GEMS FROM THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH.
HOW THE BOOK OF MORMON WAS OBTAINED.—May 8, 1838. Joseph Smith's answer to the question, "How and where did you obtain the Book of Mormon?" "Moroni, who deposited the plates (from whence the Book of Mormon was translated,) in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County, New York, being dead and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were, and gave me directions how to obtain them. I obtained them, and the Urim and Thummim with them, by the means of which I translated the plates; and thus came the Book of Mormon."
PLURALITY OF WIVES.—October 5, 1843. "Gave instructions to try those persons who were preaching, teaching, or practising the doctrine of plurality of wives; for, according to the law, I hold the keys of this power in the last days; for there is never but one on earth at a time on whom the power and its keys are conferred; and I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise."
October 8, 1843. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SPIRITUAL AND HEAVENLY WORLDS, and of spiritual and heavenly beings, was agreeable to the most perfect order and harmony; their limits and bounds were fixed irrevocably, and voluntarily subscribed to in their heavenly estate by themselves, and were by our first parents subscribed to upon the earth. Hence the importance of embracing and subscribing to principles of eternal truth by all men upon the earth that expect eternal life.