Part 14 (1/2)

At a short distance he beheld the head of this stream, and near it his wife and two younger sons, and they stood as if they knew not whither they should go: and he called out unto them with a loud voice to approach the tree and partake the fruit thereof, and they came. And then his anxieties were awake for his two elder sons, whom at length he discovered in the distance, near the head of the stream, but he could not induce them to come to him or approach the tree. And then he beheld a rod of iron extending along the bank of the river, leading to the tree by which he stood: and also ”a straight and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron to the tree. And it also led by the head of the fountain, unto a large and s.p.a.cious field, as if it had been a world, and he saw numberless concourses of people: many of whom were pressing forwards, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which he stood.” As soon as those who were advancing entered this narrow path they encountered ”an exceeding great mist of darkness,” so that many lost their way, while others caught hold of the end of the rod of iron, and pressed forward through the mist, clinging to the rod, and following it until they came into the light amid which the tree stood, and partook of its fruit. The persons who thus approached the tree, after they had partaken of the fruit, looked around and some of them seemed ashamed. ”Lehi also cast his eyes round about, and beheld on the other side of the river of water, a great and s.p.a.cious building: and it stood as it were in the air: and it was filled with people both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceeding fine; and they were in the att.i.tude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those which had come at, and were partaking of the fruit.” This was what caused some who had come to the tree to be filled with shame, and to fall away. He saw continual mult.i.tudes pressing forward towards the tree, and others towards the great, and s.p.a.cious building. With all his persuasion Lehi could not induce his two eldest sons to come and partake of the fruit of the tree, therefore he had great fears in relation to them.

After relating this vision, Lehi began to prophecy in relation to the Saviour, and told very distinctly what is related in the New Testament about him. Nephi, however, became very anxious to see the tree of which his father had told, and at length he was gratified. The same vision was repeated to him, and he obtained also from the spirit of the Lord the interpretation thereof. The spirit commanded him to look. He did so, and first he beheld Jerusalem--then Nazareth--and ”in the city of Nazareth, a virgin exceeding fair and white.” And then he saw the heavens open, and an angel came down, and stood before him, and said, ”the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of G.o.d, after the manner of the flesh.” She was carried away in the spirit, and after awhile she returned bearing a child in her arms, and the angel said to him, ”Behold the Lamb of G.o.d, yea even the eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And I answered him, saying: Yea, _it is the love of G.o.d_.” Afterwards he looked and saw the son of G.o.d going forth among the children of men. He then saw in succession all the miracles of Christ--all the events of his life--the scenes that followed his crucifixion--and the whole history of the Christian Church up to the _present_ time--_beyond which_ the deponent Nephi sayeth not.

The tree was the love of G.o.d in Christ--the rod of iron leading to it was the word of G.o.d--the mist and darkness, that blinded the eyes of those going to the tree, were the temptations of the devil--the large and s.p.a.cious building was the pride and vain imaginations of the children of men.

After this protracted vision, Nephi returned to the tent of his father, and found his brethren disputing about the allegorical sense of the vision of their father Lehi. He of course was now prepared to enlighten them. They asked him ”what meaneth the river of water which our father saw?” and he replied, ”The water was filthiness. So much was my father's mind swallowed up in other things, that he beheld not the filthiness of the water, and I said unto them, that it was an awful gulf which separateth the wicked from the tree of life, and also from the saints of G.o.d--a representation of h.e.l.l.”

I have neglected to mention that previous to Lehi's vision, Nephi and his brethren were commissioned to go up to Jerusalem the second time, to persuade Ishmael and his five daughters to join his father in the wilderness. The fifth chapter opens with a tender scene, in which Nephi and his brethren are married to the daughters of Ishmael. Immediately after, Lehi received a command to strike his tent and journey on into the wilderness. And when he arose the next morning and went forth to the tent door, ”to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmans.h.i.+p, and it was of fine bra.s.s. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.” They travelled on ”for the s.p.a.ce of four days nearly a south east direction.” Various trials occurred in their journey. The elder brothers uniformly murmured, and Nephi was uniformly submissive. When in extremity the bra.s.s ball was their guide, pointing out the way, and exhibiting, inscribed on its sides, the various intelligence they needed visible at proper times. Ishmael died in the wilderness, where they sojourned for the s.p.a.ce of eight years. At length they pitched their tents by the sea sh.o.r.e. Here Nephi was called to ascend a high mountain. There the Lord met him, and commanded him to construct a s.h.i.+p to carry his people across the waters to the promised land. He commenced the construction of this s.h.i.+p in the face of much opposition, and of many difficulties, being quite ignorant of the art of s.h.i.+p-building, and his brethren at the same time ridiculing and opposing him. But the Lord helped him, so that ultimately his brethren not only desisted from their opposition, but united in a.s.sisting him to complete it; and then they embarked with all their stock of seeds, animals, and provisions. During the voyage Nephi's elder brothers began again to be rebellious. They bound him with cords, and treated him with great cruelty. They, however, soon encountered a terrible gale, and were driven back from their course. The brazen ball which had miraculously guided them through the wilderness, and which was now a compa.s.s to steer by, ceased to work, and they were in the most awful peril.

For a long time their fate seemed suspended, and their destiny doubtful; but the power of G.o.d at length softened the hearts of Laman and Lemuel, who released Nephi from his confinement, and then again every thing went on smoothly, and they soon reached the land of promise, which of course was America, where ”they found beasts of every kind in the forest, both the cow, and the ox, and the a.s.s, and the horse, and the goat, and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals for the use of men.” And ”all manner of ore, both of gold and silver, and copper.” Nephi by the command of the Lord made metallic plates soon after his arrival in America of this ore, on which he recorded their peregrinations, adventures, and all the prophecies which G.o.d gave him concerning the future destinies of his people and the human race. These plates were to be kept for the instruction of the people of the land, and for other purposes known to the Lord.

The second book of Nephi consists of fifteen chapters. It opens with an account of Lehi's death, who, previous to his decease, calls all his children around him and their descendants, and reminds them of G.o.d's goodness in having brought them to the promised land, and gives each a patriarchal blessing, uttering sundry predictions in reference to their future destinies. After the death of Lehi, Laman and Lemuel undertook to destroy Nephi, who thereupon fled into the wilderness, taking along with him his own family, his brother Sam, and his younger brothers, Jacob and Joseph, who were born after his father went out from Jerusalem, and their families. He also took along with him the plates of bra.s.s, and the ball that guided them in their former wanderings in the wilderness by the Red Sea, and was their compa.s.s to steer by across the ocean. Being thus separated they became the heads of separate tribes. The Nephites soon grew into a numerous people, and built a temple ”like unto Solomon's.” They, like their father Nephite, for many generations were good christians, hundreds of years before Christ was born, practising baptism and other christian usages. Nephi here accounts for the color of the aborigines. It was the curse of G.o.d upon the descendants of his elder brothers on account of their disobedience. ”Wherefore as they were white, and exceeding fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, therefore the Lord G.o.d did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.” A curse was also p.r.o.nounced upon intermarriages with them. Nephi also declares that on account of the curse of G.o.d upon them ”they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.”

In this book is also introduced ”the words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi.” He predicts the coming of Christ, and the return of the Jews from dispersion upon embracing the gospel. Nephi then takes up the subject, and transcribes several chapters from Isaiah by way of corroboration. This is followed by a long harangue, setting forth all the peculiar theology of the New Testament. He then predicts the appearance of a great prophet, and a marvellous book which he shall bring to light. The book of course is the golden Bible, and the prophet Jo Smith.

”Wherefore,” continues he, ”at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, _that the eyes of none shall behold it, save it be that three witnesses shall behold it by the power of G.o.d, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered_: and they shall testify to the truth of the book, and the things therein.” This would seem to be directly in the teeth of what actually happened, for as we have seen in a former number there were eight other witnesses besides the three, who declared that they saw these mysterious plates. To elude this difficulty a saving clause is thrown into this chapter to this effect. ”And there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few, according to the will of G.o.d, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men.” The reason is also here a.s.signed why the plates are not spread before the learned--it is to teach them humility! An unlearned man is chosen to transcribe the hieroglyphics, or words of the book, that the learned may read them. The learned refuse to read the hieroglyphics, unless they can see the plates whence they are taken. This G.o.d will not permit. He has no need of learned men. He is able to do his own work. He will therefore make use of the unlearned to bring these hidden things to light. The prophet, though an unlearned man, will be competent through the power of G.o.d, not only to transcribe but to translate the book.

Nephi discards altogether the idea that our present revelation is complete, or that our sacred books contain the whole canon of Scripture. He predicts that the Book of Mormon will meet with opposition,--that many of the Gentiles would say upon its appearance,--”A Bible, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. Thou fool, that shall say, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews? Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your G.o.d have created all men, and that I remember _they_ which are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea even upon all the nations of the earth?

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am G.o.d, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall run together also. And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday to-day and forever, and that I speak forth my words according to my own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word, ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished, neither shall it be until the end of man; neither from that time henceforth and forever. Wherefore because ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye to suppose that I have not caused more to be written; for I command all men both in the east and in the west, and in the north and in the south, and in the Islands of the sea, that they shall write those words I speak unto them. Behold I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it,--unto the Nephites, and they shall write it,--unto the other tribes of the house of Israel which I have led away, and they shall write it; and unto all the nations of the earth and they shall write it. And the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites the words of the Jews. And the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel, &c.” This we consider one of the most pernicious features of this HISTORICAL ROMANCE,--that it claims for itself an entire equality in point of divine authority with the sacred canon. It is not only calculated to deceive and delude the credulous, and marvel loving, but to strengthen the cause of infidelity.

The only remaining thing worthy of note in this second Book of Nephi, is the prediction of the ultimate conversion of the Indians, who are a part of the lost tribes of Israel, or descendants of Nephi, to Christianity, through the influence of Mormonism, and that soon after this event they would change their colour, and become ”a white and delightsome people.” The period occupied by the events related in this Book of Nephi, is fifty five years.

The next book in course is the Book of Jacob, one of the younger brothers of Nephi; which contains five chapters. This book gives an account of the ordaining of Jacob by Nephi, to be priest over the people, and the particulars of Nephi's death. It also relates the circ.u.mstance of Jacob's confounding a man who rose up among them and sought to overthrow the doctrine of Christ; and contains a specimen of Jacob's preaching. One of the arguments by which he endeavoured to reclaim the Nephites from certain prevailing sins, was that if they did not repent, the curse of G.o.d would light upon them and they would become as dark coloured as the Lamanites.

Sundry efforts were made by the benevolent Nephites ”to reclaim and restore the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth.” But it was all to no purpose.

They continued to delight in wars and bloodshed, and cherished an eternal hatred against their brethren. To ward off their incursions, the people of Nephi had to fortify and protect their land with a strong military force.

Jacob, who had brought up his son Enos ”in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” when he saw his own decease approaching, gave him the plates and left him successor in office over the people of Nephi.

The Book of Enos is short, as is also the two following books of Jarom and Omni, containing little except an account of the transmission of the plates from one generation to another till the time of king Benjamin, about 320 years after the flight of Lehi from Jerusalem. During the latter part of this period, many wars took place between the people of Nephi and the Lamanites; so that Mosiah, then king, was warned to emigrate into a new region, or district of the wilderness--into a land called Zarahemla. After reaching there they discovered that the people of Zarahemla were also Jews who came from Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon, and that they were also brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters. The Lamanites at this period are described as ”a wild, ferocious, and blood-thirsty people, wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girded about their loins, and their heads shaven, and their skill was in the bow and the scimitar and the axe.

And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat.”

But I must stop. I fear the reader is already wearied with these foolish vagaries of the imagination, which the Mormon prophet palms off upon his followers as the revelation of the Most High. To redeem our pledge in giving an a.n.a.lysis of the Book of Mormon, we shall be obliged to occupy another chapter with these details. If the reader cannot make up his mind to follow us, he can skip over the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXVII.

a.n.a.lYSIS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON CONTINUED.

The question has been frequently asked, why the sect whose history we have been attempting to sketch, are called Mormons? The answer to this question will be readily suggested to any one who has patience to wade through Mr.

Spaulding's historical romance. From the account that we have already given of the Book of Mormon we are led to see the mode by which it is pretended that the records of one generation of the Nephites were transmitted to another, and how the history of each preceding age was preserved. These records were engraven upon plates, and the plates, handed down from one prophet to another, or from one king to another, or from one judge to another--the Lord always having raised up some one to receive these plates, when the person in whose hands they had been previously placed was about to die. Mormon, who lived about four hundred years after the coming of Christ, while yet a child received a command in relation to these sacred deposites.

The metallic plates which contained the record of all the generations of his fathers, from the flight of Lehi from Jerusalem to his own time, ultimately came into his hands. From these plates he made an abriged record, which, taken together, in connection with the record of his own times, const.i.tutes the BOOK OF MORMON. Thus we see why the book bears this t.i.tle. For Mormon was a sort of Ezra, who compiled the entire sacred canon contained in this volume. He lived at a very eventful period, when almost all his people had fallen into a fearful apostacy, and he lived to see them all destroyed, except twenty-four persons. Himself and these sole survivors of his race were afterwards cut off with a single exception. His son Moroni, one of the survivors, lived to tell the mournful tale, and deposite the plates under the hill where Jo Smith found them. Mormon took his name from a place where the first American church was founded, of which we shall hear directly, and where the first candidates for admission into the church were baptized, some two hundred years before the commencement of the Christian era. He was very distinguished in his way, and quite worthy to be the founder of this new sect, who have brought to light his records, and rescued from oblivion such a bundle of marvels, as no one ever heard the like before.

I am sorry to say I must ask you to follow me through a _labyrinth_ of history, if I carry out the plan of furnis.h.i.+ng an a.n.a.lysis of the Book of Mormon.

We have already traced the history of the Lamanites and Nephites down to the period of King Benjamin, between three and four hundred years from the period of Lehi's flight from Jerusalem. The father of Benjamin was Mosiah, who was warned of the Lord to migrate to Zarahemla with all his people, that he and they might not be destroyed by the Lamanites. Zarahemla was subsequently the scene of much that is interesting in this history. It now became the dwelling place of the Nephites. Benjamin was the king of the land. He was a sort of David. He not only fought n.o.bly, but took great pains to establish true religion among the people. He a.s.sembled them together, and addressed to them powerful exhortations, preaching to them ”repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.” The people were so much affected that they fell to the earth--were converted, and became firm believers in Christ. Benjamin then thoroughly instructed them in the doctrines of Christianity, and finally died about four hundred and seventy six years after Lehi's flight. His son, Mosiah, reigned in his stead, who was no less eminent in kingly power and righteousness than his father. All these facts are given us in what is termed the Book of Mosiah, which contains thirteen chapters.

In the fifth chapter we have quite an episode introduced. As we have before noticed, the Nephites had left their first residence and gone to dwell in the land of Zarahemla.--Some of their number, however, desired to go back to the land where they formerly dwelt. The first party that went out for this purpose were unsuccessful, having had much dissension among themselves. The second attempt, made under a leader by the name of Zeniff, resulted in their making a settlement in that land, and building a city called Lehi-Nephi. No intercourse, however, having been kept up by this colony with their parent country, the result of their enterprise remained unknown in Zarahemla. In the reign of Mosiah, however, a number of individuals determined to go out on an exploring excursion, and to ascertain what had been the fate of their brethren, who had thus gone up to the land of Nephi. The leader of this exploring party was Ammon, a man that afterwards became famous among the Nephites. This party travelled a long way through the wilderness. I suppose the wilderness, as the term is used in the book of Mormon in reference to America, means woods or forests.

At length they approached the land of s.h.i.+lom and Nephi. They had not proceeded far before an armed band fell upon them, and having taken them prisoners, bound them and brought them before the king of the land. His name was Limhi, and, as it appeared in the sequel, he was a descendant of Zeniff. As soon as Limhi learned Ammon's origin and the errand on which he came, he released him and his company from their bands, treated them with great hospitality, and invoked his and his country's aid to a.s.sist them in extricating themselves from the oppressive power of the Lamanites. Limhi also a.s.sembled his people together, and announced to them the character of these visiters. He then brought out the records of his people, and exhibited them to Ammon and his company. Ammon read the engravings upon the plates, which in substance were as follows:--Zeniff, the founder of this people, after leaving Zarahemla, travelled a long way through the wilderness, where he encountered various trials, and at length came to the land of Lehi-Nephi and s.h.i.+lom. They found this country in possession of the Lamanites. From the king of Laman, however, he obtained by treaty the privilege of occupying this land. The Lamanites, the old enemies of his nation, allowed his people to go on and build cities, and make improvements for many years, and then rose up and sought to bring them under their dominion, that they might bear the relation of serfs or va.s.sals to them.

This attempt was rigorously resisted by Zeniff and the colony he had established. During the whole life of Zeniff, who now became their king, the Lamanites were invariably repulsed, and driven off. After his death the kingdom was conferred upon his son Noah, who proved to be a very bad and depraved man. Iniquity soon began to abound every where in the land, and vice to stalk shamelessly abroad with brazen front. Just at this time the Lord raised up among them a prophet by the name of Abinadi. He was very valiant for the truth. He reproved the people for their sins, and denounced the judgments of G.o.d openly against them. This fearless denunciation on the part of the prophet awaked the displeasure of the people, who determined and sought to slay the man of G.o.d. But Abinadi fled and escaped out of their hands. After about two years, however, he returned in disguise, so that they did not know that it was Abinadi. But as he continued to reprove them, and denounce heaven's wrath against them they determined to kill him.