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á base ruffian. He was the seventh son, and his parents called him Doctor: it was his name, and not the title of his profession.

"He once belonged to the Methodist church, and was excluded for immoralities. He afterwards imposed himself on the church of Latter-Day Saints, and was excluded for using obscene language to a young lady, a member of the said church, who resented his insult with indignation, which became both her character and profession.

"After his exclusion he swore-for he was vilely profane-that he would have revenge, and commenced his work. He soon found assistance; a pious old deacon of the Campbellite church, by the name of Onis Clapp, and his two sons, Thomas J. Clapp and Matthew S. Clapp, both Campbellite preachers, abetted and assisted by another Campellite preacher by the name of Adamson Bentley. Hurlbut went to work, catering lies for the company. Before Hurlbut got through, his conduct became so scandalous that the company utterly refused to let his name go out with the lies he had collected, and which he and his associates had made, they therefore substituted the name of E. D. Howe. The change, however, was not much better. There were scandalous immoralities about the Howe family of so black a character, that they had nothing to lose, and became good tools for this holy company to work with. A man of character would never have put his name to a work which Hurlbut was concerned in. But while Hurlbut was busily employed in the service. of the company, old Deacon Clapp was employed in taking care of his wife. How many others of the company aided in this business must be left to futurity to disclose. At a certain time, Hurlbut being out till a late hour in the night, returned to his house, and in going to his bed-room where his wife was, behold, and lo! there was the pious old deacon, either in bed with his wife or at the side of it. He had a five-dollar bank note in his hand, and his dress was rather light to suit the Doctor's taste, for he was not quite as well off as was Aaron when he offered sacrifice, not even having on a pair of 'linen breeches.' Hurlbut laid hold of him and called for help, which soon came to his assistance. The pious old deacon was arraigned before a justice of the peace, and was on the eve of being bound over for his appearance to the county court, when, to put an end to the evils which might result from his pious care of Mrs. Hurlbut, he kindly offered a yoke of oxen and a hundred dollars. This was accepted. Hurlbut took his wife, and left the country forthwith; and the pious old deacon and his sons, and the good Mr. Bentley, are left to wear out the shame of their great effort to destroy the character of innocent men whom they never dare meet in argument. The tale in your paper is one hatched up by this gang before the time of their explosion.

"It has always been a source of no ordinary satisfaction to me to know that my enemies have no better weapon to use against me, or the cause in which I am engaged, than lies; for if they had any better they would certainly use them. I must confess, however, that there is some consistency in our persecutors, for as truth can never destroy truth, it would be in vain for our persecutors to use truth against us, for this would only build us up; this they seem to know, and lay hold of the only available means they have, which

are lies; and this indeed is the only weapon which can be, or ever has been, used against the truth. As our persecutors are endeavouring to stop the progress of truth, I must confess that they act with a degree of consistency in the choice of means, namely, lies; but if truth would do it, they would surely not have recourse to lies.

"In order to give character to their lies, they dress them up with a great deal of piety for a pious lie, you know, has a great deal more influence with an ignorant people, than a profane one. Hence their lies came signed by the pious wife of a pious deceased priest.. However, his last act of piety seems to have been to write a bundle of lies, themselves being witnesses; but then his great piety sanctifies them, and lies become holy things in the hands of such excessive piety, particularly when they are graced with a few Reverends; but the days have gone by when people are to be deceived by these false glossings of Reverend's sanctions; the intelligent part of the communities of all parts of the country, know that Reverends are not more notorious for truth than their neighbours.

"The only reason why I am. assailed by lies is, that my opposers dare not adventure on argument, knowing that if they do they fall. They try, therefore, to keep the public from investigating, by publishing and circulating falsehoods. This I consider a high encomium on both myself and the cause I defend. Respectfully,

"S. RIGDON."

We believe that upon this evidence, the question of the authorship of the original romance on which the Book of Mormon was founded, will be decided by the reader in favour of Solomon Spaulding. As regards the Book of Mormon itself, Joseph Smith and the vulgar and abusive Sidney Rigdon seem to have acted in concert in its concoction from materials thus provided for them. The religious matter derived from the Old and New Testaments is engrafted upon the original romance in a manner that shows the ignorant and the illiterate workman. Such phrases as the following are of frequent occurrence:-"Ye are are like unto they"—" Do as ye hath hitherto done""I—the Lord delighteth in the chastity of women”—“I saith unto them"- "I who ye call your King"-" These things had not ought to be"-"Ye saith unto him”—“ For a more history part are written upon my other plates." Anachronisms are also frequent; but all errors of grammar, all anachronisms, all contradictions, are admitted by the Mormons. They allege that the Old and New Testaments contain ungrammatical passages, and yet are holy, and the undoubted word of God; and that anachronisms and contradictions do not militate against the plenary inspiration either of the Bible or of the Book of Mormon. They acknowledge all possible faults and objections which mere critics may start; but treat them as of no account. Joseph Smith, they say, was the chosen vessel of grace, and it was

not necessary, in the inscrutable purposes of the Lord, that he should write or speak correct English; or that he should not make a few human mistakes in his rendering of the divine word. All such objections they laugh to scorn.

Joseph Smith, who, on all occasions of doubt, silenced the uninformed, and amazed the educated, by the boldness of his own selfsufficiency, and the boundless resources of his impudence, was often asked, both by friends and foes, the meaning of the word "Mormon." The following reply, as published in a letter to the editor of the Times and Seasons is highly characteristic :

"SIR,-Through the medium of your paper, I wish to correct an error among men that profess to be learned, liberal, and wise; and I do it the more cheerfully, because I hope sober-thinking and sound reasoning people will sooner listen to the voice of truth, than be led astray by the vain pretensions of the self-wise. The error I speak of is the definition of the word 'Mormon.' It has been stated that this word was derived from the Greek word mormo. This is not the case. There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of MorLet the language of that book speak for itself. On the 523rd page of the fourth edition, it reads:-'And now behold we have written the record according to our knowledge in the characters, which are called among us the Reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us according to our manner of speech; and if our plates were sufficiently large, we should have written in Hebrew. Behold ye would have had no imperfections in our record, but the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also, that none other people knoweth our language; therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.

mon.

“Here, then, the subject is put to silence, for none other people knoweth our language;' therefore the Lord, and not man, hath to interpret, after the people were all dead. And, as Paul said, 'the world by wisdom know not God,' and the world by speculation are destitute of revelation; and as God, in his superior wisdom, has always given his saints, wherever he had any on the earth, the same spirit, and that spirit (as John says) is the true spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus, I may safely say that the word Mormon stands independent of the learning and wisdom of this generation. Before I give a definition, however, to the word, let me say that the Bible, in its widest sense, means good; for the Saviour says, according to the Gospel of St. John, 'I am the good shepherd;' and it will not be beyond the common use of terms to say, that good is amongst the most important in use, and though known by various names in different languages, still its meaning is the same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say from the Saxon, good; the Dane, god; the Goth, goda; the German, gut; the Dutch, goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; and the Egyptian, mon. Hence, with the addition of more, or the contraction mor, we have the word Mormon, which means, literally, more good. Yours JOSEPH SMITH."

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THE BOOK OF DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS; OR, THE "REVELATIONS" OF JOSEPH SMITHMORMON HYMNS AND POEMS-MATERIALISM-THE AARONIC AND MELCHISEDECK PRIESTHOOD-CONFESSION OF FAITH-MORMON CLAIMS TO WORK MIRACLES AND TO CAST OUT DEVILS-SCENES IN LEAMINGTON AND WALES.

In addition to the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith originated and partly composed a book of Doctrines and Covenants, purporting to be direct revelations from heaven upon the temporal government of their church, the support of the poor, the tithing or taxation of the members, the establishment of cities and temples, the allotment of lands, the emigration of the "saints," the education of the people, the gathering of moneys, and other matters. This book abounds in grammatical inaccuracies, even to a greater extent than the Book of Mormon:-"God, that knowest thy thoughts"-" a literal descendant of Aaron"-"an hair of his head shall not fall"- -"your Father who art in heaven knoweth"-" and the spirit and the body is the soul of man""the stars also giveth their light as they roll upon their wings in glory"-"her who sitteth upon many waters"-"thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon"-form but a sample of hundreds of similar phrases that might be culled, were it worth while. A few specimens of

the kind of "Revelations," and of the style in which Joseph Smith represented the Almighty as speaking to him in his early revelations, I will show what men will assert and believe under the influence of fanaticism. The following is part of a revelation purporting to have been given by Jesus Christ, in February, 1831. In these revelations God the Father and God the Son are invariably represented as giving Joseph his proper designation of Smith, junior, that he might not be mistaken for his father, Joseph Smith, senior :

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'Hearken, oh ye elders of my church, who have assembled yourselves together in my name, even Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, the Saviour of the world. Behold, verily I say unto you, I give unto you this first commandment, that you shall go forth in my name, every one of you, except my servants, Joseph Smith, jun., and Sidney Rigdon. .. If there shall be properties in the hands of the church, or any individuals of it, more than is necessary for their support, it shall be kept to administer to those who have not."

The following is part of a revelation given to Joseph Smith in March, 1829, when Martin Harris desired to see the golden plates, and before he was deluded with the paper transcript, which he showed to Professor Anthon. It will be seen that Joseph was not at a loss to parry the inconvenient curiosity of his then doubting, but afterwards faithful, disciple :

"Behold, I say unto you, that as my servant Martin Harris has desired a witness at my hand, that you my servant, Joseph Smith, jun., have got the plates of which you have testified and borne record that you have received of me; and now, behold, this shall you say unto him-' He who spake unto you said unto you, I the Lord am God, and have given those things unto you, my servant, Joseph Smith, jun., and have commanded you that you should stand as a witness of these things; and I have caused you that you should enter into a covenant with me that you should not show them except to those persons that I commanded you; and you have no power over them except I grant it you.' And now, again I speak unto you my servant Joseph, concerning the man that denies the witness. Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself, and does not sufficiently humble himself before me. But if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see."

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Poor Martin Harris never got the promised glimpse of the plates. He did not behave himself properly; and Joseph found an opportunity to reprimand and quarrel with him. But, in fact, Joseph and his principal assistant, Sidney Rigdon, appear to have quarrelled with all the "witnesses." The first witness to the truth of this Book of Mormon was declared by Smith himself, in a revelation given in November, 1831, to be unfit to be trusted with "moneys:"

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