Hiram Page’s Witness of the Book of Mormon (Knowhy #599) – powered by Happy Scribe
Among the eight witnesses of the golden plates, the name Hyrum Page stands out as among the lesser known witnesses today, Paige married Katherine Wittmer and lived near the Wittmer farm when Joseph and Oliver were finishing the translation of the Book of Mormon. As Joseph completed, the translation page was selected to be among the eight witnesses. Like many other Latter day Saints who settled in Missouri in the late 1930s, Paige endured intense persecution in 1833. Accounts indicate that he was attacked and beaten by a mob of men who intended to kill him.
Eventually, one of the leaders of the mob proposed. If you will deny that damned Book of Mormon, we will let you go, Paige responded. How can I deny what I know to be true? The beating continued until they realized he would not revoke his testimony, so they let him go. While Paige ended up leaving the church, he remained faithful to his testimony of The Book of Mormon, despite facing economic hardships during his years out of the church.
For example, after leaving the church, he wrote As to the Book of Mormon, it would be doing injustice to myself and to the work of God of the last days to say that my mind was so treacherous that I had forgotten what I saw. After Paige’s death, his nephew said I knew him at all times and under all circumstances to be true to his testimony concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon. His son, Philander Page likewise reported.
I knew my father to be true and faithful to his testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon until the very last. Whenever he had an opportunity to bear his testimony to this effect, he would always do so and seemed to rejoice exceedingly in having been privileged to see the plates and thus become one of the eight witnesses. Page made important contributions to the restoration, even though the specific ways he had helped are not always clearly documented. His spirit of meekness made his testimony of The Book of Mormon that much more unshakable.
Whenever Page had the opportunity, he gladly bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon, which all the more helped him to endure to the end. Those who cherished the Book of Mormons witness of Christ today should likewise value and appreciate Page’s faithful testimony borne throughout his life. And now you know why.
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dyejo
