B. H. Roberts republishes material affirming the historicity, inspiration, and purpose of the Book of Mormon.
B. H. Roberts, The Seventy's Course in Theology, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1931), 149, 178–179
4. The Manner of Translating the Book of Mormon: The sum of the whole matter, then, concerning the manner of translating the sacred record of the Nephites, according to the testimony of the only witnesses competent to testify is: With the Nephite record was deposited a curious instrument, consisting of two transparent stones, set in the rim of a bow, somewhat resembling spectacles, but larger, called by the ancient Hebrews “‘Urim and Thummim’’, but by the Nephites ‘Interpreters’. In addition to these ‘Interpreters’ the Prophet Joseph had a ‘‘Seer Stone”’, possessed of similar qualities to the Urim and Thummim; that the prophet sometimes used one and sometimes the other of these sacred instruments in the work of translation; that whether the ‘Interpreters’ or the “Seer Stone’ was used the Nephite characters with the English interpretation appeared in the sacred instrument; that the Prophet would pronounce the English translation to his scribe, which when correctly written would disappear and the other characters with their interpretation take their place, and so on until the work was completed. It should not be supposed, however, that this translation though accomplished by means of the ‘Interpreters’ and “‘Seer Stone’, as stated above, was merely a mechanical procedure; that no faith, or mental or spiritual effort was required on the Prophet’s part; that the instruments did all, while he who used them did nothing but look and repeat mechanically what he saw there reflected. I repeat, then, that the translation of the Book of Mormon by means of the “‘Interpreters’” and ‘Seer Stone’, was not merely a mechanical process, but required the utmost concentration of mental and spiritual force possessed by the Prophet, in order to exercise the gift of translation through the means of the sacred instruments provided for that work. ‘This might be inferred from the general truth that God sets no premium upon mental and spiritual laziness; for whatever means God may have provided to assist man to arrive at the truth, he has always made it necessary for him to couple with those means his utmost endeavor of mind and heart (New Witnesses for God, Vol. II, ch. vii).
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3. The Book of Mormon Ensemble a Witness for the Truth of the Hebrew and Christian Revelation: It is, however, the Book of Mormon as a whole in which its greatest value as a witness for the truth of the Bible, and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, most appears. I mean the Book of Mormon apart from its reference to an abridgment of the ancient record of the Jaredites; and the transcriptions from the ancient record on brass plates carried by Lehi’s colony to the western world. In the Book of Mormon so considered we have the record of the hand-dealings of God with the peoples that inhabited the western hemisphere. We have in it the record of those things which occurred in a branch of the house of Israel that God was preparing for the same great event for which he was training the house of Israel in the eastern world, viz., the advent of the Messiah, and the acceptance of the gospel through which all mankind are to be saved. This branch of the house of Israel, broken from the parent tree and planted in the western hemisphere, brought with them the traditions and hopes of Israel; they brought with them, as we have already seen, the scriptures, the writings of Moses and the prophets down to the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah; but what is more important than all this they came to the western world with the favor and blessing of Israel’s God upon them, and Israel’s peculiar privilege of direct communication with God through inspired dreams, the visitation of angels, and the voice of God. Lehi’s colony was led to the western world by prophets, inspired of the Lord, their journey being marked by many and peculiar manifestations of his presence among them. After their arrival in the western world, to them a land of promise, the Lord from time to time raised up prophets among them, who instructed them in the ways of the Lord; who reproved them when overtaken in transgression; who announced judgments against them when persuasion was of no avail for their correction; who warned them by the spirit of prophecy of approaching disasters; and who held. continually before them the hope of Israel, the advent of the Messiah, who, by his suffering and death on the cross, would redeem mankind.
It was much in this manner and for the same purpose that God dealt with his people in the eastern world; and the fact that his course with the people on the western hemisphere was substantially the same as that followed with those of the east, establishes at once his justice and mercy towards his children, and bears testimony to the great truths that indeed God is no respecter of persons, and that in every land he raises up for himself witnesses of his power and goodness.