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44

THE STORY OF MORMONISM.

mim,^[1] and the breastplate.^[2] But when he was about to take them out Moroni stood beside him and said, “Not yet; meet me here at this time each year for four years, and I will tell you what to do.” Joseph obeyed.

The elder Smith was poor, and the boys were sometimes obliged to hire themselves out as laborers. It was on the 22d of September, 1823, that the plates were found. The following year Alvin died, and in October 1825 Joseph went to work for Josiah Stoal, in Chenango county. This man had what he supposed to be a silver mine at Harmony, Pennsylvania, said to have been once worked by Spaniards. Thither Joseph went with the other men to dig for silver,^[3]

↑ ⁴ ‘With the book were found the urim and thummim, two transparent crystals set in the rims of a bow. These pebbles were the seer's instrument whereby the mystery of hidden things was to be revealed!’ Introduction to Book of Mormon (New York ed.), viii. ‘The best attainable definition of the ancient urim and thummim is quite vague and indistinct. An accepted biblical lexicographer gives the meaning as “light and perfection,” or the “shining and the perfect.” The following is quoted from Butterworth's Concordance: “There are various conjectures about the urim and thummim, whether they were the stones in the high-priest's breastplate, or something distinct from them; which it is not worth our while to inquire into, since God has left it a secret. It is evident that the urim and thummim were appointed to inquire of God by, on momentous occasions, and continued in use, as some think, only till the building of Solomon's temple, and all conclude that this was never restored after its destruction.”’ Tucker's Origin and Prog. Mor., 32.
↑ ‘A breastplate such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest from the arrows and weapons of their enemy.’ Mackay's The Mormons, 20.
↑ ‘Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.’ Hist. Joseph Smith, in Times and Seasons, May 2, 1842. It seems from this, or some other cause, that the followers of Smith have never regarded mining with favor, although some of them at times have engaged in that occupation. Upon the discovery of gold in California, the Mormons were among the first in the field, at Coloma, at Mormon Bar, and elsewhere. Left there a little longer, they would soon have gathered barrels of the precious dust; but promptly upon the call they dropped their tools, abandoned their brilliant prospects, and crossing the Sierra, began to build homes among their people in the untenanted desert.

[1] ⁴ ‘With the book were found the urim and thummim, two transparent crystals set in the rims of a bow. These pebbles were the seer's instrument whereby the mystery of hidden things was to be revealed!’ Introduction to Book of Mormon (New York ed.), viii. ‘The best attainable definition of the ancient urim and thummim is quite vague and indistinct. An accepted biblical lexicographer gives the meaning as “light and perfection,” or the “shining and the perfect.” The following is quoted from Butterworth's Concordance: “There are various conjectures about the urim and thummim, whether they were the stones in the high-priest's breastplate, or something distinct from them; which it is not worth our while to inquire into, since God has left it a secret. It is evident that the urim and thummim were appointed to inquire of God by, on momentous occasions, and continued in use, as some think, only till the building of Solomon's temple, and all conclude that this was never restored after its destruction.”’ Tucker's Origin and Prog. Mor., 32.

[2] ‘A breastplate such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest from the arrows and weapons of their enemy.’ Mackay's The Mormons, 20.

[3] ‘Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money digger.’ Hist. Joseph Smith, in Times and Seasons, May 2, 1842. It seems from this, or some other cause, that the followers of Smith have never regarded mining with favor, although some of them at times have engaged in that occupation. Upon the discovery of gold in California, the Mormons were among the first in the field, at Coloma, at Mormon Bar, and elsewhere. Left there a little longer, they would soon have gathered barrels of the precious dust; but promptly upon the call they dropped their tools, abandoned their brilliant prospects, and crossing the Sierra, began to build homes among their people in the untenanted desert.

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