Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer testimony of Book of Mormon
when their lives were in danger: “In 1833, when mobbing reigned triumphant in
Jackson Co. Mo. I and O. Cowdery fled from our homes, for fear of personal
violence on Saturday the 20th day of July.
The mob dispersed, agreeing to meet again on the next Tuesday. They offered eighty dollars reward for anyone
who would deliver Cowdery or McLellan in Independence on Tuesday. On Monday, I slipped down into the Whitmer’s
settlement, and there in the lonely woods I met with David Whitmer and Oliver
Cowdery. I said to them, “brethren I
have never seen an open vision in my life, but you men say you have, and
therefore you positively know. Now you
know that our lives are in danger every hour, if the mob can only catch
us. Tell me in the fear of God, is that
book of Mormon true? Cowdery looked at
me with solemnity depicted in his face, and said, “Brother William, God sent
his holy angel to declare the truth of the translation of it to us, and
therefore we know. And though the mob
kill us, yet we must die declaring its truth.”
David said, “Oliver has told you the solemn truth, for we could not be
deceived. I most truly declare to you
its truth!!” Said I, boys I believe
you. I can see no object for you to tell
me false hood now, when our lives are endangered. Eight men testify also to handling that
sacred pile of plates, from which Joseph Smith read off the translation that
heavenly Book. (Mitchell K. Schaefer, ed., William E. McLellin’s Lost
Manuscript” (Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2012), 166-167
