Gleanings by the Way. No. VIII.

              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!