Efforts have been made to destroy the work of God as instituted through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, and all manner of falsehoods have been circulated against him and his unselfish labors. Especially have the shafts of the Evil One been directed against the Book of Mormon, men having invented all manner of theories as to its origin in order to discredit its divinity. The Solomon Spaulding story is still used by hireling priests, who "lie in wait to deceive." For fifty years and more has this been the stock-in-trade of those who object to the genuineness of this divine record, and notwithstanding these divines (?) know that the story has long ago been exploded, yet they continue to blind the eyes of their followers, because their "craft is in danger" directly the truth dawns on those who are honest in heart. The Rev. Solomon Spaulding romance is easily told: D.P. Hurlburt, a man who was once a member of the Church, but who, because of his lascivious conduct, was excommunicated, was the originator of the fabrication that the Book of Mormon had its origin in Mr. Spaulding's tale. This man Hurlburt wrote a bitter assault on the Latter-day Saints in 1836, entitled "Mormonism Unveiled," which was published in Ohio. During the time Hurlburt was gathering material for this work, he obtained from the family of the then deceased clergyman the original of the "Manuscript Story," as it was called, but discovering that it would, if published, prove fatal to his assumptions, he suppressed it; and from that time it was entirely lost sight of until the latter part of the year 1884, when a Mr. L. L. Rice, residing at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, found it {28} among a numerous collection of miscellaneous papers which he had received from Mr. E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, the publisher of Hurlburt's "Mormonism Unveiled," when he, with his partner, purchased from that gentleman the business and good will of the Painesville Telegraph. In 1884 President James H. Fairchild, of Oberlin College, Ohio, was paying a visit to Mr. Rice, and he suggested that the latter look through his numerous papers, in the hope of finding amongst them some anti-slavery documents of value. In his search he discovered a package marked in pencil on the outside, "Manuscript Story," which, to their surprise, on perusal, proved to be the veritable, long lost romance of Rev. Dr. Spaulding, to which so much undeserved importance had been maliciously given. This manuscript was presented to Oberlin College, but not until an exact copy had been made by Mr. Rice, which has since been published in pamphlet form, and can be purchased at the Deseret News Book Store, Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon comparison it will be found that it does not bear the least resemblance in any manner to the Book of Mormon, and yet it was said that Joseph Smith obtained access to this manuscript and from its scanty pages elaborated this Book of Mormon, which he afterwards palmed upon the world as a divine record.