But first, we must inform our readers that what is known to them as “Mormonism” is founded upon a miraculous story—As that phrase is generally understood. In the year 1820 the boy Joseph Smith, in obedience to the divine injunction in the Epistle of James—“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him”—retired to the woods to ask for wisdom, to enquire which of all the contending sects of religion was acknowledged of God as his Church—which one gave a correct exposition of the plan of salvation, that he might become connected with it. And in answer to that prayer, the heavens were opened and the youth beheld the Father and the Son, The Son, being introduced to him by the Father, answered his question in relation to the religious sects of the day, and informed him that none of them were his Church or kingdom, that the Gospel had been corrupted, the law thereof transgressed, the ordinances changed, and the covenant broken; that their creeds were an abomination to him, and that his authority was not with them. The youth was strictly commanded to join none of them.

Three years subsequent to this first revelation, this same young man received the visitation of an angel, who said that he was one of the ancient prophets that lived among the ancient inhabitants of America. He had been resurrected from the dead, and was now sent to him to reveal the existence of a record of the ancient inhabitants of the American Continent; which contained not only an abridged history of those people and the source from whence they sprang, but also contained the fullness of the Gospel as taught to them by the inspired servants and prophets of God who lived among them, and by the glorified and risen Redeemer who had visited them, after leaving his disciples in Palestine.

The plates upon which this record was engraven were first shown to Joseph Smith on the 22nd of September, 1823; and four years later he received them at the hands of the heavenly messenger to translate into the English language, by means of a Urim and Thummim that had been hidden up with them. A man by the name of Oliver Cowdery, attracted by the story of Joseph Smith having the metallic plates, enquired him out, believed the declarations the boy prophet made to him, and assisted in the work of translation by becoming the scribe of the young man, who dictated to him the translation. The work of translation was completed in 1829.

Besides the testimony of the youthful prophet to the existence of this ancient record, is that of his scribe, Oliver Cowdery; David Whitmer and Martin Harris. The same heavenly messenger who revealed the existence of the record, exhibited the plates to these three men; and there were eight others to whom the Prophet Joseph himself showed the plates, and who handled them and examined the engravings thereon, and all these bear witness to what they had seen and handled. Both Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery testify that in May, 1829, while in the woods engaged in prayer, a messenger from heaven came to them and, placing his hands upon their heads, conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood, which gave them authority to preach repentance and baptize in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and there began their ministry.

The same men testify that subsequently three other heavenly messengers visited them—viz., the Apostles Peter, James and John; and conferred upon them the holy apostleship, which gave them authority to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, to organize the Church of Christ, to confer the same power upon others, and thus build up the Church in all the world, and prepare the way for the glorious appearing of the Redeemer to reign with the righteous over the whole earth.

The foregoing is the miraculous story upon what the world calls "Mormonism"—but what in reality is the restored Gospel of the Son of God—is based.