[Footnote A: "History of the Church," Vol. I, pp. 39-42.]
Joseph obeyed. He returned to his father and related the whole matter to him. Joseph Smith, Sr., was himself a serious and spiritual man. He recognized the ring of truth in the words of his son. "It is of God," he said; and thereupon he advised his son to go and do as the angel commanded him. Immediately, therefore, Joseph departed for the sacred hill that had been shown him in vision.
Not far from the town of Manchester, New York, stands a hill of considerable size. It is the largest elevation of the kind in the neighborhood. The north end of the hill rises abruptly from the plain to a height of some one hundred fifty feet. The southern end, however, rises gradually from the plain near Manchester, and ascends by easy grade until it meets the high elevation of the north. It was in the west side of the hill, not far from the top, that the golden plates were hidden. So distinctly had the Prophet seen the place in vision, that he recognized it the moment he reached it. The top of a rounded stone was exposed to view. When the earth was cleared away, the stone proved to be a kind of convex cover, thick through the middle, thinner at the edges, and flat underneath. With a lever, the Prophet pried off this lid. There, under the cover, was a box made of slabs of stone laid in cement. And there, in the box, resting on cross-pieces of stone, lay the golden plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breast-plate.
It is perhaps impossible to imagine the exhilaration of soul experienced by the young Prophet at that moment. The Father and the Son had deigned to appear to him and speak to him personally. An angel from heaven had appeared to him four times in succession, had given him great promises, and had instructed him in a life-work for which he had been chosen by the God of heaven Himself. Now he stood before the visible, tangible evidence that what he had seen and heard was no delusion. Before him lay indeed the golden book. There, too, were the sacred interpreters by means of which he should be able to translate it. There, undoubtedly, lay the Scripture containing the fulness of the Gospel. Enraptured—filled with the ecstasy of supreme joy—the boy reached forth his hand to take the sacred relics from their hiding-place.
But the hour had not yet come when these things should be revealed to the world. As Joseph stretched forth his hand to take the sacred plates, the holy angel appeared again, the fifth time, and forbade his touching them. He explained to Joseph that the time was not yet ripe for bringing the records forth. Four years were yet to pass before the plates could be delivered to him. During those four years, Joseph should come to the sacred hill on each succeeding twenty-second of September. The angel would meet him there and give him needful instruction for the consummation of his great life-mission. "Accordingly, as I had been commanded," writes the Prophet, "I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner His kingdom was to be conducted in the last days."[B]
[Footnote B: "History of the Church," Vol. I, p. 16.]
It is remarkable how deliberately the acts of the Restoration were brought about. In the spring of 1820, in answer to the boy's prayer, the great God of heaven and earth appeared Himself with His Son, Jesus Christ, to the Prophet Joseph Smith; but that glorious vision bore no further immediate fruit than the restraining of Joseph Smith from joining any of the denominations then contending for new converts. For three and a half long years, he held no further converse with heaven. He was nearly eighteen years of age, and he knew no more of many of the purposes of the Lord than did those who persecuted him for his testimony. Then a special messenger from heaven appeared to him. Three times during the night, and twice the following day, did the angel visit the boy and instruct him. Those instructions, it would seem, covered the ground of the purpose, the mission, and the government of the Kingdom of God. Surely now, the young man was prepared and might be sent forth to accomplish the work divinely appointed him. But no; yet another period of four years must pass—a period of careful preparation—before the sacred record containing the fulness of the Gospel could be delivered to the young prophet. Even then, after four years, with the golden book in the Prophet's hands, the time would not yet be fully come, as we shall see, for the restoration of the Church of Christ.
The four years passed quickly by. It was the twenty-second of September, 1827. Joseph Smith, now a young man of nearly twenty-two, stood once more before the uncovered stone box in which lay the sacred treasures of a former people. The angel, too, was there. The young prophet's four-year course of training was ended. The angel took the sacred plates, and the Urim and Thummim, and the breast-plate, and delivered them to the Prophet enjoining him to be careful of them. If he should let them go carelessly, or should lose them through any neglect of his, he should be cut off; but if he would use every endeavor to preserve them till the angel should call for them, they should be protected.[C] And so the ninth vision of the angel Moroni closed. Holding the sacred records carefully in his arms, the Prophet returned to his home, elated, thrilled with joy at the confidence reposed in him by his God.
[Footnote C: "History of the Church," Vol. I, p. 18.]
The work of translation proved a long and difficult task. The golden book was engraved in ancient Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters. Two men came, through the providence of God, to the assistance of the Prophet Joseph: first, Martin Harris; later, Oliver Cowdery. These men acted as scribes, while the Prophet read them the English translation of the strange engravings on the plates. Joseph Smith was far from being a scholar. He knew but little about his own mother-tongue, let alone the ancient languages. It is not to be wondered at, then, if the labor of translation became at times tedious, even with the help of the inspiration of the Lord. The method of translation, as explained to Oliver Cowdery, is thus described by the Lord Himself: