"He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." [20] The view of the manner of translating the Book of Mormon here set forth furnishes the basis of justification for those verbal changes and grammatical corrections which have been made since the first edition issued from the press; and would furnish justification for making many more verbal and grammatical corrections in the book; for if, as here set forth, the meaning of the Nephite characters was given to Joseph Smith in such faulty English as he, an uneducated man, could command, while every detail and shade of thought should be strictly preserved, there can be no reasonable ground for objection to the correction of mere verbal errors and grammatical construction. There can be no reasonable doubt that had Joseph Smith been a finished English scholar and the facts and ideas represented by the Nephite characters upon the plates had been given him by the inspiration of God through the Urim and Thummim, those ideas would have been expressed in correct English; but as he was not a finished English scholar, he had to give expression to those facts and ideas in such language as he could command, and that was faulty English, which the Prophet himself and those who have succeeded him as custodians of the word of God have had, and now have, a perfect right to correct. [21] Footnotes 1. Wentworth letter, _Millennial Star_, vol. 19, p. 118. 2. Wentworth letter, History of the Church, vol. IV, ch. 31. 3. Book of Mosiah 8:13. 4. The above statement was made by Oliver Cowdery, at a special conference held at Kanesville, Iowa, Oct. 21, 1848. It was first published in the _Deseret News_ of April 13, 1859: Bishop Reuben Miller, who was present at the meeting, reported Cowdery's remarks. 5. From _An Address to all Believers in Christ_, by David Whitmer, A Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, published at Richmond, Missouri, 1887, p. 12. 6. Harris' Statement to Edward Stevenson, _Millennial Star_, vol. 44, p. 87. 7. Cannon's _Life of Joseph Smith_, p. 56. 8. Nearly all the anti-"Mormon" works dealing with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon speak of the "Seer Stone" and reiterate the falsehood that the Prophet stole it from the children of Willard Chase, for whom Joseph and Hyrum were digging a well. 9. Statement of Martin Harris, to Edward Stevenson, _Millennial Star_, vol. 44, pp. 86, 87. 10. Harris' Statement to Edward Stevenson, _Millennial Star_, vol. 44, pp. 78, 79; 86, 87. 11. _Address to All Believers in Christ_, p. 30. 12. Braden and Kelley, _Debate on Divine Origin of Book of Mormon_, p. 186. The above debate took place in 1884, several years before the death of David Whitmer, and the statement from which the above is taken was quoted in full. 13. D. & C., sec. 8:1-3, 11. 14. D. & C., sec. 9:7-9. 15. _Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy_, vol. II, pp. 397-399.