GENERAL AUTHORITIES TALK ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON

A new collection of talks and articles about the Book of Mormon by General Authorities has been added to the F.A.R.M.S. materials this month. In this issue we offer talks by Mark E. Petersen, and several articles by B. H. Roberts written between 1900 and 1911. They may be ordered on the attached Order Form.

President Benson has stressed the important, mission and use of the Book of Mormon. "Not only should we know what history and faith-promoting stories it contains, but we should understand its teachings," President Benson has stated. Many talks by General Authorities aid our faith and understanding of the Book of Mormon. Elder Petersen's talks emphasize America's destiny and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. He asks, "Dare we forget?"

Various articlles from B. H. Roberts' early studies of the Book of Mormon deal with the originality of certain teachings in the Book of Mormon, ways in which the translation of the Book of Mormon employed passages from the Bible, the plausibility of Joseph Smith's story, and the examination of texts through higher criticism. Some of these studies are now a little outdated, as Roberts knew they would become: "We need not be surprised if . . . the generations who succeed us . . . will find that we have had some misconceptions and made some wrong deductions." However, most of his insights are still very timely and over his active and probing intellect, which profoundly recognized its own limitations, reigned a monumental faith: The Book of Mormon "will resist all such conclusions of higher criticism. . . . The truth of God it will establish." Only if testimony prevails, Roberts says, will the Lord "find faith in the earth" at his coming.