textfiles/occult/CHRISTIAN/mor-prof.txt

          The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith

    Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation
by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise
and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
all of which have been designed to militate against its character
as a Church and its progress in the world--I have been induced to
write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all
inquirers after the truth in possession of the facts, as they
have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so
far as I have such facts in my possession.

    In this history I shall present the various events in
relation to this Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have
transpired, or as they at present exist, being now [1838] the
eighth year since the organization of the said Church.

    I was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and five, on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of
Sharon, Windsor county, State of Vermont...My father, Joseph
Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra,
Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when I was in
my tenth year, or thereabouts.  In about four years after my
father's arrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into
Manchester in the same county of Ontario--

    His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father,
Joseph Smith; my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her
marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers, Alvin
(who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age),
Hyrum, myself, Samuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my
sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy.

    Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester,
there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on
the subject of religion.  It commenced with the Methodists, but
soon became general among all the sects in that region of
country.  Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected
by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different
religious parties, which created no small stir and division
amongst the people, some crying, "Lo, here!" and others, "Lo,
there!"  Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for
the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.  For, notwithstanding
the great love which the converts to these different faiths
expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal
manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting
up and promoting this extra-ordinary scene of religious feeling,
in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to
call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the
converts began to file off, some to one party and some to
another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the
priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a
scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued--priest
contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that
all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any,
were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about
opinions.

    I was at this time in my fifteenth year.  My father's family
was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined
that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and
Samuel Harrison, and my sister Sophronia.

    During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to
serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings
were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all
these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often
as occasion would permit.  In process of time my mind became
somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to
be united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife
among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a
person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things,
to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was
wrong.

    My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were
so great and incessant.  The Presbyterians were most decided
against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of
both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to
make the people think they were in error.  On the other hand, the
Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in
endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all
others.

    In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I
often said to myself:  What is to be done?  Who of all these
parties are right; or, are they all wrong together?  If any one
of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?

    While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by
the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day
reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse,
which reads:  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be
given him.

    Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to
the heart of man than this did at this time to mine.  It seemed
to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart.  I
reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person
needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and
unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never
know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects
understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to
destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to
the Bible.

    At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain
in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs,
that is, ask of God.  I at length came to the determination to
"ask of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that
lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might
venture.

    So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God,
I retired to the woods to make the attempt.  It was on the
morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of
eighteen hundred and twenty.  It was the first time in my life
that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I
had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

    After I had retired to the place where I had previously
designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself
alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my
heart to God.  I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was
seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had
such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so
that I could not speak.  Thick darkness gathered around me, and
it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden
destruction.

    But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me
out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at
the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon
myself to  destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the
power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such
marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at
this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over
my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended
gradually until it fell upon me.

    It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the
enemy which held me bound.  When the light rested upon me I saw
two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description,
standing above me in the air.  One of them spake unto me, calling
me by name and said, pointing to the other--This is My Beloved
Son.  Hear Him!

    My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which
of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join.  No
sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be
able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in
the light, which of all the sects was right and which I should
join.

    I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were
all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their
creeds were an abomination in his sight;  that those professors
were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the
commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny
the power thereof."

    He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other
things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time.
When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back,
looking up into heaven.  When the light had departed, I had no
strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home.  And
as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter
was.  I replied, "Never mind, all is well--I am well enough off."
I then said to my mother, "I have learned for myself that
Presbyterianism is not true."  It seems as though the adversary
was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined
to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why
should the powers of darkness combine against me?  Why the
opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost from my
infancy?

    Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in
company with one of the Methodist preachers, who was very active
in the before mentioned religious excitement; and, conversing
with him on the subject of religion, I took occasion to give him
an account of the vision which I had had.  I was greatly
surprised at his behavior; he treated my communication not only
lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil,
that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these
days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that
there would never be any more of them.

    I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited
a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of
religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued
to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between the
fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life
such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of
high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public
mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was
common among all the sects--all united to persecute me.

    It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since,
how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of little over
fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the
necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor,
should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract
the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the
day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most
bitter persecution and reviling.  But strange or not, so it was,
and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.

    However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a
vision.  I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when
he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account
of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but
still there were but few who believed him; some said he was
dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and
reviled.  But all this did not destroy  the reality of his
vision.  He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the
persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though
they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know
to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a
voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him
think or believe otherwise.

    So it was with me.  I had actually seen a light, and in the
midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality
speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying
that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were
persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil
against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart:
Why persecute me for telling the truth?  I have actually seen a
vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the
world think to make me deny what I have actually seen?  For I had
seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I
could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by
so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.

    I had now got my mind satisfied 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 vocations in life until the
twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-three, all the time suffering severe persecution at the
hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious,
because I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision.

    During the space of time which intervened between the time I
had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and
twenty-three--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 been my friends and to have treated me
kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored
in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me--I was
left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of
society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and
displayed the foibles of youth, and the foibles of human nature;
which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations,
offensive in the sight of God.  In making this confession, no one
need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins.  A
disposition to commit such was never in my nature.  But I was
guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company,
etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be
maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this
will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth,
and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.

    In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my
weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the
above-mentioned twenty-first of September, 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 previously had one.

    While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered
a light appearing in my 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 wrist; 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 to me, and that his name
was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name
would 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 and account of the former inhabitants of this continent,
and the source from whence they sprang.  He also said that the
fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as
delivered by the Savior 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 Thummim--deposited with the plates, and the possession
and use of these stones were what constituted "seers" in ancient
or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose
of translating the book.

    After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the
prophecies of the Old Testament.  He first quoted part of the
third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last
chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from
the way it reads in our Bibles.  Instead of quoting the first
verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus:

    "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and
all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as
stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of
Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

    And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus:  "Behold, I will
reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the
prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord."

    He also quoted the next verse differently:  "And he shall
plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the
fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their
fathers.  If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly
wasted at his coming."

    In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of
Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled.  He quoted also
the third chapter of Acts, twenty- second and twenty-third
verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament.  He said
that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when
"they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among
the people," but soon would come.

    He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the
twenty-eighth verse to the last.  He also said that this was not
yet fulfilled, but was soon to be.  And he further stated that
the fullness of the Gentiles was soon to come in.  He quoted many
other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which
cannot be mentioned here.

    Again, 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 Thummim; 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
again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw,
as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended
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 to me by this extraordinary
messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly
discovered that my room was again beginning to get 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 generation.  Having related these things, he again
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 again 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 forbade 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 than 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 for the third time, the
cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our
interviews must have occupied the whole of that night.

    I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the
necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at
other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me
entirely unable.  My father, who was laboring along with me,
discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home.
I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in
attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my
strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground,
and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.

    The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking
unto me, calling me by name.  I looked up, and beheld the same
messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before.
He then again related unto me all that had related to me the
previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him
of the vision and commandments which I had received.

    I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed
the whole matter to him.  He replied to me that it was of God,
and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger.  I left
the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me
the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the
vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the
instant that I arrived there.

    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 around 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 Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, 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 I 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.

    As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we
were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out
by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity.
Sometimes we were at home, and sometime abroad, and by continuous
labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance....[My note
to shorten downloads:  At this point in the narrative, Joseph
relates his brother's death, his employment in Pennsylvania
digging for silver mines with a Mr. Josiah Stoal, his marriage to
the daughter of his boarder, Emma Hale, on January 18th, 1827,
and his return home to farm at that time.]

    At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim
and Thummim, and the breastplate.  On the twenty-second day of
September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, 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 would use all 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 would
call for them.  For no sooner was it known that I had them, than
the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me....
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 arrangements, the messenger called for them, I
delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until
this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight....

    [Another note:  Here Joseph tells how, because of persecution
and danger of losing the plates, he left Manchester and moved to
Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, with the assistance of a
respected Palmyra farmer, Martin Harris. The narrative then
quotes Mr. Harris for a page, telling of what happened then (in
fulfillment of Isaiah 29:10-11).]

    On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver Cowdery came to my
house, until which time I had never seen him.  He stated to me
that having been teaching school in the neighborhood where my
father resided, and my father being one of those who sent to the
school, he went to board for a season at his house, and while
there the family related to him the circumstances of my having
received the plates, and accordingly, he had come to make
inquiries of me.

    Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of
April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began
to write for me.

    We still continued the work of translation, when, in the
ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the
woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the
remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of
the plates.  While we were thus employed, praying and calling
upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of
light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying:

    "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I
confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the
ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of
baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall
never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do
offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness."

    He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying
on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be
conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be
baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver
Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me.

    Accordingly we went and were baptized.  I baptized him first,
and afterwards he baptized me--after which I laid my hands upon
his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and
afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same
Priesthood--for so we were commanded.

    The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred
this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same
that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he
acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the
keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said,
would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called
the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the
second.  It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were
ordained under the hand of this messenger, and baptized.

    Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had
been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from
our Heavenly Father.  No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery,
than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied
many things which should shortly come to pass.  And again, so
soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of
prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of
this Church, and many other things concerned with the Church, and
this generation of the children of men.  We were filled with the
Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation.
    

[Additional information:

Oliver Cowdery also wrote concerning these events:

    "These were days never to be forgotten--to sit under the
sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened
the utmost gratitude of this bosom!  Day after day I continued,
uninterupted to write from his mouth, as he translated with the
Urim and Thummim, or as the Nephites would have said,
'Interpreters,' the history of record called the 'Book of
Mormon....'

    The Lord, who is rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer
the consistent prayer of the humble, after we had called Him in a
fervent manner, aside from the abodes of men, condescended to
manifest to us His will.  On a sudden, as from the midst of
eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us.  While the
veil was parted and the angel of God came down clothed with
glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the
keys of the Gospel of repentance.  What joy! what wonder! what
amazement!  While the world was racked and distracted--while
millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all
men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes
beheld, our ears heard, as in the 'blaze of day'; yes,
more--above the glitter of the May sunbeam, which then shed its
brilliancy over the face of nature!  Then his voice, though mild,
peirced to the center, and his words, 'I am thy fellow-servant,'
dispelled every fear.  We listened, we gazed, we admired! 'Twas
the voice of an angel, from glory, 'twas a message from the Most
High!  And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon
our sould, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty!
Where was room for doubt?  Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt
had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled
forever!"

A few of the many Biblical references to the restoration of the
Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days:

Isaiah 29:4, 10-14, 18, 24
Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1-3
Isaiah 11:1, 10-12
Psalms 85:11
Revelation 14:6
Ezekial 37:15-17 (a stick is a scroll, or writings; this refers
to the Bible and the Book of Mormon)
Amos 3:7
Acts 3:19-21
Joel 2:28
Romans 11:25
Ephesians 1:10

The foreward to the Book of Mormon, written by the prophet Mormon
circa 400 A.D. describing its nature and purpose:

    Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of
Nephi, and also of the Lamanites--Written to the Lamanites, who
are a remnant of the House of Israel; and also to Jew and
Gentile--Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of
prophecy and revelation--Written and sealed up, and hid up unto
the Lord, that they might not be destroyed--To come forth by the
gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof--Sealed by
the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in
due time by way of the Gentile--The interpretation thereof by the
gift of God.

    An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a
record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the
Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were
building a tower to get to heaven--Which is to show unto the
remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath
done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of
the Lord, that they are not cast off forever--And also to the
convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the
ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations--And now, if
there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn
not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the
judgment-seat of Christ.