Chapter VI. Joseph receives the Plates

The Angel gives him strict charge concerning them. Devices of his enemies thwarted. The Plates finally returned to Moroni. Removal into Pennsylvania. Martin Harris. His Episode with Professor Anthon. He Betrays his Trust.

WITH PROF. ANTHON HE BETRAYS HIS TRUST.

The four years of probation were ended. During this period Joseph had been Moroni's pupil. The sustained intercourse with the angel had made him a prophet.

" At length," says Joseph, " the time arrived for obtaining the plates and the Urim and Thummim. On the 22d of Sept. 1827, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge, — that I should be responsible for them ; that if I should .let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I should use my endeavors to preserve them until he (the messenger) should call for them, they should be protected.

" I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had

done what was* required at my hand he vould call for them ; for no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were made to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand ; when, according to arrangement, the messenger called for them. I delivered them up to him, and he has them in his charge until this day.

"The excitement, however, still continued, and rumor with her thousand tongues was all the time employed in circulating tales about my father's family, and about me. If I were to relate a thousandth part of them it would fill volumes. The persecution became so intolerable that I was under the necessity of leaving Manchester and going with my wife to Susquehanna Co., in the State of Pennsylvania.

" While preparing to start (being very poor, and the persecution so heavy upon us that there was no probability that we would ever be otherwise), in the midst of our afflictions we found a friend in a gentleman by the name of Martin Harris, who came to us and gave me fifty dollars to assist us in our afflictions.

" Mr. Harris was a resident of Palmyra township, and a farmer of respectability. By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my destination in Pennsylvania, and immediately after my arrival

there I commenced copying the characters of the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them ; which I did between the time I arrived at the house of my wife's father in the month of December and the February following.

" Some time in this month of February the beforementioned Mr. Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances as he related them to me after his return :

" ' I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Prof. Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Prof. Anthon stated that the translation was correct, — more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic, and he said that they were the true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked how the young man found out there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered, that an angel of God had revealed

it unto him. He then said to me, " Let me see that certificate." I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it in pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, " I cannot read a sealed book." I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Prof. Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.'

" Mr. Harris, having returned from this tour, left me and went home to Palmyra, arranged his affairs and returned again to my house about the 12th of April, 1828, and commenced writing for me while I translated from the plates."

Mr. Harris, being anxious to show the writings to his friends at home, after he had made considerable progress with the work, asked permission to take them with him on a contemplated visit to his family. This was refused ; but after much importuning he was granted the coveted favor, under strict condition, however, that he should show the writing to only five certain persons of his own family.

"Notwithstanding, however," says Joseph, "the great restrictions which he had been laid under, and the solemnity of the covenant which he had made with me, he did show them to others, and by stratagem they got them away from him, and they never have been recovered nor obtained back again unto this day." /

The work of translation being thus interrupted through Martin Harris' perfidy, Joseph turned his attention for the time being to the sustenance of his family, receiving, however, from time to time, revelations from the Lord concerning- the book, and also giving to him explicit counsel and guidance.