[Republished BOA Text from Times and Seasons]

We give in this day’s paper, a very curious chapter from the “Book of Abraham,” which we find published in the last number of a weekly journal, called the “Times and Seasons,” conducted by Joseph Smith the great Mormon Prophet, in the city of Nauvoo, Hancock county, Illinois.

The prophet says that it was found in the catacombs of Egypt, but he is mistaken in this idea.—The article was discovered, we presume by Joseph Smith, the grandfather, near one of the propylons of Medinet Abu, in the “City of the Sun,” in upper Egypt—the same city which Homer says had one hundred gates. Champollion, Young, Rosselini, and various other antiquarians give notices of the magnificient ruins, in red granite, that are strewn over the banks of the Nile. Be all this as it may, the Prophet of Nauvoo has given the chapter, and it is set down as a revelation among the Mormons.

This Joe Smith is undoubtedly one of the greatest characters of the age. He indicates as much talent, originality, and moral courage as Mahomet, Odin, or any of the great spirits that have hitherto produced the revolutions of past ages. In the present infidel, irreligious, material, ideal, geological, animal-magnetic age of the world, some such singular prophet as Joe Smith is required to preserve the principle of faith, and to plant some new germs of civilization that may come to maturity in a thousand years. While modern philosophy, which believes in nothing but what you can touch, is overspreading the Atlantic States, Joe Smith is creating a spiritual system, combined also with morals and industry, that may change the destiny of the race.—Joe believes himself divinely inspired and worker of miracles. He cures the sick of diseases—so it is said:—and although Joe is not aware of the fact, we have been informed by a medical man that his influence over nervous disorders, arises from a powerful magnetic influence—that Joe is a magnet in a large way, which he calls a power or spirit from heaven. In other respects Joe is a mighty man of God—possessing large stores of human nature—great shrewdness, and as he has taken the management of the Mormon newspaper organ, the “Times and Seasons” into his hand, we look for many revelations, and some curious ones too, pretty soon.

We certainly want some such prophet to start up, take a big hold of the public mind—and stop the torrent of materialism that is hurrying the world into infidelity, immorality, licentousness, and crime.— Professor Lyell, Richard Adams Locke, Dr. Brisbane, Master Emmerson, Prophet Brownson, Horace Greely, and all the materialists of the age, ought to take a leaf of common sense out of Joe’s book.