Who was Joseph Smith?

We now give an account of how this delusion arose, and was carried on in subsequent years. Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Mormon religion, was born on December 23rd, 1805, at Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont, U.S.A. We read, “The Smith family was popularly regarded as illiterate, whisky-drinking and irreligious; Joseph Smith, Jr., voted the laziest and most worthless of the generation. He could utter the most palpable exaggeration, or marvellous absurdity, with the utmost gravity” (Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism).

When young Joseph was fourteen years old, the family moved to Manchester, New York State. At that time a great religious revival was sweeping the country, especially strong in the part where he lived. Amid such an exciting atmosphere, in which good and bad were mixed up, Joseph claimed to have a vision according to The Official History of the Church. On September 23rd, 1823, whilst in prayer, he affirmed, the darkness of the room gave way to a blaze of glory. A radiant personage stood by his bedside, declaring himself to be an angel of God, Moroni by name. He told this lad of seventeen that the Lord had a great work for him to do, and through God’s power Christ’s Kingdom would be restored to the earth. His name, too, would be had for good or evil in all nations.

The angel then went on to inform Joseph of a book, hidden in the Hill Comorah, twenty-five miles south-west of Rochester, New York State. This book was written on golden plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of America; and that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour. Also there were two stones in silver bows, fastened to a breastplate, representing what is called Urim and Thummim, deposited with the plates, and that the possession and use of them constituted seers in ancient times, and that God had prepared them for the translation of the book. The next day, we are told, Joseph repaired to the Hill Comorah, and found the plates, as indicated by the angel Moroni. About to lift the plates out of the box in which they were placed, the angel Moroni appeared by his side, telling him four years must elapse before he could take possession of the plates, and translate the message engraved upon them. At this time Joseph was verging on eighteen years of age. When he was barely twenty-one, he married Emma Hale, who eloped with him because of her parents’ opposition to the marriage. Four years to the day that Joseph first tried to take away the plates, he repaired to the Hill Comorah, and took possession of them. The angel Moroni appeared once again, warning him to shield the plates from profane sight or touch, and that if he allowed them to be stolen or destroyed, he would be “destroyed and cut off.” Joseph affirmed that on his road home he was attacked three times by unknown men, seeking to get possession of the golden plates. He reached home happy but bruised, the golden plates intact.

The Mormons, or (as they now prefer to be named) “The Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints,” have their headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America. Here they have a great and costly temple, to which they say Christ will come at His Second Advent. The sect was founded on April 6th, 1830, by Joseph Smith, its first prophet and Seer. It claims a membership of several hundred thousand “in the organized states of Zion,” besides fifty thousand in various missions, with a hierarchy of Presidents, Apostles, Patriarchs, High Priests, and Elders, numbering 10,000, divided into two orders, bearing the names of the Melchizedeck and Aaronic Priesthood. Year after year, groups of preaching Elders are sent forth by the Apostles, working under their direction, to gain new converts and make Mormon disciples by their Gospel of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and Laying on of Hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. In this capacity, stylishly dressed young men of attractive personal appearance, enter towns and villages, usually in pairs, at first discoursing on subjects which they know to be generally accepted among Christians. Then as they gain the ears and the confidence of their hearers—more particularly of the weaker sex, to whom they pay particular attention, for reasons which will hereafter appear—the real doctrines of Mormonism, or as many of them as it is politic to advance, are brought forth, with every persuasion to embrace and confess the Mormon faith, and be enrolled as true members and citizens of the coming Zion, to be built upon the American Continent. While as the preachers themselves confess, little progress is being made in these “orthodox” and Bible-loving lands, there are always a few stragglers ready to take up with every new religion, no matter what its merits. And the apparent sincerity and zeal, with which the Mormon preachers set forth their doctrines, is an attraction to some who have not known the “depths of Satan,” or with what subtlety and cunning be seeks to deceive and seduce from the Gospel of God's grace and the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3), into paths of error and moral degradation.

This piece of fiction remained unpublished. The manuscript continued in the custody of Messrs. Patterson and Lambdin, printers of Pittsburg. Years after Spaulding’s death the manuscript fell into the hands of the Revd. Sidney Rigdon, an intimate friend of Lambdin. He was an erratic character, an ex-Baptist minister, notorious for giving out eccentric and strange notions. He got into touch with Joseph Smith, Jr., and had become an ardent Mormon. Together they concocted the story of the golden plates.

The true origin of the plates (not gold, but copper) was told by W.Fulgate of Mount Station, Brown Country, Illinois. On June 30th, 1879, he swore on affidavit before J.Brown, Justice of the Peace, that the plates were all humbug, that they were got up by Robert Wiley, Bridge Whitton and himself. Whitton was a blacksmith, who cut the plates out of pieces of copper. Wiley and Fulgate made the hieroglyphics on beeswax, filling the impressions with acid. Fulgate also described the burial of the plates. Joseph needed no angel to tell him where these plates were buried, for either he or his confederates had buried them. Rigdon had edited the manuscript, adding liberally what he imagined were suitable texts and portions of Scripture, and even whole chapters to give it a more religious tone.

Mormonism was first organized into a Church on April 6th, 1830, in Fayette, Seneca County, New York State. This was composed of six members—Joseph Smith, Jr., Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith (Joseph’s brother), Peter Whitmer, Jr., Samuel H. Smith, and David Whitmer. Of these, two were murdered in gaol, two apostatised, one became an anti-Brighamite and one died of over-exertion. Joseph was acclaimed the Prophet, who, laying his hands on Cowdery, ordained him to be an Elder of the infant Church. Cowdery then laid his hands on the Prophet, and ordained him to be an Elder. Joseph was twenty-two years old when this solemn farce took place.

One can only give a very brief sketch of the subsequent years, or else this small pamphlet would become a very large volume. In course of time a church of considerable size was formed at Kirtland, Ohio, near the City of Cleveland. According to the Mormon’s own story, John the Baptist appeared as sent by the Apostles Peter, James and John, and conferred on the Church the Aaronic priesthood, promising that higher honour, that of the Meichizedec priesthood, would be conferred on them later. Not long after, the Mormons affirmed, that the three Apostles, Peter, James and John, appeared to them, conferring on them this higher honour, stating that they themselves held this priesthood when in the flesh. Of this there is not the slightest trace in the Scriptures.

received a very meagre education. At the age of 14, he became concerned about eternal things, and being unable to get any reliable help from ministers and churches, he resolved to investigate the subject for himself. Retiring into a solitary place in a grove, he prayed to God, and while thus engaged, he says he had a vision, two glorious personages encircled with a heavenly light appearing to him, who told him that all the churches and denominations were wrong, that none of them was acknowledged by God as His church, and that the true Gospel and the true church would be revealed to him at a future time. Thus the early dawn of Mormonism is described. It is not claimed that some fresh light had been given on the already existing Word of God, such as Luther received when in the act of climbing Pilate's stair, on his hands and knees, at Rome, a voice from the Word of God sounded with power through his soul, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:18), making what was already there a fresh message to meet his need, breaking the bonds of Romanism in which he was bound. No such light arose in the dark and troubled soul of Joseph Smith, but a hallucination, conceived in his disordered mind, or imparted by some lying spirit—as Scripture shows such are capable of giving (2 Chr. 18:21: 1 John 4:6) to deceive, and then use him to lead others into Satanic delusion and deception (2 Tim. 3:13).

With his imagination thus wrought upon and an expectation of a revelation being given him outside of the Bible, which is God's complete and abiding Word, the guide of all mankind through all the ages, it is no wonder to learn that shortly after, on September 21st, 1823, to this youth of eighteen years, another angelic messenger appeared, announcing that the covenant which God made with his ancient people Israel was about to be fulfilled; that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was about to begin; that the Gospel in all its fullness was to be preached to all nations, to prepare a people for the Millennial kingdom, and that Joseph Smith was to be the chosen instrument to introduce this glorious dispensation. The angel's name was announced as Moroni, son of Mormon, who had written an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of America, whose first settlers were said to be colonists from the Tower of Babel, whose builders were scattered over the whole earth. They were named Jaredites. Six hundred years before Christ another company arrived on American soil from Jerusalem, and succeeded the Jaredites in possession of the country, which they held until early in the fourth century, when in a great battle most of them were slain, the remnant being the Indian tribes that now inhabit the country. It was further stated that the Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, went and preached among this people, planting churches among them. These continued for a time, but because of their unfaithfulness they were cast off, the last of their prophets being commanded to write a history of this people, and the prophecies concerning them, to be fulfilled in the latter days, and to hide it in the earth, until the fullness of the time for their fulfilment had come. Then it was to be brought forth, and its teachings used to supplement the Bible, and its revelations preached for fulfilment of God's purposes in the last days.

Joseph affirmed that the hieroglyphics inscribed on the plates were in characters of “reformed Egyptian, the language of the Jews, and the writings of the Egyptians.” He claimed that looking at these strange characters through the medium of the Urim and Thummim, they resolved themselves into plain English. He would then read them to his wife, who, sitting behind a curtain, would write the words down. Later on, Oliver Cowdery, an unemployed school-teacher, assisted him.

False religions are founded on deceit and fraud. For instance, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, stated that the angel Moroni appeared to him three times, and told him that the book of Mormon—the Bible of the Latter Day Saints—was buried in a certain place. Four years later, Joseph Smith stated that he repaired to the spot and had delivered to him by the angel a stone box in which was a volume six inches thick, composed of thin gold plates and fastened by three gold rings. But we have only his own word for all this. There were no witnesses, and he was at best a man of questionable character.

Joseph Smith tried to get his assertion backed up by fraud. Three men—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitner and Martin Harris—swore that an angel of God showed them the book. This does not satisfy Mark No. 2. Collusion and fraud were quite possible. Even if the three men had not later denounced their testimony as false, no reasonable man would be satisfied with such evidence, concerning that which was asserted to be miraculous, and of such importance in matters of religious belief. When it was stated that the gold plates had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, it looked like the confidence trick. The whole thing was a concoction without a word of truth in it.

On the morning of September 22nd, 1827, while Joseph Smith was engaged at his work, the angel again appeared to him, and pointing him to the side of a hill near the town of Manchester, in the State of New York, a short distance from where he lived, he was told that he would find there these ancient records and prophecies, buried in a cave, written on plates of gold. Arriving at the place indicated by the angel, he found a stone chest, the lid of which he raised, and there discovered the plates, exactly as the angel had described them. Each plate was eight inches long and six inches wide, about the thickness of common tin, graven in Egyptian hieroglyphics, fixed together like the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. With the plates were two transparent stones, set in a hoop fastened to a breastplate. These were named “Urim and Thummin.” By using them as a medium, he was informed by the angel, he would be able to read the mystic writing, and translate it into his own tongue. Nobody except Smith saw the angel or the mysterious cave on the hillside, and nobody save a select circle of immediate followers ever claim to have seen the golden plates or the sacred stones named Urim and Thummin. On the title page of “The Book of Mormon” there appears what is called the “Testimony of Three Witnesses,” who say they have “seen the engravings which are upon the plates, and that they have been shown unto us by the power of God,” but how or where they do not inform us. This document bears the names of three men, who it is said a few years after its publication quarrelled with Smith, and became apostates from the Mormon faith. If these plates and the two mysterious Stones ever existed, why should they not have been shown to ten thousand witnesses and preserved, as the ancient manuscripts of the Bible are in the principal cities of the world until this day. This would have gone a long way to establish the truth of Joseph Smith's story. Where they went, nobody knows, save what the prophet has told us, namely, that when he had finished the translation, the angel again appeared, and took the plates away. Why? In the absence of this information, we beg leave to question their existence, and to suggest that the entire story of the angel's visit, the cave on the hill, and the finding of the plates and stones is a tissue of fraud and deception.

About this time Joseph Smith on July 12th, 1843, issued his famous revelation, entitled Revelation of the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, including the Plurality of Wives, authorising polygamy as the commandment of God. It was common knowledge that polygamy was practised, especially by the leaders, and this manifesto was to give license to it, blasphemously invoking it as God’s command. The manifesto consisted of sixty-six paragraphs, ending with the words, “Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.” Less than a year after these boastful words were written, Joseph Smith died at the hands of men infuriated by his wickedness, and that of his followers. This is how it happened.

Serious fighting had broken out, and as far as Joseph Smith was concerned, it ended with his being arrested, along with his brother Hyrum, John Taylor and Willard Richards. They were lodged in an upper room in the gaol at Carthage, Illinois on a charge of high treason, for which no bail was allowed. The angry Missourians, however, took the law into their own hands. An armed force of about one hundred men was seen approaching the prison, quickly overpowering the eight men on guard. They were soon inside, the foremost of them, firing his pistol at random, mortally wounding Hyrum Smith. Joseph tried to escape by an open window. When halfway out, he saw with terror the crowd in the prison yard below. The mob fired at him, and he fell wounded and unconscious to the ground below. The attackers made sure work of him. Propping the unconscious man in a sitting attitude against the kerb of a well, four men fired point-blank at his chest. So died Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. Thus ended the earthly history of the man, who, less than a year before, had boastfully described himself in the blasphemous words, “Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen,” dying at the early age of thirty-nine.

Organization of the Mormon Church

In April, 1830, the first Mormon Church was founded in New York State. Visions began to be seen, miracles to be wrought, and prophets to receive revelations, and, as is usually the case with every new religion, converts, chiefly from among the ignorant and unstable classes, were made. Being a political as well as a religious sect, it appealed to a class easily found in the States, and from other attractions of a wholly different kind, which were, soon after its formation, developed in the Mormon community, it drew within its borders many who had not been characterized by excellence of moral rectitude, or who held in reverence the sanctity of the family circle, or considered obedience to the seventh commandment as any part of their code of morals. Colonies were founded in Jackson Co., Missouri, and Hancock Co., Illinois. From the former they were expelled, and in the latter they built a city, giving it the name of Nauvoo. Here, Joseph Smith began to practise polygamy, and in order to pacify his wife, to whom he had been lawfully married ten years previous, and have an answer to give to others who began to question his moral conduct, he alleges he received a revelation on July 12th, 1843, authorising “celestial marriage” with a plurality of wives, and commanding all “who have this law revealed to them, to obey the same.” Even if it extend to “any man having ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him,” and if any refuse to obey he “will be damned” (see Doctrine and Covenants, and Brigham Young's Journal of Discourses). In the practice of this, we are officially told in “Mormonism and its History” that the prophet Joseph Smith himself led the way, and although at the first it was “confined within a small circle of the faithful brethren and sisters,” it eked out, as such practices are apt to do, and then it was “publicly proclaimed as a doctrine of the Church,” and at once acknowledged by nearly the whole of the members as a “proper religious institution.” Just so. And this general acknowledgment of a flagrant breach of God's sacred law, and the canonization of a system of moral depravity under the name of Religion, such as is only found in the lowest ranks of uncivilized humanity, tells what the Mormon Church is, and the class who compose it. No man who fears God, who has respect to His Word, and regards the sacred bond of husband and wife as therein set forth, would for a moment remain within the pale of a community where these are ruthlessly set at nought, as they have been for over fifty years, and are today by the Mormons, who call themselves “Latter Day SAINTS,” forsooth!

The Kirtland “saints” built a temple costing £8,000, and appointed twelve apostles, of whom Brigham Young was the most remarkable, and who became subsequently the second President of the Mormon Church. The Revelations of Joseph Smith, Jr., were published at this time, entitled, Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

The prejudice against the Mormons was so great that Joseph began to see that he must seek adherents from other lands. The feeling in the United States was on every hand against the movement. In August, 1839, a mission was sent to England under the leadership of Brigham Young, which met with brilliant success from their point of view. A thousand converts were added to Zion. These missionaries had to deal craftily. They did not proclaim the blasphemous doctrines, we have been examining, but put forth that which would not shock the public. The writer remembers listening to two young Mormon missionaries in Ireland years ago. The crowd were evidently impressed by what they heard. But when it was known what they were, Mormons and Polygamists, the crowd melted away in disgust. In 1912, it is stated, more than a thousand missionaries went to England, distributing annually five million tracts, and between one and two hundred thousand books. The writer has lying before him a fifteen-paged pamphlet, purporting to be written by Joseph Smith, Jr., himself, with his portrait on the cover, printed in Ipswich, Suffolk, England.