Buck, Charles. A Theological Dictionary, Containing Definitions of all Religious and Ecclesiastical Terms, and Impartial Account of the Principal Denominations Which have Subsisted in the Religious World from the Birth of Christ to the Present Day: Together with an Accurate Statement of the most Remarkable Transactions and Events Recorded in Ecclesiastical History, and a Biographical sketch of such Writers as have Exerted a Decided Influence in the Field of Theological Science, 537–38. London: Thomas Tegg,1841.
MORMONITES, believers in the doctrines of the “Book of Mormon,” a production which they regard as a second Bible, and which is said to be a translation from certain brass plates, found by one Joseph Smith, in the town of Palmyra (N. Y.) in 1826. They were enclosed in a box, which had to all appearance been used for holding common sized window glass. Smith pretended to interpret them, with a stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while one Martin Harris was employed to write down the contents at his dictation. Some disagreement arising between the parties, Harris went away, and Oliver Cowdry came and wrote for Smith, while he interpreted as above described till the “Book of Mormon” was completed. Smith than gave out that it was a revelation from heaven, and that he himself was a prophet; and thus collected around him a number of simple and credulous people, whom he persuaded to dispose of their property, and follow him to the New Zion, which he was commissioned to establish in Missouri, west of the Mississippi river, “in the centre of the world.” They accordingly settled in Jackson county, in that state; and there, under the guidance of the new prophet, established a new society, from which they send out [537] preachers in all directions to collect proselytes. A weekly periodical has also been established, through which new revelations are from time to time circulated among the community.
The contents of the book are a series of puerile eastern romances, with abundance of names, but no dates, localities, or connexion of an sort with sober history. Its style affects an imitation of Scripture, which, with ignorant, gives it an air of sacredness, like that of a revelation from heaven. Cross and Baptist Journal, 1834.