Excerpt from Joseph Smith, Jr., As a Translator If the Book of Mormon is true, it is, next to the Bible, the most important book in the world. This fact has been appreciated by the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and by them alone. Their leaders and teachers have defended the authenticity of the book with great earnestness and power. No fair-minded man can read the works of Orson Pratt (perhaps the ablest of all the Mormon advocates), and of Brigham H. Roberts, who, in his "New Witnesses for God," has replied to more recent criticism, without being impressed with their conviction of the truth and value of the Book of Mormon, and their deep sense of duty to persuade others to accept their conclusions. If this book is what it claims to be it throws light upon matters of the first importance. At the present time, when New Testament scholars, with better linguistic and historic equipment than ever before, are studying the life and teachings of Jesus, the record of His appearance to the Nephites and the version of His teachings preserved by the Nephite scribes would be of great value. A flood of light would be thrown upon the whole question of Church origins if the account of the organization of the Church in the new world, described in the Book of Mormon, were similar to that in the old. The value of the Book of Mormon to the archaeologist would be equally great. If this Nephite record be true, we have an account of the civilization in the North and Central and South Americas from "The earliest ages after the Flood to the beginning of the Fifth Century of the Christian Era." The Book of Mormon, were it shown to be true, would give important information to Scientists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
