This work is a collection in three parts in defense of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compiled by Elder Rudolph Etzenhouser. The first part includes "The Book Unsealed", the second criticisms of the criticisms against the church and against the sect in Utah, and the third contains other evidences supporting the 'Missouri Mormon' faith. The time period of these works is naturally from 1830 to 1894, thus generating the title of the collection.

This is not the best resource for investigating the Mormon faith or any of its deviations. What makes this useful is its listing of other resources as evidences for the Book of Mormon and the religion it generates! However, a thorough review of the evidences indicates that much of it is mis-used in support of the faith. In actuality, the 'evidences' are used out of context, or imply the opposite of what the author intended. Also, another major downpoint of the work is its relentless criticism of contrary arguments and their presentations over the argument they present. This is a discouragement. The upswing is that it presents the view of the RLDS apologetics at the turn of the century (rare compared to the number of LDS works of the period). It is for this reason alone that I rank this 2 stars as opposed to the 1 star it truly deserves.

I bought this book with the hope of reading how top contemporary Protestant scholars address the issue of ecclesiology espoused by Rome and the Orthodox. It left me sadly disappointed. The chapter that addresses the four marks of the church defined in the nicene creed did not attempt to reconcile Protestant perceptions of those terms with the historical understanding of the council fathers. None dealt substantially with Eph 5:32. I was further saddened that one author criticized the piety of Catholics on the basis of his understanding rather than taking the time to just ask some of them why they were doing it. All guns trained against Catholicism while the Eastern Orthodox hold nearly identical views on ecclesiology. Perhaps someday a book with less rhetoric and polemic will attempt to address issues that build understanding rather than polarizing divisiveness.

This later edition of Joseph Smith and the Restoration is only a shell of the original. The first editions of this book were in large format hard back and paper back form and were produced prior to the 1973 version. The only problem is that the later edition has all of the same identification information as the original. It was requested that the book be trimmed down as it was too much for a student to digest in a semester of studies. It was further requested that all references to miracles, and specific names of players in the Missouri expulsion be removed as some of their descendents are now teaching at BYU. After the author reduced the content, what was left is a dull, dry, waste of time that leads to very little understanding of subject matter. Now, if you can find the original, that's another story altogether.