Two hundred years ago last night, further light shone into the world.

With accuracy, five illuminations spanned the evening and the morning betwixt and between the twenty-first and twenty-second of September, 1823. Five appearances of a messenger to a teenager, five pre-publication workshops between the last author of a buried tome, and his fledgling not-yet translator.

Pre-publication seems a good metaphor; a better one would be a literature review. Including:

• Part of Malachi 3
• Malachi 4
• Isaiah 11
• Acts 3: 22-23
• Joel 2 : 28-32
• Moroni’s own words

I commend all of them to your attention, with personal pleasure in Moroni’s revision of Malachi 4: 5-6:

Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

Between them, Moroni and Joseph Smith, Jr. started something marvelous between them, that two-hundred years ago evening and morning. I believe that it happened as the Prophet said it did. My witness comes both from human reason, study, and research, but also from the ineffable confirmation of the Holy Spirit.

May it also come to you.

Be well,

Spencer C. Woolley