Cumorah and the Nephite Record

CUMORAH AND THE NEPHITE RECORD. "Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario County, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the

plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle On the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all round was covered with earth. "Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Trim and Thummim, and the breasplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the

plates and the other things with them. "I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time, but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates. Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time 1 found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days." Joseph Smith. Flistory of the Church, pp. 15, 16.

From a painting by L. A. Ramsey

"TRUTH SHALL SPRING OUT OF THE EARTH" This painting by Mr. Ramsey is likely to prove as great a success as did his portrait of Joseph Smith, a steel engraving of which appeared in the Era of December, 1910. It represents the angel Moroni delivering the sacred plates of the Book of Mormon to the young prophet, September 22, 1827. Competent critics assert that Mr. Ramsey has shown more versatility in this picture than in any of his other successes. The artist was aided by suggestions from Elder B. H. Roberts, of the First Council of Seventy, in making the picture historically correct. An angel, or messenger from God, according to the belief of the Latter-day Saints is either a resurrected person of flesh and bone, or thespirit of a just man made perfect. The ideal has perhaps been more nearly reached in this portrait than in any other ever attempted. When the plates were delivered, Cumorah, though now completely denuded, was covered with trees.