Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
Thus far we have established in a general way the existence and nature
of Solomon Spaulding's rewritten "Manuscript Found." By undenied
evidence we have shown its theft from Patterson's printing office
before Spaulding's death and under circumstances which made the latter
suspect Sidney Rigdon as the thief; that Rigdon, prior to this time,
was so intimate with the employees of that printing office as to give
rise to a general belief that he was himself employed there, and beyond
all question evidencing an intimacy such as afforded him opportunity
to purloin the manuscript. By like uncontradicted evidence, we have
shown Rigdon to have been in possession of a similar manuscript,
the existence of which is not explained by any other literary work
ever done by him, and which, on one of the several occasions when he
exhibited it, was said by him to have been written by Spaulding. We
have established a perfectly plain and probable connection between
Smith and Rigdon through Parley P. Pratt, and such contradictory
statements as to the sudden and miraculous conversions of the two
latter as bring home with redoubled force the suspicion of a concealed
motive, such as a conspiracy in fraud would best explain. It now
remains only to make more certain the points of identity between
Spaulding's rewritten "Manuscript Found" and the Book of Mormon. When
this is done we will have established the plagiarism and convicted
Smith, Rigdon, and Pratt as the conspirators who perpetrated the fraud.
With the identity of the distinguishing features in the "Manuscript
Found" and Book of Mormon established, we will have demonstrated beyond
all _reasonable_ doubt the very low origin of the Mormons' Book.
Some day will be done a work of supererogation in making a critical
examination of the absurdities and contradictions upon which rest the
claim of divinity. Present space will only allow the completion of that
branch of the argument under consideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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