Howe, E. D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of Th

Howe, E. D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, From Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in which the Famous Golden Bible was Brought Before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries Into the Probability that the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written By One Solomon Spalding, More than Twenty Years Ago, and By Him Intended to Have Been Published As A Romance. Painesville, Ohio: E. D. Howe, 1834.
CHAPTER VII.
THE BOOK OF HELAMAN.—Helaman, the son of Helaman, is the next writer of a book, which commences with the fortieth year of the reign of the Judges and reaches down to the ninetieth, and is the year preceding the nativity of Jesus Christ. In the commencement of this book, we are presented with the account of mighty wars and battles, with great slaughter—next, with multitudes of holy prophets, prophecying of the coming of the Messiah. Thousands were baptised unto repentance and for the remission of sins. “And the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous words,” p. 421. Freemasonry is here introduced and is said to have originated with a band of highwaymen. This institution is spoken of in very reproachful terms, in consequence of the members having bound themselves by secret oaths to protect each other in all things from the justice of the law. The Nephites are represented as being Anti-masons and Christians, which carries with it some evidence that the writer foresaw the politics of New York in 1828–29, or that work was revised at or about that time. Nephi, who is the son of Helaman, now receives the sacred charge of keeping the plates, &c. together with the power of loosing and sealing in Heaven, and the gift of working miracles. He invokes a famine, which follows, as a matter in course, in order to bring the people to the remembrance of their religion. The distress and suffering occasioned by the famine is beyond description, without the aid of Mormon inspiration. [81]