be so." Nevertheless, the loss of the manuscript provided opponents of Mormonism, such as the 19th century clergyman M.T. Lamb, with additional reasons to dismiss the religion as a fraud. Fawn Brodie has written that Smith "realized that it was impossible for him to reproduce the story exactly, and that to redictate it would be to invite devastating comparisons. Harris's wife taunted him: 'If this be a divine communication, the same being who revealed it to you can easily replace it.'" Ex-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner argued that the lost manuscript suggested that Smith was not a misguided individual who believed in his own creative imagination but was at least minimally aware of his own deception. Martin Harris was permitted by Smith to be one of the Three Witnesses. He mortgaged his farm for $3000 () as security in the event that the Book of Mormon did not sell, and when in fact, it did not, he lost both his farm and his wife. He later disavowed Joseph Smith, left the church, joined several different varieties of early Mormon-related congregations, then at 87 joined the LDS Church and recanted what he'd earlier said about Smith. He never disavowed the gold plates, however. See also "All About Mormons" Lehi (Book of Mormon prophet) Mosiah priority Notes References . See also: Mormonism Unvailed . ; republished in . . . . See also: History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . See also: Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations . . . . Further reading . A chapter from M. T. Lamb, The Golden Bible (1887), an early skeptical view of the lost manuscript problem. A modern skeptical analysis of the problem of the lost pages. An apologetic response from FAIR to criticisms about the 116 lost pages External links 1828 documents 1828 in Christianity 1828 in the United States 19th-century Christian texts 19th-century manuscripts Book of Mormon artifacts Book of Mormon studies Books of the Book of Mormon History of the Latter Day Saint movement Latter Day Saint terms Mormonism-related controversies Lost documents