It will be remembered that it was also in 1826 that Rigdon went for a second time to reside in Ohio, where he became an itinerant "Disciple" preacher, laboring in the vicinity of Bainbridge, Mantua, Kirtland, Mentor, Chester, New Lisbon, and Warren,[97] at some of which places Rigdon had an unsavory reputation.[98] Rigdon and Pratt, therefore, were in the same neighborhood in 1826, and undoubtedly met soon after. The date of their first meeting is nowhere given, but may reasonably be inferred from an address delivered by Parley P. Pratt in 1843 or '4. In this discourse Pratt tells of an occurrence which transpired on his way to his future Ohio home, which occurrence furnishes the key to his first connection with Mormonism. On his way he stopped at a humble cottage, the name of whose occupant he carefully fails to give. Here, while asleep (so he says), "a messenger of a mild and intelligent countenance suddenly stood before me [Pratt], arrayed in robes of dazzling splendor." According to Mormon theology, an angel is but an exalted man.[99] Of course Sidney Rigdon was an exalted man; why not, then, an angel? This angel claimed to hold the keys to the mysteries of this wonderful country, and took Pratt out to exhibit those mysteries to him. Pratt then had portrayed to his mind the whole future of Mormonism; its cities, with inhabitants from all parts of the globe; its temples, with a yet unattained splendor; its present church organization was, with considerable definiteness outlined; its political ambition to establish a temporal kingdom of God on the ruins of this government was set forth with quite as much definiteness as in the subsequent more publicly uttered, treasonable sermons.[100] I conclude from the exact manner in which this "Angel of the Prairies" foreknew the ambitions, hopes, and future achievements of the Mormon Church and the similar admitted foreknowledge of Rigdon and the subsequently established connection between Rigdon, Pratt, and Smith, that the "Angel of the Prairies" who outlined to Pratt his then contemplated and now executed religious fraud, was none other than Sidney Rigdon himself, and that this fact accounts for Pratt's failure to give the name of his host or the date of his first meeting with Rigdon.[101]
[Footnote 97: "History of the Church," 149-150. ("Josephite".)]
[Footnote 98: "4 Times and Seasons," 209. Supplement 14, Millennial Star, 45.]
[Footnote 99: See Text for foot-notes, Nos. 106 to 109 herein. 6 Millennial Star, 20. "History of Mormonism," 154.]
[Footnote 101: 20 Millennial Star, 33-36. 7 Deseret News, 288-9. 7 Journal of Discourses, 53. 1 Journal of Discourses, 230, and Sermons generally of this period. See also Am. Hist. Mag., July, 1906.]
Lambdin, who, by some, has been suspected of once having been Rigdon's partner in the contemplated fraud, died Aug. 1, 1825. Engles, Patterson's foreman, died July 17, 1827. Spaulding had died in 1816, and Robert Patterson, it seems, knew nothing personally of the contents of the Spaulding manuscript,[102] which fact Rigdon probably well knew through his intimate acquaintance with Lambdin. In September of 1827 the time was, therefore, as ripe as it was ever likely to be for active preparation in the matter of bringing forth the "Book of Mormon," since probably all those having any intimate knowledge of the "Manuscript Found" had conveniently died.
[Footnote 102: "Mormonism Exposed," by Williams. "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?" 7.]
In 1827 Pratt started back to New York for the purpose of getting married. Now, remember, this was nearly three years before the advent of Mormonism. Pratt reached the home of his aunt Van Cote July 4, 1827, and in his autobiography records a summary of a conversation with his future wife thus: "I also opened my religious views to her and my desire, which I sometimes had, to try and teach the red man."[103] In October, 1830, within a month after Pratt's professed conversion to Mormonism, a revelation was received for Pratt, in which the Lord, through "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," directed Pratt to carry out this very design.[104] The desire which Pratt thus expressed to his wife three years before the advent of Mormonism was afterward and for a long time the pet scheme of all Mormons. Pratt was married September 9, 1827.[105] On September 22, 1827, a "heavenly messenger" appeared to Joseph Smith and unfolded to him the scheme of the Book of Mormon, and disclosed the whereabouts of the "Golden Plates."[106] This "heavenly messenger" is called the Angel Moroni. According to Mormon theology, "God may use any beings he has made or that he pleases, and call them his angels, or messengers."[107] "God's angels and men are all of one species, one race, one great family."[108] "God is a man like unto yourselves; that is the great secret."[109] Why, of course! "That is the great secret." God is but an "exalted man," and may call Parley Parker Pratt his angel. Parley Parker Pratt was the "heavenly messenger," the angel who, on that day (September 22, 1827), appeared to Joseph Smith and told him where were the golden plates, that is, Spaulding's "Manuscript Found." Sidney Rigdon, for Smith's purposes, was the "exalted man," the "God" who sent this "heavenly messenger" Parley Parker Pratt, just as the Mormon people now look upon Joseph Smith as the "God to this people."[110] Now, watch the sequel, and no doubt can remain.
[Footnote 103: Pages 29 and 30.]
[Footnote 104: Section 32, Doctrine and Covenants. Smith's God was, however, unfamiliar with governmental regulations of Indian affairs, so in spite of the revelation Pratt and Company were compelled by the United States Indian agent to leave the reservation. 5 Journal of Discourses, 199. Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 218-226. "Gleanings by the Way," 324.]