opposite regions of the globe, and in the most unconnected nations of the creation; of the production of all living creatures out of water by the power of the Supreme mind; the formation of man, last, in the image of God, his being invested with dominion over all other animals; the primitive state of innocence and happiness; Paradise; the Sabbath; the division of time into weeks; the fall of man; (the mother of mankind is represented in American tradition as fallen and accompanied by a serpent); the promise of a deliverer; Cain and Abel; the general degeneracy of mankind; the longevity of the Patriarchs; the general deluge; the escape of only a single family in an ark; the dove sent out by Noah; the rainbow as a sign; the number of persons in the ark: the Tower of Babel; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah -- these with divers circumstances and details illustrating the main particulars. So remarkable were the traditions of several of these facts, among 20. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the inhabitants of America, at the time of the Spanish conquest, that the priests, who accompanied the army, were induced to suppose that Christianity, or at least Judaism, had been inculcated among them at some very distant period. Humboldt, however, sees no need of such explanation 'since similar traditions, (he says) of high and venerable antiquity, are found among the followers of Brama, and among the Shamans of the eastern steppes of Tartary.' "The traditions of the deluge are particularly numerous. They are derived from the oldest nations of antiquity -- the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks (and mentioned by Berosus, Hesiod, Plato, Plutarch, Lucian, &c ), as well as from people the most recently discovered; as the natives of North and South America and of the islands of the South Sea. The antipodes of the earth unite in testimony to the deluge. Chinese and Sanscrit literature concurs with Chilian and Peruvian and Mexican tradition in bearing witness to that catastrophe. Among the natives of America it is commemorated by a fable similar to that of Pyrrha and Deucalion. 'These ancient traditions of the human race (says Humboldt) which we find dispersed over the surface of the globe, like the fragments of a vast shipwreck, are of the greatest interest in the philosophical study of our species. * * * "The Antiquities of America are an immense field for inquiry, hardly entered; abounding in promise of reward for the most devoted investigations. Let it be thoroughly explored for the truth's sake. The Scriptures have yet to gather a richer cabinet of illustrative and corroborating collections from the long buried and. unknown depositories of American antiquity. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 21. "In reference to the question, whether all the races of men have descended from one common stock, the antiquities of this continent are especially interesting, and may prove of very great value. It is a question, indeed, forever settled by the researches of Bryant, Faber and Sir William Jones: "The dark Negro, the white European, and the swarthy Asiatic, being plainly traced to their respective ancestors in the family of Noah.' But much confirmatory testimony may yet be obtained. The contingent of America to the host of evidence already in array is yet to take its entire place in the line. If the present volume shall only increase -the ardor of investigation and the number of minds turning their energies upon the disinterment of the buried antiquarian treasures of this continent, it will do a good work and deserve the thanks of all lovers of truth. -- Kenyon College, Ohio, January, 1839."
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22. THE BOOK UNSEALED. at Babel. It is written: "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." -- Gen. II:8, 9. Opinions of many old Spanish writers were expressed in substance by Father Duran in 1585 on his history, "New Spain." "Adair the expert, and Emanuel De Moraes, agree that the Quichees by tradition affirm that they made a long journey by land and crossed the sea from the east. The tradition of their origin states that they came from the far east across immense tracts of land and water." It is scarcely presumable that from the year 1492 A. D. to the year 1585 A. D., only ninety-three years having elapsed, that the Indians could have had such a tradition created and received among them as coming down through their sages, by their limited contact with the treacherous Spaniards, who had from the very beginning betrayed all confidence reposed in them. "In Yucatan the traditions all point to an EASTERN AND FOREIGN origin for the race. The early writers report that the natives believe their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a passage which was opened for them." -- Landa's Relacion, p. 28. Atlantis 167. Dr. Le Plongeon, in a newspaper article states: "Of the Nahan predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and Xicalancans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great race that followed. According to Ixtlilxochitl, these people -- which are conceded to be one -- occupied the world in THE BOOK UNSEALED. 23. the third age; they came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they commenced to populate." Atlantis, p. 167. From Josiah Priest: "If so, then it is clear that the inhabitants of America who had the knowledge of this kind of fabrication, did indeed belong to an era as ancient as the first people of Asia itself, and even before the settlement of Europe; this is not a small witness in favor of our opinion of the extreme antiquity of those ancient works of the west." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 258. Pidgeon says: "That the present Indians and the ancient Mound Builders were of distinct national origin, is equally evident." -- Traditions of Dee-Coo-Dah, p. 101. Equally as positive upon the distinct race, is MacLean: "An ancient race, entirely distinct from the Indian, possessing A CERTAIN DEGREE OF CIVILIZATION, once inhabited the central portion of the United States." -- Mound Builders, p. 13. Bancroft says: "Most and the best authorities deem it impossible that the Mound Builders were even the remote ancestors of the Indian tribes; and while inclined to be less positive than most who have written on the subject respecting the possible changes that have been effected by a long course of centuries, I think that the evidence of a race locally extinct, is much stronger here than in any other part of the continent." -- Nat. Races of Pacific States, Vol. 4, p. 787. Stephens, writing of the antiquity of Palenque, says: "Here were the remains of a CULTIVATED, POLISHED AND PECULIAR PEOPLE WHO had passed through ALL THE STAGES incident to the rise and fall of nations, 24. THE BOOK UNSEALED. reached their golden age and PERISHED ENTIRELY UNKNOWN." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 356. "The most ancient civilization on this continent. judging from the combined testimony of tradition, records, and architectural remains, was that which grew up under the favorable climate and geographical surroundings which the Central American region southward of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec afforded. The great Maya family with its numerous branches, each in time developing its own dialect, if not its own peculiar language, at an early date fixed itself in the fertile valley of the river Usumasinta, and produced a civilization which was old and ripe when the Toltecs came in contact with it. Here in this picturesque valley region in Tabasco and Chiapas, we may look for the cradle of American civilization. Under the shadow of the magnificent and mysterious ruins of Palenque a people grew to power, who spread into Guatemala and Honduras, northward toward Anahuac and southward into Yucatan, and for a period of, probably twenty-five centuries, exercised a sway, which at one time, excited the envy and fear of its neighbors. "We are fully aware of the uncertainty which attaches itself to tradition in general, and of the caution with which it should be accepted in treating of the foundation of history; but still, with reference to the origin and growth of old world nations, nothing better offers itself in many instances than suspicious legends. The histories of the Egyptians, the Trogens, the Greeks, and even of ancient Rome rest on no surer footing. Clavigero says, the Chiapanese have been the first peoplers of the new world, if we give credit to their traditions. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 25. They say that Votan, the grandson of that respectable old man that built the great ark to save himself and family from the deluge, and one of those who undertook the building of that lofty edifice, which was to reach up to heaven, went by express command of the Lord to people that land. "The tradition of Votan, the founder of Maya culture, though somewhat warped, probably having passed through priestly hands, is nevertheless one of the most valuable pieces of information which we have concerning the Ancient Americans. Without it our knowledge of the Mayas would be a hopeless blank and the ruins of Palenque would be more a mystery, than ever. "According to this tradition, Votan came from the East, from Valum Chivim, by the way of Valum Votan, from across the sea, by divine command, to apportion the land of the new continent to seven families which he brought with him." -- North Americans of Antiquity, John T. Short, pages 203-4. Short says, of Francisco Nuñes de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who had read a book or document discovered by him and which is mentioned as a Votanic document, "He fails to give any definite information from the document except the most general statements with reference to Votan's place in the calendar, and his having seen the tower of Babel, at which each people was given a new language." -- Ibid. 206. "While some of the details of Votanic tradition are not worthy of a moment's consideration, it is quite certain that in the general facts we have a key to the origin of what all Americanists agree in pronouncing the oldest civilization on this continent, one which was already gray and 26. THE BOOK UNSEALED. declining when the Toltecs entered Mexico. There is not the slightest evidence that it originated in any other place than in Chiapas where it is found, and extended itself into Guatemala, Yucatan. and probably branched northward in a colony as remote as Culhuacan." -- Ibid. 210. "It is found in the history of the Toltecs that this age and first world, as they call it, lasted 1716 years, that men were destroyed by tremendous rains and lightnings from the sky, and even all the land, without the exception of anything, and the highest mountains were covered up and submerged in water * * * fifteen cubits * ** and how, after men multiplied, they erected a very high * * * tower * * * in order to take refuge in it, should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently the language was confused, and not able to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth. The Toltecs, consisting of seven friends and their wives, who understood the same language, came to these parts, * * * 520 years after the flood." -- Ibid. 238. In the introduction to his History General, (Sahagun) in speaking of the origin of this people, expresses the opinion that it is impossible to definitely determine more than that they report, "That all the natives came from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships or galleys in which the first populators of the land came. This people came in quest of the terrestrial paradise, and were known by the name of Tamoanchan, by which they mean, 'We seek our home.'" -- Ibid. 242. Delafield says: "A tradition exists among the native Mexicans bearing close analogy to the Semitic account THE BOOK UNSEALED. 27. of the flood, the building of the tower of Babel and its destruction." -- Antiquities, p. 33. And still more important from the same author: "Still farther and more important evidence, however, renders the point conclusive that southern Asia was the birth-place of this people, as we detect among them actual traditions of the flood, the building of Babel and the death of Abel; and from their cosmogony we think we trace farther traditions of the famine and the destruction of the cities of the plain. These historical facts stamp their origin conclusively, as they are peculiar to those who have been once residents of the country where the transactions occurred." -- Ibid., p. 41. Bancroft says: "They believed the rainbow was not only a passive sign that the earth would not he destroyed by a second deluge, but an active instrument to prevent the recurrence of such a catastrophe." -- National Races, Vol. 5, p. 17. Again he says: "Many of these hood myths are supplemented with an account of an attempt to provide against a second deluge, by building a tower of refuge, resembling more or less closely the Biblical legend of the tower of Babel." -- Ibid., p. 17. He extends his remarks as follows: "These myths have lead many writers to believe that the Americans had a knowledge of the tower of Babel, while some think that they are the direct descendants of the builders of that tower, who, after the confusion of tongues, wandered over the earth until they reached America." -- Ibid., p. 18. Speaking of Votan, Bancroft says; "Votan, another mysterious personage, closely resembling Quetzalcoatl in many points, was the supposed founder of 28. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the Maya civilization. He is said to have been a descendant of Noah, and to have assisted at the building of the tower of Babel. After the confusion of tongues, he lead a portion of the dispersed people to America." -- Nat. Rac. Pac. States, Vol. 5, p. 27. "The polished nations of the new world, and particularly those of Mexico; preserve in their traditions and in their paintings the memory of the creation of the world and of the building of the tower of Babel. the confusion of language and the dispersion of the people." -- Short's American Antiquities, p. 140. All of the above citations are very confirmatory of the account cited in the Book of Mormon, respecting the migration of the Jaredites to the western continent. as to the peculiar construction of the vessels of the Jaredite colony, (which are eight in number, seven of which were used for the people, the remaining one specially for their cargo), the following is very interesting: "The little steamer Norton, which is to sail from Long Island Sound for Southern France to-morrow, is, it is claimed by her builder and captain, a craft that cannot sink. She is only fifty-eight feet in length, but the most conspicuous feature about her is that she has a double bottom and six ballast compartments water is admitted through holes in the outer bottom. When the boat careens, the body of water between the bottoms presses the air in the compartments and acts as a ballast, the air serving as a cushion. This prevents the boat from capsizing or from diverging far from its center, even in the roughest seas. It is claimed that the double bottom and air tight compartments make it impossible to sink should the boat be cut in two. If the builder's theory be correct, its application will revolutionize THE BOOK UNSEALED. 29. naval architecture. The result of the Norton's first voyage will be awaited with great interest." -- Philadelphia Record, December 13, 1891. "If Victor Hugo were now alive he would have a new field, or new light on one of his old fields of work. Navigating the sea has always been supposed to mean plowing the surface, whatever the motor might be. But we can now travel under the sea as well as on the surface. Recent experiments have been made at Toulon with a submarine boat, that proves to be a great success. It runs from nine to ten knots, while the light is good and respiration easy. The boat can be moved in any direction, either vertically or horizontally. It will carry five persons. Of course its purport is warfare, but there is no reason why such a boat may not be applied to purposes more peaceful, especially to aid scientific research." -- Globe-Democrat, February 3d, 1889.
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30. THE BOOK UNSEALED. possessed of a respectable knowledge of geometrical principles." -- North Americans of Antiquity, (Short), p. 27. Pidgeon says: "From these facts in connection with the traditions of De Coo Dah, respecting the ancient inhabitants of these regions, as of various languages, customs and color, we are led to the conclusion that at least TWO DISTINCT RACES of men have occupied this territory at different eras, and that both became nationally extinct anterior to the occupation of the present Indian race." -- Traditions of De Coo Dah, pp. 176-7. Bancroft says: "The resemblance in the different groups of ruins in Chiapas, Yucatan and Honduras, are more than sufficient to prove intimate connection between the builders and artists. The differences pointed out prove just as conclusively that the edifices were not all erected and dedicated by the same people, under the same laws and religious control, at the same epoch." -- Native Races, Pacific States, Vol. 4, p 359. "It is a point of no little interest that these old constructions belong to different periods in the past, and represent somewhat different phases of civilization " * * * "The attention of investigators has lingered in speculation. They find in them a significance which is stated as follows by Brasseur de Bourbourg: "Among the edifices forgotten by time in the forests of Mexico and Central America, we find architectural characteristics so DIFFERENT from each other, that it is impossible to attribute them to the SAME PEOPLE as to believe they were all built at the same epoch."' -- Baldwin's Ancient America, pp. 155, 156. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 31. We have now presented Short, Pidgeon Bancroft and Baldwin, four eminent authorities on there having been two distinct peoples, and who preceded the aborigines of .America, in the possession of this land, which supports the claim of the Book of Mormon for the Jaredite and Nephite colonizations. These four authorities agreeing as to the "two distinct" peoples, and Mr. Short classing them as having `'capacity" for the "exercise of government," "erection of magnificent architectural monuments," and possessed of a "respectable knowledge of geometrical principles," we shall now present evidences of high civilization without classification. Pidgeon says: "It cannot any longer be denied that there has been a day when this continent swarmed with millions of inhabitants, when the arts and sciences flourished." -- Antiquarian Researches, p. 5. Of ancient America's knowledge of astronomy, Donnelly says: "It will be conceded, that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge must have been necessary to reach conclusively that the true year consisted of 365 days and six hours, (modern science has demonstrated that it consists of 365 days, five hours, less ten seconds), and a higher degree of civilization was requisite to insist that the year must be brought around by the intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain period of time, to its true relation to the season. Both were the outgrowth of a vast ancient civilization of the highest order." -- Atlantis, p. 368. That Abraham was an astronomer, appears from a statement made by Josephus: "Berosus," says he, "mentions our father Abraham, not by name, but after this manner: 'In the tenth generation after the flood there were among the Chaldeans a righteous man, who was 32. THE BOOK UNSEALED. also skilled in the knowledge of the heavens.'" -- Josephus, Book I, Chapter 7. Abraham's posterity in Egypt first, then in America, were versed in astronomy: "The Egyptians were the first land surveyors, mathematicians and astronomers of the old world. They calculated the eclipses and periods of the planets and constellations from a remote antiquity." -- Beginnings of Civilization, p. 35, and Atlantis, p. 364. The proficiency of the Aztecs in astronomy is thus spoken of by Prescott: "That they should be capable of accurately adjusting their festivals by the movements of the heavenly bodies, and should fix the true length of the tropical year with a precision unknown to the great philosophers of antiquity, could be the result only of a long series of nice and patient observations, evincing no slight progress in civilization." -- Atlantis, p. 35a. Delafield says: "The investigations of Mons Bailey in the astronomy of the ancients generally, of Mons. Jomard in that of Egypt, and of Baron Humboldt in that of Mexico and South America, present most striking incidents of coincidence, not only their division of time, but also in the Zodiacal signs." -- Delafield, p. 48. Mr. Jomard says: "I have also recognized in your memoir on the division of time among the Mexican nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking analogies between the Toltec character, and institutions observed on the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies is one worthy of attention. It is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary THE BOOK UNSEALED. 33. days equally enjoyed at Thebes and Mexico, a distance of three thousand leagues " -- Ibid., p. 52. Mr. Schoolcraft gives this account of a discovery made in West Virginia: "Antique tube; telescopic device. In the course of excavations made in 1842 in the easternmost of three mounds of the Elizabethtown group, several tubes of stone were disclosed, the precise object of which have been the subject of various opinions. The longest measured twelve inches, the shortest eight. Three of them were carved out of steatite, being skillfully cut and polished. The diameter of the tube, externally, was one inch and four-tenths. The bore eight-tenths of an inch. The caliber was continued until within three-eighths of an inch of the sight end, when it diminishes to two-tenths of an inch. By placing the eye at the diminished end, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil and distant objects are more clearly discerned." * * "An ancient Peruvian relic found a few years since, shows the figure of a man wrought in silver, in the act of studying the heavens through such a tube." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 42. "It has been already stated that finely wrought telescopic tubes have been found among remains of the Mound Builders. They were used, it seems, by the ancient people of Mexico and Central America, and they were known also in ancient Peru, where a silver figure of a man in the act of using such a tube has been discovered in one of the old tombs." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 123. "Montesinos gives a list of sixty-four sovereigns who reigned (in Peru) in the first period. * * * The twenty-first Manco-Capac-Amauta, being addicted to 34. THE BOOK UNSEALED. astronomy, convened a scientific council. * * * Amauta, the thirty-eighth of the line, Yahuar-Huquiz, the fifty-first were 'celebrated for astronomical knowledge,' and the latter 'intercalated a year at the end of four centuries.'" -- Ibid., pp. 264-6. "From the earliest ages, we find skill and knowledge in astronomy, and the more we examine, the more we are surprised at the extent of astronomical science in the earliest history of the world." -- Delafield's American Antiquity, p. 48. "This is no slight analogy, to find the system of intercalation and the number of complementary days identical between Mexico and Egypt." -- Ibid., p. 50. "In the sanctuaries of Palenque are found sculptured representations of idols which resemble the most ancient gods, both of Egypt and Syria; planispheres and godiacs exist, which exhibit a superior astronomical and chronological system to that which was possessed by the Egyptians." -- Ibid., p. 50. Priest, quoting Atwater: "'On the whole,' says Atwater, I am convinced from an attention to many hundreds of these works in every part of the west which I have visited, that their authors had a knowledge of astronomy.'" -- American Antiquity, p. 273. Le Plongeon, says: "The Troano, (Maya Book) is a very ancient treatise on geology." -- Sacred Mysteries, p. 70. So it will certainly appear that at that day the science of geology was not without its devotees and propagators in ancient America. Of "Chimu?" a city of South America, built by the ancients, Donnelly says: "Tombs, temples and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable, immense pyramidal structures, some of them a half mile in circuit; vast THE BOOK UNSEALED. 35. areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of civilization existed in the ancient Chimu capital." -- Atlantis, p. 393. Baldwin says: "To find the chief seats and most abundant remains of the most remarkable civilization of this old American race, we * * * go * * * into Central America and * * * Mexico. * * * Many ancient cities have been discovered. * * * The chief peculiarity of these ruins, * * * is the evidence they furnish that their builders had remarkable skill in architecture and * * * ornamentation. * * * The rooms and corridors in these edifices were finely and often elaborately finished; plaster, stucco, and sculpture being used. * * * "Throughout," he again says, (quoting Stephens), "the laying and polishing of the stones are as perfect as under the rules of the best modern masonry. * * * The ornamentation is no less remarkable than the masonry and architectural finish." -- Ancient America, pp. 93, 99. The Marquis de Nadaillac, author of Prehistoric America, says of the old civilization of Peru: "Nowhere in the world, perhaps, has man displayed greater energy. It was in these desolate regions that arose the most powerful and most highly civilized empire of the two Americas, * * * imposing ruins, * * * fortresses defending it, * * * roads intersecting it, * * * canals conducting the water for fertilizing the fields, * * * houses of refuge in the mountains for the use of travelers, * * * potteries, linen and cotton cloth, ornaments of gold and silver, which are sought for by the Tapadas, with in satiable zeal." -- Prehistoric America, p 388. 36. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Priest says: "The Americans were equal in antiquity, civilization and sciences, to the nations of Europe and Africa; like them the children of the Asiatic nations." -- Antiquities, p. 305. Speaking of a portion of the ruins of Labna, Stephens says: "Above the cornice of the building rises a gigantic perpendicular wall to the height of thirty feet, once ornamented from top to bottom and from one side to the other with colossal figures and other designs in stucco, now broken into fragments, but still presenting a curious and extraordinary appearance, such as the art of no other people ever produced." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 51. Baldwin says: "At Palenque are remains of a well built aqueduct; and near the ruins, especially in Yucatan, are frequently found the remains of many finely constructed aguadas or artificial lakes. * * * These antiquities show that this section of the continent was anciently occupied by a people admirably skilled in the arts of masonry, building, and architectural decoration. Some of their works can not be excelled by the best of our constructors and decorators." -- Ancient America, p. 101. Short says of Mexico: "Here the silver-smith, the sculptor, the artist and the architect, we are led to believe, from the testimony of both tradition and remains, flourished." -- American Antiquities, p. 270. Baldwin, of Central American ruins, says: "As to the ornamentation, the walls, piers, and cornices are covered with it. Everywhere the masterly workmanship and artistic skill of the old constructors compel admiration, Mr. Stephens going so far as to say of sculptured human figures found in fragments, 'In justness THE BOOK UNSEALED. 37. of proportion and symmetry, they must have approached the Greek Models. * * * Dupaix says: 'It is impossible to describe adequately the interior decorations of this sumptuous temple.' "Stephens states, in the Preface to his work on Yucatan, that he visited forty-four cities or places." -- Ancient America, pp. 108-9, 125. Baldwin says: "Here, (Copan) as at Palenque, the ornamentation was 'rich and abundant.' The ruins, greatly worn by decay, still show that 'architecture, sculpture, painting and all the arts that embellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest.'" -- Ancient America, p. 113. Of ruins at Mitla, "Their beauty," says M. Charney, "can be matched only by the monuments of Greece and Rome in their best days." -- Ibid., p. 121. Of the ruin called "Kabbah," the author says: "The cornice running over the doorways, tried by the severest rules of art recognized among us, would embellish the architecture of any known era." -- Ibid., p. 137. "Many ages must have been required to develop such admirable skill in masonry and ornamentation." --Ibid., p. 153 In the late work of John T. Short, published in 1882, he tells the following concerning the city of Palenque: "The accompanying cut shows Waldeck's drawing (employed by Mr. Bancroft). Four hundred yards south of the palace stands the ruins of a pyramid and temple, which at the time of Dupaix's and Waldeck's visits were in a good state of preservation, but quite dilapidated when seen by Charney. The temple faces the east, and on the western wall of its inner 38. THE BOOK UNSEALED. apartment itself facing the eastern light, is found, (or rather was, for it has now entirely disappeared), the most beautiful specimens of stucco relief in America. M. Waldeck with the critical insight of an experienced artist declares it worthy to be compared to the most beautiful works of the age of Augustus. He therefore named the temple Beau Relief. The above cut is a reduction from Waldeck's drawing used in Mr. Bancroft's work, and is very accurate. However, the peculiar beauty of Waldeck's drawing is such that it must be seen in order to be fully appreciated. It is scarcely necessary for us to call the reader's attention to the details of this picture, in which correctness of designs and graceful outlines predominate to such an extent, that we may safely pronounce the beautiful youth who sits enthroned on his elaborate and artistic throne, the American Apollo. In the original drawing the grace of the arms and wrists is truly matchless, and the chest muscles are displayed in the most perfect manner." -- North Americans of Antiquity, p. 387. The same author further writes of Palenque: "The stuccoed roofs and piers of both the temples -- Cross and Sun -- may be truly pronounced works of art of a high order. On the former, Stephens observed busts and heads approaching Greek models In symmetry of contour and perfectness of proportion. Mr. Waldeck has preserved in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, which are certainly sufficient to prove beyond controversy that the Ancient Palenqueans were a cultivated and artistic people. In passing to Uxmal the transition is from delineations of the human figure, to the elegant and exterior superabundant ornamentation of edifices, and from stucco to stone as the material THE BOOK UNSEALED. 39. employed. The human figure, however, when it is represented, is in statuary of a high order. The elegant square panels of grecques and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa del Gobernador, delineated in the works of Stephens, Baldwin and Bancroft, are a marvel of beauty which must excite the admiration of the most indifferent student of the subject." -- Ibid., p. 392. Bancroft says in regard to the Peruvian antiquities: "The Peruvians seem to have had a more abundant supply of metals than the civilized nations of North America, and to have been at least equally skillful in working them. The cuts show specimens of copper cutting implements, of which a great variety are found. Besides copper, they had gold and silver in much greater abundance than the northern artisans, and the arts of melting, casting, soldering, beating, inlaying and carving these metals, were carried to a high degree of perfection." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 792. Bancroft says: "Closely enveloped in the dense forests of Chiapas, Guatemala, Yucatan and Honduras, the ruins of several ancient cities have been discovered, which are far superior in extent and magnificence to any seen in Aztec territory, and of which a detailed description may be found in the fourth volume of this work. They bear hieroglyphic descriptions apparently identical in character; in other respects they resemble each other more than they resemble the Aztec ruins, or even other and apparently later works in Guatemala and Honduras. All these remains bear evident remarks of great antiquity. Their existence and similarity, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, would indicate the occupation of the whole country, at some remote period, by nations far advanced in civilization, 40. THE BOOK UNSEALED. and closely allied in manners and customs, if not in blood and language. Furthermore, the traditions of several of the most advanced nations point to a wide-spread civilization, introduced among a numerous and powerful people by Votan and Zamna, who, or their successors, built the cities referred to, and founded great allied empires in Chiapas, Yucatan and Guatemala. And moreover, the tradition is confirmed by the universality of one family of languages or dialects spoken among the civilized nations, and among their descendants to this day. I deem the grounds sufficient, therefore, for accepting this Central American civilization of the past as a fact." -- Native Races of Pacific States, Vol. 2, p. 116. In regard to the ruins of Palenque, Stephens says: "The intermediate country is now occupied by races of Indians speaking many different languages, and entirely unintelligible to each other; but there is room for belief that the whole of this country was once occupied by the same race, speaking the same language, or at least having the same written characters." -- Travels in Central America' Chiapas and Yucatan, Vol. 2, p. 343. William Hosea Bullou, in Scientific American for January 26th, 1889, quoting Le Plongeon, says: "Here (at Chichen) were many beautiful mineral paintings, probably the only vestiges now existing of ancient American art." With regard to the calendar stone of Mexico, Bancroft says: "The calendar stone was a rectangular parallelopipedon of porphyry, 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches square, 3 feet, 3 1/2 inches thick, and weighing in its present mutilated state, 24 tons." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 506. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 41. The concentric circles, the divisions, and the subdivisions, without numbers are traced with mathematical exactitude." -- Ibid., p 508. Of this stone Short says: "Thus it is that the stone speaks and testifies to the astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs, the accuracy of which casts into the shade the imperfect Julian Calendar in use by Europeans at the time of the conquest." -- American Antiquities, p. 455. Thus it will be seen that these various authors clearly and distinctly affirm that the ancient denizens of America possessed high culture, polish and civilization. And so do they add their testimony in support of the Book of Mormon, for that is in line with its statements touching these things.
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Of writing in Central America, Baldwin says: "The ruins show that they had the art of writing, and that at the south this art was more developed, more like a phonetic system of writing than that found in use among the Aztecs. * * * It is known that books or manuscript writings were abundant among them in the ages previous to the Aztec period." -- Ancient America, p. 187. 42. THE BOOK UNSEALED. It is evident then that these books were not the fruits of association with the Spaniards, for the Aztec period antedated the Spaniards by some centuries. Baldwin says: "These chroniclers had likewise to calculate the days, months and years, and though they had no writings like ours, they had their symbols and characters through which they understood everything, and they had great books, which were composed with such ingenuity and art, that our characters were really of no great assistance to them. Our priests have seen those books, and I myself, * * * many were burned at the instigation of the monks. * * * Books, such as those here described by Las Cassas must have contained important historical information." -- Ancient America, p. 188. Again: "We learn from Spanish writers that a still greater destruction of the old books was effected by the more ignorant and fanatical of the Spanish priests who were established in the country as missionaries after the conquest. This is said by Las Cassas, himself, one of the missionaries" -- Ibid., 188-9 "There are existing monuments of an American ancient history which invites study, and most of which might, doubtless, have been studied more successfully in the first part of the sixteenth century, before nearly all the old books of Central America had been destroyed by Spanish fanaticism, than at present." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 14. "They were highly skilled, also, in the appliances of civilized life, and they had the art of writing, a fact placed beyond dispute by their many inscriptions." -- Ibid., 101. "Sahagun wrote such a history, which shows that he had studied the traditions and some of the old THE BOOK UNSEALED. 43. books; this work is printed in the great collection of Lord Kingsborough." -- Ibid., 191 Delafield says: "Their buildings, particularly the sacred houses, were covered with hieroglyphics. Each race, Egyptian, Mexican and Peruvian recorded the deeds of their gods upon the walls of their temples." -- American Antiquities, p. 60. Speaking of a sculptured figure at Uxmal, Stephens says: "Around the head of the principal figure are rows of characters. We now discovered that these characters were hieroglyphics." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I, p. 167. "In Peru a paper was made of plantain leaves, and books were common in the earlier ages. Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings among the Panoes, which were 'bundles of their paper resembling our volumes of quarto.'" -- Atlantis, p. 451. Of the Aztec writing, Baldwin says: "Their skill in architecture and architectural ornamentation did not enable them to build such cities as Mitla and Palenque, and their 'picture writing' was a much ruder form of the graphic art than the phonetic system of the Mayas and the Quiches." -- Ancient America, p. 221. From the above we are led to believe that a wide contrast existed in the writings of the Ancient Americans. Some were elegant in their artistic appearance, while some were rude. Bancroft describes one of them (the Troano) in these words. "The original is written on a strip of maguey paper about fourteen feet long and nine inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a white varnish, on which the figures are painted in black, red, blue, and brown. It is folded fan-like in thirty-five 44. THE BOOK UNSEALED. folds; presenting, when shut, much the appearance of a modern large octavo volume. The hieroglyphics cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently divided into seventy columns, each about five by nine inches, apparently having been executed after the paper was folded, so that the folding does not interfere with the written matter. * * * The regular lines of written characters are uniformly black, while the pictorial portions of what may perhaps be considered representative signs are in red and blue, chiefly the former, and the blue appears for the most part as a background in some of the pages." -- J. T Short, p. 422 This description of the Troano will probably be a fair description of the "many" ancient Maya books said to have been "destroyed by the vandalism of Landa and other early Fathers." Desire Charney says: "Documents were not wanting, and had the religious zeal of the men of that time been less ill-judged, they would have found in the various multiform manuscripts, in the charts or maps, in the idols, in the pottery and living traditions, ample and reliable materials from which to write an exhaustive history of the Maya civilization." -- Ancient Cities, p. 270. "Some of the Peruvian tongues had names for paper, and according to Montesino's writing, books were common in the older times, that is to say, in ages long previous to the Incas." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 255. "Humboldt mentions books of hieroglyphical writings found among the Panoes, on the river Ucayli. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 45. * * * A Franciscan missionary found an old man * * * reading one of these books to several young persons." -- Ibid., 255-6. Boudinot says: "There is a tradition related by an aged Indian of the Stockbridge Tribe, that their fathers were once in possession of a SACRED BOOK, which was handed down from generation to generation, and at last HIS IN THE EARTH, since which time they have been under the feet of their enemies." † -- Star of the West." Baldwin says of Mound Builders: "They manufactured cloth, but their intelligence, skill and civilized ways a re shown not only by their constructions and manufactures, but also by their mining works." -- Ancient America, p. 6I. McLean says: "The Mound Builders * * * for their principal raiment used cloth regularly spun with a uniform thread, and woven with a warp and woof. Fragments of clothing have been taken from a low mound near Charleston, Jackson county, Ohio. In constructing the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton R. R., a mound was cut through near Middleton, Ohio, and in it * * * was found cloth connected with tassels and ornaments. -- Mound Builders," p. 73. Donnelly says: "Their works in cotton and wool exceed in fineness anything known in Egypt at that time " (Time of conquest). -- Atlantis, p. 395. Of cloth made from the wool of Peruvian sheep Prescott says: "The cloth was finished on both sides alike; the delicacy of the texture was such as to give to it the lustre of silk; and the brilliancy of the dyes excited the admiration and envy of the European artisan." -- Prescott's Conquest of Peru, Vol. I, p. 149. 46. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Desire Charney says: "Toltecs * * * had sculptors, Mosaists, painters, and smelters of gold and silver; and by means of molds, knew how to give metals every variety of shape; their jewelers and lapidaries could imitate all manner of animals, plants, flowers, birds, etc. Cotton was spun by the women, and given a brilliant coloring, both from animal and mineral substances; it was manufactured of every degree of thinness so that some looked like muslin, some like cloth and some like velvet. They had also the art of interweaving with these the delicate hair of animals and birds' feathers, which made a cloth of great beauty." -- Ancient Cities, p. 88. Fragments of such cloth were to be seen at the World's Fair. There are also some on exhibition at the Chamber of Commerce Library, Denver, Colorado. Baldwin in speaking of the Peruvians says: "They had great proficiency in the arts of spinning, weaving and dyeing. For their cloth they used cotton and wool of four varieties of the llama, that of the vicuna being the finest. Some of their cloth had interwoven designs and ornaments very skillfully executed. * * * They possessed the secret of fixing the dye of all colors, flesh-color, yellow, gray, blue, green, black, etc., so firmly in the thread, or in the cloth already woven, that they never faded during the lapse of ages, even when exposed to the air, or buried (in tombs) under the ground. Only the cotton became slightly discolored, while the woolen fabrics preserved their primitive lustre. It is a circumstance worth remarking that chemical analysis made of pieces of cloth of all the different dyes prove that the Peruvians extracted all their colors from the vegetable and none of the mineral THE BOOK UNSEALED. 47. kingdom. In fact, the natives of the Peruvian mountains now use plants unknown to Europeans, producing from them bright and lasting colors." -- Ancient America, pp. 247-8. "The American nations manufactured woolen and cotton goods, they made pottery as beautiful as the wares of Egypt. They manufactured glass, they engraved gems and precious stones." -- Atlantis, p. 142. "In both continents we find brick, glassware and even porcelain." -- Ibid., p. 350. Priest mentioning a Mr. Brown says: "He discovered in one mound an article of glass, in form resembling the bottom of a tumbler, weighing five ounces; it was concave on both of its sides. It is true that although glass is said not to have been found out till 644 of the Christian era, yet it was known to the ancient Romans, * * * Pompeii and Herculaneum buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Among the vast discoveries * * * has been found one bow window, lighted with glass of a green tinge, or color." -- American Antiquities, p. 280. Chambers says: "The invention of glass dates from the earliest antiquity, and the honor of its discovery has been contested by several nations. As the oldest known specimens are Egyptian, its invention may with great probability be attributed to that people." (1445 B. C.) -- Chambers' Encyclopedia, Article, Glass. I give one citation of many in the Book of Mormon which are amply sustained by the above mentioned authorities on weaving: "Behold their women did toil and spin and did make all manner of cloth of fine twined linen, and cloth of every kind." -- Plano Edition, Book of Mormon, p. 394. |
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It was understood and practiced in the days of Moses. Exodus 39:30: "And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing like to the engravings of a signet, Holiness to the Lord." In the Apocrypha, I Macc. 14:48, 49, we have the following plain statements: "And they commanded that this writing should be put in tables of brass, and that they should be set up within the compass of the sanctuary, in a conspicuous place, and that a copy thereof should be put in the treasury, that Simon and his sons may have it." -- Douay Translation. "After the destruction of Jerusalem, about A. D. 70, Titus, the Roman general, called at Antioch, and the people presented to him a petition against the Jews. Of this translation, Josephus says: 'Whereupon the people of Antioch, when they had failed of success in this their first request, made him a second, for they desired that he would order those tables of brass to be removed, 88. THE BOOK UNSEALED. on which the Jews' privileges were engraven,' etc." -- Josephus, vol. 6, p. 132. The American nations writing on metal and other imperishable materials, is not strange in the light of this, and it is highly probable in the case of the Nephites, as they were Israelites. The claim of the Book of Mormon that the ancient American nations had written on metallic plates, was thought to be its sure defeat; but plates and various materials containing hieroglyphical writing have since been found in such abundance, that the claim is now fully sustained. In the Quincy (Ill.) Whig appeared an article describing plates found April 23d, 1843: "A Mr. J. Roberts, from Pike county, called upon us last Monday, with a written description of a discovery which was recently made near Kinderhook, in that county. * * * It appeared that a young man by the name of Wiley, a resident in Kinderhook, commenced digging into a mound, finding it quite laborous, he invited others to assist him; finally, a company of ten or twelve repaired to the mound, and assisted * * * After penetrating the mound about eleven feet, they came to a bed of limestone, that had apparently been subjected to fire. They removed the stones * * * to the depth of two feet, * * * when they found six brass plates secured or fastened together by two iron wires, but which were so decayed, that they readily crumbled to dust upon being handled. The plates were so completely covered with dust as almost to obliterate the characters inscribed upon them, but after undergoing a chemical process, the inscriptions were brought out plain and distinct. There were six plates, four inches in length, THE BOOK UNSEALED. 89. 1 3/4 inches wide at the top, and 2 3/4 wide at the bottom, flaring out to points. There are four lines of characters or hieroglyphics on each * * * In the place where the plates were deposited, were also found human bones in the last stage of decomposition; * * * it is believed that it was but the burial place of a small number, perhaps of a person, or a family of distinction, in ages long gone by, * * * of a people, that existed far beyond the memory of the present race. * * * The plates above alluded to, were exhibited in this city last week." Wiley and eight others testify, in the "Times and Seasons," to the finding of these plates, as follows: "We, the citizens of Kinderhook, whose names are annexed, do certify and declare that on the 23d April, 1843, while excavating a large mound, in this vicinity, Mr. Wiley took from said mound six brass plates of a bell shape, covered with ancient characters. Said plates were very much oxidated. The bands and rings on said plates mouldered into dust on a slight pressure. R. Wiley, Geo. Deckenson, W. Longnecker, G. W. F. Ward, J. R. Sharp, Ira S. Curtis, Fayette Grubb, W. P. Harris, W. Fugate." Of articles discovered opposite Marietta, Ohio, on the Muskingum, Priest says: "Sixth, Under a heap of dust and tennons, shreds of feathered cloth and hair, a parcel of brass rings, cut out of a solid piece of metal, and in such a manner that the rings were suspended from each other, without the aid of solder or any other visible agency whatever. Each ring was three inches in diameter, and the bar of the rings a half inch thick, and were square; a variety of characters were deeply engraved on the sides of the rings resembling the Chinese characters." -- American Antiquities, p 93. 90. THE BOOK UNSEALED. G. W. West of Manchester, Adams county, Ohio, wrote an article dated January 19th, 1880, which appeared in Herald, in which it is set forth that, Near Manchester, Adams county, Ohio, on the old Smith farm on the Portsmouth pike, in 1880, in a cave where twenty-five bodies had been entombed as in Egypt, was found a square package at the head of a tomb, wrapped in varnished cloth, containing A BOOK of one hundred leaves of thin COPPER, fastened loosely at the top and crowded with finely engraved characters. Mr. Samuel Groom, who owned the farm at the time, is reported as having forwarded these to the Smithsonian Institute. The Newport, Vermont, Express and Standard of August I5th, 1882, quoting from the New Orleans Democrat says: "The pyramids and mounds which so often occur in the western states * * * have been leveled * * * by zealous searchers for relics of antiquity. Nor have their efforts been in vain, copper hatchets, chisels and various other kinds of tools have been unearthed with copper plates covered with inscriptions." "Chillicothe, Ohio, December 15, 1891. -- Hundreds came today to see the mound builder relics uncovered by Warren K. Moorehead, Monday. Of the five skeletons lying side by side, two were covered with a sheet of copper six by eight feet. A large, thick copper ax weighed forty-one pounds and in point of size and value exceeds any single specimen ever found in the United States. There are traces of gold in it. The cutting edge is seven inches broad and very sharp. How it could have been fastened in a handle and used is a mystery. All the smaller copper axes are such as have been found before. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 91. "Thirty copper plates with mound builders' cloth on them overlapped the axes. The average size of the plates was ten by six inches. A great copper eagle, twenty inches in diameter, wings outspread, beak open, tail and wing feathers neatly stamped upon the copper surface, covered the knees of one of the skeletons. I This is one of the most artistic designs ever found in copper. "Remains of a copper stool about a foot in length and several inches in height lay near the head of one of the skeletons. The stool had been made out of wood and had been covered with sheet copper. Flint implements, bear tusks, sea-shells and other trinkets were also found." -- Chicago Daily News. In the St. Louis Chronicle in February, 1889, appeared the following: "Rev. S. D. Peet, the well known antiquarian, is reported as having found in Illinois, two cross plates which have all the appearance of being rude musical instruments. These plates are about fifteen inches square and there are places for strings and a bridge. Along the lower edge is a row of hieroglyphics SIMILAR to those on the famous Palmyra plates, said to have been discovered by Joseph Smith and from which he interpreted the Book of Mormon." John T. Short on pages 38-9 of North Americans of Antiquity, describes two tablets and presents a cut of one, found near Davenport, Iowa, of which he says: "The most remarkable discovery of all, however, (relics of eastern Iowa), was made January 10th, 1877, by Rev. Mr. Gass, * * * two tablets of coal slate covered with a variety of figures and hieroglyphics were found." The Cincinnati tablet is described thus: "The material is a fine grained compact sandstone, of light 92. THE BOOK UNSEALED. brown color. It measures five inches in length, by three in breadth at the ends, two and six tenths at the middle, and is about half an inch in thickness. The sculptured face varies very slightly from a perfect plane. The figures are cut in low relief, (the lines being not more than one twentieth of an inch in depth), and occupy a rectangular space of four inches and two tenths long, by two and one tenth wide." -- Short's American Antiquities, pp. 46, 47. This tablet was found November, 1841, corner Fifth and Mound streets, Cincinnati, Ohio. "In 1870 there was found a tablet in a mound near Lafayette Bayou, * * * Miss., which has the same reduplication of figures in the carved work as exists in the Cincinnati Tablet." -- MacLean's Mound Builders, p. 110. Another, known as the Berlin tablet, found near Berlin, Ohio, by Dr. J. E. Sylvester, June I4th, 1876, described on the last page cited, is similar to the last two treated upon. Statements concerning other plates and tablets could have been given, but the foregoing abundantly establish the claim of the Book of Mormon, as to ancient Americans having written on plates of imperishable material. The Book of Mormon plates were found in a STONE BOX in the earth. The SAME is true of HEBREW TABLETS mentioned in chapter seven of this work. The Davenport tablet and another plate found are described in a foot note, on page 38, of J. T. Short's work, American Antiquities, thus: "The two plates were closely encircled by a single row of weathered limestones. These stones are irregular in shape but almost THE BOOK UNSEALED. 93. of the same size, their dimensions being about 3 x 7 or 8 inches, and the diameter of the circle two feet." Weekly Inter-Ocean, December 23, 1890: "Two inscribed tablets were found near Davenport, Iowa, covered with peculiar figures, and among the figures some strange hieroglyphic letters. Prof. Seyffarth of St. Louis says, that the tablets were descriptive of the flood, and that the people who deposited them had migrated from Asia." "'Dr. West of Stockbridge, relates that an old Indian informed him that his fathers in this country had, not long since, been in the possession of a book, which they had for a long time carried with them, but having lost the knowledge of reading it, they buried it with an Indian chief.' View of the Hebrews, p. 223." -- Priest's Antiquities, p. 69 [sic]. Ellen Russell Emerson says: "The Ujibway Indians, relates "Mr. Copway, 'had three depositories for sacred records near the waters of Lake Superior. Ten of the wisest and most venerable men of the nation dwelt near these, and were appointed guardians of them." -- Indian Myths, pp. 225-6. Boudinot says: "It is said among their principle, or beloved men. that they have it handed down from their ancestors, that the book which the white people have was once theirs. That while they had it they prospered exceeding, but that the white people bought it of them, and learned many things from it, while the Indians lost their credit, offended the Great Spirit and suffered exceedingly from the neighboring nations. * * * They also say that their forefathers were possessed of an extraordinary divine Spirit, by which they foretold 94. THE BOOK UNSEALED. future events, and controlled the common course of nature, and this they transmitted to their offspring on condition of their obeying the sacred laws. That they did by these means bring down showers of plenty on the beloved people. But that this power, for a long time past, had entirely ceased." -- A Star in the West, pp. 110, 111. "Dr West of Stockbridge, (Massachusetts), relates that an old Indian informed him that his fathers in this country had been in possession of a book, which for a long time, they carried with them, but, having lost the knowledge of reading it, they buried it with a chief," -- Priest's American Antiquities, edition 1833, p. 69 [sic], or View of the Hebrews by Dr. West [sic], p. 223. The Book of Mormon mentions coins of different value, used as money. In the light of this, the following is interesting as well as confirmatory of its statement. Correspondence to the press, from Helena, Arkansas, bearing date of October 19th, 1891, says: "A most remarkable find is reported from the little town of Laconia, about twenty-five miles south of this city. A well was being drilled; at the depth of one hundred and twenty-five feet the drillings showed they were passing through a layer of brick. * * * As there were no brick houses in the town and never had been it could not be believed. While quite a crowd was around the well-hole, the men brought up to the surface a lot of mud and examined it, as they had done from the time they found the brick residue. In the mass of mud there was a small piece of metal, which when cleaned off, was found to be a PIECE OF MONEY. It was octagonal in shape and had hieroglyphics on it, which could not be THE BOOK UNSEALED. 95. deciphered, but which were evidently meant to represent the value of the piece. * * * It is claimed by antiquarians here that the bricks and COIN are the relics of a prehistoric race which lived here many years before the Indians, and built the pavements and roads which were discovered at Memphis, on the other side of the river above here." -- Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Leader, November 6, 1891. Among relics found at Circleville, Ohio, a coin is mentioned by Priest. "Near the same place was dug up from beneath the roots of a hickory tree, seven feet eight inches, in circumference, a copper coin, bearing no comparison with any coin known." -- American Antiquities, p. 175. Another coin is described on page 260. "At the meeting of the Tennessee Historical Society at Nashville, Tuesday night, there was a letter read from W. E. McElwee, of Rockwood, Tennessee, describing a coin found in an Indian mound in that country. It bears an urn burning incense on one side, with the inscription in Hebrew, 'shekel of Israel.' On the other is a fig or olive branch, and the words in Hebrew, 'Jerusalem, the holy land.' A similar coin was exhibited' but how the coin got into the mound is a matter of mystery." -- Stephenson (Alabama) Chronicle, of February 20th, 1894. "A round copper COIN with a serpent stamped on it was found at Palenque, and T shaped copper coins are very abundant in the ruins of Central America." -- Atlantis, p. 245. |
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"The Peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels, and ornaments of gold that the Inca paid with them a ransom for himself to Pizzaro of the value of fifteen million dollars." Atlantis, p. 142. "The Peruvians called gold, 'The tears wept by the sun.' * * The great temple of the sun at Cuzco was called the 'Place of Gold,' It was as I have shown literally a mine of gold.' Walls, cornices, statuary, plate, ornaments, all were of gold; the very sewer-pipes and aqueducts, even the agricultural implements used in the garden of the temple were of gold and silver. The value of the jewels which adorned the temple was equal to one hundred and eighty millions of dollars." Atlantis, pp. 345. In speaking of Costa Rica, Mr. Bancroft says: "Mr. Boyle makes the general statement that gold ornaments and idols are constantly found, and that the ancient mines which supplied the precious metal are THE BOOK UNSEALED. 97. often seen by modern prospectors." Native Races, Pacific States, Vol. 4, p. 23. "Montezuma, in his diplomacy, presents to Cortez, on his arrival to Mexico, gold and native fabrics of the most delicate character; shields, helmets, cuirasses, collars, bracelets, sandals, fans, pearls, precious stones, loads of cotton cloth, extraordinary manufactures of feathers, circular plates of gold and silver, as large as carriage wheels." History of Mexico, New Mexico and California, Vol. i, p. 26. "Calendars made of gold and silver were common in Mexico. Before Cortez reached the capitol, Montezuma sent him two 'as large as cart wheels,' one representing the sun, the other the moon, both 'richly carved.' It was with articles of this gold work that the Inca Alahullpa [sic - Atahuallpa ?] filled a room in his vain endeavor to purchase release from captivity. One of the old chroniclers mentions 'statuary, jars, vases and every species of vessels, all of fine gold. * * An artificial garden * * of fine gold, * * more than twenty sheep (llamas) with their lambs, attended by shepherds, all made of gold.' * * In the course of twenty-five years after the conquest, the Spandiards sent from Peru to Spain more than four hundred million ducats ($800,000,000) worth of gold." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, pp. 215, 249, 250. Donnely gives substantially the same account on page 395 of Atlantis. "Gold ornaments are said to have been found in several tumuli. Silver, very well plated on copper, has been found in several mounds, besides those of Circleville and Marietta. An ornament of copper was found in a stone mound near Chillicothe; it was a bracelet for the ankle or wrist." -- Priest's Amer. Ant., p. 221. 98. THE BOOK UNSEALED. "Silver was accessible in such quantities that Pizarro found in it a substitute for iron to shoe the horses of his cavalry. Copper and tin, in like manner, abounded in the mountains, and the Peruvians had learned to alloy the copper, both with tin and silver. * * Discovery of well adjusted silver balances in some of the tombs of the Incas, shows that they made use of weights in determining the value of their commodities." -- Prehistoric Man, Geo. Wilson, Vol. 1, page 440. Mr. Squire says: "These articles have been critically examined and it is beyond doubt that the copper bosses were absolutely plated, not simply overlaid with silver. Between the copper and the silver exists a connection such as it seems to me could only be produced by heat, and if it is admitted that these are genuine relics of the Mound Builders, it must at the same time be admitted they possessed the difficult art of plating one metal upon another." -- Atlantis, p. 378. Priest says: "In many instances articles made of copper and sometimes plated with silver have been met with on opening their (Mound Builders) works, circular pieces of copper intended either as medals or breast plates, have been found several inches in diameter, very much injured by time." -- Inquiry Origin American Antiquities, p. 263. "In South America * * many interesting specimens have been exhumed. * * 'Among these,' says Dr. Reese, 'are mirrors of various dimensions of hard shining stones, highly polished, * * hatchets and other instruments, * * some were of flint, some of copper, hardened by an unknown process to such a degree as to supply the place of iron." -- Mayer's Mexico, p. 227. Bryant describes copper instruments found in Wisconsin: THE BOOK UNSEALED. 99. "An adz with wings for fitting. An arrow head with wings for fitting to arrow. A knife with socket for handle. A chisel apparently cast, the rough- ness showing sand-mould, and white spots of melted silver. An awl. A spear head, eleven inches in length with socket for handle." History U. S., Vol. I, p. 31. Of discoveries at Circleville, Ohio, Priest says: "On this mirror was a plate of IRON which had become an oxide; but before it was disturbed by the spade, resembled a plate of CAST IRON." -- Priest's American Antiquities, pp. 178-9. The size of mirror mentioned is given as one and a half by three feet. "'But besides this, there have been found very well manufactured swords and knives of IRON and possibly STEEL,' says Mr. Atwater." Ibid., p. 265. Priest gives the following account: "In 1826 near Cincinnati, Ohio, a gentlemen dug a well. At the depth of eighty feet there appeared the stump of a tree three feet in diameter and two feet high, which had been cut down with an axe. The blows were yet visible." Mr. Priest's fourth reflection is: "Ancient Americans were acquainted with the use and properties of iron. The rust of the axe was on tap of the stump when discovered." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 129. Mr. Priest mentions two more wells; one ninety, and another ninety-four feet deep, each containing a stump of a tree. Of the second he says: "Another stump was found at ninety-four feet below the surface which had evident marks of an axe; and on its top there appeared as if some iron tool had been consumed by rust." -- Page 139. 100. THE BOOK UNSEALED. "A piece of a cast iron vessel was taken out of the circular embankment at Circleville, Ohio." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 175. Another find is recorded on page 260. In caves on the Gasconade river, a tributary of the Missouri river, were found "axes and hammers made of iron." Ibid., 239. "In December, 1827, a planter of South America discovered in a tomb of masonry, two extremely ancient swords, a helmet and shield, which had suffered much from rust." Ibid., p. 47. Priest mentions articles found in digging the Louisville canal. "Medals of copper and silver swords, and other implements of iron." "Mr. Flint assures us that he has seen these strange ancient swords. He also examined a small iron shoe, like a horse shoe, encrusted with the rust of ages, and found far beneath the soil, and the copper axe weighing about two pounds, singularly tempered, and of peculiar construction." -- American Antiquities, p. 378. "'It is remarkable,' says Molina, 'that iron which has been thought unknown to the Ancient Americans, had particular names in some of their tongues. In official Peruvian it was called, quillary; and in Chilian, panillic. The Mound Builders fashioned implements out of meteoric iron." -- Atlantis, p. 451. Again he says: "We find the remains of an iron sword and meteoric weapons in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, while the name of the metal is found in the ancient languages of Peru and Chili, and the Incas worked in IRON on the shores of Lake Titicaca." -- Ibid., p. 462. "Near the falls of Ohio, six brass ornaments such THE BOOK UNSEALED. 101. as soldiers usually wear in front of their belts, was dug up, attached to six skeletons." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 232. Of discoveries in New York: "In Scipio on Salmon Creek, a Mr. Halstead has from time to time, during ten years past, ploughed up * * seven or eight hundred pounds of brass, which appeared to have once been formed into various implements, both of husbandry and war; helmets and working utensils mingled together." -- Ibid., p. 261. Of relics found in mound at Marietta, Ohio: "Three large circular ornaments which had adorned a sword belt or buckler, and were composed of copper, overlaid with a plate of silver." -- Ibid., p. 268. Priest, writing of the town of Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, says: "In Pompey, on lot fourteen, is the site of an ancient burying ground, upon which, when the country was first settled, was found timber, growing apparently, of the second growth, judging from the old timber, reduced to mold, lying around which was one hundred years old, ascertained by counting the concentric grains. In one of those graves was found a glass bottle. * * In the same grave with the bottle was found an iron hatchet edged with steel. * * In the same town, on lot number seventeen, was found the remains of a blacksmith's forge; at this spot have been ploughed up crucibles, such as mineralogists use in refining metals." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 260. Priest says: "In Virginia, near Blacksburg, eighty miles from Marietta, there was found the half of a STEEL BOW, which when entire would have measured five or six feet." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 176. (Edition of 1833.) 102. THE BOOK UNSEALED. "In Liberty township, Washington county, Ohio, are yet to be seen twenty or thirty rude furnaces, perhaps used in smelting ore. Large trees are still growing on them and attest their age. They stand in the midst of a rich body of iron ore, and in a wild, hilly, rough part of the country, better adapted to manufacture than to agriculture." -- Delafield's American Antiquities, p. 55. Large earthen vessel. "It was twelve feet across the top and of consequence thirty-six feet in circumference, and otherwise of proportioned depth and form." -- Priest's American Antiquities, p. 112. Jones says: "In 1834, Colonels Meriwether and Lumsden, while engaged in digging a canal in Dukes Creek Valley, Georgia, * * unearthed a subterraneous village * * of thirty-four small cabins. * * They were made of logs hewn at the ends and notched down. * * This hewing and notching had evidently been done with sharp metallic tools, the marks being such as would have been caused by a chopping axe. * * Eleven old shafts have been found varying in depth from ninety to one hundred feet. * * In 1854 one * * was cleaned out, * * at ninety feet was found a windlass of post-oak well hewn, with an inch auger hole bored through each end. Distinct traces appeared where it had been banded with iron. * * The presence of iron and the marks of sharp metallic tools prove that these ancient mining operations cannot be referred to the labor of the Indians." -- Antiquity of Southern Indians, pp. 48-9. GREAT WORKS. "The most astonishing remains are found still farther south, in Chiapa, Tabasco, Oxaca, Yucatan,THE BOOK UNSEALED. 103. Honduras, Tehauntepec, Guatemala and other parts of Central America, * * of great cities and temples." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 77. "The pyramid of Cholulu covers an area of forty- five acres. It was terraced and built with four stages. When measured by Humboldt it was fourteen hundred feet square at the base, and one hundred and sixty feet high. * * Thousands of other monuments, unrecorded * * invest every sierra and valley of Mexico with profound interest." -- Ibid., pp. 90-1. "Another class of these antiquities consists of en- closures formed by heavy embankments of earth and stone. There is nothing to explain these constructions so clearly as to leave no room for conjecture and speculation It has been suggested that some of them may have been intended for defense, others for religious purposes. A portion of them, it may be, encircled villages and towns. In some cases, the ditches or fosses were on the inside, in others, on the outside. * * Lines of embankment, varying from five to thirty feet in height, and enclosing from one to fifty acres, are very common, while inclosures containing from one hundred to two hundred acres are not infrequent, and occasionally, works are found, inclosing as many as four hundred acres. * * About one hundred inclosures and five hundred mounds have been examined in Ross county, Ohio. The number of mounds in the whole state is estimated at over ten thousand, and the number of inclosures at more than fifteen hundred. * * They were constructed with a geometrical precision which implies a kind of knowledge in the builders that may be called scientific." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, pp. 19, 20,23, 24, 39. 104. THE BOOK UNSEALED. "The number and frequency of tumuli through the country, have led the writer to believe that they have not only been used as the last home of the warrior and his family, but that they served as scopuloi, or beacons, and points of observation, connecting the large and extensive castra." -- Delafield's American Antiquities, p. 54. Compare with the above the Book of Mormon, pp. 337, 341, 344, 346. See Prescott's Peru, as cited by Donnelly on Public Works: "The American nations built public works as great as, or greater than any known in Europe. The Peruvians had public roads, one thousand five hundred to two thousand miles long, made so thoroughly as to elicit the astonishment of the Spaniards. At every few miles taverns or hotels were established for the accommodation of travelers. Humboldt pronounced these Peruvian roads 'among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man.' They built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation, some of which were five hundred miles long. They constructed magnificent bridges of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before they were introduced into Europe. They had, both in Peru and Mexico, a system of posts, by means of which news was transmitted hundreds of miles in a day, precisely like those known among the Persians in the time of Herodotus, and subsequently among the Romans. Stones similar to mile-stones were placed along the roads in Peru." -- Atlantis, pp. 141-2. Baldwin says in relation to mining: "Remains of their mining works were first discovered in 1848 by Mr. S. O. Knapp, agent of the Minnesota mining company, THE BOOK UNSEALED. 105. and in 1849 they were described by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, in his geographical report to the national government." -- Ancient America, p. 43. "Mr. Knapp discovered a detached mass of copper weighing nearly six tons." Ibid., p. 43. "All who have examined these works agree with Colonel Whittlesy that they (Mound Builders) worked the Lake Superior copper mines for a great length of time." -- Ibid., 53. "We find one feature common to the architectural genius of these races, which is to be discovered nowhere else. We allude to the surprising mechanical power they must have employed in constructing their works of massive masonry, such as the present race of man has attempted in vain to move. Travelers in Egypt invariably are filled with amazement at the stupendous blocks of stone with which the pyramids, temples and tombs are constructed, and the size of the obelisks and monuments yet remaining. In Peru the same is observed." -- Delafield's American Antiquities, p. 59. "It surprised me to see these enormous gateways made of great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen feet high and six feet thick. * * In one case, large masses of sculptured stone, ten yards in length and six in width, were used to make grinding stones for a chocolate mill." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 233. "Ruins of towns, castles, fortresses and other structures are found all about the country. * * It is noticed everywhere that the ancient Peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with notable skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very substantial. Some of them are still in use. They were 106. THE BOOK UNSEALED. used to carry water to the cities and to irrigate the cultivated lands. A few of them were very long. There is mention of one which was one hundred and fifty miles long, and of another which was extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers, from south to north." -- Ibid., 243. "The American nations built public works as great or greater than any known in Europe. * * Humbolt pronounces these Peruvian roads, 'among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man.' They built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation, some of which were five hundred miles long. They constructed magnificent bridges of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before they were introduced into Europe. They had, both in Peru and Mexico, a system of posts, by means of which news was transmitted hundreds of miles a day." -- Atlantis, p. 141-2. THE GREAT PERUVIAN ROADS. "Nothing in ancient Peru was more remarkable than the public roads. No ancient people has left traces of works more astonishing than these, so vast was their extent, and so great the skill and labor required to construct them. One of these roads ran along the mountains through the whole length of the empire, from Quito to Chili. Another, starting from Cuzco, went down to the coast and extended northward to the equator. These roads were built on beds or deep understructures of masonry. The width of the roadways varied from twenty to twenty-five feet, and they were made level and smooth by paving, and in some places by a sort of macadamizing with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement. This cement wasTHE BOOK UNSEALED. 107. used in all the masonry. On each side of the roadway was a very strong wall more than a fathom in thickness. This road went over marshes, rivers, and great chasms of the sierras, and through rocky precipices and mountain-sides. The great road passing along the mountains was a marvelous work. In many places its way was cut through rock for leagues. Great ravines were filled up with solid masonry Rivers were crossed by means of a curious kind of suspension bridges, and no obstruction was encountered which the builders did not overcome. The builders of our Pacific Railroad, with their superior engineering skill and mechanical appliances, might reasonably shrink from the cost and the difficulties *f such a work as this. Extending from one degree north of Quito to Cuzco, and from Cuzco to Chili, it was quite as long as the two Pacific railroads, and its wild route among the mountains was far more difficult. * * Along these roads at equal distances were edifices, a kind of caravanseras, built of hewn stone, for the accommodation of travelers." -- Baldwin's Ancient America, pp. 243, 244-5. Also Atlantis, 392-5. The class of works found in chapter four, setting forth clearly the civilizations of ancient America, together with the stupendous works named in this chapter, especially the great Peruvian roads, will convince reasonable minds that the metals, and especially STEEL, was in common use. To grant that such tasks were performed without it, would be to admit for those ancient workmen far more skill than if they possessed it. Since the confusion of Babel was followed by the scattering of man from "Thence upon the face of all the earth," (Gen. 11:8) and as a knowledge of metals must then have been obtained in order to the building 108. THE BOOK UNSEALED. of the ark, there is no reason why the knowledge of the metals may not have been brought to the western continent by its first inhabitants. Wilkinson says: "Iron and copper mines are found in the Egyptian desert which were worked in old times, and the monuments of Thebes and even their tombs about Memphis, dating more than four thousand years ago, represent butchers sharpening their knives on a round bar of metal, attached to their aprons, which from its blue color can only, be STEEL; and the distinction between the bronzed and iron weapons in the tomb of Ramases, III, one painted red and the other blue, leaves no doubt of both having been used (as in Rome) at the same period." -- American Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, p. 585. The Nephites used a compass or instrument similar to it, as recorded in the Book of Mormon. Of the compass, Donelly says: "In A. D. 868 it was employed by the Northmen." (The Landnamabok, Vol. I, chap. 2.) An Italian poem of A. D. 1190, referred to it as in use among the Italian sailors at that date. In the ancient language of the Hindoos, the Sanscrit, which has been a dead language for a period of twenty-two hundred years, the magnet was called "The precious stone beloved of Iron." The Talmud speaks of it as "The stone of attraction," and it is alluded to in the early Hebrew prayers as "kalamitah," the name given it by the Greeks, from the reed upon which the compass floated. "In the year 2700 B. C. the Emperor (of China) Wangti, placed a magnetic figure with an extended arm, like the Astarte of the Phoenicians, oh the front of carriages, THE BOOK UNSEALED. 109. the arm always turning and pointing to the south, which the Chinese regarded as the principal pole." -- Atlantis, pp. 440-1. The Chinese invented the mariner's compass eleven centuries before Christ. See Light in Darkness, by J. E. & A. H. Godbey, p. 289. "The earliest references to the use of the compass are to be found in Chinese history. * * In the sixty-fourth year of the reign of Ho-ang-ti, 2634, B. C." -- Encyclopedia Britannica. Chambers gives it the same date and the Chinese the credit of its invention. "The ancients discovered the rotundity of the earth, and the difference of local time, and of the hour of the day between places of different longitude; knew the causes and laws of eclipses and constructed tables which give the motion of the sun, moon and stars, and the annual revolution of the sun was mapped out and divided into twelve signs known as the zodiac, was preserved in the 'Almagest' of Ptolemy, a work which remained authority for sixteen hundred years." -- Johnson's Universal Encyclopedia. "The astronomical tables sent by Alexander the Great to Aristotle, show that observations had been taken by the Babylonians which reached to 2234 years B. C." -- Encyclopedia Religious Knowledge, read page 163-5. Mr. P. C. Truman, before the Shelby county (Iowa) Normal Institute, September 7th, 1876, said: "Let us turn for a moment to our own continent and then I am done. When and by whom America was first settled is yet unknown. Geologists tell us it is the older continent, and some claim that it was first inhabited. 110. THE BOOK UNSEALED. This much we do know: Ages before Columbus ever saw its shore, America contained great cities and mighty empires. When the Spaniards conquered Mexico and Central America, the ruins of a civilization, long preceding that of the Aztecs, were hidden by the forests of Yucatan and Honduras, and the natives of those places had no tradition even of who had built or destroyed them. Scattered over the whole United States are the remains of a people, perhaps as different from the wild Indians as we are. That they had attained a good degree of culture is abundantly proved; that the country was thickly peopled is very evident, but who they were, whence they came, and what convulsion of nature or politics swept them away, are unsolved' problems. When the Spaniards over-ran Mexico and Peru, they found those empires already in a decline. A galloping consumption set in, and in about two hundred years, those delightful specimens of christianity civilized them and their people from off the face of the earth. The whole history of the intercourse of the White and Indian races, had been marked by fraud, aggression and calculating cruelty on the one side, and ineffectual resistance, often accompanied by fiendish barbarity, on the other. To this there are a few pleasant exceptions, proving that it need not have been. The peaceful, honest followers of Penn were not molested by the Indians while other colonies were continually at war with them. The Toltecs and Mound Builders have left written records, but their works are found amid the forests of Central America and in the mountains of Colorado. Traces of their work and the stone, bronze and copper tools with which that work was done, are found in the copper mines of Lake Superior THE BOOK UNSEALED. 111. and the desert of Arizona, in the mounds of Ohio and the cliff built cities of New Mexico. And the ruins of Palenque and Chichen-Itza rival those of Nineveh and Palmyra in magnificence and extent. One by one the facts are being gathered that will some day enable us to write a history of these people that may be tolerably correct. Still it must not be supposed that they have left no other records. The Spaniards found books, written in the Toltec and Maya tongues, a few of which have been preserved. What fearful calamity so utterly destroyed these people, we may never know. They perished centuries ago and the savage Indians took their place."
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112. THE BOOK UNSEALED. whose existence was known previous to their visits, excepting Messrs. Stephens and Catherwood. These gentlemen boldly left the beaten track and brought to the knowledge of the world about FORTY ruined cities, whose very existence had been previously UNKNOWN even to the residents of the larger cities of the very state in whose territory they lie. * * * The visit of these explorers was the first, and thus far proved, in most cases, the last." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, pp. 144-46. Mr. David S. Banks, who went from New York to Yucatan in the especial interest of certain departments of scientific knowledge lets light shine upon several topics that are strong proofs of the correctness of the Book of Mormon. It will be remembered that Stephens, in 1842, gave the number of ruined cities at forty-two, while this man gives an increased or corrected list in 1888, as follows: "There are between sixty and seventy ruined cities in Yucatan, as far as they have been discovered." -- Leslie's Monthly, May, 1889, p. 547 Of Yucatan Ruins, Stephens says: "The ruins of Mayapan cover a great plain, which was at that time so overgrown that hardly any object was visible until we were close upon it, and the undergrowth was so thick that it was difficult to work our way through it. Ours was the first visit to examine these ruins. For ages they had been unnoticed, almost unknown, and left to struggle with rank tropical vegetation." -- Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vol. I, p. 131. Short says of Stephens and Catherwood: "These indefatigable explorers examined: about forty ruined cities, nearly all of which were previously unknown to THE BOOK UNSEALED. 113. others than the natives, and many of them were unknown at Merida, the capitol of the country." -- American Antiquities, p. 347. (He dates Stephens' first edition, 1843.) Baldwin in his work issued 1871, says in its preface: "The purpose of this volume is to give a summary of what is known of American Antiquities. * * * Many of the more important of these works are either in French or Spanish, or in great English quartos and folios * * * and not one of them attempts to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject." Baldwin says of Central America: "Palacios, who described Copan in 1576, may properly be called the first explorer." -- Ancient America, p. 102. The discovery by Palacios was not published however until 1843, and not in English until 1860. See Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 79, also American Encyclopedia, Article: Squier. In his "Origin American Antiquities," published in 1839, page eleven, Delafield says: "The antiquities of America are an immense field hardly entered, abounding in promise of reward for the most devoted investigations." Priest says in his book of 1838: "It yet remains for America to awake her story from its oblivious sleep, and tell the tale of her antiquities, the traits of nations, coeval perhaps, with the oldest works of man this side of the flood." -- American Antiquities, p. 40. Baldwin says: "One of the most learned writers on American antiquities, a Frenchman, speaking of discoveries in Peru, exclaims, 'America is to be again discovered!' * * * The gold hunting marauders who subjugated Mexico and Peru could be robbers and destroyers' 114. THE BOOK UNSEALED. but they were not qualified in any respect to become intelligent students of American antiquity." -- Ancient America, p. 13. "But it remains for America to awake her story from sleep, to string lyre and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as seen in the relics of nations, coeval, perhaps, with the oldest works of man." -- Traditions of De-coo-dah by Wm. Pidgeon, (1853), p. 11. Bancroft writes: "The only author who has attempted to treat of the subject of Central American Civilization, and antiquity comprehensively as a whole, is the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg." -- Native Races, Vol. 2, p. 116. The work cited was first published in 1857-9. See American Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 214. He further writes: "Of all American peoples, the Quichees of Guatemala have left us the richest mythological legacy. Their description of the creation as given in the Popol Vuh, which may be called the national book of the Quichees, in its rude, strange eloquence and poetic originality, one of the rarest relics of aboriginal thought." -- Native Races Pacific States, Vol. 3, pp. 42, 43 "In Vienna in I857, the book, now best known as the Popol Vuh, was FIRST brought to the notice of European Scholars." -- Ibid., p. 42. The Book of Mormon was published in 1830, and so gave the facts twenty-seven years BEFORE this last mentioned publication. Bancroft writes: "For what is known of Copan, the world is indebted almost entirely to the works of the American traveler, Mr. John L. Stephens, and of his most skillful artist companion, Mr. F. Catherwood." -- Native Races, Vol. 4, p. 81. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 115. These gentlemen were sent out in 1839 by the United States government. Mr. Stephens wrote: "I shall make one remark in regard to the work of Mr. Waldec which was published in folio in Paris in 1835, and except my own hurried notice, is the ONLY ACCOUNT that has ever been published of the ruins of Uxmal, Yucatan." -- Incidents of Travel, Vol. I, p. 297. It is said that Humboldt whose work was published in 1809, wrote of the civilization of Central America, but Stephens did not so understand: "The first new light thrown upon this subject as regards Mexico was by the great Humboldt, who visited that country at a time when, by the jealous policy of the government it was almost as much closed against strangers as China is now. No man could have better deserved such fortune. * * * Unfortunately, of the great cities beyond the Vale of Mexico, buried in forests, ruined, desolate, and without a name, Humboldt never heard, or, at least, he never visited them." -- Incidents of Travel, Vol. I, p. 98. "The study of the great architectural works of the ancient Mexican and Peruvians led Humboldt to investigations of their languages, records, early culture and migrations." -- American Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, p. 45. Some, who are totally uninformed upon the subject, affirm that Kingsborough wrote upon Central American civilization before the publication of the Book of Mormon. In answer to this it is only necessary to state, that the earliest date given for the publication of Kingsborough's work, is 1830; the American Encyclopedia gives it as 1831. See Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, Vol. I, p. 128;. and American Encyclopedia, article Kingsborough. |
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On the eve of September 21st, 1823, through fervent prayer, another vision was presented to Mr. Smith, and he gives it, in part, as follows: "After I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to the 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 had previously had one. While I was thus in the act of calling upon God I discovered a THE BOOK UNSEALED. 117. light appearing in the room which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside 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 any thing 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 wrists; 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. When I first 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; that God has 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 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 source 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 118. THE BOOK UNSEALED. Urim and Thummim, deposited with the plates, and the possession and use of these stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book." "After telling me these things he commenced quoting the prophecies of the Old Testament, he first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; 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 Bible. Instead of quoting the first verse as reads in our books he quoted 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 cometh 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 also the eleventh chapter of Isaiah saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted 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 THE BOOK UNSEALED. 119. to the last verse. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled but was soon to be. And he further stated 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. 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 breastplate 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 know the place again when I visited it." -- Times and Seasons. Vol 3, p. 729.
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Thus it will be seen (1) that the Lord was to speak unto his people; and (2) that associated with the Lord speaking, would, be the coming forth of "truth," a 120. THE BOOK UNSEALED. record of God's "word," "out of the earth;" and (3) that at that time the Lord was to bless the land of Palestine, and give his people "that which is good," and the "land" which had been under the curse of sterility, was again to become fertile as in ancient times. That "truth" should "spring out of the earth," it was necessary that it should have been reposed to its keeping, to come forth in the due time of the Lord. The Book of Mormon is God's word, "truth," as delivered to the ancient nations of America; and in its coming forth "out of the earth," clearly fulfills this prophecy of the "sweet singer of Israel." The prophet Isaiah, in chapter twenty-nine, begins with vivid expressions of "woe," "distress," "heaviness," and "sorrow" to "Ariel, the city where David dwelt;" and in the latter clause of verse two, introduces that which says: "And it shall be unto me as Ariel." This that "shall be unto me as Ariel," is none other than another part of Israel, included in his prophecy, and not Jerusalem alone. In chapter eighteen the prophet has described the Western continent both as to its form and location, "Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust." (29: 4). Being "brought down;" "speak out of the ground;" "and thy speech low out of the dust;" "whisper out of the dust," are strange particulars to be fulfilled in the history of the other Ariel, that people of whom the Savior spoke: "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, [place] them also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice." St. John 10: 16. This could only be accomplished by the coming forth THE BOOK UNSEALED. 121. of the records of a people perished from the earth. Of the people destroyed at Jerusalem, no record of which we have any knowledge, was ever deposited in the bosom of "mother earth;" and therefore, no record has ever been recovered from the earth, concerning that people and the times in which they lived. And now the time is already past for the fulfillment of this prophecy, as we shall show later on. The Israel of the Western continent, committed their records to the earth; and that they have been brought forth, is fully attested by evidence which can never be impeached. The prophecies of David and Isaiah relate to the same subject, and are as one in their fulfillment, while Christ's definition of "truth" is brought out in bold relief. The people of to-day, "The day of His preparation," (see Nahum 2: 34), are presented with the record and history of those who in ages past, flourished upon the land "choice above all other lands." Verses five and six deal with the distress and destruction to be visited upon that people. In verses seven and eight, the "nations" who were to be arrayed against Ariel, or "fight against Mount Zion," are represented as a hungry or thirsty man, who dreams of eating and drinking only to awaken and "Behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite." These "nations" are estranged from God; and although they make a great show that they are on the Lord's side, and 'are fed with the manna from heaven, yet it is only as a dream, it is not real. A mistaken, apostate Christianity has been their heritage, which will be confessed in that day yet to come. Hence, Jeremiah prophesied: "Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say, 'Surely 122. THE BOOK UNSEALED. our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things where- in there is no profit." 16:19. The Lord states their condition in Isaiah 29:9. as being "Drunken but not with wine, they stagger but not with strong drink." This evidently portrays their spiritual condition, showing them to be spiritually drunk, having imbibed of false doctrine and heresies, partaking with the "great Babylon of the earth" "the wine of the wrath of her fornication." They were to be without present revelation from God; and to them there was to be "No answer from God." See also Micah 3:6, 7. The tenth verse (Isaiah 29) says: "For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered." Truly their condition must have been deplorable, to have been described as drunken and sleepy, hungry and athirst. And yet this was to be their sad state, and serves but to illustrate the necessity of LIVING prophets, and teachers DIVINELY APPOINTED to minister the word of life unto the people. Verse eleven reads: "And the vision of all has become unto you, as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, read this I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot for it is sealed." "The vision of all;" the writings of prophets and apostles as found in the Holy Scriptures, were to be possessed by that people, and to become unto them "as the words of a book that is sealed." They were to be without that inspiration of God (Job 32:8). so necessary to understand the things of God, (see 1 Cor. 2:11), and as a result were not to understand the things written. "The vision of all," (or scripture possessed by THE BOOK UNSEALED. 123. them), being not understood, are compared unto another book, a book which they did not possess, "The words of a book that is sealed." "These words," the prophet declares, "Men deliver unto one that is learned, saying, 'Read this I pray thee,' and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed." A transcript of the hieroglyphics of a certain part of the Book of Mormon was prepared by Joseph Smith, and sent by Martin Harris to Prof. Anthon of New York. When informed as to the manner of Joseph Smith obtaining the "book," he said, when asked to translate, "I cannot, for it is sealed." Notice, that the "book" was not to be "delivered" "to one that is learned," but the "words" only, which was done when the transcript taken by Smith was delivered by Harris, as already described. Verse twelve: "And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this I pray thee, and he saith, I am not learned." To Joseph Smith was delivered the book; he was one "not learned." That he did have the records in his possession is attested by eight persons who SAW and handled them, whose testimony as also that of three others, was published in connection with the Book of Mormon. He complained to the Lord, saying, "I am not learned." Verses thirteen and fourteen: "Fosasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder." It is clear that this "marvelous work" was not to be founded in the wisdom and precept of men, but in the wisdom and power of God. Therefore 124. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the unlearned was selected, and to "him" "was delivered" the "book." The Lord was to do the work. and this is accomplished by bestowing upon the "one not learned," power from God, with the use of the "Urim and Thuinmim," to "read" the "book that is sealed." The worship of the times when this was to transpire, is described as of the "lip," "while the heart is removed far from me." The hungry, thirsty, dreamy, drunken condition, one of "deep sleep," is still upon the "nations." Human precepts (creeds) are substituted for the doctrine of Christ. The "marvelous work and a wonder," so introduced by God in the latter days, occasions not a little wondering and marveling, that "The wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent men shall be hid." v. 14. And so we perceive another prophecy fulfilled. The efforts of the "wise" were to signally fail in their attempts to overthrow the work so introduced. Verses fifteen and sixteen are strong in condemnation of those who work in the dark, characterized as "Turning things upside down," opposing God's truth, perverting instead of receiving the way of truth. Verse seventeen is a veritable milestone, marking the fulfillment of prophecy: "Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest." Only "a little while" after the fulfillment of the things foretold, and Lebanon or Palestine "shall be turned into a fruitful field." Although century upon century should pass, and Palestine during this time should remain under the curse of barrenness and sterility; yet when the time appointed of God should have arrived, and the "little THE BOOK UNSEALED. 125. while" elapsed, then the curse is to be removed, and the "land of promise" shall again be a "fruitful field." In 1830 the Book of Mormon was published, fulfilling the prophecy concerning the "words of the book that is sealed" being "delivered by men to one that is learned;" the book itself being delivered (not by man or men) to "one not learned," and God's "marvelous work" introduced. Louis Van Buren wrote, only a few years ago, an account of his sojourn, and observations in Palestine: "I arrived in Indiana a few days since, from the Eastern Continent. I stopped at Joppa nearly the whole winter. For my part I was well pleased with the country. It is certainly a land of most wonderful fruitfulness, with a delightsome climate, producing everything, if properly cultivated, and from two to three crops in a year. They have grain, fruit and vegetables all the year round; in fact I never was in such a country before. I have seen much good country in Europe and America, but none to compare with Palestine; its fruitfulness is uncommon, and the climate the most delightsome; even in winter I did not see the least sort of frost, and vegetables of every sort were growing in perfection in gardens. It is a fact that the rain and dew are restored; recently, in 1853, the former and the latter rain were restored, to the astonishment of the natives." -- Louis Van Buren, Sen., Nov. 14th, A. D. 1867. Thus it is seen that only twenty-three years had passed after the publication of the Book of Mormon before the long promised restoration came. According to Usher's Chronology, Isaiah made this prediction two thousand, five hundred and sixty-five years before its fulfillment. This restoration of Palestine and the 126. THE BOOK UNSEALED. rebuilding of Jerusalem, was widely taught by the Latter Day Saints from the year 1830 down to the year 1853. They had faith in the immediate fulfillment of that promise, for they knew that the time was at hand. And now with pleasure they can point to the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the events in the east which tend to push the sons of Abraham thither, and can say, "We told you so." "It (Palestine) has the same bright sun and unclouded sky, as well as the early and latter rain, which, however, is diminished in quantity, owing to the destruction of trees." Chambers' Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, p. n. Palestine. "The result of Dr. Barclay's observations is to show that the greatest fall of rain at Jerusalem in a single year was eighty-five inches, and the smallest forty-four, the mean being zzz51 1-6. These figures will be best appreciated by recollecting that the average rain fall at London during the whole year is only twenty-five inches, and that in the wettest parts of the country, such as Cumberland and Devon, it rarely exceeds fifty inches. As in the time of our Savior, (Luke 12:54), the rains come chiefly from the south or southwest; they commence at the end of October, or beginning of November, and continue with greater or lesser constancy till the end of February, or middle of March, and, occasionally, though rarely, till the end of April. Between April and November, there is, with the rarest exception, an uninterrupted period of fine weather, and skies without a cloud. During the summer the dews are very heavy, and often saturate the traveler's tent, as if a shower had passed over it. The nights, especially towards sunrise, are very cold, and thick fog or THE BOOK UNSEALED. 127. mists are common all over the country. Thunder storms of great violence, are frequent during the winter months." -- Dictionary of Bible, by Wm. Smith, p. 636. Art. Palestine. In D A. Randall's Hand Writing of God, page nineteen, occurs his introduction to Dr. Barclay of the Disciple church and missionary to the land of Palestine, and resident of Jerusalem twenty years, but resident of Joppa at the time of Randall's visit. "The country about Joppa is certainly a most delightful one. Extensive plains covered with luxuriant vegetation stretched along the shore of the sea and far into the interior. Large orange groves were just yielding their luxuriant harvest of golden colored fruit. Such oranges I had never before seen and I had no idea that they ever grew to such a great size. The ground was dotted with flowers of every hue and the air was vocal with the music of birds." -- Ibid., p. 23. "Lydia or Ludd. It numbers about two thousand inhabitants, and is surrounded by beautiful groves, among which may be seen the olive, fig and pomegranate, etc." -- Ibid., p. 24. "Here, where we are now walking, and within the walls, are several large patches of ground upon which barley and wheat are growing. But a few weeks since the plow passed over that ground and the seed was scattered upon the furrowed soil, and close by it are great mounds of ruins covered with vegetation." (See Micah 3: 12) -- Ibid., p. 60. "This is about the closing up of the latter rains; after a few days they expect no more rain until the latter part of September or October." -- Ibid., p. 261. "The tall rank grass was waving among the stone, 128. THE BOOK UNSEALED. and the ground had been plowed to the very foundation walls, and a crop of barley was rapidly approaching harvest." -- Ibid., 271. "The Baldwin Locomotive works in Philadelphia, has received the following note from its representative in Palestine: 'Hotel Jerusalem, Jaffa, October 3d, 1890. 'Gentlemen: I am very glad to be able to report that we made a successful trial trip of the first engine (Jaffa) to-day. All Jaffa was out to see it, including the Turkish Governor and his court. It was estimated that at least ten thousand people were on the house-tops and along the line of the road, and over two-thirds of them never saw a locomotive before. Many of the Arab women moved their household effects along the line of the road several days ago, so as to be on hand when the great thing went along. Many flags were hoisted over public buildings in honor of the occasion. I got an American flag from the Consul and put it on the front bumper. The French engineers put two French flags on each corner of the cab, and we secured a Turkish one to put on the other corner of the bumper, and so we went up into town. I doubt if any, other engine bum by the works ever received so much attention as 824 D, 24, and as for me, well, I never expected people to regard me as the Arabs did today, and have been doing. They simply think I have been cutting and carving it out of a lot of railroad iron and boxes. They have a great respect for the French engineers, and .think them very smart, but when it comes to making a machine such as they saw today, '"they can't do it in France, they had to send to America for a man to make it."'" -- Hebrew Christian. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 129. Rabbi F. De Sola Mendes, of New York City, contributing to the Patriot wrote: "The future of the Jews is inalienably and unalterably associated with Palestine, their own old home; let us turn thither. From time to time American readers have been familiar with newspaper statements of the enormous influx into Palestine of Russian and Roumanian Hebrew refugees. The scale of this immigration, although considerable, has by no means been as large as usually asserted; -- it is questionable whether there are today as many as seventy thousand Hebrews in all Syria, while Mr. Selah Merril, U. S. consul at Jerusalem, very recently reported their numbers as being only forty-three thousand, but this probably refers only to Palestine proper. Jerusalem, naturally, is the chief focus of this immigration, and all reports agree in placing her Jewish population today at about thirty thousand. This already makes the Holy City a Jewish one, seeing that that is considerably more than half the total population of the place. In Safed, too, more than half of the twenty-five thousand inhabitants are Jews, while in Tiberias, another important city, they number three thousand out of the total four thousand. In Hebron, on the other hand, they are only twelve hundred out of eight thousand. They have seventy synagogues, it is computed, and in Jerusalem several large hospitals and schools. The Rothschild. Agricultural school at Jaffa, has for many years done zzzmtich towards building up the real development of the country, by annually sending forth many well-equipped agricultural educators and farmers. This of course, is the pressing need of the land, to build up the waste places, to plant the desolate fields, and to restore the washed away soil to the mountain plateaus, whence 130. THE BOOK UNSEALED. the unchecked and uncontrolled rains of centuries have been allowed to flood it away. * * The screech of the railroad whistle may be heard in Jaffa, on the two-thirds finished road from that seaport to Jerusalem. There is an electric light outside the Damascus gate at the Holy City; the shadow of a telegraph pole falls upon Jacob's well near Shechem, and a prosaic steam-mill puffs hard day and night close by the ancient wall of Nazareth. * * A very much more important railroad, as far as the commerce of the country is concerned, is that for which a concession has recently been granted, from Haifa near Carmel, across the country to the Hauran and Damascus. It will cross the plain of Esdraelon, the upper Jordan, and the country to the south of Mt. Hermon, the most fertile district of all Syria. Its chief result will be the opening up of the Hauran, an enormous wheatfield, as it were, south of Hermon, some sixty miles by thirty in extent. The traffic, on camel-back, is today already enormous, the people, who are quite wealthy, importing all their illuminating-oil, their iron, their lumber and their fruit there are no trees in the Hauran in exchange for their grain; what will it grow to when the iron horse is ready to shoulder their loads? There is no sign of impending change so potent as this new railroad, one of whose termini will be under the shadow of hoary Carmel by the sea, the other in venerable Damascus, whose whistle will be heard in Nazareth and echo from the shores of Galilee, and whose bridges will be flung across the Kishon "that venerable stream" the Jordan and the Pharphar. Eleven years ago, says a recent traveler, the plain of Esdraelon was cultivated only in small patches, the crops of which were pretty THE BOOK UNSEALED. 131. regularly swept away by the marauding Bedaween of East Jordan; now it is almost one unbroken sea of wheat, owned and farmed by a wealthy Greek of Heyrout. Wine growing too is being followed with great success in the Lebanon, and the proverbial fig tree will not be long in appearing. The Jews, of course, are manfully taking their part in this transformation of the land. Many colonies have been founded, with varying success natural to a new occupation to new men in anew .country. * * With patience and perseverance these men will work on with God's blessings; all true friends of Israel will watch their progress with interest and concern, and hail each new enterprise which looks to making loved Palestine's "wilderness like an Eden, her deserts like the garden of the Lord." "So shall joy and gladness be found therein once more, thanksgiving and the voice of song." Independent Patriot, October 19, 1892. Mr. E. Haldane contributing to the St. Louis Republic wrote from Jaffa, December roth, 1892: "An English syndicate is now building a railway from Haifa to Damascus. The cost of this Damascus road will be about ten million dollars. The Jaffa road is to have a branch to Gaza in ancient Philistia, and this will continue down to Egypt, with its probable terminus at Port Said. This latter road will tap the great grain-producing region of Southern Palestine and Upper Egypt. As a result of all this railroad building the whole of Syria is now experiencing such a "boom" as has never before been felt in the East. The harvests of the Hauran where the finest wheat and barley in the world are raised now exceed two hundred thousand tons of cereals, of which five eighths are exported, being 132. THE BOOK UNSEALED. carried on camel-back to Damascus, which adds fifty per cent to the cost. Caravans from Damascus, which, with its population of three hundred thousand, is the commercial center of Syria, travel through Mesopotamia, by the Tigris and Euphrates, to Mosul, Bagdad and Hilleh. and to the most distant parts of Arabia, Africa and Egypt. "'JAFFA, Palestine, December 2d, 1892. "EDITORS HERALD: In September last, the day the first rain began, the wind and sea were high, and the last boat load of passengers was swamped and most of them drowned; little children with their parents. The rain is still pouring with thunder and lightning. The old Solomon's harbor is full and running over. There were slight showers of rain all through the summer. The people thought it would be unhealthy, but it has been quite the contrary. The rain is so heavy that the houses are falling down, some also that have been newly built, and the ovens also where the bread is baked for market are broken down and cannot be baked in at present, as it is still raining pouring is the word, for such a storm as this one. "ABIGAIL YORK ALLEY" "RAILROADS FOR PALESTINE, "Formal announcement was made at London, England, October 14th, that the contract for building the much talked-of railroad from Haifa, in Syria, to Damascus has been awarded to a Chicago firm y Huss & Townsend, who have built the Mexican railroad also for English capitalists. Mr. Townsend said that the equipment, engines and cars would probably be of American make. The contractors will sail for HaifaTHE BOOK UNSEALED. 133. on October 18th and will immediately begin work. They expect to complete the road in eighteen months. The project contemplates an ultimate extension of the road to India if Persian concessions can be obtained." Independent Patriot, Oct. 19th, '93. Joseph Smith affirmed that the angel said to him, "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein." Thus was fulfilled Zechariah 2:4, applying it to modern times. Those ancient walls, destroyed by the Roman armies, were never to be rebuilt. The city, rebuilt, is "without walls," just as the prophet declared it would be. Verse eighteen, (Isa. 29), "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness." This has had its literal fulfillment in the case of many through the blessings of the restored gospel. Verse nineteen: "The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." With the increasing light of the latter days, and the blessings of the gospel of Christ once more among men, the "meek" may "increase their joy in the Lord," and the "poor among men rejoice," because they again have the gospel of Christ in its simplicity declared unto them, "Not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." The twentieth and twenty-first verses declare that the devices of the evil one shall be "brought to naught," the "scorner consumed," showing it to be a time of judgment. The twenty-second verse is a promise to the Hebrew. It is there .stated that it is to be a time of returning favor for Jacob. "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither 134. THE BOOK UNSEALED. shall his face now wax pale." The long period of oppression, sorrow and affliction, visited upon them since their rejection of Jesus the Christ, is to be followed with a day of relaxation and liberty. Israel will once more enjoy his liberty among men, and the favor of God, ere they shall say in fulfillment of the Savior's words, "Ye shall no more see me till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." There has been a wonderful revolution of sentiment in favor of the Jews during this generation. And while all persecution has not ceased, yet so great has been its abatement, that many of that people have risen to positions of great honor and distinction, ranking among statesmen and figuring as leaders of the people. Surely the sons of Jacob are regaining favor among the nations, and this is in clear fulfillment of verse twenty-two. In this connection we shall mention a few of that race who have received positions of political honor and distinction. Disraeli, Premier of England, where, formerly, Hebrews were not permitted to own land. Solomon Hirsch was appointed minister to Turkey by President Harrison. Marcus Otterbourg, was the first American Hebrew to occupy the high office of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by President Lincoln to Mexico. Oscar S. Straus, Minister to Turkey, by President Cleveland. Henry M. Phillips, one of the most distinguished members of the thirty-fifth Congress. Lewis C. Levin, who served in Congress three terms. E. B. Hart of the Congress of 1851. David Levy Youles, was for many years prior to the civil war, United States Senator from Florida. Isaac THE BOOK UNSEALED. 135. Phillips, General Appraiser of the port of New York, which position he held fifteen years, was appointed by President Pierce. By appointment of President Grant, Dr. Herman Bendell, was Superintendent of Indian Affairs; and later, was Consul to Denmark. Henry M. Hymans, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. A host of others occupying places of distinction in the leading nations could have been given. The return of Israel unto God is signified in the twenty-third verse, (Isa. 29), "They shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel." The last verse of the chapter is as follows: "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." Under the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ as again restored, "the marvelous work and a wonder," the power of the Holy Ghost, and the record of the word, will be ample and sufficient to "try the spirits" which are abroad in the earth, and as a result, those who have "erred" need not continue therein, for to them special help is promised. "And they that murmured shall learn doctrine." This is to be fulfilled by reason of the flood of light to be ushered in, and the dawning of the latter day glory. With the records of both Judah and Joseph in their midst, matters of doctrine will have right solution, and the "faith once delivered" will be fully established, and a people prepared to meet the Christ when he comes to reign on the earth. |
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THE BOOK UNSEALED. 137. was confined at that time to the young man who had the trunk containing the plates and spectacles in his sole possession. He put on the spectacles, or rather looked through one of the glasses, and deciphered the characters in the book, and having committed some of them to paper, handed copies to a person outside. This paper was in fact a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters. disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes. Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were ranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican calendar given by Humboldt." -- E. D. Howe's work, p. 272.
THE TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES.
Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the
grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a
record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of fared, who
came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been translated by the gift and
power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety, that the work is true. And we
also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates, and they have been shown unto us by the
power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of
138. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 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; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bare record that these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes, nevertheless the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. OLIVER COWDERY, DAVID WHITMER, MARTIN HARRIS. THE TESTIMONY OF EIGHT WITNESSES. Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, unto whom this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, Jr., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated, we did handle with our hands, and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shown unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we haveTHE BOOK UNSEALED. 139. spoken. And we give our names unto the world to witness unto the world that which we have seen, and we lie not, God bearing witness of it. CHRISTIAN WHITMER, JACOB WHITMER, PETER WHITMER, JR., JOHN WHITMER, HIRAM PAGE, JOSEPH SMITH, SR., HYRUM SMITH, SAMUEL H. SMITH. DEATH OF THE THREE WITNESSES. Oliver Cowdery died at Richmond, Missouri, March, 1850; his dying charge to David Whitmer, being, "Be true to our testimony, Brother David." This was related by Mr. Whitmer to the writer of this book, in company with Elder E. C. Briggs, in April, 1885, when visiting Mr. Whitmer.Martin Harris died at Clarkston, Cache county, Utah, July, 1875. Answering the question of H. B. Emerson, of New Richmond, Ohio, "Did you go to England to lecture against Mormonism?" he said, "I answer emphatically, No, I did not; no man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon." David Whitmer died at Richmond, Missouri, where he had lived HALF A CENTURY, January 25th, 1888. Of his death and the avowal of his testimony at that time, the Richmond Democrat, of January 26th, 1888, said: "On Sunday evening at 5:30, January 22d, 1888, Mr. Whitmer called his family and some friends to his bed-side, and addressing himself to the attending physician, said, 'Dr. Buchanan, I want you to say whether or not, I am in my right mind, before I give my dying testimony.' The doctor answered, 'Yes, you are in your 140. THE BOOK UNSEALED. right mind, for I have just had a conversation with you.' He then addressed himself to all around his bedside in these words, 'Now you must all be faithful in Christ; I want to say to all of you that the Bible, and the record of the Nephites (Book of Mormon) is true, so you can say that you have heard me bear my testimony on my death-bed." The Globe-Democrat of January 25th, 1888, states of Mr. Whitmer's death: "A night or two since he called his physician, Dr. Buchanan, to his side and told him that his testimony as recorded in the Book of Mormon was true." "We the undersigned citizens of Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, where David Whitmer, Sr., has resided since the year A. D. 1838, certify that we have been long and intimately acquainted with .him and know him to be a man of the highest integrity, and of undoubted truth and veracity:" A .W. Doniphan; G. W. Dunn, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit; T. D. Woodson, President of Ray County Savings Bank; J. T. Child, Editor of Conservator; H. C. Garner, Cashier of Ray County Savings Bank; W. A. Holman, County Treasurer; J. S. Hughes, Banker; James Hughes, Banker; D. P. Whitmer, Attorney at Law; Jas. W. Black, Attorney at Law; L. C. Cantwell, Postmaster; Geo. I. Wasson, Mayor; Jas. A. Davis, County Collector; C. J. Hughes, Probate Judge and Presiding Justice of Ray County Court; George W. Trigg, County Clerk; W. W. Mosby, M. D.; Thos. McGinnis, ex-Sherriff Ray County; J. P. Quesenberry, Merchant; W. R. Holman, Furniture Merchant: Lewis Slaughter, Recorder of Deeds; Geo. W. Buchanan, M. D. ; A. K. Reyburn. Given at Richmond, Mo., this March 19th, A. D. 1881. |
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At the time of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon very little was known of American antiquities; but since then, interest has been awakened and effort stimulated, which have resulted in a flood of light being thrown. upon the great past of ancient America. The treasure-house has been unlocked, and the remains and monuments of her ancient civilizations now tell the story of those past ages. The students of American antiquities will find, upon a careful examination, that no discovery has thus far been made which, in a single instance, contradicts the record of America's great and glorious past, as found in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon contains the record of a people who came to the Western continent from the tower of Babel at the confusion of tongues. Fortunately for the believers in the authority of the Bible, there is in the Book of Genesis, an historical statement which fully warrants the statement of the Book of Mormon. See Gen. 11:9. 142. THE BOOK UNSEALED. The labors of the student of ethnology and aboriginal traditions, have resulted in finding the statements, both of Genesis and the Book of Mormon, confirmed by the clearly defined traditions of the aborigines of the Central American states. This corroboration of history and tradition, especially where the existence of one had nothing to do with the creation of the other, is but a link in the chain of facts with which the Book of Mormon is vindicated. The Book of Mormon affirms that two Hebraic colonies came to America from Jerusalem about six hundred years before the Christian era. Its statement is also in harmony with special promises and prophecies delivered by the olden Israelitish prophets concerning the colonization of a distant land by a portion of the house of Israel. (See Gen. 49:22-26; Zeph. 3:10). In this case also, now that the record attests the fulfillment of those prophetic promises made to ancient Israel, we have ample vindication of that Spirit which gave the "sure word of prophecy" unto His people in all the ages. The antiquarian comes to the front confirming the statement of prophecy, and the book which is the subject of this work. We are confronted with the indisputable evidence of the Hebrew language, as found upon tablets discovered in mounds and tumuli where they were deposited in the ages long ago. Tablets and ancient parchment containing parts of the Jewish scriptures and Mosaic Law have been found, which confirm the statement of the Book of Mormon, that there was an Hebrew colonization, and that they brought their customs and religion, and also their sacred books with them when coming to this land. In this we have a striking fulfillment of ancient prophecy, and a THE BOOK UNSEALED. 143. strong endorsement of the book which records its fulfillment. The use of stone tablets and parchment for the purposes of record are of ancient custom with Israel, and their discovery in America, employing the language and the religion of that people, are strong evidences that their authors were of Israel, just as stated in the Book of Mormon. The writers of the Book of Mormon affirm that they made records upon metallic sheets or plates, as is instanced in the golden plates from which the book itself was translated. At the time of the publication of that book there had been no discovery of an ancient writing upon a metallic sheet or plate in all America, save that alone made by Joseph Smith concerning the plates of the Book of Mormon. The wise and learned scouted the idea, not supposing for a moment that time in its developments would confirm the statements of the unlearned Smith, and the record of the Book of Mormon. And yet in the order of events calculated alike to confound the unbelieving scoffer and to inspire faith in those who accepted that book as containing a true record, only thirteen years elapsed before the discovery of what are known as the Kinderhook plates. They were of brass and covered with hieroglyphics. Only a few years ago there was a remarkable find in Ohio, when a large number of copper plates were unearthed, and these also were covered with hieroglyphical characters. And only about twenty years ago there were found in old Mexico, quite a number of earthenware plates also covered with engravings. And it would seem that while the work of exploration proceeds stimulated by the thirst for discovery by those engaged in it, the providence of "Him who doeth all things well," is 144. THE BOOK UNSEALED. appropriating their labors to confirm the claims of the book, now unsealed. In this last cited proof, we have a clear case in confirmation of the Book of 'Mormon. That book of ancient story affirms the ancient existence and use of domestic animals, such as the horse and the ox, upon the American continent. In 1830, when that publication first appeared, the idea of the horse or the ox having existed upon this land anciently was considered by men of education and learning, as simply ridiculous; for it was believed that such animals were first introduced by the Europeans after the year 1492. But in this particular, as also in others, the antiquarian serenely puts in an appearance and gives a good eye-opener, effectually exploding the popular error, and fully establishing the fact that the domestic animals named, did flourish in the ages long ago upon the American continent. Thus we perceive that the wisdom of the wise, when contradicting the Book of Mormon, is brought to naught, while the statements of that book are corroborated and sustained as the years roll by. The Book of Mormon clearly affirms that in the bye-gone ages there were two distinct civilizations upon this land. And now, after sixty-two years have passed since the first publications of that work, and during which time the work of exploration has been pushed by hundreds and thousands of able men, the conclusion generally reached is, that in the ages past there were two distinct peoples and civilizations upon the American continent. And so it is, that as knowledge increases and the curtain of the past is lifted and the remains of the great past are exposed to view, that one by one the statements of the Book of Mormon are verified and proved to be true. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 145. It has ever been the privilege of God's people to have their prayers, when made in righteousness, heard and answered by the Giver of all good. In this the unchangeable character of God is asserted, and his people are furnished a basis upon which to exercise faith in his word. If the ancient people of America were favored of God, and records were kept among them of their experiences from time to time, it is not unreasonable that some of their records, under divine providence, should be preserved for the enlightenment and blessing of mankind. A revelation such as the Book of Mormon claims to be, is neither unreasonable nor unscriptural, but as shown in these pages, it is both reasonable and scriptural, and therefore, worthy of our belief. In its fulfillment of the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, the Book of Mormon has as clear a case in vindication of prophecy as was ever known among men. Even those remarkable prophecies detailing the events in the life of the great Nazarine, are not more lucid and explicit than are those of Isaiah 29, and Psalms 85, in their application to the coming forth of a record of truth, a book to be unsealed. The thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel is full of significance, pointing to the coming of another record, "The Stick of Joseph," and its being "joined" in its use with the "Stick of Judah." The Book of Mormon alone fulfills the express terms of prophecy concerning the "sealed book" and the prophecies we have cited, and so stands as a strong witness attesting the divinity of those ancient prophecies. It will doubtless be asked: What benefit to the believer in Christ is the Book of Mormon? We answer: 146. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 1st., It gives additional witness concerning Jesus the Christ. 2d, It speaks in great plainness upon doctrine, forever setting at rest matters of doctrine in dispute among the various sects of Christendom. 3d, It contains many "precious promises" unto God's people, and like "All scripture, is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. We now invite attention to the witnesses whose testimony is published in the Book of Mormon, which they gave to the world concerning the plates from which the book was translated, and the visitation of the angel of God who affirmed that the record so translated was true. The testimony of eight persons who saw and handled the plates while they were yet in the possession of the one who translated them, has never been impeached. Those men while they lived, constantly re-affirmed their original testimony. Their lives gave evidence of their sincerity which must be regarded as the test of truth, and all died in the faith of the Book of Mormon. The testimony of the three special witnesses, namely: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer, is of great significance in its relation to the coming forth of the book so attested. They testify: 1st, That an holy angel brought unto them the plates of the Book of Mormon, and permitted them to handle them and see them: 2nd, That the angel bore testimony identifying the plates as those from which the Book of Mormon had been translated, and certified to the correctness and truth of the translation so made. THE BOOK UNSEALED. 147. Upon an examination of the Book of Mormon it is found that it contains a prophecy concerning this occurrence, the testimony of the three witnesses. See Book of Mormon, page 100. Joseph Smith had also received an especial revelation in which it was asserted that the Lord would raise up three witnesses to whom would be shown those plates in a most remarkable way. See Doctrine and Covenants, page 69. The testimony of these men not only attests the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, but also furnishes a most signal instance in the fulfillment of prophecy. In the year 1838 there was an estrangement between the three wit- nesses and the prophet, and under the pressure of the fiery trial and bitter persecution visited upon the Saints, these men ceased to hold membership in the church, and remained aloof during the remainder of the prophet's life. It certainly is most reasonable, that if there had been a collusion between these men to give false testimony to the world concerning the angel's testimony and the plates of the Book of Mormon, that when they ceased to be friends, and these witnesses were no more members of the church, they would have renounced their testimony, and have pronounced Joseph Smith to have been only a scheming imposter. It is, however, notorious that during their long and eventful lives, these men ever declared that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that their testimony concerning the Book of Mormon was true. They had affirmed an occurrence -- a fact; and the years that followed, furnished conclusive evidence that they were sincere in the testimony so given to the world. As men of sound minds, if they were sincere in their statement of the alleged fact, and their statements all agree, the conclusion is inevitable, that 148. THE BOOK UNSEALED. they told the truth. Upon their death-beds, they re-affirmed their testimony, and passed peacefully away. Coincident with the publication of the Book of Mormon was the founding anew of the church afterward known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The authority to preach the gospel and administer its ordinances had been restored to the earth, and as a result, the church with the gifts and blessings as of old, was again among men. Tongues, prophecy, interpretation of tongues, healings, and other gifts named in the twelfth chapter of first Corinthians, were among the blessed experiences of the faithful and true of "like precious faith." Experiences and scenes like those of the day of Pentecost, are testified of by men and women from all parts of the earth. This universal testimony and witness of the Holy Ghost are surely the seal of the Almighty to the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the church of the last days. The restoration of the "former and latter rain" to the land of Palestine, just as predicted by the Prince-Prophet of Israel, coming as it does in the time of the coming forth of the "sealed book," now that the book is unsealed and published to the nations, and the "marvelous work and a wonder" established among men, shows quite conclusively that the time is fulfilled, and the events foretold have truly come to pass. In the doctrine and promise, the Book of Mormon is in harmony with all other authoritative declarations of "law and testimony," and therefore, as tried by the divine standard, stands approved. In James 1:5, is a choice promise to those who will seek the Lord for guidance and light. In the Book of Mormon, on page 544, is a promise fraught with importance to those who THE BOOK UNSEALED. 149. love the Lord and his truth. It is there promised that if the people to whom the Book of Mormon should go, will seek the Lord for witness And testimony concerning it, that God will hear them, and the Holy Ghost WILL ATTEST ITS TRUTH. Dear reader, will you not accept this TEST, and so "PROVE ALL THINGS AND HOLD FAST TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD?" May the loving Father bless you in your search for truth, and ultimately grant you "abundant entrance" into the mansions of everlasting rest. 150. THE BOOK UNSEALED.
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Rudolph Eztenhouser (1856-1918) Elder R. Etzenhouser's From Palmyra... Etzenhouser, Rudolph b. 1856 d. 1918 1. (1892) The Book Unsealed 2. (1894) From Palmyra, New York, to Independence, Mo.... 3. (1910) Engravings of Prehistoric Specimens from Michigan 4. Unpublished Papers at RLDS Archives, Independence, Missouri 
One of the "Michigan Relics" publicized by Etzenhouser under construction |
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last revised Apr. 11, 2008