Chapter II. The Heavens Rest

Joseph left to Mature. His youthful Experience. Error and Repentance. He again seeks for a Manifestation from God. The Angel Moroni visits him. The wondrous Interview. His mission foreshadowed. Shown in vision where the Sacred Book is hid.

SACRED BOOK IS HID.

The great work of opening the dispensation thus accomplished by the august administration of the Father and Son, the heavens rested for a season. There was divine wisdom in this. Joseph was too young at that time to be sent forth with the wondrous proclamation to all nations, kindreds and tongues, that God had called him to be the prophet of a new civilization; too young, at fourteen, to seek out from the multitude strong apostolic men, saying unto them, " Leave your nets and follow me."

" My mind had now become satisfied," says Joseph, "so far as the sectarian world was concerned, that it was not my duty to join with any of them, but to continue as I was until further directed. I had found the testimony of James to be true, that a man who lacked wisdom might ask of God, and obtain, and not be upbraided. I continued to pursue

my common avocations in life until the 21st of Sept. 1823, all the time suffering persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious, because I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision."

Philosophically reviewing this period of Joseph's life, the divine wisdom is easily discerned. His mind had received an extraordinary spiritual birth, and it was now necessary that his character should mature to prepare him for his great work. Perchance had the administration of angels been constant, and daily with him, from the age of fourteen, it would have unbalanced his mind, and stunted the physical majesty with which nature so liberally endowed him.

Thus may be seen a scientific reason underscoring the divine purpose. The method is at once profound and simple. The grand overture of the " Dispensation of the Fullness of Times" was given; presently will be seen the second divine movement. It is the revelation of the " New and Everlasting Covenant " which Jesus and his Father came to make with Earth.

. Meantime Joseph fell into some improprieties of youth ; which fact Anti-Mormon writers have dwelt upon with great relish. But let us hear his own confession :

" During the time which intervened between the vision and the year 1823 (having been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought to have treated me kindly, and, if they supposed me to be deluded, ought to have endeavored

in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me), I was left to all kinds of temptations, and mingled with all kinds of society. I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth and the corruption of human nature, which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations to gratify appetites offensive in the sight of God. In consequence of these things I often felt condemned for my weakness and imperfections."

An ingenuous and touching confession ; quite gratuitous ; a recompense to his own conscience, — not an answer or apology before an earthly tribunal; for he swept away all human judgments that conflicted with his sense of right, and knelt only at the judgment seat of the Great Jehovah.

Singularly, yet naturally enough, this very experience of being left, for a time, in his youth, without the visible hand of his divine guide, was the providential way that led him to his extraordinary mission; for just here occurred his second grand vision. He says:

" On the evening of the above-mentioned 21st of Sept., after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and standing before him ; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I had previously had one.

" While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in the room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter

than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen ; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant ; his hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrists ; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open so that I could see into his bosom. Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name and said unto me, that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God, and that his name was Moroni. That God had a work for me to do, and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues ; or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people. He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprung. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Saviour to the ancient inhabitants. Also, that there were two stones in silver bows (and these stones, fastened to a breastplate,

constituted what is called the Urim and Thummint) deposited with the plates, and the possession and use of these stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. He told me that when I got those plates of which he had spoken (for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled) I should not show them to any person, neither the breastplate with the Urim and TJuimmim, only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them ; if I did, I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly, that I knew the place again when I visited it.

" After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so, until the room was ao-ain left dark, except just around him, when instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended up till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.

" I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling greatly at what had been told me by this extraordinary messenger, when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room . was again beginning to be lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside. He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done at his first

visit, without the least variation, which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence, and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this oeneration. Having related these things, he agfain ascended as he had done before.

" By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and heard ; but what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over aain to me the same things as before, and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father's family) to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbid me, saying, that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive but that of building his kingdom, otherwise I could not get them. After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced, when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me the third time, the cock crew, and I found that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night."