Authority Giveth Enduring Power

— EDITOR'S TABLE. AUTHORITY GIVETH ENDURING POWER. Men of the world are generally applauded for their works, while men divinely appointed often receive the persecutions of their fellows. The truth of this was never more plainly exemplified than in comparing the lives and works of men who have sought merely to imitate some of the features of the true Church of Christ, with the lives and labors of the leaders of that Church the Latter-day Saints. The former have received aid and sympathy from men of the world, while the latter have been hampered and persecuted. Bat for all this, there is no truth plainer than that the imitators soon fail, while the true Church — the work of — the Lord and his Saints has gone on, and will continue to endure. Why is this? Because, behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there is divine authority. This is not found in those who imitate either its spiritual or its temporal features; and hence, in their efforts, no matter how aided by the world, there is no enduring substance. Further, the Church has two characteristics — the temporal and the spiritual, and one is not without the other. We maintain that both are essential, and that one without the other is incomplete and ineffectual. Hence the Lord instituted in the government of the Church two priesthoods — the Lesser or Aaronic, having special charge of the temporal,and the Higher or Melchizedek, looking to the spiritual welfare of the people. In all the history of the Church, there has never been a time when considerable attention was not given to temporal affairs, in the gathering places of the

EDITOR'S TABLE. 621 Saints, under all the leaders up to the present time, as witness the building of Kirtland, the settlements of Missouri, Nauvoo, and the founding of cities and towns in the far west, our present home. The Saints have lived, and helped each other to live; have worked out their temporal salvation with zeal and energy, but withal have neither neglected nor forgotten the spiritual essence of the great work inaugurated l»y divine order, as witness their temples, and other houses of worship, that have marked their every abiding place. And so, while we have devoted much time to temporal affairs, it has always been with a view to better our spiritual condition, it being apparent that the temporal, rightly understood, is a great lever by which spiritual progress may be achieved, in this earthly sphere of action. Besides, we have come to understand that all we do is indeed spiritual, for, before the Father, there is no temporal. Hence, in our labors of redeeming the waste places, building homes, erecting temples and houses of worship, there is a strong spiritual vein underlying the outward temporal covering. Permeating every action of the Latter-day Saints is this spirit of the gospel, giving life and vigor and endurance thereto. It was this faith which led them through the trials of Kirtland, the misfortunes of Missouri, the exodus from Nauvoo, and which upheld them through the dreary days of Winter Quarters and the plains. It has brought them, one of a city, and two of a family, from the states of our own nation, and from the distant nations of the earth, to their homes in the mountains. It is the sealing power that binds them together; that enables them to rejoice in tribulation as in happiness, in adversity as in prosperity. Whatever they have built by their toil and faith, will endure, for it approaches the perfect, being composed of both temporal and spiritual. Looking through the dressing of their temporalities, one sees the spirit of eternal life,— the enduring substance. For this reason they have been able to endure, and will be able to endure, their great fight of afflictions, and have taken joyfully reproaches, and the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they have the better and enduring substance. who have sought to imitate features But, returning to those —temporal and spiritual— of the work of the Lord: as an example,

a recent magazine article, sent to me by some person, for what reason I know not, names the founder of the Shilohists as a wonderful man. He has built a temple without means, having started it with only a few cents and with his hands and a wheelbarrow. It recounts that wealthy men and others came to his assistance; money came freely into his possession, until he was able to finish a splendid building, "The Gates of Praise," which cost $250,000. Much is also made of the fact that he has traveled to Europe and other places without purse or scrip, proclaiming his mission. He always found that the Lord provided; and he returned, having visited many cities, promoting his work with much success. He has founded a community who are devout, and who are said to "live the Bible;" and furthermore, who have been called upon, two by two, with staff and scrip, to start out into the world. But with all, there is no provision for the temporal life, and no recognized authority from God; hence, as with many others who have begun communities under these conditions, when the founder dies or passes into disrepute, disintegration must follow. How many examples might not be recalled, whether with temporal or spiritual imitators, in which this has been the case! They, and others living, are faint imitators only of the work of the Lord established by the Prophet Joseph Smith, with calling, power, and authority from on high. They lack this power, this authority, and hence their works are short-lived and incomplete, even if they are fostered, petted and assisted by the wealthy. The practical value of truth depends largely upon who stands behind it. The Prophet Joseph, persecuted and reviled of men, as are his followers, accomplished all that his imitators have achieved, and more, with the difference, that his work has gone on from the first, and will continue to grow steadily to the time of the redemption of the world, for it was instituted of God, the Eternal Father, and is permeated by the living power of his Holy Spirit. It is not a dead form, nor a temporary fad, excitement or experiment, but the true religion of Jesus Christ, in which the fruits of the Spirit are manifest: peace, love, virtue, honesty, integrity, spiritual and temporal helpfulness, and fidelity to every known virtue in the law of our Savior. It is a practical, every-day, common-sen^^e religion, which will enable men and women who will bow to its man-