44 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
mim,^ and the breastplate.^ But when he was about to take them out Moroni stood beside him and said, "Not yet; meet me here at this time eacli year for four years, and I will tell you what to do." Joseph obeyed.
The elder Smith was poor, and the boys were some- times 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 sup- posed to be a silver mine at Harmon}^, Pennsylvania, said to have been once worked by Spaniards. Thither Joseph went with the other men to dig for silver,^
as much skill in the art of engraving.' In the introduction to the Booh of Mor- mon (New York ed.), viii., is given essentially the same description. See also Bouwlck's Mormons and Silver Mines, 61; Bertrand, Mem. d'un Mor., 25; Olshausen, Geach. d. Morm., 12-29; Stenhouse, Le-'i Mormons, i.-vii. ; Ferris^ Utah and The Mormons, 58; MncJcay's The Mormons, 15-22; Smucker's Hist. Mormons, 18-2S. For fac-simile of writing on golden plates, see Beadle's Life in Utah, 25. For illustrations of the hill, linding the plates, etc., see Mackcy's The Mormons, 15; Smucker's Hint. Mormons, 24; Tucker's Urifjin and Proij. Mor., frontispiece. When sceptics ask. Why are not the plates forthcoming? believers ask in turn. Why are not forthcoming the stone tables of Moses? And yet the ten commandments are to-day accepted.
- 'With the book were found the urim and thumniim, two transparent
crystals set in the rims of a bow. These pebbles were the seer's instru- ment whereby the mystery of hidden things was to be revealed!' Intro- duction to Booh of Mormon (New York ed.), viii. 'The best attainable defi- nition 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 Butterivorth's Co)icordance: "There are various conjectures about the urim and thummim, whether they wei'e 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 bj', on momentous occasions, and continued in use, as some think, only till the building of Solomon's temple, and all con- clude that this was never i-estored after its destruction.'" Tucker's Oritjiu and Frog. Mor., 32.
^ ' A breastplate such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest from the arrows and weapons of their enemy.' Machay's The Mormons, '20.
^ ' Hence ai-ose 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, tliat the followers of Smith liave 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 tlie first in the field, at Coloma, at Mormon liar, and elsew here. Left there a little longer, they would soon have gathered barnils of the precious dust; but promptly upon the call they dropped their tools, ab;mdoned their brilliant prospects, and crossing the Sierra, began to build homes among their people in the untenanted desert.