history

[A Really Really Large Number]

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng#

63 Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin
Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the
plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took
place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account
of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which
was as follows:

64 “I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters
which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor
Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments.
Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than
any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. ... He gave me a
certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true
characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been
translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my
pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me
back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold
plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of
God had revealed it unto him.

65 “He then said to me, ‘Let me see that certificate.’ I accordingly
took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore
it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering
of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would
translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed,
and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, ‘I cannot read a
sealed book.’

[A Really Really Large Number]

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng

66 On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver Cowdery came to my house,
until which time I had never seen him. He stated to me that having
been teaching school in the neighborhood where my father resided, and
my father being one of those who sent to the school, he went to board
for a season at his house, and while there the family related to him
the circumstances of my having received the plates, and accordingly he
had come to make inquiries of me.

67 Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of April)
I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for
me.

· · · · · · ·
68 We still continued the work of translation, when, in the ensuing
month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray and
inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins, that
we found mentioned in the translation of the plates. While we were
thus employed, praying and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from
heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon
us, he ordained us, saying:

69 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the
Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of
angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from
the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the
Lord in righteousness.

70 He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying on
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be
conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be baptized,
and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that
afterwards he should baptize me.

71 Accordingly we went and were baptized. I baptized him first, and
afterwards he baptized me—after which I laid my hands upon his head
and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his
hands on me and ordained me to the same Priesthood—for so we were
commanded.*

72 The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred this
Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is
called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he acted under
the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the
Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due
time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder
of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second. It was on the
fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were ordained under the hand of
this messenger, and baptized.

73 Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been
baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our
Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the
Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things
which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been
baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up,
I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things
connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of men.
We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our
salvation.

74 Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures
laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of
their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we
never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of. In
the meantime we were forced to keep secret the circumstances of having
received the Priesthood and our having been baptized, owing to a
spirit of persecution which had already manifested itself in the
neighborhood.

75 We had been threatened with being mobbed, from time to time, and
this, too, by professors of religion. And their intentions of mobbing
us were only counteracted by the influence of my wife’s father’s
family (under Divine providence), who had become very friendly to me,
and who were opposed to mobs, and were willing that I should be
allowed to continue the work of translation without interruption; and
therefore offered and promised us protection from all unlawful
proceedings, as far as in them lay.

* Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: “These were days never
to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the
inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom!
Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as
he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would
have said, ‘Interpreters,’ the history or record called ‘The Book of
Mormon.’

“To notice, in even few words, the interesting account given by
Mormon and his faithful son, Moroni, of a people once beloved and
favored of heaven, would supersede my present design; I shall
therefore defer this to a future period, and, as I said in the
introduction, pass more directly to some few incidents immediately
connected with the rise of this Church, which may be entertaining to
some thousands who have stepped forward, amid the frowns of bigots and
the calumny of hypocrites, and embraced the Gospel of Christ.

“No men, in their sober senses, could translate and write the
directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the
precise manner in which men should build up His Church, and especially
when corruption had spread an uncertainty over all forms and systems
practiced among men, without desiring a privilege of showing the
willingness of the heart by being buried in the liquid grave, to
answer a ‘good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’

“After writing the account given of the Savior’s ministry to the
remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be
seen, as the prophet said it would be, that darkness covered the earth
and gross darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it
was as easy to be seen that amid the great strife and noise concerning
religion, none had authority from God to administer the ordinances of
the Gospel. For the question might be asked, have men authority to
administer in the name of Christ, who deny revelations, when His
testimony is no less than the spirit of prophecy, and His religion
based, built, and sustained by immediate revelations, in all ages of
the world when He has had a people on earth? If these facts were
buried, and carefully concealed by men whose craft would have been in
danger if once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no
longer to us; and we only waited for the commandment to be given
‘Arise and be baptized.’

“This was not long desired before it was realized. The Lord, who is
rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of the
humble, after we had called upon Him in a fervent manner, aside from
the abodes of men, condescended to manifest to us His will. On a
sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake
peace to us, while the veil was parted and the angel of God came down
clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message,
and the keys of the Gospel of repentance. What joy! what wonder! what
amazement! While the world was racked and distracted—while millions
were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all men were resting
upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our ears heard,
as in the ‘blaze of day’; yes, more—above the glitter of the May
sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then
his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, ‘I am
thy fellow-servant,’ dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we
admired! ’Twas the voice of an angel from glory, ’twas a message from
the Most High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled
upon our souls, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty!
Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt had
sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled forever!

“But, dear brother, think, further think for a moment, what joy
filled our hearts, and with what surprise we must have bowed, (for who
would not have bowed the knee for such a blessing?) when we received
under his hand the Holy Priesthood as he said, ‘Upon you my fellow-
servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer this Priesthood and this
authority, which shall remain upon earth, that the Sons of Levi may
yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!’

“I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor
the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion;
but you will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the
eloquence of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting
and sublime a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth
power to give the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom
which was contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the
power of the Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception
may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have
power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction
feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the
giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes,
one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of
the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into
insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind. The assurance that
we were in the presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard the
voice of Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure
personage, dictated by the will of God, is to me past description, and
I shall ever look upon this expression of the Savior’s goodness with
wonder and thanksgiving while I am permitted to tarry; and in those
mansions where perfection dwells and sin never comes, I hope to adore
in that day which shall never cease.”—Messenger and Advocate, vol. 1
(October 1834), pp. 14–16.