“You Must Rely upon My Word”
Doctrine and Covenants 17:1
1 Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea.
Elder Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjödahl wrote:
“Only by faith could they [the Three Witnesses] obtain the privilege they desired. Faith is the force by which everything in the Kingdom of God takes place. By faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain; by faith Enoch was translated; by faith Noah was warned of the Flood; by faith Abraham received Isaac back from the dead, figuratively speaking [see Hebrews 11], and by faith the Three Witnesses saw the Book of Mormon plates.
“. . . The records were engraved on plates which had the appearance of gold. Each plate was nearly seven by eight inches in width and length, being not quite as thick as common tin. They had engravings on both sides and were bound together in a volume as the leaves of a book, and fastened at one edge with three rings running through the whole. The volume was about six inches in thickness, and part of it was sealed [see Andrew Jenson, ed., “Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” The Historical Record, Jan. 1888, p. 363].”
(The Doctrine and Covenants Commentary, rev. ed. [1951], 77.)
