An Invitation

An Invitation In celebrating as we are the one-hundredth anniversary of the marvelous first visit of the Angel Moroni to the Prophet Joseph Smith this month of September 1823, we invite your attention to one of the great items which he revealed: The whereabouts of the gold plates from which the Book of Mor- mon was later translated by the power of God. They were delivered to Jos- eph in 1827, the translation completed, and the book printed just before the organization of the Church, on the 6th day of April, 1830. We invite you to become one of its readers. The Book of Mormon is a record of the people of Nephi who, some 600 years before Christ, peopled the American continent; and of their descendants, the Indians, or Lamanites ; also a record of the peo- ple of Jared who came to this land when the Lord confounded the languages, at the building of the tower of Babel. It testifies to the Jews and the Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations. It is a new witness for God and the divine mission of his Son Jesus Christ. It contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the natives of this conti- nent and explains in simple words the message of salvation to all who read, affecting their lives for good. It is of practical value to the people of this day, and, besides, contains many meritorious literary excellencies. Few books survive, with increasing circulation, the close of a hundred years. We doubt whether there is a single book, and especially a religious work, published in the United States between 1827 and 1830, that has as large a present circulation as the Book of Mormon, after its nearly one hundred years in print. Three books are named as being circulated and read today that were first written and published between 1823 and 1830, they are: Tales of a Traveler, 1824, by Washington Irving; and J. Fenimore Cooper's, The Last of the Mochicans, 1826, and The Prairie, 1827. The Book of Mormon has had a constant increase of readers, and during the past few years its circula- tion has exceeded all expectations. Hundreds of thousands eagerly read it and become interested in its marvelous message. We call your attention to the conditions on which one may receive an individual testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon. In his farewell to the Lamanites, Moroni gives the key: "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, * * * and when ye shall receive these things * * * that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it to you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." You are invited to become a reader of the Book of Mormon, and what is said about it in this number of the Improvement Era. — A.