Editor’s Table: Order of the Priesthood

Editor's Table. Order of the Priesthood.* BY PRESIDENT. ANTHON H. LUND. Wherefore now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence. He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved, shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen. (Doc. and Gov. 107: 99-100.) Thus saith the Lord. In these two paragraphs each one is enjoined to do his duty. I was really pleased this morning to see this nice lot of young boys rise up as members of the Church, holding the Aaronic Priesthood. Boys, it is a good beginning. I was pleased with the remarks of Brother Cannon, and I hope you will remember them, and remember the precious words spoken by President Smith, who has shown unto us the great value of holding the priesthood. You boys may not today appreciate how valuable is the priesthood you hold. When you go out into the world on missions you will see how the people of the world honor their priests in different nations, how they look up to them, and especially if they hold high offices. Yet, let me tell you, boys, that not any of the greatest prelates in the world's religions holds the degree of priesthood that you do, for the priesthood of God has not been received by them. What they hold is man-given, but you, my young friends, and you brethren, all of you, hold a priesthood that has come from heaven * Delivered before the Granite Stake priesthood meeting, May 28> 1910.

EDITOR'S TABLE. and been conferred by angels to men upon the earth. When we hold the priesthood we are recognized as servants of the Most High. We hold the priesthood, his commission unto man. What manner of men ought we to be to have been honored with the priesthood— the Melchizedek priesthood, the priesthood after the order of the Son of God? You, my young friends, who hold the Aaronic priesthood, which is an appendage of the higher priesthood, will understand, by and by, more fully the value of these callings and of the authority placed upon you. There have been more keys of the priesthood given unto this generation than to any other generation who have lived upon the earth. The apostles in ancient times held the priesthood. They traveled with the Savior himself, listened to the inspired words spoken by the Master, and were taught by him direct, but the dispensation of the fulness of times had not yet come into the world The dispensation of Christ had a special object. The Savior came with a mission to fulfil the covenants made in the eternal councils, to redeem the world by giving his life as a sacrifice for sin, to establish his gospel among men, to teach the better and the higher law. But we are told by Paul that there was a time coming in which men would not listen to sound doctrine, and in which the Savior said, they would think they were doing God a service by killing his servants. That time did come, and the Lord in his mercy took the gospel from the earth for a time, and took the priesthood away until the time should come when the dispensation of the fulness of times should be ushered in. We are convinced that the Lord has established this great work, and that the Prophet Joseph has been hid in Christ until the time when he should perform the great mission of introducing his last and wonderful dispensation. Keys have been given unto us that were not used by, or given to, those of other dispensations. They knew about them, gave hints concerning them, but to us these keys have been given, and we have used them and are using them every day. Not only are the keys of the priesthood used for the living, but also for the dead. I have no doubt that the apostles understood the use of these keys in those days, but as that dispensation opened, the Lord saw it would not be a blessing to make it a permanent one, because the people would reject it and draw more

934 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . condemnation upon themselves; and hence, many of these things were not introduced. Temple building was not introduced in the days of the apostles. They did not build meetinghouses. They simply preached unto the men and women whom they met, and they established the great fact that Jesus had been born, that he had lived upon the earth, and performed miracles, had taught the true principles of the gospel, had suffered for all mankind, and had been crucified and was resurrected. They preached these truths and they were accepted by a great number of the people, but the majority rejected the priesthood, and the men that held the apostleship were slain and others usurped their places. The truths of the gospel had been written by the evangelists and apostles, and have come down to us through the ages, and have worked great good among men; but the great blessing of possessing the priesthood, which this body of men do possess, was not enjoyed for many hundred years. The Catholics claim succession from Peter the Apostle through a line of bishops who resided at Rome. They further claim that as John the Revelator was still living, and did not interfere with che proceedings of these bishops, he must have acknowledged them as legitimate leaders of the Church. Now, I have used that argument in just the opposite way. John the Revelator, the beloved disciple of the Master, lived more than thirty years after the martyrdom of Peter. I have tried to show that when they claim a succession through bishops, when an apostle was living, they do not understand the order of the priesthood. If the bishop of Rome was the successor of Peter, John, who held the apostleship, would be subject to a bishop, and that never has been and never will be the order of the priesthood. John, being alive and holding the keys of the High Priesthood, was an apostle, and no bishop chosen by men could be set up to preside over him. They show their weakness in claiming a succession through bishops when the Lord had an apostle upon the earth. Now, did the Lord acknowledge the bishop in Rome as his vicegerent on the earth? 1 certainly claim he did not, for when he had revelations to give, and had commands to send to different branches of the Church, he did not reveal himself to the bishop in Rome, but he revealed himself to John, his beloved apostle, who was

EDITOR'S TABLE. 935 then in banishment on the Isle of Patmos. He was the man recognized by heaven and by his Master as the one who held the keys upon the earth, and John imparted the instructions of the Lord to those branches of the Church, and he gave the members encouragement and reproof. The Lord used his servant, the apostle, years after there had been bishops appointed in Rome, in fact, after several of them had been appointed and died. He that holds the keys of the High Priesthood and presides over it will never be subjected to the presidency of a bishop, for that is not the order of that priesthood. When you look at the organization of the priesthood, how perfect it is! That priesthood will not be taken away from the earth again nor will it be given to another people. There are people in our day who claim to get it through lineage. The Lord says that it shall not be taken from this people and given to another people. A lot of men who were too weak to follow the destinies of the Church in its poverty and its exile, have tried to establish a church for themselves, and at last got the consent of the Prophet's son to be their leader and president. What had the mass of the people done that they should forfeit the right of presidency and of having the Church amongst them? I have not heard one argument that was worth anything against our people. They say that our people did not build the temple, in the time that was allotted them, and therefore the Lord rejected them and gave th-3 authority to others — to men who did not assist in temple building and do not build temples now. What an inconsistent, unreasonable idea and argument! The Lord has accepted this people. Just think, when the Saints knew that the temple would not be kept in their hands and that they had to leave their city, they still continued in their work until the temple was dedicated. The keys of the priesthood were bestowed in that temple, and endowments given, and the people felt blessed although they made such a great sacrifice, for they spent most of a million dollars in erecting that building, and then had to leave it. Their faith was sublime, and the Lord accepted their sacrifice. Now brethren, let us remember these words that I read. "Let every man learn his duty," and do as the great commander Nelson said, at the beginning of the battle, "Today England expects every

936 IMPROVEMENT ERA. man to do his duty." So today our heavenly Father expects every man holding the priesthood to do his duty, and we must do our duties. If they are onerous, if they are sometimes hard to perform, do not let us shirk, do not let us be slothful, for, "He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand," and unless we stand to the last, the crown will not be ours. And my dear sisters, to you also is the command that every one of you must do your duty and be diligent that you may stand, for you are called to perform most important duties, and the Lord will bless you in them. He will give you joy in them, and your work will tend just as much towards upbuilding the kingdom of God as the duties performed by our brethren. All join together in the great work of building up the kingdom of God upon the earth. God bless you all. Amen. Messages from the Missions. Under date of June 3, 1910, Elder Ray L. Pratt, president of the Mexican mission, writing to the Deseret News from Calzada de Santa Maria, Mexico, gives an incident of the goodness of the Lord towards the Latter-day Saints and his divine and protecting care over them in an epidemic of sickness. He says: ' 'The elders and Saints of the Chalco conference have been greatly blessed of the Lord, and miraculously preserved during the epidemic of smallpox which has raged for the last six months in Ozumba, where the elders of that conference have their headquarters, and surrounding towns. The civil register of Ozumba alone shows 700 deaths from smallpox, during the time mentioned, and although the dreaded disease has been in the home of nearly every family of Saints residing in those towns, not a single death of the Saints from the disease has been registered. And although the elders, through their ministrations to the people and Saints, have been exposed daily, none of them has contracted the disease. Some remarkable cases of healing have attended the administrations of the elders. In one ca3e a little girl was left nearly blind as a result of the smallpox, a white film having come over the eye. She was administered to and almost instantly the film disappeared and her sight today is clear and perfect. The disease has now practically died out, for which we thank

EDITOR'S TABLE. 937 the Lord, as we do also for preserving the Saints from death, and the elders from contagion." J. Alma Langston, writing from Breslau, Germany, May 23, says: "This part of the German and Swiss mission is progressing very rapidly. We have a branch of about 170 members, most of them recent converts, and every month more are added. Generally there are four or five elders working in this city which has a population of about 500,000. We feel well, and wish we had more help. ELDERS IN BRESLAU, GERMANY. Left to right: (standing) J. Alma Langston, A. Frank Barnes, Orange Olsen; (sitting) Arthur Woolley, Orson Douglas, Harold C. Kimball. Elder L. Montgomery of the Wisconsin conference write to Liahona the Elders'1 Journal, giving an account of a visit which he and President George E. Liljenquist made to a Miss Bashna Cornwall, who is 90 years of age, and living with her brother Newman, aged 88, and a sister, aged 83, at West Alles, Wisconsin, all of whom were neighbors and acquaintances of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It appears that she had written an article which was published in the Milwaukee Sentinel in which she claimed that the appearance of Halley's comet, 75 years ago, aided in the rise of "Mormonism." The writer states that notwithstanding her 90 years on earth, her memory is bright, which all the more gives weight to the story which she cheerfully gave them regarding the rise

938 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . of the Church and of the people before the Church was organized. They especially inquired as to how the Smith family was regarded in that locality by those who were not members of the Church. They give her exact words in reply: 'I have nothing to say against the Smiths. They were representative people. They were peaceful neighbors, and although not educated in book learning, no one could say they were ignorant or illiterate. Socially, they were inclined to be jovial and not wearers of 'wry faces/ as we have since heard. In personality Joseph Smith, Jr. was tall, wellproportioned, and good looking. His character was good, and one could tell at sight that he was a great man. "The first adherents of 'Mormonism' were of the better class of people, many of whom sacrificed fortunes that they might move west with the body of the Church.'' They also asked her as to what she thought of the early persecutions of the Latter-day Saints, to which she replied: "I consider the persecution of the 'Mormons' and the burning of the Nauvoo temple cruel and inhuman acts, while the martyrdom of Joseph Smith was very much uncalled for, as his actions would warrant anything but ill treatment." Elder William 0. Beckstrom, president of the Sundsvall conference of the Swedish mission, writes to the Era, under date of June 22: "We are an interested and happy band of workers. We held a successful spring conference in the early, part of May last. Two converts were baptized. An incident as to how one of the converts came to embrace the gospel is here given: "Two of the elders visited Hernosand, last winter, and held a public meeting on the Sunday following their arrival on Friday. A certain woman had read some Latter-day Saint literature, some years ago, giving little attention to its contents. This woman dreamed on the night of the arrival of these elders that she saw a young man in her home who pointed to her and said: 'Faith and baptism, quickly.' She awoke and pondered over the strange message received, trying to solve the meaning. Unable to forget the matter or cast it from her mind, and being desirous of learning the interpretation, she went to her priest or minister and related the dream to him. She asked him what it meant, and he answered that it was a very common thing for people to dream and that he thought there was no further significance whatever to it. The answer was very unsatisfactory to her. It appears that the woman was a Sunday school teacher in one of the churches of that city, and upon the

EDITOR'S TABLE. 939 particular Sunday of the visit of these two elders, last May, the Spirit of the Lord moved upon her to visit the meeting of the Latter-day Saints. On entering the hall, to her astonishment, she saw the very young man whom she had seen the previous Friday night in her dreams. This increased her interest, for she had never seen nor met him before. She listened attentively to what was said by the speakers, and the following Tuesday visited, the elders and asked for an explanation of the first principles of the gospel, with particular reference to faith and baptism. She studied over their replies, and sought the Lord for light, which she rereceived. Two weeks later she wrote a letter stating she was ready for baptism. Her husband was opposed to her taking this step, and she therefore desired the elders to unite with her in prayer that this difficulty might be overcome. She succeeded in this, the Lord answering her petition, and was baptized at the conference as stated. Thus we see how the Lord accomplishes his purposes." The Bondage of Debt. "If it be suggested that my whole indebtedness was at no time more than five to seven thousand dollars, I have only to say that even one thousand dollars of debt is ruin to him who keenly feels his obligation to fulfil every engagement, yet is utterly without the means of so doing, and who finds himself dragged each week a little deeper into hopeless insolvency. To be hungry, ragged and penniless is not pleasant, but this is nothing'.to the horrors of bankruptcy. Most poor men are so ignorant as to envy the merchant or manufacturer whose life is an incessant struggle with pecuniary difficulties, who is driven to constant 'shinning, 'and who from month to month, barely evades that insolvency which sooner or later overtakes most men in business; so that it has been computed that but one in twenty of them achieves a pecuniary success. For my own part — and I speak from sad experience — I would rather be a convict in a state prison, a slave in a rice swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. "Let no young man misjudge himself unfortunate, or truly poor, so long as he has the full use of his limbs and faculties, and is substantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust ieproach, are disagreeable; but debt is infinitely worse than all. And if it had pleased God to spare either or all of my sons to be the support and solace of my declining years, the lesson which I should have most earnestly sought to impress upon them is — never run into debt." — From Recollections oj a Busy Life — Horace Greeley.