Attempting to address five questions about the Book of Mormon propounded by an Eastern letter-writer, he wrote three different pieces of a manuscript not intended for publication. Without becoming entangled in the question of what this private document signified, we can state that none of the specific questions, all based on false assumptions, has proved fatal to the Book of Mormon, and each of them is in a different position in the 1990s than it was in the 1920s. Roberts continued to use the Book of Mormon in his preaching, his missionary work, and the two great works he completed during these years.

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B. H. Roberts was a deeply spiritual, inspired man, a zealous student, but essentially an amateur. He was a creature of his time. He can scarcely be faulted for failing to meet the standards of a generation not his own. If he had lived another sixty years, one can well imagine his enthusiastic participation in the continuing study of the Book of Mormon. To judge from his response to challenges during his lifetime, he would eagerly engage critics who came to the subject with inadequate understanding of the complexity of the Book of Mormon; would point out inconsistencies among the critics; would note generational changes in scholarly conclusions. He would, I believe, continue to argue that the case for the prosecution is far from being so massive as to require capitulation.

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But for Roberts “suspending judgment” meant simply that the scholarly evidence did not allow, much less require, a rejection of the Book of Mormon. As for the personal conviction of B. H. Roberts, that did not depend on the fallible and shifting interpretations of scholars, and that—to judge from the testimony of his ministry and his powerful sermons—was built on a rock.