What Can a High Priest Do?

What Can a High Priest Do?* BY HARRY E. BAKER, OF THE NORTH WEBER STAKE HIGH COUNCIL. Those who have been ordained to the high priesthood have reached the most advanced ground to be had in the Church. It is that order which Jesus held on earth, "called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchizedek," and opens the door to the greatest possibilities offered to man. The path to eternal God- hood, which is an office of presidency, lies through this order of the priesthood, and such an exaltation can never be attained out- side of it. The presidency of a church or the presidency of a world must spring up out of this priesthood. The duties of the calling are essentially those of presidency. I think in the study of the various orders and functions of priesthood, the mind should clearly grasp the distinction between duties of presiding and duties of ministering. All other orders of priesthood involve various forms of ministration. This one which we are considering alone carries with it the authority of leadership — the standing at the head — the handling of the reins of power. The high priest is a spiritual director or general leader. The president of the Church, his counselors, presidents of stakes and their immediate advisers, bishops of wards and their counselors, all must be high priests. The presiding and commanding positions which they hold make it essential that they possess this priesthood. Now, with this distinctive feature before us, let us turn to our subject, "What can a high priest do that he is not specially called to do, to help the work of the Lord in his ward?" *Delivered at the tri-stake Priesthood Convention, Ogden, July 10, 1910.

1032 IMPROVEMENT ERA. . The spirit of his priesthood is that of counseling, directing, leading ; and to magnify it he must be imbued with that spirit. Men who find themselves in this position are, as a rule, advanced in years and therefore are ripe in experience and full of wisdom and understanding, and are therefore the better qualified to possess and exercise the spirit of this priesthood. Such men should be possessed of this spirit of counseling and directing all the time and wherever they go. They are ordained to this calling in the midst of the people. They should be looked up to and deferred to by members of the Church, because of this high office and the conse- quent seal of authority which God has sealed upon them. In so far as men enjoy the special spirit of their priesthood, and walk by faith, they realize this fact. And in as far as members of the Church have been instructed and received light and also walk by faith, they will recognize, with every mark of consideration, the gifts and powers and privileges of the high priesthood, and they will be found enquiring to know who is and who is not a high priest for this purpose. In the Sunday school and more especially in the parents' class is a splendid field for a high priest to magnify his calling. The subjects dealt with in the parents' department are of a practical nature and cover a vast field in the rearing and training of chil- dren, involving all the varied experiences of life. Nowhere can the experience and wisdom of the high priest be used to better advantage than in this field of usefulness. The young parents who attend these classes are there seeking for guidance in the difficult problems that arise daily in their homes. They are not there so much to give as to get good, wholesome ideas of child- rearing and training. The exchange of ideas at these classes often reaches to the very heart of the problems in hand, and be- comes intensely interesting and profitable to young parents. In- stinctively the high priest ought to realize that there is unmis- takably one of his fields for usefulness. He should bring to the help of these young parents his experiences of years in the rearing of a family — point out to them his mistakes and direct them in safer paths. He must not suppose that because he has reared a family and has no young children that he himself is past the need of discussion in regard to child-rearing, for he has only passed

WHAT CAN A HIGH PRIEST DO? 1033 through a kindergarten school himself, as it were, and will again engage in this same business hereafter, bringing to his aid only that wisdom which he is able to draw from his life on the earth. But the opportunities of the high priest to bo of service in his ward are by no means limited to the parents' class. They are an advisory body of men, and it should be considered the duty of the younger element of the ward to seek counsel under them con- tinually and, if done in the spirit of the priesthood, that is, with the recognition that they should so respect the priesthood, they will seldom fail of getting right counsel. This sacred right to ad- vise and counsel should be ever in the mind of the man so honored, and he should be prudent and thoughtful in exercising this privi- lege, and above all, prayerful, that he may always be possessed of the Spirit of God, that he may in his ripened years be an unfailing fountain of true wisdom, and a mariner whose compass is always set to the safe point. This is his high privilege. And whenever a man so possessing the high priesthood continually seeks by prayer for this endowment of the spirit, he may obtain it and keep it. The hay-day in his blood is tame. The excitements and temp- tations of youth have largely passed away, and he is no longer subject to those failings which so often deprive men of the spirit of their calling. For this reason the younger element can rely with more certainty on the counsel of the aged than upon those of middle life or younger. It is not so much a matter of intellect as in being under the immediate influence of the Spirit, for the Spirit will not err in counsel. But if the high priest will not thus seek diligently to obtain the spirit of his calling he cannot magnify his priesthood in this particular field of endeavor, for the people will quickly detect his lack of the spirit of counsel and leave him alone- while, on the other hand, if he possesses it they will know it in- tuitively and seek after him. It is the duty of the high priest to recognized this special power and right in himself, to exercise it on all suitable occasions, and not hold his peace and be a silent man. It is his duty to act in this respect, to show forth his wis- dom, and apply it in the interest of God's people. The Mutual Improvement Associations should be visited by him frequently, and all the quorums of the priesthood. If he sees