WHAT’S in a name? there has been more
Than at first sight perhaps was read;
Imposture, by the name it bore.
Has warned us not to be misled.
Mormon, deceiving and deceived,
Relying on a book absurd,
And written not to be believed,
Telling its falsehood in the word:
God’s Bible, book of Jasher named, (Josh.10:13)
The book of truth and uprightness,
Mormon means lying, then ashamed,
The folly of thy faith confess!
See prophecy’s fulfillment due,
Dupe of deceit so false and hollow,
In thee the words of Christ, come true,
False Christs shall rise and many follow (Matt. 24:5, 24)
[ In the language of the Old Testament, Jasher means upright, correct, authentic, 'Mormon' means deceit. The word is so used in Psalms 40:1, 50:19 and 52:1, as well as in other places. Spaulding, the writer of the book of Mormon, afterward brought forward by [Joseph] Smith, had been a preacher, and in reading for his sermons may have met with the word so explained, and have used it intentionally, to denote an invention, as we might call a collection of fables the book of Esop.]