The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Mormons
|←Morley, Thomas||The American Cyclopædia
|Mornay, Philippe de→|
|Edition of 1879. Written by Robert Carter. See also Mormons on Wikipedia, and the disclaimer.|
MORMONS, or Latter Day Saints, a sect founded by Joseph Smith, who was born at Sharon, Vt., in 1805, and was killed at Carthage, Ill., in 1844. (See Smith, Joseph.) According to his own account, Smith at about the age of 15, while living with his father, who was a farmer in Ontario (now Wayne) co., N. Y., began to have visions. On the night of Sept. 21, 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to him three times, informing him that God had a work for him to do, and that a record written upon gold plates, and giving an account of the ancient inhabitants of America and the dealings of God with them, was deposited in a particular place in the earth (a hill in Manchester, Ontario co., N. Y.), and, with the record, two transparent stones in silver bows like spectacles, which were anciently called the Urim and Thummim, on looking through which the golden plates would become intelligible. On Sept. 22, 1827, the angel of the Lord placed in Smith's hands the plates and the Urim and Thummim. The plates were nearly 8 in. long by 7 in. wide, and a little thinner than ordinary tin, and were bound together by three rings running through the whole. Altogether they were about 6 in. thick, and were neatly engraved on each side with hieroglyphics in a language called the reformed Egyptian, not then known on the earth. From these plates Smith, sitting behind a blanket hung across the room to keep the sacred records from profane eyes, read off, with the aid of the stone spectacles, the “Book of Mormon,” or Golden Bible as he sometimes called it, to Oliver Cowdery, who wrote it down as Smith read it. It was printed in 1830, in a volume of several hundred pages. Appended to it was a statement signed by Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who had become professed believers in Smith's supernatural pretensions, and are called by the Mormons “the three witnesses.” They said: “We declare with words of soberness that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon.” Several years afterward all three of these witnesses quarrelled with Smith, renounced Mormonism, and avowed the falsity of their testimony. Immediately on the appearance of the “Book of Mormon” many of Smith's neighbors testified that he had repeatedly made contradictory statements about the plates and the Golden Bible. The “Book of Mormon” is a collection of 16 distinct books professing to be written at different periods by successive prophets. Its style is a verbose imitation of that of the common English translation of the Bible, portions of which, to the number in all of 300 passages, are incorporated without acknowledgment, and are frequently cited by Mormons as specimens of the book. A multitude of names are introduced, some Hebrew and Biblical, others Greek and Latin, and the rest imitations of the former. The first book professes to be the work of Nephi, a Jew, the son of Lehi, who dwelt at Jerusalem in the days of King Zedekiah, about 600 B. C. In obedience to the command of the Lord, who appeared to him in a dream, he went into the wilderness of Arabia and dwelt there a long time with his family. At length, still under divine instruction, Lehi and his family set out in search of a promised land, and after travelling “nearly eastward” for eight years, “through a wilderness,” they reached the ocean. Here they built a ship, and, guided by a compass, sailed to America. The Book of Mormon itself gives no indication of the part of the continent on which they landed, but later Mormon interpretations or revelations declare it to have been the coast of Chili. Those who arrived in America were Lehi and his wife, his four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, and their four wives, two “sons of Ishmael” and their two wives, and Zoram, a servant, and his wife; in all, eight adult men with as many wi