Joseph tells his father
of the visits of Moroni. His father believes every word
and tells Joseph to do as he is commanded. Joseph goes to
the hill and finds the ancient record hidden in a stone
box. Joseph is shown by contrast the powers of darkness
and light. Moroni informs Joseph that the time has not yet
come for the record to come forth. Evening after evening
Joseph teaches his family about the ancient inhabitants
of America.
September 22, 1823 to
November 1823
The next day Joseph, his father,
and his brother Alvin1 were reaping in the field
together. Suddenly, Joseph stopped and seemed to be in a
deep study for some time. Alvin hurried him, saying, “Joseph,
you must keep to work or we shall not get our task done.”
Joseph worked again diligently, then stopped in the same
way a second time. When his father saw that Joseph was very
pale, he urged him to go to the house and tell his mother
that he was sick. He went a short distance till he came
to a beautiful green under an apple tree. Here he lay down
on his face, for he was so weak he could go no farther.
He was here but a short time,
when the messenger whom he had seen the night before came
to him again and said, “Why did you not tell your father
what I told you?” Joseph said he was afraid his father would
not believe him. “He will believe every word you say to
him,” said the angel.2
Joseph then promised to do
as he was told by the angel and rose up and returned to
the field, where he had left my husband and Alvin; but when
he got there, his father had just gone to the house, as
he was somewhat unwell. Joseph then requested Alvin to go
to the house and ask his father to the field, for, said
he, “I have something to tell him.” When his father came
to him, Joseph rehearsed all that had passed between him
and the angel the previous night. Having heard this account,
his father charged him not to fail in attending strictly
to the instruction which he had received from this heavenly
messenger.
Soon
after Joseph had this conversation with his father, he repaired
to the place where the plates were deposited, which place
he describes as follows:
"Convenient to the village
of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of
considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood.
On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under
a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited
in a stone box.3 This stone was thick and rounding
in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the
edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the
ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.
“Having removed the earth,
I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of
the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked
in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and
Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger.”
While Joseph remained here,
the angel told him, “Now I will show you the distance between
light and darkness, and the operation of a good spirit and
an evil one. An evil spirit will try to crowd your mind
with every evil and wicked thing to keep every good thought
and feeling out of your mind, but you must keep your mind
always staid upon God, that no evil may come into your heart.”4
The angel showed him, by contrast,
the difference between good and evil, and likewise the consequences
of both obedience and disobedience to the commandments
of God, in such a striking manner, that the impression was
always vivid in his memory until the very end of his days;
and in giving a relation of this circumstance, not long
prior to his death, he remarked that ever afterwards he
was willing to keep the commandments of God.5
Furthermore, the angel told
him at the interview mentioned last that the time had not
yet come for the plates to be brought forth to the world;
that he could not take them from the place wherein they
were deposited until he had learned to keep the commandments
of God — not only till he was willing, but able to do it.
The angel bade Joseph come to this place every year, at
the same time of the year, and he would meet him there and
give him further instructions.6
When Joseph came in that evening,
he told the whole family all that he had made known to his
father in the field and also of finding the record, as well
as what passed between him and the angel while he was at
the place where the plates were deposited.
We sat up very late and listened
attentively to all that he had to say to us, but his mind
had been so exercised that he became very much fatigued.
When Alvin saw this he said, “Now, brother, let us go to
bed. We will get up early in the morning and go to work
so as to finish our day’s labor by an hour before sunset,
and if Mother will get our suppers early, we will then have
a fine, long evening and all sit down and hear you talk.”
The next day we worked with
great ambition and were ready by sunset to give our whole
attention to the discourse of my son, pertaining to the
obtaining of the plates, the goodness of God, his knowledge
and power, our own liability to error and transgression,
and the great salvation that lay before the faithful. “Now,”
said he, “Father and Mother, the angel of the Lord says
that we must be careful not to proclaim these things or
to mention them abroad, for we do not any of us know the
weakness of the world, which is so sinful, and that when
we get the plates they will want to kill us for the sake
of the gold, if they know we have them.7 And
as soon as they do find that we pretend to have any such
thing, our names will be cast out as evil, and we shall
be scoffed at and all names of evil spoken concerning us.”
This astonished us very much,
and we wondered in our hearts how these things could be.
Why would anyone have a disposition to take our lives merely
for a thing like this? But he continued, “If we are wise
and prudent in that which is revealed to us, God is able
to make all things known to us. Do you believe it?” said
he to his father.
“Why, yes, certainly,” answered
Mr. Smith. “He has all power and wisdom, knowledge and understanding
and, of course, can teach us all things if we are worthy,
and we will try to live in such a way as to deserve the
favor of God, that he may be pleased to instruct from day
to day.”
From this time forth Joseph
continued to receive instructions from time to time, and
every evening we gathered our children together and gave
our time up to the discussion of those things which he instructed
to us. I think that we presented the most peculiar aspect
of any family that ever lived upon the earth, all seated
in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters, listening
in breathless anxiety to the religious teachings of a boy
eighteen years of age who had never read the Bible through
by course in his life. For Joseph was less inclined to the
study of books than any child we had, but much more given
to reflection and deep study.
We were convinced that God
was about to bring to light something that we might stay
our minds upon, something that would give us a more perfect
knowledge of the plan of salvation and the redemption of
the human family than anything which had been taught us
heretofore, and we rejoiced in it with exceeding great joy.
The sweetest union and happiness pervaded our house. No
jar nor discord disturbed our peace, and tranquility reigned
in our midst.
In the course of our evening
conversations, Joseph gave us some of the most amusing recitals
which could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants
of this continent, their dress, their manner of traveling,
the animals which they rode, the cities that they built,
and the structure of their buildings with every particular,
their mode of warfare, and their religious worship as specifically
as though he had spent his life with them. It will be recollected
by the reader that all that I mentioned and much more took
place within the compass of one short year.
——————
Notes
1. At this date Alvin was twenty-five years old and engaged
to be married; and unbeknownst to any in the family, he
would pass away in just fifty-eight days.
2. Joseph recorded: “I started with the intention of going
to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out
of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed
me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was
quite unconscious of anything. The first thing that I can
recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name.
I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over
my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related
unto me all that he had related to me the previous night,
and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the
vision and commandments which I had received. I obeyed;
I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the
whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God,
and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger.”
(Joseph Smith—History 1:48–50; or History of the Church
1:14-15.)
3. Oliver Cowdery visited the Hill Cumorah in 1830 and later
gave this detailed description: “The hill of which I have
been speaking, at the time mentioned, presented a varied
appearance: the north end rose suddenly from the plain,
forming a promontory without timber, but covered with grass.
As you passed to the south you soon came to scattering timber,
the surface having been cleared by art or by wind; and a
short distance further left, you are surrounded with the
common forest of the country. It is necessary to observe,
that even the part cleared was only occupied for pasturage,
its steep ascent and narrow summit not admitting the plow
of the husbandman, with any degree of ease or profit. It
was at the second mentioned place where the record was found
to be deposited, on the west side of the hill, not far from
the top down its side; and when myself visited the place
in the year 1830, there were several trees standing: enough
to cause a shade in summer, but not so much as to prevent
the surface being covered with grass — which was also the
case when the record was first found.” (In Papers,
pp. 81-82.)
4. In the Preliminary Manuscript, Lucy relates that the
angel made this comment while Joseph still lay exhausted
in the field. However, it seems more consistent with the
rest of the message from the angel given at the hill.
5. One example of this in Joseph’s life was in 1834 when
he wrote: “No month ever found me more busily engaged than
November; but as my life consisted of activity and unyielding
exertions, I made this my rule: When the Lord commands,
do it” (History of the Church 2:170).
6. Joseph came to the hill on the same date, September 22,
in each of the years 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, and 1827. In
one of the many later interviews with David Whitmer, it
was reported that “three times has he [David] been at the
hill Cumorah and seen the casket that contained the tablets
… Eventually the casket had been washed down to the foot
of the hill, but it was to be seen when he last visited
the historic place.” (In Cook, Whitmer Interviews,
p. 7.)
7. In an 1878 Deseret Evening News article reporting
on an interview with David Whitmer, he is quoted as saying:
“I saw the place where the plates were found, and a great
many did so, and it awakened an excitement at the time,
because the worst enemies of ‘Mormonism’ stirred up the
confusion by telling about the plates which Joseph found,
and the ‘gold bible’ which he was in possession of, so he
was in constant danger of being robbed and killed” (in Cook,
Whitmer Interviews, pp. 22-23).
