Awakening

AWAKENING. (M. I. A. Baritone Solo.—For the Improvement Era.) Let ma open my ears to the gospel of truth That my Father reveals from above; Let me open my eyes to the glory of God, And I'll open my heart to his love! Let me come to my Father, and learn for myself That the gospel to earth is restored; Let me come to my Savior and list to his voice, And I'll know my redeemer and Lord. If eternal is life, then my life is to be In accord with my faith and desire! And the highest ideal that God has revealed Is the holiness faith will inspire. Let the holier life of a saint then be won/ As I add grace to grace all divine; Let me walk in his ways till I gain my reward, And a glory celestial is mine! Let me open my eyes to the glory of God, Let me open my heart to his love, And I'll open my ears to the gospel of truth That my Father reveals from above; And my soul shall progress in the light of his faith. Till the measure of heaven I span; For the light and the truth that have glorified Gol, He reveals for the glory of man! J. L. T0WN3SND. Paysori, Utah.

BOOK OF MORMON LANGUAGE. HEBREW—EGYPTIAN. BY DR. FREDERIC CLIFT, OF THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. The missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announce to the world that the plates of the Book of Mormon, as received and translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith,were engraved in Hebrew-Egyptian characters.* The statement often calls forth a smile of incredulity, and frequently a query as to how Lehi and his companions, residents of Jerusalem, came to write * Regarding the author's statement that the Book of Mormon was engraved in Hebrew-Egyptian characters: It is clear that Nephi wrote his part of the Book of Mormon in Egyptian characters (I Nephi, 1: 2.) It is also clear that Mormon and Moroni wrote their part of the record in the Egyptian characters (Mormon 9: 32.) While it is true that the statement is made that the Egyptian characters were altered by the Nephites, we are scarcely warranted in concluding that these alterations were produced by intermingling the Egyptian with Hebrew characters, but were constituted by changes in the formation of some of the Egyptian letters. The foundation of this Egyptian literature among the Nephites was the Jewish scriptures on the brass plates written in Egyptian characters (Mosiah 1: 3, 4.) So that, considering all things* one must rather incline to the opinion that the fact that the Nephite records were written in the Egyptian, comes from the circumstance of Lehi's being an Egyptian scholar, and that the Hebrew scriptures he carried with him into the wilderness were also written in Egyptian characters, than to the theory that Judea was a border land between Assyria and Egypt, and hence possessed a mixed language made up of Hebrew- Etryptian-Arabic, etc.—Editors.

BOOK OF MORMON LANGUAGE. 169 their history in a language which was not that of the Hebrews. Enquirer?, of course, do not accept Nephi's statement: "I make a record in the language of my father, which consists of the learning of the Jews, and the language of the Egyptians" (I Nephi, 1: 2), and call for proof from the Bible, the Stick of Judah. At this time, when so many are studying New Witnesses for God, it is perhaps appropriate to consider the evidence confirmatory of Nephi's statement. In the interview between Martin Harris and Professor Anthon, a celebrated linguist, the latter stated that the characters presented to him by Martin Harris, being portions of a transcript taken from the plates of the Book of Mormon, were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic, and that they were true characters (see Manual, 1903-4, pages 45-51.) Professor Anthon thus unwittingly associates the transcript with the four languages in use amongst the Hebrews, at the time when Lehi left Jerusalem. At the moment when Professor Anthon made this statement to Martin Harris, and admitted by his own letters to have been so made, he was wholly ignorant as to where the transcripts came from, or their history. As soon as the professor was told that the plates had been given by an angel of God to a man, then living, he, like the majority of the men of the world at that time, repudiated the idea of new revelation, and withdrew the certificate he had given; but he could not withdraw the fact that he had expressed his opinion as to their being genuine, and that they were in the character and language common to the Hebrew people at the time named—700 to 600, B. C. This should be sufficient confirmation of Nephi's statement, but inquiry into the conditions surrounding the Hebrew people must satisfy an honest investigator that it was perfectly natural that Lehi should use, and that the Book of Mormon should be the first to give, and in fact today gives, the only rational explanation or reason for the American Indian being in possession of Egyptian and Semetic words, symbols and written characters. It is said, "Conquering kings their titles give;" it might be said, "Conquering kings their language give." The accompanying diagram shows that the Hebrews invariably absorbed the language of their conquerors. In the providence of God, the scriptures were thus translated into the controlling language of the day; and as a