DIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCES—TESTIMONY OF THE EIGHT WITNESSES.
The exact time when the Eight Witnesses obtained their view of the Nephite plates is not known, but it was evidently a few days after the Three Witnesses received their testimony. All the Prophet has seen proper to say upon the subject in his own history is—alluding to the testimony that had been received by the Three Witnesses—"soon after these things had transpired, the following additional testimony was obtained."[1] Then follows the testimony of the Eight Witnesses.
According to the History of the Prophet Joseph by Lucy Smith,[2] the event happened a few days after the Three Witnesses obtained their testimony. The latter, be it remembered, received their view of the plates near the Whitmer residence, in Fayette township, New York; while the Eight Witnesses obtained their view of the plates near the Smith residence in Manchester. On the completion of the translation of the Book of Mormon, Joseph sent word to his parents of the joyful event, as we have already seen, and they, in company with Martin Harris, immediately set out for Fayette, and during their brief stay at the place the vision of the Three Witnesses was given. The day following Father and Mother Smith returned to Manchester, and now the latter's statement:
In a few days we were followed by Joseph, Oliver and the Whitmers, who came to make us a visit, and make some arrangements about getting the book printed. Soon after they came, all the male part of the company, with my husband, Samuel and Hyrum, retired to a place where the family were in the habit of offering up their secret devotions to God. They went to this place because it had been revealed to Joseph that the plates would be carried thither by one of the ancient Nephites.[3] Here it was that those Eight Witnesses, whose names are recorded in the Book of Mormon, looked upon them and handled them. * * * After these Witnesses returned to the house, the angel again made his appearance to Joseph; at which time Joseph delivered up the plates into the angel's hands.[4]
This narrative is confirmed by the statement of Joseph himself with respect to delivering up the record to the angel. At the time the plates were first given into the Prophet's keeping he was informed that the heavenly messenger would call for them. He then recounts the efforts made to wrest the plates from him by his enemies, and adds:
But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hands. When, according to arrangements, the messenger (the angel Moroni) called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the 2nd day of May, 1838.[5]
In the evening of the day that the Eight Witnesses saw and examined the Nephite plates, according to Lucy Smith, the Witnesses held meeting at the Smith residence, "in which all the Witnesses bore testimony to the facts as stated above;"[6] that is, to the facts stated in their testimony as here given and which appeared in the first and in all subsequent editions of the Book of Mormon:
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 have 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.
The testimony of the Eight Witnesses differs from that of the Three Witnesses in that the view of the plates by the latter was attended by a remarkable display of the glory and power of God and the ministration of an angel. The glory of God shone about them; the angel turned the gold leaves of the ancient record; he spoke to them, or at least to David Whitmer, saying: "David, blessed is the Lord, and he that keeps his commandments;" and the very voice of God was heard out of the bright light shining about them, saying:
These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.[7]
No such remarkable display of God's splendor and power was attendant upon the exhibition of the plates to the Eight Witnesses. On the contrary it was just a plain, matter-of-fact exhibition of the plates by the Prophet himself to his friends. They saw the plates; they handled them; they turned the leaves of the old Nephite record, and saw and marveled at its curious workmanship. No brilliant light illuminated the forest or dazzled their vision; no angel was there to awe them by the splendor of his presence; no piercing voice of God from a glory to make them tremble by its power. All these supernatural circumstances present at the view of the plates by the Three Witnesses were absent at the time when the Eight Witnesses saw them. Here all was natural, matter-of-fact, plain. Nothing to inspire awe, or fear, or dread; nothing uncanny or overwhelming, but just a plain, straightforward proceeding that leaves men in possession of all their faculties, and self-consciousness; all of which renders such a thing as deception, or imposition entirely out of the question. They could pass the plates from hand to hand, guess at their weight—doubtless considerable, that idea being conveyed, "we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety, that the said Smith has got the plates." They could look upon the engravings, and observe calmly how different they were from everything modern in the way of record-making known to them, and hence the conclusion that the workmanship was not only curious but ancient.
I now proceed to consider the course pursued by these Eight Witnesses with reference to their testimony. I shall take them in the order they seemed to have signed the testimony.[8]
This Witness was thirty-one years old when he beheld the plates, having been born on the 18th of January, 1798. The young man was among the first to embrace the gospel, being baptized on the 11th of April, 1830. He removed with the Church from New York to Ohio in 1831, thence to Jackson county, Missouri. He witnessed the storms of persecution rise against the Saints in the land of Zion; and shared the hardship and despoliation of the Saints incident to their expulsion from Jackson county. He died while in exile for conscience sake, in Clay county, Missouri, on the 27th of November, 1835. He held first the office of Teacher in the Church; and then successively rose to the office of Elder, High Priest, and member of the High Council of the Church in Missouri.
Few and troubled were the years of Christian Whitmer's life after he became a Witness for the existence of the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated; but few and troubled as the years were, they were glorious for the steadfastness of Christian's faith. He had seen his crops wasted by the wanton destructiveness of a mob, while he himself was seized and threatened with instant death if he did not make known the hiding place of brethren who were escaping from the mob. Christian Whitmer, however, did not betray his friends, notwithstanding the guns of the mob were leveled at him when their threats were made.
He remained true to his testimony and died a consistent member of the Church of Christ.
Jacob Whitmer was thirty years of age when he saw the plates, having been born on the 27th of January, 1800. He, too, passed through the trying scenes incident to the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Jackson county. But after enduring well for a season he left the Church, in 1838, making his home near Richmond, in Ray county, Missouri. Here he lived a quiet, retired life, and reared his family in respectability; his eldest son, David P. Whitmer, rising to some local prominence as a lawyer, and serving one or two terms as mayor of Richmond. To the day of his death—which occurred April 21, 1856—Jacob Whitmer was true to his testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon. Though he severed his relations with the Church, because he did not agree with the policy of the leading elders, he continued true to the special trust God had committed to him—an actual knowledge of the existence of the Nephite record—as long as he lived.
This Witness for the existence of the Nephite Record was in his twentieth year at the time he examined the plates and held them in his hands. On meeting with the Prophet Joseph, on the occasion of the latter coming to reside at the home of his father, Peter Whitmer, Sen., in Fayette township, 1829, a firm friendship immediately sprang up between them. Peter Whitmer, Jr., seems to have been one of those gentle, loving natures that finds its greatest enjoyment and usefulness in giving its allegiance to some more rugged character on whose strength it can lean, in whose courage it can find strength. He entered with enthusiasm into the work of God coming forth under the inspired words and movements of his friend Joseph, the Prophet. He was among the first to join the Church, and when, in September, 1830, a mission was appointed to the Lamanites (American Indians), under the leadership of Oliver Cowdery, young Whitmer was especially appointed to accompany him, and commanded to be afflicted in all his (Oliver's) afflictions, "ever lifting up your heart unto me in prayer, and faith for his and your deliverance."[9] The missionaries to the Lamanites traveled on foot from central New York to the western borders of Missouri, a distance of more than one thousand miles, and that chiefly in winter time, when storms and mud and cold had to be encountered. Peter Whitmer, Jr., remained in western Missouri, and assisted the Saints in settling Jackson county (1831-1833), where, in common with the Saints who gathered from the east, he saw the rise of that persecution which culminated in the expulsion of the Saints from that country. With many of his exiled co-religionists he found a temporary home near Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, where he died on the 22nd of September, 1836; and was buried by the side of his brother Christian, who had died in the same neighborhood less than a year before. Consumption was the immediate cause of his death, which was doubtless hastened by exposure, in the course of his missionary labors and the hardships he was forced to endure by reason of his expulsion from Jackson county. This young man—he was but twenty-seven when he died—remained true to his testimony through the seven years of toil and suffering that he lived after God called him to be a Witness for the truth of the Book of Mormon; and his fidelity to his trust under all circumstances, adds weight to the solemn words of testimony to which he signed his name in June, 1829.
The fourth of the Eight Witnesses, John Whitmer, was twenty-seven years of age when he beheld the plates of the Nephite record. He was a young man of considerable promise, and upon the coming of Joseph Smith to his father's house, became not only his enthusiastic friend, but rendered him considerable assistance in writing as the Prophet dictated the translation of the Book of Mormon. John Whitmer was Church Historian for a number of years; for a time editor of the Messenger and Advocate, the second periodical published by the Church (Kirtland, Ohio, 1834-1837). He was also prominent in the affairs of the Church in Missouri, being one of the assistant presidents of the Church, his brother David and William W. Phelps being the president and other assistant respectively. He endured the hardships incident to the persecutions of the Saints in that land. When settlements were being formed in the new county of Caldwell, John Whitmer was prominently connected with the land purchases made. Indeed it was largely owing to some irregularities connected with the business, and some misunderstanding with the Prophet and other leading brethren in the Church, that finally resulted in his excommunication, in March, 1838.
After the expulsion of the Church from Missouri, in the winter of 1838-9, John Whitmer purchased the greater part of the townsite of Far West, which soon reverted to farming lands; and here John Whitmer continued to live, making farming his principal occupation, until his death in July, 1878. Though his relations with the Church were severed John Whitmer, up to the very close of his life, continued to bear witness that his testimony published in connection with the Book of Mormon was true. From it he never deviated. It was his testimony when living; it remains his testimony now that he is dead, unimpaired in its force by any word of his, though he was much offended at the Prophet Joseph, and for forty years had no standing in the Church. One can but regret the events which resulted in his severance from the Church, but one is compelled to admire his fidelity to the trust imposed in him by the Prophet when he made him a Witness for the existence of the Nephite record, in the presence of temptation to take a different course in the hour of his great darkness.
This is the only Witness of the Eight not either a Whitmer or a Smith. He was a son-in-law, however, to Peter Whitmer, Sen., having married Catherine Whitmer, in 1825. He was but a young man when he became a Witness to the existence of the Nephite plates, having been born in the year 1800, in the state of Vermont. He was living at Fayette, with the Whitmers when the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery arrived there in the spring of 1829. He entered into the work with enthusiasm, and for some years was a faithful member of the Church. He followed the westward movement of the Saints from New York to Ohio and thence to Missouri. He shared in the persecutions of the Church in Jackson county; in common with his co-religionists he fled to Clay county; and subsequently settled in Caldwell county. When the trouble arose in the Church at Far West, in 1838, Hiram Page followed the fortune of the Whitmers, severed his relations with the Church and finally made his home near Excelsior Springs, some fourteen miles north and a little west of Richmond, Missouri, where he died in August, 1852. Like his fellow Witnesses he remained true to his testimony. His oldest son, Philander Page, in 1888, said to Elder Andrew Jenson:
"I knew my father to be true and faithful to his testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon until the very last. Whenever he had an opportunity to bear his testimony to this effect, he would always do so, and seemed to rejoice exceedingly in having been privileged to see the plates and thus become one of the Eight Witnesses. I can also testify that Jacob, John and David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery died in full faith in the divinity of the Book of Mormon. I was with all these Witnesses on their death-beds and heard each of them bear his testimony." John C. Whitmer, a nephew of Hiram Page by marriage, also testified in the presence of Elder Jenson: "I was closely connected with Hiram Page in business transactions and other matters, he being married to my aunt. I knew him at all times and under all circumstances to be true to his testimony concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon."[10]
The sixth of the Eight Witnesses is Joseph Smith, Sen., the Prophet's father. He was the first to whom the Prophet confided the fact of Moroni's visit, and the existence of the Nephite record; and this by direct commandment of the angel Moroni himself. The Prophet hesitated to make known the vision he had received and the existence of the record, even to his father; but doubtless the integrity of the heart of Joseph Smith, Sen., was known in the heavens, and the Prophet was taken sharply to task for hesitating to trust him with the knowledge that God had imparted through Moroni. When asked why he had not confided the knowledge of his vision to his father, the Prophet expressed a fear that he would not be believed, whereupon Moroni said: "He will believe every word you say to him."[11] Upon this the Prophet went to his father, who was working in a field near their home, and related the whole revelation to him. The father assured his son that the great revelation was of God, and told him to go "and do as commanded by the messenger."[12] From that time on the youthful Prophet of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times had no truer, or more constant or faithful friend than his father.
Joseph Smith, Sen., was 59 years of age when he handled and examined the Nephite plates, and gave his testimony of their existence to the world. He became thoroughly identified with the work which the Lord brought forth through his gifted son. He was ordained a Priest of the Most High God, and became the first Presiding Patriarch in the Church, traveling in that capacity among the branches of the Church, especially in the Eastern States, administering comfort to the widow and fatherless, bestowing benedictions wherever he went.
In 1838, under the pressure of that severe persecution which arose against adherents of the Prophet in Ohio, the Patriarch moved to Caldwell county, Missouri, where he saw his sons Joseph and Hyrum taken by ruthless hands, dragged from their families and cast into prison for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, while he himself, with the remainder of the faithful Saints, was banished from the state of Missouri under the exterminating order of Governor Boggs. In midwinter of 1838-9, "Father Smith," as the Saints loved to call him, arrived in Quincy, Illinois, and thence removed to Nauvoo and assisted in founding that city. The toils and exposure of his life (he had been a pioneer all his days), and the hardships attendant upon his flight from Missouri proved too much even for his sturdy frame, and on the 14th of September, 1840, Joseph Smith, Sen., in the seventieth year of his life, died at Nauvoo.
His was one of those simple, guileless natures who know naught but truth and honor and fidelity. Amidst all circumstances of discouragement and trials he kept the faith, never wavering one moment in his adherence to the truth which God had made known to him. Having seen and handled and examined the plates from which the Book of Mormon was written, he remained true and steadfast to that testimony, and if an unbelieving generation shall undertake to condemn the testimony of some of these Witnesses because they turned from the Church, they must not forget that they will have to meet the force of this righteous man's testimony, and as in prayer so in testimony, the words of a righteous man availeth much.
The seventh of the Eight Witnesses was Hyrum Smith, an elder brother to the Prophet Joseph, born February 9, 1800, and hence was thirty years of age at the time the plates were shown to him. From the beginning of the great work of the last days he was a consistent believer in it, and assisted his brother in the preservation of the plates from the hands of those who sought to wrest them from him. He early sought to know the will of the Lord concerning his relations to the great work then coming forth, and was given to understand (May, 1829) that he was to have part and lot in it; and that he was called of God to be a preacher of righteousness to this generation.[13] From that time forth he labored continuously and faithfully by the side of his prophet-brother in the work of God. In 1837 he was made a counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, then assembling in Caldwell county, Missouri, a position he held until January, 1841, when he was called by revelation to take the office of Presiding Patriarch in the Church, an office left vacant by the death of his father, Joseph Smith, Sen.; and which office he held at the time he met a martyr's fate.
Hyrum Smith was a brother in very deed to the Prophet; for he shared in all the trials throughout the latter's troubled career; and indeed throughout his life he was never separated from Joseph longer than six months at a time. The Prophet held him in most tender regard. Speaking of him in his journal (December, 1835), he said:
I could pray in my heart that all men were like my brother Hyrum, who possesses the mildness of a lamb, and the integrity of a Job; and, in short, the meekness and humility of Christ; and I love him with that love that is stronger than death, for I never had occasion to rebuke him, nor he me.[14]
Of Hyrum Smith the late President John Taylor also said, speaking of him as he saw him stretched a martyr upon the floor of Carthage prison:
There he lay as I had left him. He had not moved a limb; he lay placid and calm, a monument of greatness even in death; but his noble spirit had left his tenement and had gone to dwell in regions more congenial to its exalted nature. Poor Hyrum! He was a great and good man, and my soul was cemented to his. If ever there was an exemplary, honest and virtuous man, an embodiment of all that is noble in the human form, Hyrum Smith was its representative.
Such was the character of this witness to the existence of the Nephite record. He not only never denied the testimony that he received through seeing and handling the plates of the Nephite record, but he consecrated his life to the great work of God which in a way may be said to have had its origin in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; and finally sealed his testimony with his blood, and it is in force upon all succeeding generations of men. He loved the Book of Mormon, and from it more frequently than others took the texts which formed the central thought of the discourses he delivered to the Saints. In it also he doubtless saw foreshadowed, near the close of his career, his own impending martyrdom, and the justification also of his life. On the morning of his departure from Nauvoo to Carthage, where he met his martyrdom, he read the following passage in the presence of his family, and turned down the leaf upon it:
And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.
And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.[15]
The last of the Eight Witnesses was a younger brother of the Prophet's. He was born in the year 1808, hence was twenty-two years of age when he beheld and handled the Nephite plates. He was of a serious, religious nature, even in his youth; and with three others of his father's family joined the Presbyterian church. While Joseph the Prophet was engaged with Oliver Cowdery in translating the Nephite record, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Samuel paid him a visit in the month of May, 1829, about the time that the Aaronic Priesthood was conferred upon the Prophet and Oliver by the ministration of John the Baptist. Samuel had come to inquire about the work and Joseph bore testimony of its truth and showed him some of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Samuel seems not to have been easily converted, but after much inquiry he retired to the woods and sought, by secret and fervent prayer, for wisdom to enable him to judge for himself concerning the things of which his brother had testified. The result was that he obtained a revelation for himself sufficient to convince him of the truth, and on the 25th day of May, 1829, he was baptized by Oliver Cowdery and returned to his father's house, in Manchester, New York, greatly glorifying and praising God. He was the third person baptized by divine authority in the new dispensation, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery being the first two. He was also one of the six members by whom the organization of the Church was effected on the 6th day of April, 1830.
As soon as the Book of Mormon was published Samuel was among the most zealous of the brethren in proclaiming it to the world, and seeking to dispose of it for the enlightenment of mankind. He shared in all the fortunes of the Church from the commencement of its existence to the time of his death, which occurred on the 30th of July, 1844, when he was but thirty-six years of age. He endured many hardships for the gospel's sake, in his extensive travels, meeting with insult and harsh treatment at the hands of scoffers and unbelievers. He witnessed also many demonstrations of the power of God and judgments which befell those who rejected his testimony.
Samuel passed through many trying ordeals of persecution. In the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri, in 1838-9, a special effort was made to capture him and some others for participating in what is known as "Crooked River Battle," for particulars of which see the Church History. He was ordained a High Priest in the Church, made a member of the High Council in Kirtland, Ohio, and was noted for the mingled qualities of justice and mercy he exercised in his office. He was among the founders of Nauvoo, and though rising to no great prominence, was known for his steadfastness in adhering to the truth. At the time of the martyrdom of his brothers, Joseph and Hyrum, he was living at Plymouth, in the eastern part of Hancock county, but frequently visited Nauvoo. Hearing of the arrest of his brothers and their imprisonment at Carthage, he immediately went to the latter place, but only to find that the martyr's fate had already overtaken them, and in sadness he accompanied their bodies to Nauvoo. He survived them but a few weeks, his death being produced by a severe billious fever, doubtless brought on by physical and mental strain produced by the sudden death of his brothers.
Samuel Smith, like his father, Joseph Smith, Sen., and his brother Hyrum, not only remained true to the testimony to which he subscribed in the first edition of the Book of Mormon, but consecrated his life to the work which its coming forth may be said to have commenced; and like them he lived and died a martyr to that holy cause; and his testimony, as theirs, is in force in all the world.
It will be observed from the foregoing account of the lives of the Eight Witnesses, with reference to their testimony to the existence of the Nephite plates, that five of them, viz.: Christian Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jun., Joseph Smith, Sen., Hyrum Smith, and Samuel H. Smith, all remained true throughout their lives, not only to their testimony, but faithful to the Church also, and were honorable, righteous men. While the three of the Eight Witnesses who left the Church, or were excommunicated from it, not one of them ever denied the truth of his testimony: a circumstance of some weight in helping one to determine the value of the testimony to which, with those who remained faithful to the Church, they subscribed their names when the Book of Mormon was first given to the world.
1. History of the Church, vol. I, p. 57.
2. Chapter 31.
3. This was doubtless Moroni, as he was the custodian of the plates.
4. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 31.
5. History of the Church, vol. I, pp. 18, 19.
6. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 31.
7. History of the Church, vol. I, pp. 54, 55.
8. In the first edition of the Book of Mormon where the Testimony appears at the close of the volume instead of at the beginning of the work, as in the current editions, the names stand thus; (second edition the same):—
Christian Whitmer,
Jacob Whitmer,
Peter Whitmer, Jr.,
John Whitmer,
Hiram Page,
Joseph Smith, Sr.,
Hyrum Smith,
Samuel H. Smith;
instead of in a double column as in our current editions. By the way, in passing, it may not be amiss to state that some importance is attached to the arrangement of the names in our current edition, for the reason that if read across the page instead of down the columns, then Page and the members of the Smith family alternate with the Witnesses, supposedly to divert attention from the fact that the witnesses, excepting Hiram Page, were of but two families! Such is the conclusion at least of one profound (!) critic of the Book of Mormon.
9. Doc. and Cov., sec. 30.
10. Latter-day Saints Biographical Encyclopaedia, p. 278.
11. History of the Prophet Joseph, by Lucy Smith, ch. 19.
12. History of the Church, vol. I, p. 15.
13. See Doc. and Cov., sec. 11.
14. Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, p. 146; also History of the Church, vol. II, p. 338.
15. Book of Mormon, Ether 12:36-38. Also Doc. and Cov. 135:5.
DIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCE—REFLECTIONS ON THE TESTIMONY OF THE ELEVEN WITNESSES.
Doubtless the Lord had his own purpose to subserve in giving different kinds of testimony—divine and human—to the same truth. The testimony of the Three Witnesses, attended as it was by such remarkable displays of supernatural power, he knew would be opposed from the very circumstance of its being supernatural. It cannot be but that God fore-knew of the rise of that so-called "Rational Criticism" of divine things which would resolve inspired dreams, visions, revelations and the administration of angels into hallucinations, brought about first by an inclination to believe in the miraculous, (and "ordinarily," argue the "Rational Critics," "expectation is the father of its object.")[1] supplemented by the theory of self-deception, self-hypnosis or hypnotic influence of others. This particular school of philosophers took its rise in the last century, and in the twentieth is much in vogue.
It will be remembered that the starting point with "Rational Criticism" (and in that term is included the so-called "Higher Criticism") is unbelief in what is commonly called the miraculous, and if the followers of that school do not deny the possibility of the miraculous, they at least say that it has never been proven; and further, they hold that "a supernatural relation"—such as the testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, for instance—"cannot be accepted as such, that it always implies credulity or imposture."[2] What chance, then, would the testimony of the Three Witnesses have with those who regard it as "an absolute rule of criticism to deny a place in history to narratives of miraculous circumstances?" This, they hold, "is simply the dictation of observation. Such facts have never been really proved. All the pretended miracles near enough to be examined are referable to illusion or imposture!"[3] Nor is this the climax of their absurdity, but they hold that the very "honesty and sincerity" of those who testify to the miraculous make them all the more untrustworthy as witnesses! I know this seems incredible; but what will be thought when I set down my authority for the statement, and it is learned that I quote no mere blatant declaimer against religion, nor any one of the many careless, or ill-informed writers of the so-called "Rational School of Critics," but the sober-minded, and earnest man of science, the late Professor Huxley? The statement quoted is from his paper on "The Value of Witnesses to the Miraculous."[4] In the course of treating upon some statements made by one Eginhard (eighth century A.D.), concerning miraculous events connected with SS. Marcellinus and Petrus, the professor takes occasion to bear testimony to the high character, acute intelligence, large instruction and sincerity of Eginhard; then speaking of him as a witness to the miraculous, makes this astonishing statement:
It is hard upon Eginhard to say, but it is exactly the honesty and sincerity of the man which are his undoing as a witness to the miraculous. He himself makes it quite obvious that when his profound piety comes on the stage, his goodness and even his perception of right and wrong make their exit.
In another paper to the same magazine, three months later, the professor, writing practically on the same subject, says:
Where the miraculous is concerned, neither undoubted honesty, nor knowledge of the world, nor proved faithfulness as civil historians, nor profound piety, on the part of eye witnesses and contemporaries affords any guarantee of the objective truth of their statements, when we know that a firm belief in the miraculous was ingrained in their minds, and was the presupposition of their observations and reasonings.[5]
This school of critics—and its following is much larger than is generally admitted—in this arbitrary way gets rid of the miracles of both the Old and the New Testament. The resurrection of Jesus, to them, is but a figment of the over-wrought minds of his disciples; and has no better foundation than the dreams and light visions of women, foremost among whom is Mary of Magdala,[6] the once possessed. The glorious departure of Jesus from the midst of his disciples, on Mount Olivet—after the resurrection—is merely a collective hallucination, an illusion—"the air on these mountain tops is full of strange mirages!"[7] The display of God's power on the day of Pentecost as revealed in the Acts of the Apostles, is a thunderstorm.[8] The speaking in tongues by the apostles on the same occasion and thereafter in the Church, is but the ecstatic utterance of incoherent sounds mistaken for a foreign language; while prophecy is but the fruit of mental excitement, a sort of ecstatic frenzy.[9]
With views such as these quite prevalent in Christendom, relative to miraculous events, it is but to be expected that the testimony of the Three Witnesses would be accounted for on some similar hypothesis. The early anti-Mormon writers generally assumed a conspiracy between Joseph Smith and the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and hence accorded no importance[10] to the testimony of either group—the Three or the Eight. Later, however, the force of the testimony of the Witnesses persisting, and pressing for an explanation which the theory of conspiracy and collusion did not satisfy, there began to be advanced the theory that probably Joseph Smith had in some way deceived the Witnesses and thus brought them to give their testimony to the world. "Either these Witnesses were grossly deceived by a lying prophet," says Daniel P. Kidder, who wrote an unfriendly book against the Church in 1843, "or else they wickedly and wilfully perjured themselves, by swearing to what they knew to be false." "The former," he adds, "although not very creditable to their good sense, is yet the more charitable opinion, and is rendered probable by the fact, that hundreds have been deceived in the same way. It is confirmed, moreover, by the well-known mental phenomenon, that to individuals accustomed to disregard the laws of veracity, truth and falsehood are alike. They can as easily persuade themselves of the one as of the other."[11]
Also the Rev. Henry Caswell, professor of divinity in Kemper College, Missouri, writing in 1843, said:
He [Joseph Smith] then persuaded [Martin] Harris to believe, that in some sense he actually beheld the wonderful plates. There was a worthless fellow named Oliver Cowdery, residing in the neighborhood, a school teacher by profession, and also a Baptist preacher, who, together with one David Whitmer, was similarly persuaded by our ingenious Prophet.[12]
Professor J. B. Turner, of Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, in his "Mormonism in All Ages" (1842), takes practically the same position, but goes a step further and undertakes to explain how the Prophet "deceived" the Witnesses, or how he "persuaded" them to believe, "in some sense," that they had actually beheld "the wonderful plates." In doing this the professor quotes the revelation given through the Prophet, in June, 1829, to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, previous to their viewing the Nephite plates.[13] Also the revelation to Martin Harris in which he is promised that he shall be a witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon.[14] In the revelations cited the Lord promises these men that they shall view the Nephite record; and directs what they shall say after they have seen and heard the things promised. Because some of the phraseology of these revelations is found also in the testimony of the Three Witnesses, the professor rushes to the conclusion that the Witnesses never really saw the vision, nor heard the voice of God as promised, but were persuaded to accept these revelations through Joseph Smith as their witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon. In other words Professor Turner's theory is that the Witnesses had no other evidence than the word of Joseph Smith for the existence of the plates and other sacred things connected with them! And he triumphantly exclaims:
Here, then, is the mighty power of God, the angel, and voice of the Lord, which revealed such marvels in 1830, all concentrated in the person, and pouring from the mouth of the Lord's Prophet in 1829. * * * * The whole, then, of this mighty array of bombast, nonsense, and blasphemy, resolves itself into this: "Joe Smith is not only 'author and proprietor' of the Book of Mormon, as both he and his Witnesses declare, but he is also 'power of god,' 'angel,' 'voice,' 'faith,' 'eyes,' 'ears,' and 'hands' for the Witnesses themselves; that is, all the evidence the world has for the Book of Mormon, after all this bluster, is 'Joe Smith's say so.' He says that God instructs him, he instructs the Witnesses and the Witnesses instruct the world. Quod erat demonstradum!" (p. 179.)
Undoubtedly the "Illinois College" of the great State of Illinois was to be congratulated upon having as its chief professor, in 1842, a man of such acuteness of intelligence and profoundness of wisdom! Nor was Governor Thomas Ford, when, some years later, he wrote the history of Illinois, to be out-done by a mere professor of "Illinois College;" and therefore advanced what he had heard concerning the manner in which the testimony of the Witnesses was obtained. The Governor's peculiar relation to "Mormonism," no less than his exalted political station in Illinois, as also the fact that he is one of the principal historians of that very great state of the American Union, justifies me in setting down what he has said upon the subject in hand:
It is related that the Prophet's early followers were anxious to see the plates; the Prophet had always given out that they could not be seen by the carnal eye, but must be spiritually discerned; that the power to see them depended upon faith, and was the gift of God to be obtained by fasting, prayer, mortification of the flesh, and exercise of the spirit; that so soon as he could see the evidence of a strong and lively faith in any of his followers, they should be gratified in their holy curiosity. He set them to continual prayer, and other spiritual exercises, to acquire this lively faith by means of which the hidden things of God could be spiritually discerned; and at last, when he could delay them no longer, he assembled them in a room, and produced a box, which he said contained the precious treasure. The lid was opened; the Witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the box was empty, they said, "Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates." The Prophet answered them, "O ye of little faith! How long will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation? Down on your knees, brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgiveness of your sins; and for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven." The disciples dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates.
The governor then very sagely remarks, with a modesty so worthy to keep company with the exalted intelligence that could stoop to detail such mere drivel as above:
I leave it to philosophers to determine whether the fumes of an enthusiastic and fanatical imagination are thus capable of binding the mind and deceiving the senses by so absurd a delusion.[15]
Inadequate as these theories are to account for the testimony of the Three Witnesses, and contemptible as they are for their childishness, they do not fail of more modern advocates. In 1899 a work published by the Appletons, which, while it was a work of fiction, was nevertheless an earnest effort to account for Joseph Smith on some other basis than that of his being a conscious fraud, wickedly bent on deceiving mankind, adopted the theory that "Smith was genuinely deluded by the automatic freaks of a vigorous but undisciplined brain, and that yielding to these he became confirmed in the hysterical temperament, which always adds to delusion, self-deception, and to self-deception half-conscious fraud. In his day it was necessary to reject a marvel or admit its spiritual significance; granting an honest delusion as to his visions and his book, his only choice lay between counting himself the sport of devils or the agent of heaven; an optimistic temperament cast the die."[16]
It remained, however, for the year of grace 1902 to witness the setting forth of these theories under the learned formulas of a scientific treatise, in which the testimony of the Witnesses received special consideration. Mr. I. Woodbridge Riley, the author of the work referred to, after quoting the account of the exhibition of the plates by the angel to the Three Witnesses, as related in the History of Joseph Smith,[17] regards the duty before him to be to find to what degree the manifestations are explicable on the grounds "of subjective hallucination, induced by hypnotic suggestion."[18]
Mr. Riley proceeds to show that the Prophet possessed "magnetic power," and that the Witnesses were "sensitive subjects," and then says:
Given, then, such an influence, and sensitive subjects, and mental suggestion could produce anything in the way of illusion. Thus the explanation is subjective, not objective; it was captivation but not fascination; there was leader and led, and the former succeeded in inducing in the latter all the phantasmagoria of religious ardor. * * * * Again, the vision of the plates may be related in a larger way with what has gone before. Of the three classes of hallucinations, two have already been explicated. Joseph's father had the ordinary hallucination of dream; his grandfather that which persists into the waking state. The vision of the Three Witnesses is that form of hallucination which may occur either in the normal state, or be induced in the state of light hypnosis. The former is exemplified in day dreams; it is largely self-induced and implies some capacity or visualizing. The latter may also occur with the eyes open, but it is induced by the positive suggestion of another. * * * * * As the hypnotized soldier will hear the voice of his old commander, or the devout French peasant see his patron Saint, so was it in these manifestations. The ideas and interest which were uppermost in the mind were projected outwards. Harris had received the first "transcription of the gold plates;" Whitmer had been saturated with notions of ancient engravings; Cowdery, for weeks at a time, had listened to the sound of a voice translating the record of the Nephites. When the voice was again heard in the grove, when the four sought "by fervent and humble prayer to have a view of the plates," there is little wonder that there arose a psychic mirage, complete in every detail. Furthermore, the rotation in prayer, the failure of the first two attempts, the repeated workings of the Prophet over the doubting Harris, but served to bring out the additional incentives to the hypnotic hallucination.[19]
Thus "Rational Criticism" would explain away the testimony given by the Three Witnesses. The vision of the plates, of the angel, the glory of God that shone about the Witnesses, the voice of God from the midst of the glory—all was illusion, hallucination produced by mental suggestion, on the part of the Prophet. All was chimerical, a mental mirage!
But what of the testimony of the Eight Witnesses—all so plain, matter-of-fact, straight-forward and real? How shall that be accounted for? Here all the miraculous is absent. It is a man to man transaction. Neither superstition, nor expectation of the supernatural can play any part in working up an illusion or mental mirage respecting what the Eight Witnesses saw and handled. Their testimony must be accounted for on some other hypothesis than that of hallucination. And indeed it is. Some regard it as a mere fabrication of interested parties to the general scheme of deception. This, however, is an arbitrary proceeding, not warranted by a just treatment of the facts involved. Others, impressed with the evident honesty of the Witnesses, or not being able to account for the matter in any other way, admit that Joseph Smith must have had plates which he exhibited to the Eight Witnesses, but deceived them as to the manner in which he came in possession of them. Of the latter class is Pomeroy Tucker, whose home during the coming forth of the Book of Mormon was at Palmyra, where the book was printed, and who claims a personal acquaintance with the Prophet and all his associates in the work at Palmyra. He refers to the fact of metallic plates covered with hieroglyphics having been discovered in various parts of the country, making special mention of some found in Mexico by Professor Rafinesque, and mentioned by the Professor in his Asiatic Journal for 1832; and some others found in Pike County, Illinois, a cleansing of which by sulphuric acid brought out the characters engraven upon them very distinctly. Mr. Tucker then says:
Smith may have obtained through Rigdon (the literary genius behind the screen) one of these glyphs, which resemble so nearly his description of the book he pretended to find on Mormon Hill [Cumorah]. For the credit of human character, it is better at any rate to presume this, and that the eleven ignorant Witnesses were deceived, by appearances, than to conclude that they wilfully committed such gross moral perjury before high heaven as their solemn averments imply.[20]
Rev. William Harris, writing in 1841, while not admitting the honesty of the Witnesses himself, suggests, nevertheless, the possibility of Joseph Smith deceiving the Eight Witnesses by presenting to them plates of his own manufacture:
Now, even admitting, for the sake of argument, that these Witnesses are all honest and credible men, yet what would be easier than for Smith to deceive them? Could he not easily procure plates to be made, and inscribe thereon a set of characters, no matter what, and then exhibit them to his intended Witnesses as genuine? What would be easier than thus to impose on their credulity and weakness? And if it were necessary to give them the appearance of antiquity, a chemical process could easily effect the matter.[21]
So Daniel P. Kidder, writing in 1842, says, in commenting on the testimony of the Witnesses:
That these men may have seen plates is very possible. * * * * * That Smith showed them plates, which to ignorant men had the appearance of gold, is easy enough to be believed; and if he had manufactured the same, it would have been no great stretch of ingenuity.[22]
Professor J.B. Turner, writing in 1842, adopts the same theory with reference to the testimony of the Eight Witnesses:
We are not only willing, but anxious to admit that Smith did show some plates of some sort; and that they [the Eight Witnesses] actually testify to the truth, so far as they are capable of knowing it.[23]
So John Hyde,[24] 1857:
Every careful reader must be compelled to admit that Smith did have some plates of some kind. Smith's antecedents and subsequents, show that he did not have genius sufficient to originate the whole conception, without some palpable suggestion. The having chanced to have found some plates in a mound, as Wiley found his, or as Chase discovered Smith's "Peepstone," would be just such an event as would suggest every peculiar statement Smith made about his plates, at the same time account for what is known; and, therefore, it is more than reasonable to conclude that Smith found his plates while digging gold. This entirely destroys all the shadow of argument so laboriously compiled by the "Mormon" apologists, which, even without this, although their strongest argument, only proves that he had some plates, but at the same time has no force of proof as to Smith's obtaining them from an angel.[25]
Professor Riley, with some other anti-"Mormon" writers, suggests the possibility of collective hypnotization in the case of the Eight as well as in that of the Three Witnesses: and hypnotization produced both visual and sense illusion; but it is only a suggestion. While maintaining, with the utmost confidence the mental mirage theory, induced by hypnotic suggestion, as an adequate accounting for the testimony of the Three Witnesses, he can only suggest it as a possible solution of the testimony of the Eight Witnesses, and inclines rather to the theory of "pure fabrication." "It is a document," he remarks, "due to the affidavit habit."[26]
As for the rest of the anti-"Mormon" critics on this point, they adopt the pure fabrication theory, or admit that the Prophet Joseph had in his possession some kind of plates which he either manufactured or accidentally discovered in his alleged searching after hidden treasures for some of his employers, and which he really exhibited to the Eight Witnesses. But why have the "pure fabrication" theory to account for the testimony of the Eight Witnesses, and the "mental hallucination" theory to account for the testimony of the Three? If the testimony of the Eight is pure fabrication is not the testimony of the Three pure fabrication also? Or, at least, is it not most likely to be so? For if conscious fraud, and pure fabrication lurks anywhere in Joseph Smith's and the Eleven Witnesses' account of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, would it not exist throughout the whole proceeding? Professor Turner, already twice quoted, in admitting that the Prophet had in his possession some sort of plates, which he showed the Eight Witnesses, says that he is anxious to make the admission "in order to keep up the just and charitable equilibrium between the knaves and fools in 'Mormonism' and the world at large. Three to Eight is at once a happy and reasonable proportion. We will not disturb it. It is gratifying to human philanthropy to be able to account for all the facts in the case by this charitable solution." This sarcasm, however, is not a "solution;" nor is it refutation of the testimony of the Witnesses; nor is it argument; nor anything but the fuming of a small mind; yet it is the only "reason" I have ever heard advanced for adopting the hallucination theory in the case of the Three Witnesses, and either the pure fabrication or deception theory in the case of the Eight Witnesses.
The testimony of the Three and the Eight Witnesses, respectively, stands or falls together. If the pure fabrication theory is adopted to explain away the testimony of the Eight Witnesses, there is no reason why it should not be adopted to explain away the testimony of the Three. But every circumstance connected with the testimony of all these Witnesses, as we have seen, cries out against the theory of "pure fabrication." It is in recognition of the evident honesty of the Three Witnesses that the theory of mental hallucination is invented to account for their testimony; as it is also the evident honesty of the Eight Witnesses that leads to the admission by many anti-"Mormon" writers that Joseph Smith must have had some kind of plates which he exhibited to the Eight Witnesses, though he may not have obtained them through supernatural means.
The theory of pure fabrication of the testimony of the Witnesses is absolutely overwhelmed by the evidence of their honesty.
The hallucination theory breaks down under the force of the matter-of-fact testimony of the Eight Witnesses, from which all possible elements of hallucination are absent.
The manifestation of the divine power, through which the Three Witnesses received their testimony, destroys the theory of deception alleged to have been practiced by the Prophet on the credulity of the Eight Witnesses by exhibiting plates either manufactured by himself or accidentally discovered.
Such, then, is the force of this direct testimony of the Eleven Witnesses to the truth of the Book of Mormon—the testimony of the Three and the Eight when considered together. It is so palpably true that it cannot be resolved into illusion or mistake. It is so evidently honest that it cannot be resolved into pure fabrication. It is of such a nature that it could not possibly have been the result of deception wrought by the cunning of Joseph Smith. There remains after these but one other theory: "The Witnesses were honest." They saw and heard and handled what they say they saw, and heard, and handled. Their testimony stands not only unimpeached, but unimpeachable.
1. Renan, The Apostles, p. 67 and note 46.
2. Renan, Life of Jesus, introduction, p. 14; also New Witnesses, vol. I, chapter 1.
3. Renan, The Apostles, p. 37.
4. The Nineteenth Century, March, 1889.
5. The Nineteenth Century, June, 1889. Professor Huxley's papers quoted here will also be found in Agnosticism and Christianity, pp. 84, et seq. and 96 et seq.
6. Renan closes his treatise upon this subject as follows: "The glory of the resurrection, then, belongs to Mary of Magdala. After Jesus it is Mary who had done most of the foundation of Christianity. The shadow created by the delicate sensibility of Magdalene wanders still on the earth. Queen and patroness of idealists, Magdalene knew better than any one how to assert her dream, and impose on every one the vision of her passionate soul. Her great womanly vision: 'He has risen,' has been the basis of the faith of humanity. Away, impotent reason! Apply no cold analysis to this chef d'oeuvre of idealism and of love. If wisdom refuses to console this poor human race, betrayed by fate, let folly attempt the enterprise. Where is the sage who has given to the world as much joy as the possessed Mary of Magdala?"—The Apostles, p. 61.
7. Renan. He thus tells the story of the appearing of Jesus to the five hundred brethren at once: "More than five hundred persons were already devoted to the memory of Jesus. In the absence of the lost Master, they obeyed the chief of the disciples, and above all, Peter. One day when following their spiritual chiefs, the Galileans had climbed one of the mountains to which Jesus had often led them, they fancied they saw him again. The air on these mountain tops is full of strange mirages. The same illusion which had previously taken place in behalf of the more intimate of the apostles [he refers to the transfiguration, Matt. 17] was produced again. The whole assembly imagined that they saw the divine spectre displayed in the clouds; they fell upon their faces and worshiped." The Apostles, p. 76.
8. Renan. This is his "rational" (!) conception of the event: "One day when they were assembled together a thunder storm arose. A violent wind burst the windows open—the sky seemed on fire. Thunder storms in those countries are accompanied by wonderful illuminations; the atmosphere is furrowed, as it were, on every side with garbs of flame. Whether the electric fluid had penetrated into the very chamber itself or whether a dazzling flash of lightning had suddenly illuminated all their faces, they were convinced that the spirit had entered, and that he was poured out upon the head of each one of them under the form of tongues of fire." The Apostles, p. 95.
9. Renan, The Apostles, p. 98 et seq.
10. Thus Alexander Campbell in Millennial Harbinger, vol. II, (1831) pp. 86-96. Also Howe's Mormonism (1834). He thinks the Witnesses incompetent, "Nor will any one disagree with us, when we shall have proven that the Book of Mormon was a joint speculation between the 'Author and Proprietor.' [Joseph Smith is alluded to] and the Witnesses," ch. 7.
11. Mormonism and the Mormons, by Daniel P. Kidder, pp. 54, 55.
12. Prophet of the Nineteenth Century, p. 46.
13. Doc. and Cov. sec. 17.
14. Doc. and Cov. 5:24-26.
15. Hist. Illinois, (Ford) pp. 257-8.
16. The Mormon Prophet, by Lily Dougall, preface, p. 7.
17. History of the Church, vol. I, pp. 54, 55.
18. "The Founder of Mormonism. A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr., by I. Woodbridge Riley, one time instructor in English, New York University," (Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1902). It cannot be denied that Mr. Riley's book is an ingenious work, and bears evidence of wide erudition, and an intimate knowledge of the subject. Mr. Riley's treatise, a book of 426 pages, was offered to the Philosophical Faculty of Yale University as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. His materials were also used in 1898 for a "Master of Art" thesis on the "Metaphysics of Mormonism." The book has an introductory, preface, by Professor George Trumbull Ladd, of Yale University, commending the work by laudatory praise of it. The author himself explains that his aim is "to examine Joseph Smith's character and achievements from the standpoint of recent psychology." He makes a careful pathological study of the ancestors of the Prophet, and reaches the conclusion that Joseph Smith's "abnormal experiences" (meaning his visions, revelations and visitations of angels) are the result of epilepsy. This is his working hypothesis in accounting for Joseph Smith, supplemented by what he considers is the Prophet's unconscious liability to self-hypnosis, and his hypnotic power over others sufficient to make them partakers in his own vivid hallucinations. The hypothesis is an adroitly conceived one, and worked out on lines of sophistry that by many will be mistaken for sound reasoning. The whole theory is overthrown, however, by the work the Prophet achieved, the institution he founded, the Church, the religion he established, the philosophy he planted; all of which to madness would be impossible; besides, as remarked by M. Renan, "Hitherto it has never been given to aberration of mind to produce a serious effect upon the progress of humanity." Life of Jesus, p. 105.
An extended review of Mr. Riley's book will be found in the author's work, Defense of the Faith and the Saints, pp. 39-61.
19. The Founder of Mormonism, by I. Woodbridge Riley, pp. 226, 227, 228.
20. Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism, by Pomeroy Tucker, p. 75.
21. Mormonism Portrayed, by Rev. William Harris, pp. 410.
22. Mormonism, Kidder, pp. 52, 53.
23. Mormonism in all Ages, Turner, p. 178.
24. Mormonism, Its Leaders and Designs, by John Hyde, Jr., pp. 269, 270.
25. Mormonism, Its Leaders and Designs, by John Hyde, Jr., pp. 269, 270.
26. The Founder of Mormonism, pp. 228-231.