Anthon and the Book of Mormon Characters

I have enjoyed with you, my brethren and sisters, the testimonies of the brethren. The Lord has placed great weight upon two sources of testimony. We might call one the divine witness and the other human witnesses. Moroni, in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, calls our attention to this great witness, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who will teach us of those things that we may not perfectly find out from mere human evidence. I am persuaded that the Lord has also placed weight upon mere human evidence, because it was foreordained more than twenty centuries before the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon were actually selected, that there would be three such witnesses; that there should be the one witness to whom the book should be delivered, and there should be three special witnesses, "and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word." Read II Nephi 27:12, 13 and 14, and you will get more fully the force of what I am trying to present. ¶

Of course, Joseph will always take first place among human witnesses. His testimony is very satisfactory, examine it from whatever point you may. He lived twenty-five years after the first divine manifestation to him, and his every act and word, and his whole life's purpose, were in accordance with the great message which he had received. His testimony has good carrying power, just as the apostle ¶

Paul had good carrying power in his testimony that he had seen a vision, as he went on his way to Damascus to persecute the saints, and was miraculously converted. Indeed there is a similarity between the carrying force of the testimony of these two witnesses -- Paul in his day and Joseph the Prophet in his. Inasmuch as it was an event of importance to have these three witnesses, their testimony has good carrying force, if you get my meaning from that expression. Test it in any way you may care to test mere human evidence, and it is satisfactory. ¶

David Whitmer, in the early 80's, was interviewed by Elder James H. Hart, and was asked concerning his testimony introductory of the Book of Mormon. This interview was placed in verse form, and afterward read to and approved by David Whitmer: ¶

He lifted up his voice, and thus replied: " My written statement I have ne'er denied; I saw the angel, and I heard his voice And wondrous things that made my heart rejoice. ¶

" This interview was sought with earnest prayer, The Prophet and three witnesses were there, But Martin, conscience-struck, declined to stay, And wandered off alone, to watch and pray. ¶

"I do not know the angel's rank, or name, Who on this great and glorious mission came, I know that he was clothed with power and might, And was surrounded with effulgent light. ¶

" No tongue can tell the glory and the power, That was revealed to us in that blest hour; The plates of brass and gold the angel took, And placed before us like an open book. ¶

" We saw the fine engravings on them, too. And heard the voice declare the book is true; No power on earth could from our minds efface The glorious visions of this trysting place. ¶

" We've done, as then commanded we should do, And testified the 'Mormon Book' is true; And was translated by the power given The Prophet Joseph, by the God of Heaven. ¶

" Thousands of people have been here to see, The 'copy' Oliver has left with me; The characters, moreover, Martin took Professor Anthon -- words of sacred book. ¶

" Some visit me who 'Mormonism' hate, Some ranking low, and some of high estate; I tell them all, as now I say to you, The Book of Mormon is of God, and true. ¶

" In yonder room I have preserved with care. The printer's copy, and the words so rare; The very words from Nephi's sacred book, That Martin to Professor Anthon took. ¶

" If this be not the truth, there is no truth, And I have been mistaken from my youth; If I'm mistaken, you may know from thence, That there's no God, no law, no life, no sense. ¶

"I know there is a God -- I've heard his voice, And in his power and truth do still rejoice; Though fools may ridicule and laugh today, They yet shall know the truth of what 1 say. ¶

"I've suffered persecution at the hands Of hireling preachers and their Christian bands; I've braved their hatred, and have them withstood, While thirsting for the youthful Prophet's blood. ¶

" They came, four hundred strong, with visage bold, And said, 'Deny this story you have told, And by our sacred honor we'll engage To save you from the mob's infuriate rage.' ¶

"A mighty power came on me, and I spake In words that made the guilty mobbers quake; And trembling seized the surging crowd, and fear, But left unharmed, I felt that God was near." ¶

And this same witness gave this testimony as his dying statement, as did the other two. Martin, now buried in Clarkston, concerning whose resting place there is a friendly rivalry between sections of the country where he is buried, as to which shall have the honor in their cemeteries of having the ashes of this witness finally to repose -- it was the dying statement of Martin as also of Oliver. ¶

David called a physician to certify that he was of sound mind and memory, and not under undue influence of any person, was rational in every way, and then gave his testimony. There is a significance that I would call your attention to in connection with this testimony, being the dying statements of these men; because peculiar significance is attached to testimony that amounts to a dying declaration or a dying statement. One of the early common law jurists -- said of such testimony given "when every hope of this world is gone, when every motive to falsehood is silenced, and the mind is induced by the most powerful considerations to speak the truth,"that ''a situation so solemn and awful is considered by the law as creating an obligation equal to that imposed by an oath administered in court." ¶

The law as it prevails in the United States, notwithstanding the sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which secures to the accused "the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him,"attaches such powerful weight to a dying declaration that under certain circumstances hearsay testimony will be received of a dying declaration. One American jurist expresses the rule as follows; ¶

" When dissolution is approaching and the dying man has lost all hope of life, and the shadows of the grave are gathering in around him and his mind is impressed with the full sense of his condition, the solemnity of the season and hour gives to his statement a sanctity of truth more impressive and potential than the formalities of an oath." ¶

We find that Shakespeare well understood this principle, because in his play of " King John,"he makes one of his characters, one Mellon, who is in extremis, and who is testifying under those circumstances, to disclose contemplated treachery on the part of King Louis, When disbelieved by those to whom he tells his story, he exclaims: " Have I not hideous death before my view, retaining but a quantity of life, which bleeds away, even as a form of wax resolveth from the figure against the fire? Why in the world should I deceive, since I must lose the use of all deceit? Why should I then be false, since it is true that I must die here, and live hence by truth." ¶

So we may gather from that, something of the force that we are justified in attaching to the testimony of these three witnesses, who never varied in their statements, notwithstanding this one, a part of whose interview I have read, did not live long enough to come back into the full fellowship of the Saints; yet he was always impressed with the sacredness of this testimony. These men whom it was determined centuries in advance should occupy the important position of special witnesses, should be indeed men of integrity and of fidelity, and of rare courage, so that they might ever stand for the truth of that which they gave. And Joseph, as I said, who would always be the principal human witness to the divinity of the restoration of the Gospel and the restoration of the Priesthood, went consciously to his martyrdom at Carthage, just as anciently the Master went voluntarily and consciously to the great sacrifice of his life at Golgotha. ¶

And so we have had testimonies reflected here of both these varieties-- the testimony of the brethren of that witness which has come to them by the great Testator -- the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, spoken of by Moroni as a witness to the truth of the Book, when it should come forth, and we have had these other testimonies of various grades. Indeed we can scarcely pick up a magazine or a book in the world without receiving testimony of some sort to the divinity of so-called " Mormonism." ¶

I thought, while President Grant, yesterday morning, referred to the revelations through the Prophet Joseph Smith of the obligation upon parenthood to take care of their children, of a recent article by Dr. Charles William Eliot, the president emeritus of Harvard, who stands as the grand old man of education, occupying the same relative position towards letters that our grand old man of the Church, President Penrose, occupies with reference to theology and religion in our Church. These men are the very nestors in their respective realms. Dr. Eliot, who just passed his ninetieth birthday -- not quite so old, as you will observe, as our beloved President Penrose -- is concerned at the way the youth of this land are being trained. He calls attention to three great divisions of life in this country, the Anglo-Catholic, the Protestant denominations, and what he calls the "unchurched." And then he gives us a picture of how these "unchurched,"as he calls this great division of our citizens, bring up their children. This article was published in last month's number of the Atlantic Monthly. ¶

" Their children are not baptized nor christened; if dangerous illness invades the family no priest or minister is requested or even allowed to visit the sick one; when a death occurs in a family the funeral is conducted from the undertaker's 'Funeral Parlor' or 'Funeral Home' with such singing and reading as the undertaker cares to provide. Marriage is a civil process only. The great events in human life -- birth, puberty, mortal sickness and death -- receive no religious notice with them. No such experiment on so vast a scale has ever been tried since time began as this considerable fraction of the American people are now trying -- namely, bringing up children without any religious instruction, or any transmission to the rising generation of moral traditions handed down through primitive, barbarous and civilized peoples in succession." ¶

While Dr. Eliot is of a nature inclined naturally to be optimistic and hopeful, one can perceive his concern as to this experiment, the like of which has before never been performed, as he says, on so large a scale as this. One writer gives these lines: ¶

" One ship drives east and another drives west, ¶

While' the self-same breezes blow, 'Tis the set of the sail, and not the gale, ¶

That bids them where to go. ¶

" The winds of the sea are like the waves of the fates, ¶

As. we journey along through life, -- 'Tis the set of the soul that decides the goal, ¶

And not the storms or the strife." ¶

So we are trying to use the organizations of the Priesthood, and all good helps in government, and the literature of the Church, to give the youth the right setting to the soul. ¶

Dr. Eliot comments, you will note, on marriage being a mere civil process. In reference to this question of marriage, Chas. Franklin Thwinge, President of a University of our land, in January, 1924, Current History, confesses: "I for one, as a Protestant and as one ordained to the Protestant ministry, should be glad to see marriage lifted to the rank of a sacrament, with baptism and the communion." ¶

Which means to us, to the rank advocated by our brethren and in accordance with revelations of the Church. ¶

My time has expired. May the Lord bless us in this work, and help us to have the testimony that we are entitled to, the witness of the Holy Ghost, in addition to all the human testimony that supports this great cause, is my prayer, and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ¶