| 485 William H. Kelley has gone on his mission. B. H. Ballowe talks of starting this week."-The Saints' Herald, vol. 12, pp. 182, 183.
On December 26 Elder J. C. Clapp wrote from Brownsville, Oregon, of an excellent interest there, saying "I never have seen so much inquiry in my life."
The last Herald of the year brought to the waiting saints the tidings that the Inspired Translation of the Holy Scriptures was at last ready for mailing, five hundred out of the first edition of five thousand having just been received at the Herald Office. We have frequently made reference in this History to the translation, preservation, and preparation of this work It was introduced to the public by an extensive and explanatory preface. 1
1 This work is given to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to the public in pursuance of the commandment of God.
As concerning the manner of translation and correction, it is evident from the manuscripts and the testimony of those who were conversant with the facts, that it was done by direct revelation from God.
It was begun in June, 1830, and was finished July 2, 1833.
Joseph Smith was born in December, 1805, and was, at the finishing of the manuscripts of this work, in the twenty-eighth year of his age.
The manuscripts, at his death, in 1844, were left in the hands of his widow, where they remained until the spring of 1866, when they were delivered to William Marks, I. L. Rogers, and William W. Blair, a committee appointed by the Annual Conference of April, 1866, to procure them for publication; and were by them delivered to the Committee of Publication, consisting of Joseph Smith, Israel L. Rogers, and Ebenezer Robinson, and are now presented as they came into our hands.
It is declared in the Book of Mormon that "many plain and precious parts" have been taken away from the Bible:-
"For behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb, many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have been taken away; and all this have they done, that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God, and after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles."-1 Book of Nephi 3:40-Book of Mormon.
This declaration is fully sustained by the following quotations from history, relative to the transmission of the Bible.
Professor William Whiston, in his translation of the works of Flavius Josephus, in a note to chapter 11 of book 9, Ant. Jews, in reference to a quotation, professedly from Nahum, says:-
"By which quotation we learn what he himself always asserts, viz.: that he made use of the Hebrew original, (and not of the Greek version;)
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