President Fairchild's argument that several of the original leaders of the fanaticism must have been "adequate to the task" of supplying the doctrinal part of the book, only furnishes additional proof of his ignorance of early Mormon history, and his further assumption that "it is difficult--almost impossible--to believe that the religious sentiments of the Book of Mormon were wrought into interpolation" brings him into direct conflict, as we shall see, with Professor Whitsitt,* a much better equipped student of the subject. * Post, pp. 92. 93. If it should be questioned whether a man of Rigdon's church connection would deliberately plan such a fraudulent scheme as the production of the Mormon Bible, the inquiry may be easily satisfied. One of the first tasks which Smith and Rigdon undertook, as soon as Rigdon openly joined Smith in New York State, was the preparation of what they called a new translation of the Scriptures. This work was undertaken in conformity with a "revelation" to Smith and Rigdon, dated December, 1830 (Sec. 35, "Doctrine and Covenants") in which Sidney was told, "And a commandment I give unto thee, that thou shalt write for him; and the Scriptures shall be given, even as they are in mine own bosom, to the salvation of mine own elect." The "translating" was completed in Ohio, and the manuscript, according to Smith, "was sealed up, no more to be opened till it arrived in Zion."* This work was at first kept as a great secret, and Smith and Rigdon moved to the house of a resident of Hiram township, Portage County, Ohio, thirty miles from Kirtland, in September, 1831, to carry it on; but the secret soon got out. The preface to the edition of the book published at Plano, Illinois, in 1867, under the title, "The Holy Scriptures translated and corrected by the Spirit of Revelation, by Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer," says that the manuscript remained in the hands of the prophet's widow from the time of his death until 1866, when it was delivered to a committee of the Reorganized Mormon conference for publication. Some of its chapters were known to Mormon readers earlier, since Corrill gives the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew in his historical sketch, which was dated 1839. * Millenial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 361. The professed object of the translation was to restore the Scriptures to their original purity and beauty, the Mormon Bible declaring that "many plain and precious parts" had been taken from them. The real object, however, was to add to the sacred writings a prediction of Joseph Smith's coming as a prophet, which would increase his authority and support the pretensions of the new Bible. That this was Rigdon's scheme is apparent from the fact that it was announced as soon as he visited Smith, and was carried on under his direction, and that the manuscript translation was all in his handwriting.* * Wyl's "Mormon Portraits," p.124.