--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - George H. Brimhall collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 6 number: 9 published: 1903-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'George H. Brimhall, "Men and Monuments Speak of Joseph Smith," *Improvement Era* 6, no. 9 (July 1903): 652–654.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0609unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera0609unse start_page: 652 end_page: 654 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1903-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0609unse publication_year: 1903 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1903, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Men and Monuments Speak of Joseph Smith MEN AND MONUMENTS SPEAK OF JOSEPH SMITH. BY DR. GEORGE H. BRIMHALL, OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG ACADEMY, PROVO, UTAH. During the month of April, of the present year, it was my pleasure to listen to an able lecture, at the St. Helena Sanitarium, California. The subject of the lecture was, "Vegetarianism," the lecturer, no other than Dr. Kellogg, superintendent of the noted Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan. In tracing the growth of the vegetarian idea, in connection with the practice that had attended it, Mr. Kellogg made mention of the fact that many years ago Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" Prophet, had taught the doctrine of abstaining from meat, except in times of extreme cold weather, or when a scarcity of other foods existed. Further, he added, that the Latter-day Saints regard the counsel to such practice as one of the tenets of their faith at the present time. Continuing, the lecturer stated that years ago many of the most gifted men and women of America advocated, and sought to put into practice, the idea of "natural living." It was not shown, however, that Joseph Smith's declaration concerning the use of meat antidated the other movements in this direction, the most noted of which was the Brooks Farm Experi- ment, begun in 1840-41. Nevertheless, the revelation, known as the "Word of Wisdom," bears the date of February 27, 1833, which would make it, at this writing, seventy years old, a date seven years earlier than that of the Brooks Farm Experiment. The vegetarian teaches total abstinence from meat; the doc- trine of the Prophet sanctions the use of meat under certain con- MEN AND MONUMENTS SPEAK OF JOSEPH SMITH. 653 ditions. In this regard, is it not likely that Joseph Smith is in advance of scientific discovery ? Would it be at all surprising if, in the near future, scientific research should compel the announcement that, if the best physical development is sought, meat used spar- ingly is not only a wholesome, but also a necessary food in cold weather. The Book of Mormon, translated by the prophet Joseph Smith, is devoted to the rise and fall of two ancient civilizations, that had their being on the American Continent. The first, divinely led, mi- grated from Asia to America, about 2000 B. C, soon after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel. The second left the city of Jerusalem600 B. C. This people, also, directed in all its movements by Providence, was the people of whom the American . Indians are a remnant. Ample evidence, archaeological and legendary, has already been collected to prove that this continent has been inhabited by people of Hebrew extraction, and religion. The following clipping in keeping with this thought, is taken from a recent issue of the Los Angeles Sunday Times: UNWRITTEN HISTORY. This land is old that we call new. It has its pyramids, as vast and as hoary as those of the ancient Nile. It has its buried cities and its monuments of antiquity, of which we know comparatively noth- ing. It has traces of language which no modern scholar has ever been able to decipher; relics of art which in coloring and finish put to shame the best endeavors of today: monuments of masonry which no modern engineer's skill would be able to rear. In tropical Mexico,some sixty miles southeast of the town of Madeline, in the heart of a virgin forest, is a mighty pyramid, beside which the great Egyptian Cheops is but a pigmy. Its vast base measures four thou- sand three hundred and fifty feet around,while it towers upward seven hun- dred and fifty feet, a stupendous mass of granite. Would you reach its top, no toilsome climb is yours, such as that you must make under the sun of Egypt, for a spiral roadway leads you to its lofty summit, on which you can ride up as a well-graded hillside. Beyond this pyramid is a lofty hillock, with its hundreds of chambers cut in the solid rock, their walls and floors of stone smooth as the sculptor's image. An un- read history in hieroglyphics written upon their walls, which no modern IMPROVEMENT ERA. 654 sage has yet deciphered. Here, too, are their implements of stone, and curious pictures, and charcoal for their fires. Whence came these mighty builders, and whither have they gone, leaving their habitations silent and unoccupied? All over the wide area of our continent are the signs of prehistoric races, and yet we turn our most earnest gaze to the Orient, leaving our own histories unwritten and unraveled. Some wise man may yet be found who shall open this unlettered vol- ume, and startle the world with knowledge of civilizations outranking the years of the Sphinx and the Pyramids, and the myths and legends of the ancient East. We may yet learn how the first great tidal wave of Humanity rolled on from sunrise to sunset; learn of races who dwelt here with the story of Eden fresh in their ears, and its memories warm in their hearts. The unwritten pages of human history outnumber the written story of the race. Peoples and tribes have come and gone, and the sands of untold centuries have hidden all trace of them from our sight. The whence of their approach and the whither of their vanish- ment from our shores, we cannot determine. The unmoved Sphinx of Silence guards their history, and there is no open sesame at our command by which we may unlock the gates of their past and penetrate the mys- tery which surrounds them. The sealed pages of the world's annals we may never read, unless some discovery in this new-old world of yet unde- ciphered hieroglyphics shall unlock for us the mystery of the ages. Thus, evidence accumulates of the truth of the Book of Mor- mon. Evidence of such a nature that it would seem that investi- gators would be forced to recognize it as true. And, indeed, it is quite possible that the world may ascept it as authentic history and still deny the power whereby it was obtained. The spirit of God is the sole witness and evidence that can convince mankind of the divinity of the mission of Joseph Smith, and of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.