SOURCE: "Final Words, Summary, and Conclusion," in A New Witness for Christ in America: The Book of Mormon, Brigham Young University, 1959, pp. 315-26.

In the following excerpt, originally published in 1951, Kirkham outlines five different investigations into the origin and teachings of the Book of Mormon.

This strange book, the Book of Mormon, has been before the world for one hundred and twenty years. The person who dictated its contents and secured the copyright declared, "It is not a modern composition by any man in this generation." It came forth and was translated "by the gift and power of God, to convince all men that Jesus is the Christ, manifesting himself to all nations."

Through the one hundred and twenty years since its publication, it has been a challenge to all men to investigate its origin and its teachings. It contains a promise, that the earnest seeker for the...