tom prevalent among that people, which is thus explained in the Book of Alma: "Now, it was the custom of the people of Nephi to call their lands, and their cities, and their villages, yea, even their small villages, after the name of him who first possessed them; and thus it was with the land of Ammonihah." —Alma, viii, 7.

To prove beyond all dispute that the land of Israel's inheritance on the Asiatic continent was called by the ancient in- | habitants of America the "Land of Jerusalem" we will quote from other passages in the Book of Mormon:

"Now when Ammon and his brethren separated themselves in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, behold Aaron took his journey towards the land which was called by the Lamanites, Jerusalem; calling it after the land of their father's nativity; and it was away joining the borders of Mormon."-Alma xxi, 1.

"And now it came to pass after I, Nephi, had made an end of teaching my brethren, our father, Lehi, also spake many things unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them, in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem. And he spake unto them, concerning their rebellions upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the

sea.

And he also spake unto them, concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained: how merciful the Lord had been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem."-2 Nephi, i, 1—3.

"Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph."-Jacob ii, 25.

In fact the expression the "Land of Jerusalem," when Canaan is meant, is used more than thirty times in the Book of Mormon; the Savior himself in his ministrations among the Nephites using this phraseology to accomodate himself to the understandings of that people. He says: "I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people

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that I would give unto

them again the land of their fathers for their inheritance, which is the land of Jerusalem, which is the promised land unto them for ever, saith the Father." 3 Nephi xx, 29. And a little farther on He adds: "Then will the Father gather them together again, and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance.-3, Nephi, xx, 33.

Objection: "In the second book of Nephi it is said: 'Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me.' [2 Nephi xxvii, 22.] We learn that when Moroni hid up the plates, he buried them in the ground in a box; so we must look for Joseph to hide them in a similar manner; but did he do it? No; for his Apostle, Taylor, says: 'Concerning the plates, Joseph had them in his possession some time,

when he got through translating, they were delivered again to the angel.' So he did not hide up the plates, as stated in the Book of Mormon, but gave them to the angel; and here is a disagreement of testimony. Really, if the angel was so willing to take charge of the plates after Joseph had got through with them, why did not Moroni give them into the hands of an angel instead of hiding them in the ground?"

The "disagreement in testimony" suggested by the objector, is simply imaginary. He is straining at a gnat. Joseph Smith both hid up the plates unto the Lord when the work of translation was finished and also delivered them unto the angel. That they are hidden must be at once acknowledged, for no mortal creature outside the Holy Priesthood, knows where to find them. So effectually are they hidden unto God (not from God) that the whole world, almost without exception, assert, that they never had an existence, and that the statements of the Prophet regarding their translation are false. The writer of the above objection asserts that when they were hidden up again it should be

"in the ground." We reply, that is where they were hidden; and that when they were so hidden the angel Moroni was present and received them into his care. It was that angel who gave them into the charge of Joseph Smith when they were taken out of the hill Cumorah, and when Joseph had performed the work of translation, assigned to him, he again deposited them in the place designated by the Heavenly Powers, and the angel Moroni again assumed ward and watch over them.

The question asked, "Why did not Moroni give them into the hands of an angel instead of hiding them in the ground?" is easily answered. In the first place, the later Nephite prophets were commanded by God to hide them in the ground; in the second place Moroni was himself the angel who took charge of them. He had charge of them, as a prophet of the Most High, when he dwelt in mortality, he has charge of them as an angel now that he is resurrected. We have no record that he ever gave them permanently into the hands of any other being; and even during the time that Joseph was translating them he occasionally received them back into his charge, when persecution or other circumstances rendered it undesirable that Joseph should retain them.

With regard to the fact that the prophets who lived during the closing years of the Nephite nation were commanded to hide up the records, we subjoin two extracts from the Book of Mormon to prove the truth of our assertion:

"And it came to pass that after three hundred and five years had passed away, (and the people did still remain in wickedness,) Amos died, and his brother Ammaron, did keep the record in his stead. And it came to pass that when three hundred and twenty years had passed away, Ammaron being constrained by the Holy Ghost, did hide up the records which were sacred; yea, even all the sacred records which had been handed down from generation to generation, which were sacred even until the three hundred and twentieth year from the coming of Christ. And he did hide them up unto the Lord,

that they might come again unto the remnant of the house of Jacob, according to the prophecies and the promises of the Lord. And thus is the end of the record of Ammaron."-4 Nephi, i, 47— 49.

"And it came to pass that when we had gathered in all our people in one to the land of Cumorah, behold I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to be the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer that the records, which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them,) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up, in the hill Cumorah, all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni."-Mormon, vi, 6.

The above objector further asserts, "that the angel did not hide them is intimated in the claim that he came down from heaven and showed the plates to the three witnesses, another proof that Joseph did not hide them." This is folly in the extreme. When the plates were shown to the three witnesses they were not then hid. The passage in the Book of Nephi which the objector quotes as the basis of his arguments, directly and unmistakably shows that the plates were not to be hidden up by Joseph until after the three witnesses had seen them. The words are, "wherefore when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and ob tained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again and hide it up unto me." The point, that because the angel came down from heaven, therefore the plates must necessarily have been with him in heaven, (which we suppose is the idea that the writer wishes to convey,) is not well taken. It is not a necessary sequence that because the angel came down from heaven and showed the witnesses the plates, therefore they must have been in heaven also; they may have been on earth. The angel came down from

heaven when he first showed them to Joseph at the time that they were safely hidden in the stone chest in the hill Cumorah. They belong to the earth, and this earth is their place.

The following extract from a sermon delivered by President Brigham Young at Farmington, June 17, 1877, will show where the plates were deposited.

"I tell these things to you, and I have a motive for doing so. I want to carry them to the ears of my brethren and sisters and to the children also, that they may grow to an understanding of some things that seem to be entirely hidden from the human family. Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates, Joseph did not translate all the plates; there | was a portion of them sealed, which you can learn from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. When Joseph got the plates, the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says that when Joseph and Oliver went there, the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which was a large and spacious room. He says he did not think at the time whether they had the light of the sun or artificial light; but that it was just as light as day. They laid the plates on a table; it was

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a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than, probably, many wagon loads; they were piled up in the corners and along the walls. The first time they went there, the sword of Laban hung upon the wall, but when they went again it had been taken down and laid upon the table across the gold plates; it was unsheathed, and on it was written these words: 'This sword will never be sheathed again until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ.' I tell you this as coming not only from Oliver Cowdery, but others who were familiar with it and who understood it just as well as we understand coming to this meeting."

Geo. Reynolds.

IMPURE

In the classification of the Indian people, the Kshatrya, or soldier is next to the Brahman in rank. His profession is to bear arms, and he is mantained from a tax, levied for the support of the government. A fourth part of the people were of this caste, who composed the military force of ancient India. This continual state of things, imposed a heavy tax upon the people, having to support one fourth of the able bodied population as soldiers, which was their calling from year to year and from generation to generation. "By a king," says Menu, "whose forces are always ready for action, the whole world may be kept in awe, let him then, by a force always ready, make

CASTES.

all creatures living his own." The kings of India had two great engines of power placed in their hands; they were masters of the army, and the public revenues were at their command. The Kshatryas having no other calling, but that of soldiers, one would naturally suppose, from their long experience, that they were military heroes, having acquired a formidable and warlike character. However, history informs us that India succumbed to every invader, and the military art of the Hindoo was next to nothing. Their infantry consisted of a multitude of people massed together, without regard to rank or file.

The third caste among the Hin