O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
"The manner of administering the wine. Behold, they took the cup, and said:
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them, that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
Of this formula I have already said what Archdeacon Paley has said of the Lord's prayer, when appealing to its excellence as evidence of its divine origin—"For a succession of solemn thoughts, for fixing the attention on a few great points, for suitableness, for sufficiency, for conciseness without obscurity, for the weight and real importance of its petitions, this prayer is without an equal." Its composition in excellence arises far above any performance that Joseph Smith could be considered equal to, and, in a word, carries within itself the evidence of a divine authorship. Such passages as these need no argument in support of their divine origin. We may trust entirely to the self-evidence which breathes through every sentence. A Campbell's mockery against such passages amounts to nothing.
VII.
The Book Contains Nothing New.
Relative to the objections urged against the Book of Mormon that it reveals nothing new, that it adds nothing to our Christian treasury of knowledge, in other words, the charge that it contains no revelation—I refer for answer to all that, to what I have said concerning the knowledge which the Book of Mormon imparts on so many great and important subjects in chapters xxxix and xl.
Moreover, objections based upon this plea that the Book of Mormon reveals no new moral or religious truth, is a position not well taken by Christians at least. It must be conceded that the things which Christians would be compelled to allow as the important things for men to know—the existence of God the Father; the relationship of Jesus Christ to him, and the latter's relationship to men in effecting their redemption; the means by which that redemption is achieved; the final coming and universal reign of God's kingdom on earth, etc.,—all these important truths are repeated in Christ's ministry among the Nephites.
When Messiah came to the new world he had the same announcement to make concerning himself and his relations to the world, the same ethical and spiritual doctrines to teach; and as he had been accustomed to state these doctrines in brief, aphoristic sentences while in Judea, it is not strange that the same things were given to the Nephites in their language much in the same form. In a word, he not only had the same revelation to make to the inhabitants in the western hemisphere as to those in the eastern hemisphere, the same religion to teach, and therefore, as I have already remarked, it is sameness of doctrine, identity of construction, that should be looked for rather than something new in religion and ethics.
I would also remind the Christian reader of the fact that this same alleged want of originality, this alleged lacking of that which is new, is charged against the Lord Jesus Christ both by infidels and Jews. They demand to know what moral and religious truth Jesus taught the world that was not already taught by Buddha and the Jewish Rabbis. Not only is it claimed that Christ's moral truths were borrowed from more ancient teachers, but that the principle events of his life, also, from his birth of a virgin to his crucifixion and resurrection as a God, were stolen from myths concerning old world heroes and teachers.