7. _A Means of Testing the Truth of the Book of Mormon_.--One suggestion more I would make to the readers of the Book of Mormon: {293} that is, that they read it prayerfully with a real desire to know if it is of God. If they will peruse it with that desire in their hearts, I am sanguine that the Spirit of God which searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, will bear witness to their understanding that the book is of divine origin, and they will have a witness from God of its truth. Such a promise in fact, is contained within the book itself. When Moroni was closing up the sacred record previous to hiding it up unto the Lord until the time should come for it to be revealed as a witness for God, he engraved the following passage on the plates as words of counsel to those into whose hands the record should fall: "And when ye shall receive these things" (i. e., the things written in the Book of Mormon) "I would exhort you that ye would ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost; and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni x: 4,5.) Here, then, is a means by which every person into whose hands the Book of Mormon falls may find out for himself, not from human testimony, not from the deductions of logic, but through the power of the Holy Ghost, whether the Book of Mormon is of divine origin or not. This test must be final, either for or against it, to every individual who complies with the conditions enjoined by Moroni. Those conditions are, that they into whose hands the record falls shall inquire of God with a sincere heart, with real intent, and having faith in Christ and to those who so proceed he promises without equivocation that they shall receive a manifestation of its truth by the power of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, if these directions are complied with faithfully and honestly, and the manifestation follows not, then they may know it is not of God. If the manifestation comes, of course the divine origin of the book is confirmed, for the Holy Ghost would not confirm by any manifestation of its power an imposition. REVIEW. 1. What is a dispensation in connection with the work of God? 2. In what does the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times differ from other dispensations? 3. State when and where the Prophet Joseph was born. 4. What was the condition and standing of the Prophet's parents? {294} 5. State what you can about the movements of the Smith family until its settlement in Manchester. 6. What occurred in Manchester when the prophet was in his fifteenth year? 7. What influence did this religious revival have on the Smith family? 8. What reflections did it give birth to in the boy Joseph? 9. What circumstance was it that decided the course of Joseph?