were
conclusive evidence of this fact.

And God has repeatedly promised that, in His own good time, these
tribes of Israel, this chosen people, should be again gathered
together; that a new and further revelation should be given them
and to the whole world, and that under this new dispensation Zion
should be rebuilt, and the glory of God fill the whole earth as
the waters cover the mighty deep. It should be as a sealed book
unto them, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying,
"Read this book," and he saith, "I cannot, for it is a sealed
book." It is strange that a people once so favored of God,
strengthened by His arm and counseled by His prophets and
inspired men, should have wandered and become lost to all sense
of duty to God! But so it was, until, as the prophet says, the
Book that should come unto them spoke to them out of the ground -
out of the dust of the earth; as a "familiar spirit, even out of
the dust of the earth."

The Book that was to contain the Divine revelation of God was to
come forth, written upon plates, in a language unknown to men.
But a man unlearned, not by his own power, but by the power of
God, by means of the Urim and Thummim, was to translate it into
our language. And this record, in due time, came according to
God's will. It was found deposited in the side of a mountain, or
hill, called Cumorrah, written in the reformed Egyptian language,
in Ontario County, in the State of New York. It was deposited in
a stone box, put together with cement, air-tight. The soil about
the box was worn away, until a corner of the box was visible. It
was found by the Prophet Joseph, then an illiterate lad, or young
man, who had been chosen of God as His instrument for making the
same known to men.

The Prophet Joseph was a young man of moral character, belonging
to no sect, but an earnest inquirer after truth. He was not
permitted to remove the box for a period of two years after he
found it. The angel of God that had the records in charge would
not permit him to touch them. In attempting to do so, on one
occasion, his strength was paralyzed, and the angel appeared
before him and told him how that record contained the gospel of
God and an historical account of the God of Joseph in this land;
that through their transgressions the records were taken away
from the people and hid in the earth, to come forth at the
appointed time, when the Lord should set His heart, the second
time, to recover the rem