Clark, John A. “Gleanings by the way. No. VIII.” Episcopal R

Clark, John A. “Gleanings by the way. No. VIII.” Episcopal Recorder (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) (26 September 1840): 106–07.
GLEANINGS BY THE WAY.
NO. VIII.
Dear Brethren,—According to the intimation given in the last No. of these GLEANINGS BY THE WAY, I proceed to finish the sketch which has already occupied the two preceding numbers in relations to the Mormons. Perhaps before relating the few additional facts that I have in my possession in reference to the rise and progress of this singular delusion, our readers will be gratified to have a brief outline of the contents of that mysterious volume whose origin and history we have already given, and which, as we have seen, has excited no small influence in imparting a degree of plausibility to the claims set up by this sect, and in gaining for them among the superstitious and the credulous, hosts of converts. I have before me a copy of the BOOK OF MORMON, which I have read through in order to furnish the following analysis. Since reading this volume of nearly six hundred pages, I am more than ever convinced that there were several hands employed in its preparation. There are certainly striking marks of genius and literary skill displayed in the management of the main story—while in some of the details and hortatory parts there are no less unequivocal marks of bungling and botch work. As I have already stated, this volume consists of fifteen separate books, which profess to have been written at different periods and by different authors whose names they respectively bear: all these authors, however, belonged to the same people, and were successively raised up by Jehovah, and by him inspired to carry on the progress of the narrative, and deposit the record when made upon metalic plates in the same ark of testimony which contained the plates handed down by their predecessors. The first book in the volume is called the Book of Nephi: it contains seven distinct chapters, and opens with an account of Lehi, the father of Nephi. Nephi, the writer of this first book, appears to be the grand hero of this epic. His father, Lehi, resided in Jerusalem—was a devout man, and one that feared God. His mother’s name was Sariah—and the names of his three brothers were Laman, Lemuel, and Sam. The narrative commences with the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. During this year the prophets of the most high God came and uttered such fearful predictions in relation to the destruction of Jerusalem, that Lehi became greatly alarmed for the city and for his people. He was so impressed with the messages which the Hebrew seers proclaimed, that he was led to go and pray with great fervency before the Lord. While in this solemn act of prayer, there came down a pillar of fire and rested upon a rock before him, blazing forth in awful majesty, and speaking to him out of the flames. Awed and terrified by this divine manifestation, he went home and cast himself upon his bed overwhelmed with anxious thought and fearful forbodings. While he lay there thus meditating upon what he had seen, he was suddenly carried away in a vision, and saw the heavens opened, and God sitting upon his throne, “surrounded by numberless concourses of angles.” “And it came to pass,” I here use the language of Nephi, (Page 6,) “that he saw one descending out of the midst of heaven. And he beheld that his lustre was about that of the sun at noon day; and he also saw twelve others following him, and their brightness did exceed that of the stars in the firmament; and they came down and went forth upon the face of the earth; and the first came and stood before my father, and gave unto him a book, and bade him that he should read. And it came to pass as he [106] read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and he read, saying, Wo, wo unto Jerusalem!