vided it can be proven that those Lamanites got angry once and were astonished twice—those circumstances seem improbable on so slight an occasion.
Chief Justice Alma has three sons, viz: Helaman, Shiblon and Corianton—towards the end of his career, three commandments, one for each son, were written, each in separate chapters. We should view them rather as patriarchal valedictories, if they were not headed commandments.
To Helaman he commits the plates of Nephi, or the records, as he calls them, which he says shall be preserved by the hand of the Lord, and shall go forth into every nation, kindred and tongue, p. 326.
We are presented with another method of translating the plates—possibly the spectacles. may get lost, or they may not suit the eyes of all. "And the Lord said, I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people which serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren; yea, their secret works, their works of darkness and abominations," p. 328.
Now, whether the two methods for translating, one by a pair of stone spectacles "set in the rims of a bow," and the other by one stone, were provided against accident, we cannot determine—perhaps they were limited in their appropriate uses—at all events the plan meets our approbation
We are informed that Smith used a stone in a hat, for the purpose of translating the plates. The spectacles and plates were found together, but were taken from him and hid up again before he had translated one word, and he has never seen them since—this is Smith's own story. Let us ask, what use have the plates been or the spectacles, so long as they have in no sense been used? or what does the testimony of Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer amount to? They solemnly swear that they saw
