E25: The Book of the Law of the Lord

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:12)
Let my father, Don Carlos, and Alvin, and children that I have buried, be brought and laid in the tomb I have built. Let my mother and my brother and my sisters be laid there also, and let it be called the tomb of Joseph, a descendant of Jacob. And when I die, let me be gathered to the tomb of my father. There are many souls whom I have loved stronger than death. To them, I have proved faithful. To them, I am determined to prove faithful until God calls me to resign up my breath.
Joseph Smith, The Book of the Law of the Lord.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:43)
Alvin, my oldest brother, I remember well the pangs of sorrow that swelled my youthful bosom and almost burst my tender heart when he died. He was the oldest and the noblest of my father's family. He was one of the noblest of the sons of men. Shall his name not be recorded in this book?
Joseph Smith, The Book of the Law of the Lord, August 23, 1842 Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:21)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:22)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:49)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:54)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:03)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
Don't worry, all you cool cats and kittens. I hope you won't let the quotes at the beginning of this episode scare you. And also, I'm very sorry that Carol got kicked off dancing. What are we going to do?
No, this isn't a ghost story or some creepy attempt to talk about death right before Halloween. I know we started this episode with talks of tombs and death and all that, but if you're Joseph Smith, it's just another day in paradise. Which is kind of how we want to start off this season, talking about the Nauvoo period. And there's no better way to do that than to talk about, drum roll please, the Book of the Law of the Lord.
But what is this book? All right, think back to fifth grade. Your mom bought you a killer skateboard trapper keeper at Shopco. You had a very specific vision for how it would be organized. Fast forward two weeks and what did you have? Pure chaos, friends. Okay, now you're in the right mindset to envision the Book of the Law of the Lord. Joseph Smith was shoving all sorts of things in it during the first few years in Nauvoo. Run of the Mill diary entries, running from the law, vengeance for your enemies, love for your fam, work for your frenemies, buying stuff and talking about it, all the donations of dollars and chickens rolling in and building temples. All of this and more is the type of stuff that gets recorded in a very special book of early Mormonism. That is nearly forgotten today, the Book of the Law of the Lord.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:16)
Not only does it have a cool name, you should see the cover art. I'm completely serious.
If you think general conference quotes with scrolly fonts that make the rounds on Pinterest after a conference are super cute, well, then you really need to see the way that early Mormon Robert B. Thompson can write a title page. And he can write a title page. The Book of the Law of the Lord with Lord, the word Lord being written in the most delightful old English pub font is something you all need to see.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:44)
And we all know if Lindsay finds something in a cool font from early Mormonism, it's likely to end up on a tattoo for her.
Seriously, I've been in this discussion. You can take the girl out of Mormonism, dot, dot, dot.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:58)
To be clear, we are not talking about the Book of the Law of the Lord, which is a stringite book of scripture where adherents believed it was translated by stringite founder and prophet James String from the brass plates of Laban that Nephi was said to have gotten after getting a little Dan Lafferty on Brother Laban.
How exactly did String claim to have translated it? This is where it gets great. He claimed to have access to the yurm and thummim. If you're keeping track, yes, that yurm and thummim and say that three times fast. I'm having a hard time saying yurm and thummim. It's the tongue twister that every Mormon hates to read in their sacrament talk.