The Myth of the "Manuscript Found," or the Absurdities of the "Spaulding Story": Eleventh Book of the Faith-promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints.
History
The Myth of the "Manuscript Found," or the Absurdities of the "Spaulding Story": Eleventh Book of the Faith-promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints.
Book of Mormon
How wonderful a miracle!--much greater than the discovery of the
records in the hill Cumorah--that an uneducated youth, (and neither
friend nor foe claims he was educated), could produce a work pregnant
with principles connected with the most vital interests of the human
family, and treating on subjects that concern man's temporal and
eternal welfare, which cannot be refuted by all the learned of the
world. Would not this be much more wonderful, calling for a much
greater strain on our credulity than to believe that God had again
spoken and brought to light this long-hidden treasure? And if it be
inconsistent to believe that neither Joseph Smith nor Solomon Spaulding
was the author of the religious portions of the Book of Mormon, wherein
is it more consistent to ascribe the authorship to Sidney Rigdon? He
was as utterly ignorant of many of the doctrines and principles made
plain in the Book of Mormon as was Solomon Spaulding or any other
uninspired priest of fifty or more years ago. There was no system
of philosophy, ethics or religion then known to mankind from which
he could have drawn the inspiration to write many of the doctrinal
precepts in the Book of Mormon.
To tide over this difficulty, persons unacquainted with the contents of
the Book of Mormon (which unfortunately the greater portion of mankind
are) have suggested that Solomon Spaulding wrote the historical portion
(an impossibility, as we have heretofore shown) and that Joseph Smith
or somebody else added the religious portion. To those who have read
the Book of Mormon, this hypothesis is supremely ridiculous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account