- Mr. Harris having returned from this tour, he left me and went home to Palmyra, arranged his affairs, and returned again to my house about the twelfth of April, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, and commenced writing for me while I translated from the plates, which we continued until the fourteenth of June following, by which time he had written one hundred and sixteen pages of manuscript on foolscap paper. Some time after Mr. Harris had began to write for me, he began to tease me to give him liberty to carry the writings home and show them, and desired of me that I would inquire of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim if he might not do so. I did inquire, and the answer was that he must not. However, he was not satisfied with this answer and desired that I should inquire again. I did so, and the answer was as before. Still, he could not be contented, but insisted that I should inquire once more. After much solicitation I again inquired of the Lord and permission was granted him to have the writings on certain conditions, which were that he show them only to his brother Preserved Harris, his own wife [Lucy Harris Harris], his father [Nathan Harris], and his mother [Rhoda Lapham Harris], and a Mrs. [Polly Harris] Cobb, a sister to his wife. In accordance with this last answer I required of him that he should bind himself in a covenant to me in the most solemn manner that he would not do otherwise than had been directed. He did so. He bound himself as I required of him, took the writings and went his way.
- Notwithstanding, however, the great restrictions which he had been laid under, and the solemnity of the covenant which he had made with me, he did show them to others and by stratagem they got them away from him, and they never have been recovered nor obtained back again until this day. In the meantime, while Martin Harris was gone with the writings, I went to visit my father’s family at Manchester. I continued there for a short season and then returned to my place in Pennsylvania. Immediately after my return home I was walking out a little distance, when behold, the former Heavenly messenger appeared and handed to me the Urim and Thummim again (for it had been taken from me in consequence of my having wearied the Lord in asking for the privilege of letting Martin Harris take the writings which he lost by transgression) and I inquired of the Lord through them and obtained the following revelation:
Part 9 (April–July 1828)