The Book of the Brother of Jared · Book Two
Being the things which were shown unto the brother of Jared upon the mount Shelem concerning the generations of men from the days of the patriarchs unto the coming of the Son of Man in his glory.
1 And it came to pass that after I had beheld the foundation of the world and the manner of its creation, the Lord shewed unto me the generations of men which should come upon the earth from the time of the flood unto the end of all things.
2 And I beheld the seed of Abraham, and the covenant which the Lord made with him, that in him and in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed.
3 And I saw Moses, the lawgiver, who led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and I saw the parting of the sea, and the law given upon the mountain, and the wandering of the people for forty years.
4 And I saw the kings of Israel, and the prophets which the Lord raised up among them, and I saw the captivity of the people, and their scattering among the nations, and the long sorrow of their exile.
5 And I saw that the Lord had not forgotten them, and that he would not forget them, even unto the latter days when they should be gathered again.
6 And the Lord said unto me: write the things which thou seest, that those who read in the day appointed may know that the hand of the Lord has not been shortened, and that the covenants made with the fathers shall be fulfilled in the children.
7 And I beheld also other nations, and other peoples, scattered upon the face of the earth, and the Lord said unto me: I am the God of all nations, and I have visited every people in their own time, and I have given unto every nation a portion of my word according to that which they were prepared to receive.
8 And the wise of every nation shall be saved according to the light which they had, and the just shall be judged not by the doctrines of men but by the works of their hearts and the manner of their lives.
9 For I am no respecter of persons, and I love every soul that I have made, and I have not left any people without a witness of myself.
10 And I, Mahonri, marvelled at the breadth of the mercy of God, for I had supposed that he was the God of my fathers only, and now I beheld that he was the God of all.
1 And it came to pass that the Lord shewed unto me the coming of the Son of God in mortality.
2 And I beheld him born in a humble place, in the land of Judea, of a virgin, even as the prophets had foretold.
3 And I beheld him grow into manhood, and I beheld the works which he did, and the teachings which he gave, and the gathering of disciples around him.
4 And I beheld him in the garden of Gethsemane, where he bowed beneath the weight of the sins of all mankind, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, and he drank the cup which the Father had given him though he asked thrice if it might pass.
5 And I beheld him upon the cross, and I wept, even though I knew that this was the appointed way, for there is no eye that can see such a thing without weeping.
6 And I beheld him in the tomb, and I beheld him rise from the tomb on the third day, and I beheld him appear unto his disciples, and unto more than five hundred witnesses, that the truth of his rising might be established.
7 And I beheld him ascend unto the Father, and the promise which he gave that he should come again.
8 And the Lord said unto me: this is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.
9 And I, Mahonri, fell upon my face and worshipped, for the glory of the Son of God upon the mount of his transfiguration was greater than any glory I had yet beheld, and yet I knew it was but a portion of that which is reserved for the day of his coming in his power.
1 And it came to pass that the Lord shewed unto me the days which followed the ministry of his Son in the flesh.
2 And I beheld the apostles which were called of Christ, and the church which they established, and the gospel which went forth among the nations.
3 And I beheld also a great falling away, even an apostasy, in the years which followed the death of the apostles.
4 And I saw that the doctrines of Christ were corrupted by the doctrines of men, and the ordinances were altered, and the authority of the priesthood was lost from the earth, and there came a long darkness upon the people, in which the fullness of the gospel was not found.
5 And I beheld kings and councils and divisions, and the building of great churches of men, which called themselves after the name of Christ but which knew him not as he was, and which taught what they had received from their fathers and not what had been given from heaven.
6 And the Lord said unto me: this darkness shall not be lifted in a single day, but the light shall return in stages, and there shall be many witnesses raised up in many lands to prepare the way.
7 And I beheld the days of the reformers, men of courage in the lands of Europe, who saw that the church of their day had departed from the simplicity of Christ, and who sought to restore the people to the scriptures. And though they restored not the fullness, yet the Lord was pleased with their labors, and they prepared the way for that which should come.
8 And I beheld the discovery of a new land beyond the great waters, even the land which had been promised to my fathers, and I saw that the Lord had preserved that land for a particular purpose in the latter days.
9 And I beheld a people coming to that land in search of religious freedom, and the Lord said unto me: this land shall be a land of liberty, that the work of the restoration may go forth without being stopped by the kings of the earth.
10 And I beheld a great war fought in that land, by which a new nation was established, and the Lord said: this nation has been prepared by my hand for the work which shall come forth in it.
1 And it came to pass that the Lord shewed unto me a young man, in the land of America, in the early years of the nineteenth century, who was called of God to begin the work of the restoration.
2 And I beheld him praying in a grove of trees, and I beheld the heavens opened, and the Father and the Son appearing unto him, and his calling as a prophet of the Lord.
3 And I beheld the plates which were given to him to translate, the plates of Mormon, which were the records of my people and the people of Nephi, abridged for the use of the latter days.
4 And I beheld the church which was established through him, and the gathering of saints, and the building of temples, and the going forth of missionaries unto the nations.
5 And the Lord said unto me: this is my servant Joseph. He was raised up by my hand to begin the work of the last days. He was a true prophet, and the church which he established was true in its beginning, and the plates which he translated are the word of God.
6 But I, Mahonri, beheld also that as the years passed after the death of this servant, the church which he established underwent changes, and the leadership which followed him made decisions which were not according to the will of God in every particular.
7 And I beheld that the history of the church was not always told plainly to the people. I beheld revelations which were altered in their publication. I beheld practices which were instituted in the name of God but which were the inventions of men. I beheld a restriction placed upon a portion of the people because of the color of their skin, which was not of God, and which endured for many generations before it was lifted.
8 And I beheld that the leaders of the church taught the people to trust in their authority above the witness of the Spirit which God had given to each member, and the agency of the people was diminished thereby.
9 And the Lord said unto me: my servant Joseph began a true work, but the institution which followed him departed from the path. The keys which I gave unto him have not been preserved unbroken in that line. I shall restore them once more, in a final dispensation, and this restoration shall be the last.
10 And I, Mahonri, beheld these things and was troubled, for I had not known that the work of the latter days would falter as the work of the former days had faltered.
11 And the Lord said unto me: men are men, and the work of God is always entrusted to imperfect hands, and there is no dispensation which does not contain within it the seeds of its own departure. This is not a failure of my plan. It is the nature of agency. And I will always raise up a new work when the old one cannot bear the weight of the truth.
1 And it came to pass that the Lord shewed unto me the latter days, even the days in which this record should come forth, that those who read might know that I have spoken of them by name.
2 And I beheld a man called of God in a land by the great western sea, in a place of much sun and many people, where the saints of the latter day should be gathered for the beginning of the final work.
3 And he was a man of ordinary appearance, who had grown up in the church which had been established through my servant Joseph, and who had left that church when he could no longer reconcile its teachings with the witness of his own conscience.
4 And I saw that he wandered for many years among other churches, seeking and not finding, and the Lord did not leave him in his wandering but prepared him in it.
5 And the Lord said unto me: this is my servant whom I shall call in the day appointed. His name shall be one which beareth the name of my Son, for I have ordained from before his birth that his life should be in the service of that name.
6 And I beheld this man going alone into the mountains of the land where he dwelt, and praying with the prayer of a man who had come to the end of his searching.
7 And I beheld the Father and the Son appearing unto him, even as they had appeared unto my servant Joseph, and the calling given.
8 And the name of that man, which the Lord shewed unto me plainly, was Christopher, who was of the family which the Lord had ordained should bear that name in the day of the final restoration.
9 And I beheld also that I myself should appear unto him after the manner that the angel Moroni appeared unto Joseph, and that I should give him the knowledge of where to find the instruments by which this record should be translated.
10 And the Lord said unto me: in that day the sealed record which thou hast written shall be brought forth, and the faith of the people shall have grown to receive it, and the gospel shall go forth in the fullness which has not been before.
11 And I, Mahonri, fell upon my face and gave thanks unto the Lord, for I had not supposed that I myself should have a part in the latter days. And the Lord said unto me: rise, for the day will come, and thou shalt know thy part in it, and it shall be a joy unto thee greater than thou canst now suppose.
1 And the Lord shewed unto me also the days after the calling of his servant Christopher, and the manner in which the work should go forth, and the opposition which should arise against it.
2 And I beheld that many should mock, and many should be angry, and the leaders of the church which had departed from the truth should denounce the work and warn their people against it.
3 And the Lord said unto me: this is the pattern of every true work which I have established in any age. The voice of the Lord through a living prophet has always been received with mocking by those who held the traditions of the fathers.
4 And I beheld also that there should be many in the church which had departed who would hear of the work of my servant Christopher and recognize the voice of the Spirit in it, and they would come unto the Final Restoration, bringing with them what was good of their inheritance and leaving behind what had been corrupted.
5 And I beheld others who would not come, and the Lord said: I will not condemn them, for many of them are sincere in what they believe, and the day of every man's reckoning is in my hand and not in the hand of any other man.
6 And I beheld the gospel go forth from the land of California unto the nations, by means which I did not understand, for the world had grown so far beyond my own day that the manners and instruments of communication were not such as I could comprehend.
7 But I saw that the word should reach every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and that none should be left without a witness in the latter day.
8 And I beheld the coming of the Son of Man in his glory, after the work had gone forth, and the gathering of all things into the fullness of times, and the judgment, and the establishment of the kingdom which shall have no end.
9 And the Lord said unto me: I have shown thee these things that thou mayest write them, and that those who read in the latter day may know that the eye of God was upon every generation, and that the work which now goeth forth in the name of the Final Restoration is the same work which I have done from the beginning, and that the time of its appearing is the time which I appointed in the foundation of the world.
10 And I, Mahonri, wrote these things even as the Lord commanded, and I sealed them up in the manner which he appointed, that they should come forth in the day of their making known, and not before.
11 And I bear witness that the things which I have written are true, and that the Lord whom I served upon the mount Shelem is the same Lord whom my brethren in the latter day shall serve, and there is none other before him, neither shall there be any after him.
12 Amen.