John A. Clark reports how a "gentleman in Palmyra" was informed by Martin Harris that he saw the plates "with the eye of faith."

Date
Aug 31, 1840
Type
Letter
Source
John A. Clark
Critic
Non-LDS
Hearsay
Scribed Summary
Reprint
3rd Hand
Reference

John A. Clark, letter August 31, 1840, to Dear Brethren in John A. Clark, Gleanings By the Way (Philadelphia: W. J. & J. K. Simon, 1842), 256-57

Scribe/Publisher
W. J. & J. K. Simon, John A. Clark
People
Martin Harris, John A. Clark, Joseph Smith, Jr.
Audience
Reading Public
PDF
Transcription

To know how much this testimony [of three witnesses] is worth I will state one fact. A gentleman in Palmyra, bred to the law, a professor of religion, and of undoubted veracity told me that on one occasion, he appealed to Harris and asked him directly,—“Did you see those plates?” Harris replied, he did. “Did you see the plates, and the engraving on them with your bodily eyes?” Harris replied, “Yes, I saw them with my eyes,—they were shown unto me by the power of God and not of man.” “But did you see them with your natural,—your bodily eyes, just as you see this pencil-case in my hand? Now say no or yes to this.” Harris replied,—“Why I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see any thing around me,—though at the time they were covered over with a cloth.”

Copyright © B. H. Roberts Foundation
The B. H. Roberts Foundation is not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.