can ignore neither the man nor his work; for the Church under
consideration has risen from the testimony solemnly set forth and
the startling declarations made by this person, who, at the time
of his earliest announcements, was a farmer's boy in the first
half of his teens. If his claims to ordination under the hands
of divinely commissioned messengers be fallacious, forming as
they form the foundation of the Church organization, the
superstructure cannot stand; if, on the other hand, such
declarations be true, there is little cause to wonder at the
phenomenally rapid rise and the surprising stability of the
edifice so begun.

Joseph Smith was born at Sharon, Vermont, in December, 1805. He
was the son of industrious parents, who possessed strong
religious tendencies and tolerant natures. For generations his
ancestors had been laborers, by occupation tillers of the soil;
and though comfortable circumstances had generally been their
lot, reverses and losses in the father's house had brought the
family to poverty; so that from his earliest days the lad Joseph
was made acquainted with the pleasures and pains of hard work.
He is described as having been more than ordinarily studious for
his years; and when that powerful wave of religious agitation and
sectarian revival which characterized the first quarter of the
last century, reached the home of the Smiths, Joseph with others
of the family was profoundly affected. The household became
somewhat divided on the subject of religion, and some of the
members identified themselves with the more popular sects; but
Joseph, while favorably impressed by the Methodists in comparison
with others, confesses that his mind was sorely troubled over the
contemplation of the strife and tumult existing among the