"To Harris's surprise, Joseph told him the angel had revealed that Harris was to assist in the translation. 'If it is the devil's work,' Harris answered, 'I will have nothing to do with it; but if it is the Lord's, you can have all the money necessary to bring it before the world.' 'You must not blame me for not taking your word,' he added. Harris hefted the box containing the plates and went home. He later said that he went to his bedroom, prayed, and was shown by God that 'it was his work, and that it was designed to bring in the fullness of his gospel to the gentiles....He showed this to me by the still small voice spoken in the soul.'
(Later)
Whitmer was plowing the field when Joseph and Cowdery came to say they were to seek a witness that day. Whitmer tied his team to the fence, and when Harris joined them, the four men entered the nearby woods. They had agreed to take turns praying, first Joseph, then the other three. The first attempt brought nothing, and they tried again. Again nothing. Before they made a third attempt, Harris offered to leave, saying he was the obstacle. The remaining three knelt again and before many minutes, according to their account, saw a light in the air over their heads. An angel appeared with the plates in his hands. David Whitmer said the breastplate, Lehi's Liahona, and the sword of Laban lay on the table. He heard the angel say, 'Blessed is he that keepeth His commandments.' That was all Whitmer could remember him saying. Then a voice out of the light said, 'These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God; the translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.' Cowdery later said: 'I beheld with my eyes. And handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also beheld the Interpreters'.
After the appearance to Cowdery and Whitmer, Joseph went searching for Harris, who had gone further into the woods. Harris asked Joseph to pray with him, and at length, they later reported, their desires were fulfilled. Joseph said he saw the same vision as before, and Harris cried out 'in ecstasy of Joy': 'Tis enough; 'tis enough; mine eyes have beheld.' At the close of the vision he jumped up, shouted 'Hosanna,' and blessed God."
Bushman, Richard L. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. 1st ed., New York, NY, Vintage Books, 2007.
Brodie -
"One of the most plausible descriptions of the manner in which Joseph Smith obtained these eight signatures was written by Thomas Ford, Governor of Illinois, who knew intimately several of Joseph's key men after they became disaffected and left the church. They told Ford that the witnesses were 'set to continual prayer, and other spiritual exercises.' Then at last 'he assembled them in a room, and produced a box, which he said contained the precious treasure. The lid was opened; the witnesses peeped into it, but making no discovery, for the box was empty, they said, 'Brother Joseph, we do not see the plates.' The prophet answered them, 'O ye of little faith! how long will God bear with this wicked and perverse generation? Down on your knees brethren, every one of you, and pray God for the forgiveness of your sins, and for a holy and living faith which cometh down from heaven.' The disciples dropped to their knees, and began to pray in the fervency of their spirit, supplicating God for more than two hours with fanatical earnestness; at the end of which time, looking again into the box, they were now persuaded that they saw the plates."
Brodie, Fawn M. No Man Knows My History. 2nd ed., New York, NY, Vintage Books, 1973.
Notes of Interest:
Brodie is quoting and paraphrasing from History of Illinois (Chicago, 1854), p. 257
Whitmer would later recount his experience as being "in the spirit" and as an "impression the Quaker [receives] when the spirit moves."
Hamilton Newspaper, January 21, 1881; Kingston (Missouri) Times, December 16, 1887; "David Whitmer Interview with John Murphy, June 1880," Dan Vogel, ed., Early Morning Documents Signature Books, 2003, vol. 5, p. 63.
Letter of David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalf, March 1887, cit. Anthony Metcalf, Ten Years Before the Mast (Malad, Idaho, 1888) p. 74; cited in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1981) p. 86.
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