In the foregoing, we have related the most important facts concerning the visions and the ministry of the angel to Mr. Smith; the discovery of the records; their translation into the English language, and the witnesses raised up to bear testimony of the same: we have also stated when, and by whom they were written; that they contain the history of nearly one half of the globe, from the earliest ages after the flood, until the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era; that this history is interspersed with many important prophecies, which unfold the great events of the last days, and that in it also is recorded the gospel in its fulness and plainness, as it was revealed by the personal ministry of Christ to the ancient Nephites, We have also given an account of the restoration of the authority in these days, to administer in the ordinances of the gospel; and of the time of the organization of the church; and of the blessings poured out upon the same while yet in its infancy. We now proceed to give a sketch of the faith and doctrine of this Church. First, we believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost, who bears record of them, the same throughout all ages and for ever. We believe that all mankind by the transgression of their first parents, and not by their own sins, were brought under the curse and penalty of that transgression, which consigned them to an eternal banishment from the presence of God, and their bodies to an endless sleep in the dust, never more to rise, and their spirits to endless misery under the power of Satan; and that, in this awful condition, they were utterly lost and fallen, and had no power of their own to extricate themselves therefrom.