{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35556/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35556","id":"gutenberg_35556","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35556","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Government","Latter Day Saint churches -- Government","Latter Day Saints","Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- Government -- Controversial literature"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by the Mormon Texts Project,\nhttp://bencrowder.net/books/mtp. Volunteers: Benjamin\nBytheway, Jean-Michel Carter, Ben Crowder, Meridith Crowder,\nCameron Dixon, Eric Heaps.\n\n\n\n\n\nSUCCESSION\nIN THE\nPRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH\nOF\nJESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.\n\n\nBy ELDER B. H. ROBERTS,\n\n_Author of The Life of John Taylor, Outlines of Ecclesiastical\nHistory, The Gospel_.\n\n\nThe keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you while thou art\nin the world, neither in the world to come; nevertheless, through you\nshall the oracles be given to another--even to the Church,--_The Lord\nto Joseph Smith_, Doc. and Cov., sec. xc.\n\n\nSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.\nTHE DESERET NEWS PUBLISHING COMPANY.\n1894.\n\n\n\n\nCopyright applied for\nFebruary, 1894.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe fact that many honest people in the United States and other\ncountries are being led astray by the pretensions of the \"Reorganized\nChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\" or \"Josephite Church,\"\nas it is more commonly called, must justify the publication of this\nwork. My desire to preserve from error those not acquainted with the\norder of the priesthood of God, and the facts of church history in the\ngreat dispensation of the last days, has been the incentive which\nprompted me to write it. Moreover, though the facts of church history\nwhich of themselves disprove the claims of the \"Josephite Church,\" are\nabundant, yet are they scattered through the church works in such a\nmanner as to make it exceedingly difficult for the Elders of the\nchurch to consult them; and, therefore, the writer believes he is\ndoing a service to those Elders who are and shall hereafter be engaged\nin the ministry, especially to those who travel in the localities\nwhere they will come in contact with \"Josephite\" pretensions--by\npublishing this treatise on the SUCCESSION IN THE PRESIDENCY OF THE\nCHURCH.\n\nI have endeavored to treat the theme on as broad a basis as possible,\nand have avoided technical disputes with our opponents, which only\nserve to burden the subject with matter that is not only unprofitable\nin itself, but wearying to the patience of the reader. Nor does the\nsuccessful issue of our argument demand that we stop to contend over\nevery error, either in history or argument, made by \"Josephites.\" Did\nwe attempt it, our task would be endless. An attorney being called\nupon to explain why his absent client should not be punished for\ncontempt of court, told the judge he could assign several good reasons\nfor the absence of his client--reasons which he hoped and believed\nwould clear him, even in the opinion of the judge, of any intention to\ntreat the court with disrespect. \"You may name them,\" gruffly said the\njudge. \"Well, then, your honor, in the first place my client is dead;\nand in the second place--\" \"Never mind your 'in the second place,'\"\nsaid the judge, \"if the man is dead that is sufficient--the court\ndismisses the case.\" So with this controversy; there being a few\nleading facts of church history, and a principle or two connected with\nthe order of the priesthood which, if considered in the light of right\nreason, dispose of all the claims made by \"Josephites,\" it is not\nnecessary to consider their quibbles and all the details of their\nsophistry.\n\nThe writer is under deep obligation to acknowledge assistance he has\nreceived from a number of prominent brethren; to some for placing at\nhis disposal books and papers, and to others for reading the work from\nthe manuscript and greatly improving it by their invaluable\nsuggestions. The brethren who have thus rendered me assistance are too\nnumerous to mention by name, and it would be unfair to name a few\nonly, when the writer is indebted to so many and to each equally. The\nconsciousness of having assisted in a work which is designed to carry\nenlightenment to many in regard to so important a matter as the\nsubject of this writing, will reward them for their labors.\n\n                                             THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nSUCCESSION\nIN THE\nPRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH.\n\n\nI.\n\n\n_All that want to draw away a party from the Church after them, let\nthem do it if they can, but they will not prosper_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: From Brigham Young's speech, at a special Conference in\nNauvoo, August 8th, 1844, the conference being convened to consider\nthe claims of Sidney Rigdon to be the Guardian of the Church.--_Mill.\nStar_, Vol. XXV, p. 216.]\n\nWhen the Prophet Joseph Smith fell a martyr at Carthage, Illinois, on\nthe 27th of June, 1844, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day\nSaints was deprived of its President. As that was a condition which\nhad never existed before in this dispensation, and one that the church\nhad not anticipated, the question very naturally arose: Upon what\nperson or quorum devolved the responsibility of leadership--of\nPresidency? It is a matter of astonishment that so many arose as\nclaimants for the position; but it reveals the vanity and weakness of\nhuman nature which in its love of power looks clear beyond the\nresponsibilities in the case, and seeks only for that position which\nexalts its possessor above his fellows.\n\nAmong the many who claimed to be the legal successor to the prophet\nJoseph, and, indeed, the first, was Sidney Rigdon, the only remaining\ncounselor in the First Presidency. Hyrum Smith, the other counselor to\nthe prophet, had nobly suffered martyrdom with him at Carthage. At the\ntime of the martyrdom of Presidents Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Sidney\nRigdon was living at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, presiding over the\nbranch of the church and preaching the gospel at that place. He had\nremoved from Nauvoo to Pittsburg, in opposition to a revelation from\nGod which required him to make his home in Nauvoo, and stand in his\noffice and calling of counselor and spokesman to the prophet\nJoseph.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: The revelation was given 19th January, 1841.--Doc. and\nCov., Sec. cxxiv 103-106.]\n\nThe truth is that from the expulsion of the saints from Missouri in\n1838-9, Sidney Rigdon had been of but little service either to the\nchurch or to the prophet as a counselor. He was a man of admitted\nability as an orator, but lacked discretion; a man of fervid\nimagination, but of inferior judgment; ambitious of place and honor,\nbut without that steadiness of purpose and other qualities of soul\nwhich in time secure them. In the early years of the church he\nsuffered much for the cause of God, but he also complained much;\nespecially was this the case in respect to the hardships he endured in\nMissouri; and subsequently of his poverty and illness at Nauvoo. This\nhabit of complaining doubtless did much to deprive him of the spirit\nof the Lord; for at times it bordered upon blasphemy. More than once\nhe was heard to say that Jesus Christ was a fool in suffering as\ncompared with himself! Having lost, in part at least, the spirit of\nthe Lord, his interest in the church and its work waned, and after the\nsettlement at Nauvoo he was seldom seen in the councils of the\npriesthood. Moreover, it was known that he was in sympathy and even in\ncommunication with some of the avowed enemies of Joseph, among others\nwith that arch traitor, John C. Bennett, who was plotting the\noverthrow of both Joseph and the church. It was doubtless these\nconsiderations which led Joseph to make an effort to get rid of Sidney\nRigdon as counselor, at the October conference in 1843.\n\nOn that occasion the prophet represented to the church that such had\nbeen the course of Sidney Rigdon that he considered it no longer his\nduty to sustain him as his counselor. Hyrum Smith, however, pleaded\nthe cause of his fellow counselor, and so strongly urged the saints to\ndeal mercifully with Sidney Rigdon, that when the question of\nsustaining him was presented to the conference, the saints voted in\nhis favor. \"I have thrown him off my shoulders, and you have again put\nhim on me,\" said Joseph. \"You may carry him, but I will not.\" And so\nconfident was he that Sidney Rigdon would continue to fail in the\nperformance of his duty, that he ordained Elder Amasa Lyman to succeed\nhim, both as counselor and spokesman. \"Some of the Elders did not\nunderstand how Elder Lyman could be ordained to succeed Elder Rigdon,\nas the church had voted to try him another year. Elder Joseph Smith\nwas requested to give an explanation. 'Why,' said he, 'by the same\nrule that Samuel anointed David to be king over Israel, while Saul was\nyet crowned. Please read the 16th chapter of I Samuel.' Elder Smith's\nexplanation, though short, proved a quietus to all their rising\nconjectures.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Tract on Sidney Rigdon, by Jedediah M. Grant, pp. 15,\n16.]\n\nNotwithstanding all his fair promises of amendment, Sidney Rigdon\ncontinued neglectful of his high duties, and if for a time his\nold-time enthusiasm revived--as it seemed to at the April conference\nfollowing, it was as the flickering flame of a tallow dip, only--not\nthe steady rays of the ever-shining sun. He longed to return to the\neast; and notwithstanding the word of the Lord commanding him to make\nhis home at Nauvoo, he frequently talked with Joseph about going to\nPittsburg to live, and finally obtained his consent to go there, and\ntake his family with him. He was instructed to preach, write and build\nup the church in that city.\n\nSuch was the standing and course of the man who after the martyrdom of\nthe prophet Joseph was the first to claim the right to lead the\nchurch! He made all haste to Nauvoo, and ignoring the members of the\nquorum of the Twelve who were in the city--Elders Willard Richards,\nJohn Taylor, and Parley P. Pratt--he conferred with Elder William\nMarks, president of the Stake of Nauvoo, and at once began agitating\nthe question of appointing a \"Guardian\" to the church. He arrived in\nNauvoo on Saturday, the 3rd of August; next day he harangued the\nsaints who assembled in the grove near the temple, upon the necessity\nof appointing a \"Guardian\" to build up the church to the martyred\nprophet, and in the afternoon meeting urged William Marks to make a\nspecial appointment for the saints to assemble on the following\nTuesday for that purpose. Elder Marks was in sympathy with Sidney\nRigdon, but for some reason he refused to make the appointment for\nTuesday, but made it for Thursday, the 8th of August. This was a most\nfortunate circumstance, since a sufficient number of the Twelve to\nmake a majority of that quorum arrived on the evening of the 6th, and,\nof course, they were in time to be present at the meeting to be held\non the 8th. The day previous to that meeting, however, the Twelve\ncalled a meeting of the high council and high priests, before which\nthey called on Sidney Rigdon to make a statement of his purposes and\nrelate the revelation he claimed to have received at Pittsburg, which\nprompted his journey to Nauvoo. In substance he replied that the\nobject of his visit was to offer himself to the saints as a\n\"Guardian;\" that it had been shown to him in vision at Pittsburg, that\nthe church must be built up to Joseph the martyr; that all the\nblessings the saints could receive would come through their late\nprophet; that no man could be a successor to Joseph; that the church\nwas not disorganized, though the head was gone; that he had been\ncommanded to come to Nauvoo and see that the church was governed\nproperly, and propose himself to be a \"Guardian\" to the people.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV, 215.]\n\nTo this Elder Brigham Young replied:\n\n    I do not care who leads this Church, even though it were Ann Lee;\n    but one thing I must know, and that is what God says about it. I\n    have the keys and the means of obtaining the mind of God on the\n    subject. . . . Joseph conferred upon our heads all the keys and\n    powers belonging to the apostleship which he himself held before\n    he was taken away, and no man nor set of men can get between\n    Joseph and the Twelve in this world or in the world to come. How\n    often has Joseph said to the Twelve, I have laid the foundation\n    and you must build thereon, for upon your shoulders the kingdom\n    rests.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: History of Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV., 215.]\n\nThe next day was the one appointed by Sidney Rigdon for the church to\nassemble and choose a \"Guardian.\" The attendance was large, as intense\ninterest had been awakened upon the subject to be considered. Sidney\nRigdon addressed the assembly, setting forth his claim to the\n\"Guardianship\" of the church. He had full opportunity to present his\ncase, and for an hour and a half spoke without interruption; but\ndespite his reputation as an orator, he failed to convince the saints\nthat he was sent of God.\n\nAs soon as Sidney Rigdon closed his speech, Elder Brigham Young arose\nand made a few remarks. It was on that occasion that he was\ntransfigured before the people, so that through him the saints heard\nthe voice and felt the presence of their departed leader. George Q.\nCannon, who was present on that occasion, says:\n\n    If Joseph had risen from the dead and again spoken in their\n    hearing, the effect could not have been more startling than it was\n    to many present at that meeting; it was the voice of Joseph\n    himself; and not only was it the voice of Joseph which was heard,\n    but it seemed in the eyes of the people as if it were the very\n    person of Joseph which stood before them. A more wonderful and\n    miraculous event than was wrought that day in the presence of that\n    congregation we never heard of.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Brigham Young (Tullidge) p. 115. Continuing the\nsubject President Cannon says: \"The Lord gave his people a testimony\nthat left no room for doubt as to who was the man chosen to lead them.\nThey both saw and heard with their natural eyes and ears, and then the\nwords which were uttered came, accompanied by the convincing power of\nGod, to their hearts, and they were filled with the Spirit and with\ngreat joy. There had been gloom, and in some hearts probably, doubt\nand uncertainty; but now it was plain to all that here was the man\nupon whom the Lord had bestowed the necessary authority to act in\ntheir midst in Joseph's stead. On that occasion Brigham Young seemed\nto be transformed, and a change such as that we read of in the\nScriptures as happening to the Prophet Elisha, when Elijah was\ntranslated in his presence, seemed to have taken place with him. The\nmantle of the Prophet Joseph had been left for Brigham Young. . . . .\nThe people said one to another: 'The Spirit of Joseph rests on\nBrigham;' they knew that he was the man chosen to lead them, and they\nhonored him accordingly. . . . . As far as our observation went (we\nwere only a boy at the time), the people were divided into three\nclasses from the time of the death of Joseph up to this meeting of\nwhich we speak. One class felt clearly and understandingly that\nPresident Brigham Young was the man whose right it was to preside, he\nbeing the President of the Twelve Apostles, and that body being,\nthrough the death of Joseph and Hyrum, the presiding quorum of the\nChurch. Another class were not quite clear as to who would be called\nto preside; but they felt very certain that Sidney Rigdon was not the\nman. They did not believe that God would choose a coward and traitor\nto lead his people, to both of which characters they believed Rigdon\nhad a claim. The third class, and we think its members were few, was\ncomposed of those who had no clear views one way or the other. They\nwere undecided in their feelings. . . . . With very few exceptions,\nthen, the people returned to their homes from that meeting filled with\ngreat rejoicing. All uncertainty and anxiety were removed. They had\nheard the voice of the Shepherd and they knew it.\"]\n\nIn the journal of Elder Wm. C. Staines, of that date, the following\nstatement is recorded:\n\n    Brigham Young said--\"I will tell you who your leaders or guardians\n    will be. The Twelve--I at their head!' This was with a voice like\n    the voice of the prophet Joseph. I thought it was he, and so did\n    thousands who heard it. This was very satisfactory to the people,\n    and a vote was taken to sustain the Twelve in their office, which,\n    with a few dissenting voices, was passed.\"\n\nPresident Wilford Woodruff, describing the event, says:\n\n    When Brigham Young arose and commenced speaking, as has been\n    said,[A] if I had not seen him with my own eyes, there is no one\n    that could have convinced me that it was not Joseph Smith; and\n    anyone can testify to this who was acquainted with these two men.\n\n[Footnote A: The above remark of President Woodruff's is taken from a\ntestimony of his following a discourse on the subject of Priesthood\nand the Right of Succession, delivered by the writer of this\npamphlet.--See _Deseret Evening News_, March 12th, 1892.]\n\nThe remarks of Elder Young, during which he was transfigured before\nthe people, closed the forenoon meeting. When in the afternoon the\nchurch again assembled and Elder Young addressed them at some length\non the subject of appointing a leader for the church, representing the\nclaims of the Twelve as the quorum having the right to act in the\nabsence of the late prophet-president. Following are some quotations\nfrom a summary of his speech taken down at the time:\n\n    For the first time in my life, for the first time in your lives,\n    for the first time in the kingdom of God, in the nineteenth\n    century, without a prophet at our head, do I step forth to act in\n    my calling in connection with the quorum of the Twelve, as\n    Apostles of Jesus Christ unto this generation--Apostles whom God\n    has called by revelation through the prophet Joseph, who are\n    ordained and anointed to bear off the keys of the kingdom of God\n    in all the world.\n\n    . . . . If any man thinks he has influence among this people, to\n    lead away a party, let him try it, and he will find out that there\n    is power with the Apostles, which will carry them off victorious\n    through all the world, and build up and defend the church and\n    kingdom of God.\n\n    . . . If the people want President Rigdon to lead them, they may\n    have him; but I say unto you that the quorum of the Twelve have\n    the keys of the kingdom of God in all the world. The Twelve are\n    appointed by the finger of God. Here is Brigham, have his knees\n    ever faltered? have his lips ever quivered? Here is Heber,[A] and\n    the rest of the Twelve, an independent body, who have the keys of\n    the priesthood--the keys of the kingdom of God--to deliver to all\n    the world; this is true, so help me God. They stand next to\n    Joseph, and are as the First Presidency of the Church.\n\n[Footnote A: Heber C. Kimball.]\n\n    . . . . You must not appoint any man at our head; if you should,\n    the Twelve must ordain him. You cannot appoint a man at our head;\n    but if you do want any other man or men to lead you, take them,\n    and we will go our way to build up the kingdom in all the world,\n\n    . . . . Brother Joseph, the prophet, has laid the foundation for a\n    grand work, and we will build upon it; you have never seen the\n    quorums built one upon another. There is an almighty foundation\n    laid, and we can build a kingdom such as there never was in the\n    world: we can build a kingdom faster than Satan can kill the\n    saints off.\n\n    . . . . Now, if you want Sidney Rigdon or Wm. Law[A] to lead you,\n    or anybody else, you are welcome to them; but I tell you, in the\n    name of the Lord, that no man can put another between the Twelve\n    and the prophet Joseph. Why? Because Joseph was their file leader,\n    and he has committed into their hands the keys of the kingdom in\n    this last dispensation, for all the world; don't put a thread\n    between the priesthood and God.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Wm. Law had been a counselor to the Prophet Joseph, but\nwas found in transgression and apostasy, had been excommunicated, and\nwas among those who brought about the martyrdom at Carthage.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV., pp. 216, 231-2, 3.]\n\nElder Amasa Lyman spoke in support of the Twelve; and then Sidney\nRigdon was granted the privilege of speaking; he declined personally,\nbut called on Elder W. W. Phelps to speak in his behalf. Elder Phelps\nwhile evidently sympathizing with Elder Rigdon, supported the claims\nof the Twelve. After further discussion Elder Young arose to put the\nquestion as to whether the church would sustain the Twelve or Sidney\nRigdon:\n\n    I do not ask you to take my counsel or advice alone, but every one\n    of you act for yourselves; but if Brother Rigdon is the person you\n    want to lead you, vote for him, but not unless you intend to\n    follow him and support him as you did Joseph. . . . . And I would\n    say the same for the Twelve, don't make a covenant to support them\n    unless you intend to abide by their counsel. . . . . . I want\n    every man, before he enters into a covenant, to know what he is\n    going to do; but we want to know if this people will support the\n    priesthood in the name of Israel's God. If you say you will, do\n    so.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV,. p. 264.]\n\nElder Young was then about to put the question to the assembled\nquorums as to whether they wanted Elder Rigdon for a leader, when, at\nthe request of the latter, the question on supporting the Twelve as\nthe presiding quorum in the church was first put in the following\nmanner:\n\n    \"Do the Church want and is it their only desire to sustain the\n    Twelve as the First Presidency of this people? . . . . . If the\n    Church want the Twelve to stand as the head, the First Presidency\n    of the Church, and at the head of this kingdom in all the world,\n    stand next to Joseph, walk up into their calling, and hold the\n    keys of this kingdom--every man, every woman, every quorum is now\n    put in order, and you are now the sole controllers of it--all that\n    are in favor of this in all the congregation of the Saints,\n    manifest it by holding up the right hand. (There was a universal\n    vote.) If there are any of the contrary mind--every man and every\n    woman who does not want the Twelve to preside, lift up your hands\n    in like manner. (No hands up.) This supersedes the other\n    question,[A] and trying it by quorums.\"[B]\n\n[Footnote A: That is, whether the church wanted to have Sidney Rigdon\nfor a \"guardian\" or leader.]\n\n[Footnote B: The quorums had been arranged to vote separately and in\ntheir order, but when Elder Young put the question on accepting the\nTwelve to preside over the church, the question was put to all the\nquorums and the whole congregation at once. And since the vote to\nsustain the Twelve was unanimous, there was no need of putting the\nquestion on the acceptance of Sidney Rigdon either to the quorums or\nthe people.--The facts in the text are quoted from the history of the\nprophet Joseph, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV., p. 264.]\n\nThis disposed of Sidney Rigdon. He had full opportunity to present his\ncase before the church. The saints had full opportunity and liberty to\nvote for him had they wanted him for their leader; but they rejected\nhim and sustained the Twelve.\n\nI have been careful to deal with this case of Sidney Rigdon's in so\ngreat detail, for the reason that it exhibits in operation a very\nimportant principle, viz., that of \"common consent\" or the \"voice of\nthe people\" in electing their leaders. I use the word \"elect\"\nadvisedly, for though the manner of electing the officers of the\nchurch is by indirect means--by popular acceptance--the elective\nprinciple is nevertheless operative, since men proposed for office\ncannot act unless the people vote to sustain them.[A] The law of the\nchurch in this matter is:\n\n[Footnote A: The elective principle is not only carried out by direct\nmeans, it may be carried on by indirect means--it is just as much a\nfact under the form of popular acceptance as of popular\nchoice.--_Cuizot_.]\n\n    No person is to be ordained to any office in this Church, where\n    there is a regularly organized branch of the same, without the\n    vote of that Church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. xx, 65.]\n\nThis law applies to the First Presidency as well as to the humblest\nofficer in the church:\n\n    Of the Melchisedek Priesthood, three presiding High Priests,\n    chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and\n    upheld by the confidence, faith and prayer of the Church, from a\n    quorum of the Presidency of the Church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. cvii, 22.]\n\nIt is not enough that the men constituting the First Presidency of the\nchurch be \"appointed and ordained to that office;\" they must also be\n\"chosen by the body\" and \"upheld by the confidence, faith and prayer\nof the church.\" President Brigham Young on this subject says:\n\n    Joseph presided over the Church by the voice of the people. . . .\n    Does a man's being a Prophet in this Church prove that he shall be\n    the President of it? I answer, no. A man may be a prophet, seer\n    and revelator, and it may have nothing to do with his being\n    President of the Church. Suffice it to say that Joseph was the\n    President of the Church, so long as he lived. The people chose to\n    have it so. He always filled that responsible station by the voice\n    of the people. . . . . The keys of the priesthood were committed\n    to Joseph to build up the kingdom of God on the earth, and were\n    not to be taken from him in time or in eternity; but when he was\n    called to preside over the Church, it was by the voice of the\n    people, though he held the keys of the priesthood independent of\n    their voice.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 133.]\n\nBut, mark you, he did not hold the power to preside over them contrary\nto their voices, that is, contrary to their consent. President Taylor\nsays:\n\n    It is by the voice of God and the voice of the people that our\n    present President [Brigham Young] obtained his authority. He\n    obtained his authority first from God, and secondly from the\n    people; and if a man possesses five grains of common sense, when\n    he has the privilege of voting for or against a man, he will not\n    vote for a man who will oppress the people; he will vote according\n    to the dictates of his conscience; for this is the right and duty\n    of this people in the choice of their President and other leading\n    officers of the kingdom of God.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 229.]\n\nThus in ecclesiastical as in civil government it is true that\ngovernments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.\nWe shall have occasion in the course of our argument, to recur to this\nprinciple and its importance in respect to the subject treated in this\nwriting.\n\nIt may be interesting to the reader to know that Sidney Rigdon himself\noutwardly seemed to acquiesce in the decision of the church with\nregard to himself. The Sunday following the meeting above described he\naddressed the saints for a long time, blessed them in the name of the\nLord; telling them emphatically that he was with the Twelve. He wished\nto know the mind of the church in relation to his returning to\nPittsburg, they said, \"go in peace.\"[A] Yet all the while he was thus\nseemingly accepting the decision of the church and seeking its\ncounsel, secretly he was holding meetings with men of questionable\nintegrity in the church, telling them that it was revealed to him\nbefore leaving Pittsburg that the church would reject him; but,\nnevertheless, he was the proper person to lead the church--to be its\nGuardian; for to that position he had been called of God, and held\nkeys of authority higher than any ever conferred upon the Prophet\nJoseph--the keys of David which, according to his representations,\ngave him the power to open and no man could shut; to shut and no man\ncould open; and the power to organize armies for the destruction of\nthe Gentiles. In fact his fervid imagination pictured himself a great\nmilitary chieftain, by whose prowess all the enemies of God were to be\nsubdued. He secretly ordained men to be prophets, priests and kings to\nthe Gentiles. He also chose and appointed military officers to take\ncommand of the armies that were to be raised ere long to fight the\nbattles of the great God. Meantime, while he in public had spoken of\nthe virtues and honor of the martyred prophets, Joseph and Hyrum, in\nthe highest terms, in his secret meetings he began to cast reflections\nupon their conduct, and hint at the existence of grave iniquity among\nthe Twelve and in the church.\n\n[Footnote A: Pamphlet on Sidney Rigdon, by Elder J. M. Grant, p. 18.]\n\nAs soon as the Twelve learned of these proceedings on the part of\nElder Rigdon, they called upon him to explain by what authority he\nheld secret meetings and ordained men to the aforesaid offices. He\nsought to evade the question, but finding that he was dealing with men\nnot to be trifled with he at last confessed to both holding the\nmeetings and ordaining the officers. His brethren sought to convince\nhim of his error, but at this point he refused to be corrected. The\nquorum of the Twelve, with the presiding bishop of the church, held a\ncouncil meeting to consider his conduct, and concluded to demand Elder\nRigdon's license. He refused to surrender it, saying that he had not\nreceived it from the Twelve and he would not give it up to them. He\nwas then cited before the council of the church which has a right to\ntry a president of the high priesthood, viz., the presiding bishop of\nthe church assisted by twelve high priests.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: And inasmuch as a president of the high priesthood shall\ntransgress, he shall be had in remembrance before the common council\nof the church, who shall be assisted by twelve counselors of the high\npriesthood; and their decision upon his head shall be an end of\ncontroversy concerning him.--Doc. and Cov., sec. cvii, 82, 83.]\n\nHe refused to appear before this council, and therefore, after giving\nhim due notice and an opportunity to appear and defend himself, the\ncouncil convened in the presence of a large congregation of the saints\non the 8th of September, 1844, and proceeded to hear evidence in the\ncase. The evidence established the insubordination of Elder Rigdon and\nthe irregularity of his course, and a motion that he be excommunicated\nfrom the church until he repented was carried both by the council\ncomposed of the bishop and the twelve high priests, and also by the\ngreat congregation of the saints. Ten only, and they of Rigdon's\nfollowing, voting in the negative.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See the minutes of Sidney Rigdon's trial in Grant's\npamphlet on Sidney Rigdon, pp. 19 to 37.]\n\nAfter his excommunication he made an attempt at organizing a church,\nchoosing twelve apostles, etc., but his efforts amounted to but\nlittle. He soon retired from Nauvoo to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, which\nhe established as his headquarters. He sent missionaries to many\nbranches of the church to represent his claims to the Presidency, but\nthey succeeded in getting only slight support and that for the most\npart from among those weak in the faith. His church, never strong\neither in numbers or prominent men, soon crumbled into decay; Sidney\nRigdon himself sank out of sight and in 1876 he died in obscurity in\nAlleghany county, state of New York.\n\nThe fate of Sidney Rigdon and the fate of the organization which he\nfounded prove the prophetic character of the words of Brigham Young:\n\n    _All that want to draw away a party from the church after them,\n    let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper_.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n\nFollowing the attempt of Sidney Rigdon to become the \"Guardian of the\nChurch,\" we will consider the efforts of William Smith, brother to the\nprophet Joseph, to become its President. He was a member of the quorum\nof the Twelve at the death of the prophet, though for some time his\nconduct had been such as to bring him into disrepute among the Saints.\nHe was of a turbulent, ungovernable disposition; a man of fierce\npassions and violent temper. When the saints were driven from\nMissouri, in 1838, and his brother Joseph cast into prison, such was\nhis vindictiveness against the prophet that at a general conference of\nthe church held near Quincy, Illinois, May 4th, 1839, he was suspended\nfrom fellowship; but was afterwards restored, mainly through the\npleadings of that same brother against whom he railed with such\nbitterness of speech.\n\nShortly after the martyrdom of his brothers, Joseph and Hyrum, William\nwas ordained to the office of patriarch to the church, to succeed\nHyrum Smith, who held that office at the time of his death. The\nassociate editor of the _Times and Seasons_ in making the announcement\nof William's appointment put it that he had been appointed and\nordained patriarch \"over the Church.\" Whereupon a number of persons of\na disposition ever ready to take advantage of a word or make men an\noffender because of it, begun to ask if William was Patriarch \"over\"\nthe church, did not that also make him President of the church. In the\nissue of the _Times and Seasons_ following, the editor corrected the\nerror of his associate by saying that the notice of William's\nappointment to be patriarch should have read patriarch \"to\" the\nchurch, not \"over\" it. He, of course, also denied that William was\nPresident of the church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Times and Seasons_, Vol. VI, No. 9 and No. 10, Art.\n_Patriarchal_.]\n\nWhether it was the discussion about William's appointment to be\npatriarch \"over\" the church which first put it into his head to make a\nclaim to the office of President of the church; or that he took\nadvantage of the phrase \"Patriarch over the Church,\" to bring forward\nclaims to the Presidency which he had previously entertained, may not\nbe accurately determined; but most likely it was the latter, because\non the occasion of the writer's visit to William Smith, at his home,\nnear Elkader, Clayton County, Iowa, late in the summer of 1880, he\nclaimed to have been anointed, appointed, and ordained by the prophet\nJoseph to succeed to the office of President of the church after the\nprophet's death.\n\nWilliam Smith, however, based his claim to the position of president,\nmainly upon the fact that he was the brother of the Prophet, the only\nsurviving brother, and therefore he should succeed to his brother's\nposition. He claimed to find a precedent for this in scripture. In the\ncouncil which convened in the early Christian church to consider how\nfar the Gentile converts were under obligations to observe the forms\nand ceremonies of the Jewish law, after Peter and Paul and Barnabas\nand others were through speaking on the subject, James, \"the Lord's\nbrother,\" is represented as saying:\n\n    Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from\n    among the Gentiles have turned unto God; but that we write unto\n    them; that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from\n    fornication and from things strangled and from blood.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Acts xv, 19, 20.]\n\nThe \"sentence\" of James here is regarded as the \"decision\" of the\ncouncil; and William Smith argued that if James gave the decision of\nthe council, he must have been the president of the council; and if\npresident of the council, then President of the church; and since\nJames was the Lord's brother and succeeded him in the Presidency of\nthe church, so in this dispensation, as in the former one, the\nsurviving brother of him who stood at the head of the church should\nsucceed to the Presidency.\n\nBut this sophistry is confronted by the stubborn fact that the Lord\nJesus had said to the Apostle Peter in the most direct terms:\n\n    I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever\n    thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever\n    thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Matt. xvi.]\n\nIt is controverted also by all the facts of history which represent\nPeter as the chief Apostle and as holding a Presidency over the entire\nchurch. In modern revelation, too, the order in which the Apostles\nhave been named who have administered to men on the earth--has been\ninvariably Peter, James and John--Peter always named first as the\nleader, the chief.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: John the Baptist at the time he conferred on Joseph Smith\nand Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic Priesthood (May 15, 1829) said that \"he\nacted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys\nof the Priesthood of Melchisedek.\"--(Hist. Joseph, _Mill. Star_,\nsupplement, Vol. XIV, p. 15.)\n\n\"I will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, . . .\nand also with John, the son of Zacharias...and also with Peter. James\nand John whom I have sent unto you, by whom I have ordained you and\nconfirmed you Apostles and special witnesses of my name.\"--(Doc. and\nCov., sec. xvii 5, 12.)\n\n\"Again what do we hear? . . . the voice of Peter, James and John in\nthe wilderness, between Harmony . . . and Colesville . . . declaring\nthemselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom,\" (Doc. and Cov.,\nsec. cxxviii, 20), and so throughout. It is scarcely probable that\nPeter would thus invariably have been named first unless that had been\nhis place, as the chief, that is, the presiding Apostle.]\n\nWilliam Smith, however, did not command much of a following in this\nfirst attempt to make himself a leader. His profligate life was too\nnotorious in Nauvoo to make it possible for him to wield much\ninfluence even as a schismatic. His efforts at leadership on this\noccasion resulted only in violent denunciations of those who would not\nreceive him, and his final expulsion from the church. At the general\nconference held on the 6th of October, 1845, he was disfellowshipped\nfrom the quorum of the Twelve, and on the 12th of the same month, more\nof his wickedness having come to light, he was excommunicated from the\nchurch. He shortly afterwards became associated with James J. Strang\nand other apostates in an attempt to establish a church in the state\nof Wisconsin, but that failed as we shall see.\n\nHere it will be proper to note the support which Lucy Smith, mother of\nWilliam, gave to his claims to the Presidency. I regret being under\nthe necessity of quoting her in such a controversy, as it shows this\ngood and noble woman to have been very much mistaken in this matter,\nand one must ever be sorry to see those who are upright mistaken,\nespecially in so grave a matter as this under consideration. One must\never feel a delicacy in referring to the words and actions of the\nmother of Joseph and Hyrum, of Don Carlos and Samuel H. Smith. She was\na woman who had suffered much for the work of God and the testimony of\nJesus; who in addition to toil, sickness, poverty and exile had lived\nto see her two noblest sons murdered, and two other sons and her\nhusband laid away in premature graves, indirectly the victims of that\nrelentless persecution which followed her family and the church from\nthe beginning. These sufferings and her great age doubtless will\naccount for that weakness of mind through which, and not through any\nwrong intent, I feel sure, she was led into this error of supporting\nthe claims of her son William. But glad as I would be to pass by this\nmatter for the sake of Sister Lucy Smith, I cannot do so, for the\nreason that the Josephites quote her as supporting the claims of\n\"Young Joseph,\" and I wish to show by her support of William that she\ndid not do it.\n\nThe evidence that Sister Lucy Smith sustained the pretentions of\nWilliam Smith to the Presidency and not those made in behalf of \"Young\nJoseph,\" is found in the journal of the late President John Taylor, a\nmember of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the time in Nauvoo:\n\n                                      Friday, June 27th, 1845.\n\n    This was the anniversary of the day that Brothers Joseph and Hyrum\n    were killed and myself shot. We met together (the quorum of the\n    Priesthood) to pray, several of the Twelve were present. When I\n    returned [home] in the evening, Mrs. Taylor showed me a copy of a\n    vision that Mother Lucy Smith had, stating that her son William\n    was head of the Church; the following is a copy:\n\n\n    FIRST VISION.\n\n    Brothers and children, I was much troubled and felt as if I had\n    the sins of the whole world to bear, and the burden of the Church;\n    and I felt that there was something wrong. I called on the Lord to\n    show me what was wrong, and if it was I. I called upon him until I\n    slept. I then heard a voice calling on me saying, awake, awake,\n    awake, for the only son that thou hast living, they for his life\n    have laid a snare. My aged servant Joseph who was the first\n    Patriarch of this Church, and my servant Hyrum who was the second\n    Patriarch, my servant Joseph who was Prophet and Seer, and my\n    servants Samuel, William and Don Carlos--they were the first\n    founders, fathers and heads of this Church, raised up in these\n    last days, and thou art the mother, and thy daughters have helped,\n    and they are the daughters in Israel, and have helped raise up\n    this Church. Arise, arise, arise, and take thy place, you know not\n    what has been in the hearts of some; but he said thou shalt know.\n    He told me what it was; but I shall not tell. (I saw William in a\n    room full of armed men and he having no weapons. They would have\n    crushed him down, if it had not been for the power of God; and\n    many of the family would have been cut off--[the] Lord having\n    softened their hearts. Two of them had blacker hearts than the\n    rest, and I know who they are, and I will tell them if they will\n    come to me. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball know it is so, and\n    dare not deny it.) Call upon the Twelve, let all things be set in\n    order, and keep their hearts pure from this time hence forth; the\n    voice saith be merciful, and then Zion shall arise and flourish as\n    a rose. What I was told I cannot tell.\n\n    Thou art the mother in Israel, and tell thy children all to walk\n    uprightly. Thy son William, he shall have power over the churches,\n    he is father in Israel over the patriarchs and the whole of the\n    Church; he is the last of the lineage that is raised up in these\n    last days. He is Patriarch to regulate the affairs of the Church.\n    He is President over all the Church, they cannot take his\n    apostleship away from him. The Presidency of the Church belongs to\n    William, he being the last of the heads of the Church, according\n    to the lineage, he having inherited it from the family from before\n    the foundation of the world. Thou art a mother in Israel. Thy\n    spirit arose and said in eternity that it would take a body to be\n    a mother to prophet[s] who should be raised up to save the last\n    dispensation. And the spirit said unto me to be faithful, (and\n    that I was faithful,) and tell the Church to be faithful. And the\n    spirit said I should live until I was satisfied with life.\n\n    Brothers and children, I want you to take notice that the burden\n    of the Church rests [on William].\n\n\n    SECOND VISION.\n\n    Joseph came to me and said: \"That day is coming when I shall wave\n    the scepter of power over my enemies. Be patient my brothers and\n    sisters, the day is coming when you shall have eternal life and be\n    rewarded for all your troubles.\"\n\n\n    THIRD VISION.\n\n    Father came to me and I said, Father, have you come? And he said\n    \"yes.\" I said tell me where you have been. And he said, \"I have\n    been all around here. I have come to you again to tell you one\n    thing certain, which I have told you many times before. It is my\n    prayer and the prayers of our sons that you live to take care of\n    William and my daughters, and see that they have their rights and\n    standing where they ought to have it.\" He turned to go away, and I\n    said I will go with you. He said you must stay.\n\n    The following persons were present at the time this vision was\n    related:\n\n    William Smith,\n    A. Milliken,\n    W. I. Salisbury,\n    David Elliott,\n    Robt. Campbell,\n    Elias Smith,\n    Joseph Cain,\n    Bro. Stringham,\n    Chas. Kelly,\n    Bro. McLery,\n    Mrs. Taylor,\n    Mrs. Milliken,\n    Mrs. Salisbury,\n    Mrs. McLery,\n    Mrs. Kelly,\n    Mrs. Sherman.\n\nOn June 30th, 1845, at the request of Sister Lucy Smith, seven of the\nTwelve, with Bishops Miller and Whitney and Elder Cahoon, met at her\nhouse to talk over these visions in respect to William. Several\nmembers of her family were present. It was also arranged for William\nSmith to be present, but he failed to appear. I copy from Elder\nTaylor's journal, under date of June 30th:\n\n    The conversation was full and free. President Young stated that\n    William was aiming at power and authority and priesthood that did\n    not belong to him; that he would sustain William in his office and\n    calling, but would not allow him to tread upon his or any other\n    man's neck; that if the Church wanted to have William Smith, he\n    would mention it to them, and they should have their choice. This,\n    however, neither the Church, nor the Twelve would consent to; for\n    if it had been put to them--I do not suppose that twenty would\n    have voted for him, out of the many thousands there are in the\n    Church. Mother Smith said he [William] did not want it; she did\n    not profess to be a revelator only for herself and family, that\n    she wanted peace, union and harmony. The Twelve all expressed the\n    same feeling and manifested the greatest kindness to Mother Smith\n    as did also the bishops.\n\nThough William did not meet with the Twelve, he addressed a letter to\nPresident Brigham Young which was read at the above meeting. After\ncomplaining about the article on Patriarchs, which had appeared in the\n_Times and Seasons_, he concludes thus:\n\n    \"My proposition is, my share of the kingdom, and if you will\n    publish in the _Neighbor_ and _Times and Seasons_ the true state\n    of the case in regard to my office as Patriarch over the whole\n    Church, this will give me a right to visit all branches of the\n    Church, and intrude on no man's rights; and further to attend to\n    all of the ordinances of God, no man being my head, I will\n    reconcile all difficulties, and Elder Young can stand as the\n    President of the Church, and by my most hearty wish and consent.\n    This will settle all difficulties and restore peace and good\n    order, and farther than this, I cannot say, only that I want all\n    men to understand that my father's family are of the royal blood,\n    and promised seed, and no man or set of men can take their crown\n    or place in time nor eternity. Brother Young, the above is my\n    proposition and will settle all difficulties at once, and these\n    are my avowed sentiments and no equivocation.\n\n                                               WILLIAM SMITH.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Taylor's Journal under date of June 30, 1845.]\n\nTo this letter the Twelve wrote an answer before leaving the house of\nMother Smith. In said letter the brethren regretted not having had the\npleasure of meeting William. They had had considerable talk with\n\n    \"Mother Smith, and find her possessing the best of feelings\n    towards the whole Church. As to your requests in your letter we\n    would say: we are perfectly willing and wish to have all things\n    right, but there are some ordinances in the Church that cannot be\n    administered by any person out of this place at present, but must\n    be done here. As to having the right to administer all ordinances\n    in the world and no one standing at your head, we could not\n    sanction, because the President of the Church, and each one of our\n    quorum are amenable to the quorum of which you are a member. But\n    as to your right to officiate in the office of Patriarch, we say\n    you have the right to officiate in all the world wherever your lot\n    may be cast, and no one to dictate or control you excepting the\n    Twelve, which body of men must preside over the whole Church in\n    all the world.\"\n\nThe following postscript was added:\n\n    \"We have read this to Mother Smith, Catherine, Lucy, and Arthur,\n    and they express their satisfaction with it, as well as those of\n    the council who are present.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: John Taylor's journal, under date of June 30, 1845.]\n\nElder Taylor thus concludes his account of this visit with \"Mother Smith:\"\n\n    \"We prayed with Mother Smith before we left her; and she and the\n    family manifested good feelings. I am sorry the old lady should be\n    troubled, she is a good woman and has passed through much trouble\n    for the cause of truth, and has the respect and confidence of the\n    whole Church.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid.]\n\nAfter his failure in Nauvoo, and in Wisconsin in connection with Mr.\nStrang, we next hear of William Smith in the winter and spring of\n1850, visiting those who had been members of the church in Illinois\nand Kentucky, teaching \"lineal priesthood as applied to the Presidency\nof the church.\" That is, he taught that his brother Joseph's eldest\nson had a right by virtue of lineage to succeed to the Presidency of\nthe church; but also taught in connection with this that it was his\nright as the only surviving brother of the former President, uncle and\nnatural guardian of the \"seed\" of Joseph the prophet, to stand, in the\n_interim_, as president _pro tem_ of the church. There seemed to be a\ngeneral acquiescence with this by the members of the church remaining\nin the districts where he labored--most of whom were either apostates\nor weak in the faith--and in the spring of 1850, he called a\nconference to assemble in Covington, Kentucky, where he effected an\norganization by having himself sustained as President _pro tem_, of\nthe church, and Lyman Wight[A] and Aaron Hook as counselors _pro tem_\nto the President _pro tem_, and Joseph Wood as counselor and\nspokesman. It is claimed that many of the \"saints\" in northern\nIllinois and southern Wisconsin, were identified with this\nmovement.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: I cannot learn that Lyman Wight, once a member of the\nquorum of the Twelve, sanctioned this use of his name, or that he ever\nwas connected with this attempt at organization on the part of Wm.\nSmith.]\n\n[Footnote B: See Jason W. Briggs quoted by Tullidge in his supplement\nto the Life of Joseph, Josephite edition, p. 577.]\n\nA year later, viz., in the summer of 1851, Palestine, Lee county,\nIllinois, was designated as a Stake of Zion, a gathering place for\nthe saints, and the home of William Smith. At the October conference\nheld at Palestine that year, there was a confession of belief in and\nthe practice of polygamy, which resulted in many immediately\nwithdrawing from the organization; and, it is said, that the\ndeclaration proved the means ultimately of its complete\ndestruction.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Tullidge's Hist. of Joseph the prophet (Josephite\nedition, p. 577). Tullidge must be regarded as favorably disposed to\nthe \"Josephites,\" as he became identified with that movement. I\nmention the fact here as I find it necessary to depend upon him for\nfacts occasionally.]\n\nThis was the last effort of William Smith at organizing a church;\nsubsequently, when an organization was effected with Joseph Smith,\neldest son of the prophet, as its President, he became nominally\nconnected with that movement, but he was never prominent or\ninfluential. In the summer of 1880, the writer, then on a mission in\nthe state of Iowa, in company with Hyrum Jensen, called at the home of\nWilliam Smith, near Elkader, and found him living in poverty and\nobscurity.\n\nAs I think upon this man, and of how far he fell--from the office of\nan Apostle and Patriarch to the Church--when I think of his vain\nattempt to become President of the church, and, failing in that,\nattempting to lead away a party, then organizing a faction from the\nremnants of the church left in Illinois and Wisconsin, and every\neffort of his ending in failure--I think of the prophetic words of\nPresident Brigham Young:\n\n    _All that want to draw away a party from the Church after them,\n    let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper!_\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n\nIt can scarcely be said that either Lyman Wight or Bishop George\nMiller sought to lead the church; but they were guilty of\ninsubordination to the constituted authorities and lead away parties\nwith them, and illustrate the truth of President Young's prediction\nabout the failure of such persons, hence we consider their course.\n\nLyman Wight was a strong, bold man; fixed in his friendship for the\nprophet Joseph, and true to him under many trying circumstances; but\nwithal rather difficult to control, and after the death of Joseph soon\nmanifested a disposition of insubordination to authority. As far back\nas February, 1844, he had expressed a desire to go to Texas, and after\nthe death of the prophet seemed determined that the church should be\nremoved there. For some time a number of persons had worked under his\nand Bishop George Miller's direction in the pineries of Wisconsin,\ngetting out lumber for the Temple. In the latter part of August, 1844,\nPresident Young desired him to return to the pineries and continue his\nlabors; but he refused and expressed a determination to carry out his\nown views, and be the controller of his own conduct regardless of the\ncounsel of the presiding quorum. He therefore went to Texas instead of\nto Wisconsin, taking a small company of saints with him and settling\nin Texas, not far from the present site of Austin.\n\nFor his insubordination Lyman Wight was excommunicated from the\nchurch, the action being taken in Salt Lake City, 1848. The company of\nsaints that followed him were soon scattered as sheep that have\nwandered from the fold and the care of the shepherd; but some few of\nthem finally found their way back into the church. Lyman Wight lived\nin obscurity in Texas, unknown by the world, unhonored, without a\nfollowing, and died outside the church of Christ, with which he had\nsuffered so much during the persecutions it passed through in\nMissouri.\n\nBishop George Miller was closely associated with Lyman Wight in his\nrebellion against the authority of President Young. As already stated\nthey had been associated in directing the labors of the brethren\nworking in the pineries, and on returning to Nauvoo both had\nmanifested a spirit of insubordination to authority. Bishop Miller,\nhowever, did not immediately follow Lyman Wight to Texas, but remained\nwith the church some two years longer, and was among the first to\ncross the Mississippi in the great exodus from Nauvoo. During the\nsubsequent journey through what was then the wilderness of Iowa, he\nmanifested a disposition to draw off with his company from the main\ncamp; and when the great body of the exiled saints wen into Winter\nQuarters, near Council Bluffs, Bishop Miller and his company were more\nthan a hundred and fifty miles north at the junction of the Running\nWater and the Missouri River, where they remained during the winter of\n1846-7.\n\nIn the spring of 1847, when the saints were making ready for their\njourney to the west, Bishop Miller urged the advisability of changing\ntheir destination, and going to Texas, where Lyman Wight had already\nsettled. The bishop's views being rejected, he withdrew from the camp,\nfollowed by a few over whom he had influence, and with them he joined\nLyman Wight in Texas. The union, however, was of short duration. The\nspirit which led them to rebel against President Young would not\npermit them to live in peace together. They soon quarrelled and\nseparated, Miller making his way to Wisconsin where he joined James J.\nStrang. He was excommunicated from the church for his rebellion at the\nsame time as Lyman Wight, in Salt Lake City, 1848. Of the\ncircumstances under which he died we have not learned, we only know\nthat he died out of the church of Christ and in obscurity. The\nrebellion of these two prominent men in the church, and their effort\nto lead away a party therefrom, brought neither honor or fame to them\nnor even wealth--they did not prosper. In January, 1841, the Lord had\nsaid to Lyman Wight:\n\n    It is my will that my servant Lyman Wight should continue in\n    preaching for Zion, in the spirit of meekness, confessing me\n    before the world, and I will bear him up as on eagle's wings, and\n    he shall beget glory and honor to himself, and unto my name. That\n    when he shall finish his work, that I may receive him unto myself,\n    even as I did my servant David Patten, who is with me at this\n    time, and also my servant Edward Partridge, and also my aged\n    servant Joseph Smith, Sen., who sitteth with Abraham at his right\n    hand, and blessed and holy is he; for he is mine.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. cxxiv, 18, 19.]\n\nOf Bishop Miller, the Lord said:\n\n    I say unto you, my servant George Miller is without guile; he may\n    be trusted because of the integrity of his heart; and for the love\n    which he has to my testimony, I, the Lord, love him! I therefore\n    say unto you, I seal upon his head the office of a Bishopric, like\n    unto my servant Edward Partridge, that he may receive the\n    consecrations of mine house, that he may administer blessings upon\n    the heads of the poor of my people, saith the Lord. Let no man\n    despise my servant George, for he shall honor me.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. cxxiv, 20, 21.]\n\nWhat a splendid prospect was opened before these men! to what heights\nthey could hope to ascend--even to the companionship of God! Here was\nhonor, glory, exaltation held out to them, within their reach; but\nthey pushed it all aside--exchanged it all for the \"wo\" of them who\nare cut off from the church of Christ--who are overcome of the\nworld![A] And instead of living among the saints, honored as God's\nservants, supported by the faith, prayer, love and confidence of the\nchurch of Christ, they lived and finally died in wretched obscurity--\nunwept, unhonored and unsung, their lives and their ending only\nimportant as illustrating the truth of the prophetic words of him who\nsaid:\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. 1, 8.]\n\n    _All that want to draw away a party from the church after them,\n    let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper!_\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\n\nBut little is heard of James J. Strang in the church until after the\ndeath of the prophet Joseph; but that he was a man of considerable\nintellectual ability there can be no question. Mr. Strang claimed that\nabout ten days before his death the prophet Joseph gave to him a\nletter containing a revelation appointing him [James J. Strang] to be\nhis successor as President and Prophet of the church. The letter also\nappointed Mr. Strang's counselor, and commanded the Twelve Apostles to\nproclaim Voree, Wisconsin, as the gathering place of the saints. Mr.\nStrang attempted to strengthen his claim to the position of President\nand Prophet of the church by reference to the revelation which says:\n\n    Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye have received a\n    commandment for a law unto my Church, through him whom I have\n    appointed to receive commandments and revelations from my hand.\n    And this ye shall know assuredly that there is none other\n    appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations, until\n    he be taken, if he abide in me. But verily, verily, I say unto\n    you, that none else shall be appointed unto this gift except it be\n    through him, for if it be taken from him, he shall not have power\n    except to appoint another in his stead.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. xliii.]\n\nMr. Strang claimed that the appointment he received through the letter\nhere presented as coming from the prophet Joseph, fulfilled the terms\nof the revelation above quoted; for he had been appointed through the\nprophet Joseph.\n\nWhen he presented this \"letter\" and \"revelation\" to some of the saints\nin Michigan, viz., to those living in the town of Florence, St. Joseph\nCounty, they asked him if the Twelve that were commanded in his\n\"revelation\" to proclaim Voree, Wisconsin, as the gathering place for\nthe saints, were the Twelve Apostles at Nauvoo. He replied they were.\nDid they know anything of this \"revelation?\" They did not. Had he been\nordained a prophet? He replied no. The saints were suspicious of his\nclaims, and would not receive him.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See letter of Crandell Dunn, who was presiding over the\nbranches of the church in Western Michigan at the time--_Mill. Star_,\nVol. VIII., p. 93.]\n\nThis question as to his ordination presented a serious difficulty to\nMr. Strang, a difficulty which he tried to surmount by announcing soon\nafterwards that immediately after the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph,\nan angel appeared to him and ordained him to be a prophet to the\nchurch, and the successor to Joseph as the President thereof.\n\nHe presented himself in Nauvoo and succeeded in drawing to his support\na number of restless men--men who had been neglectful of their duties\nin the church of Christ, and of a disposition to follow any person who\npromised them change and excitement. Not many followed him from\nNauvoo, however, for there his influence amounted to little; but in\nthe scattered branches, especially in those in Wisconsin, he succeeded\nin deceiving many. Among those who accepted and sustained his claims\nwere William Smith, the only surviving brother of the prophet Joseph;\nthe notorious John C. Bennett, who had been excommunicated from the\nchurch for his crimes, and afterward plotted with the enemies of\nJoseph to bring to pass his destruction; and also John E. Page, one of\nthe Twelve, who for several years previous to Joseph's death had been\nin bad repute with the church. John C. Bennett had first supported\nSidney Rigdon, claiming to have received a sealed document from the\nprophet Joseph--when as yet he was in full fellowship with the\nchurch--with a strict charge not to open it until after the prophet's\ndeath. When he opened it, lo! it contained what purported to be a\nrevelation from the deceased prophet appointing Sidney Rigdon to be\nhis successor. John C. Bennett averred that this was as it should be,\nand so eagerly was this purported revelation accepted by the\nsupporters of Mr. Rigdon, that they had it published and widely\ncirculated among the branches of the church. But when Mr. Strang came\nforward with his claims, John C. Bennett turned from Sidney Rigdon and\nsupported Mr. Strang--having forgot, apparently, the \"revelation\"\ncontained in the sealed document which appointed Mr. Rigdon President\nof the church![A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Mill. Star_, Vol. VIII, p. 94.]\n\nJohn E. Page, in support of the Strang movement, intercepted a company\nof saints in Michigan, en route from Canada to Nauvoo. He represented\nthat it was the will of the Lord that they should settle in Voree,\nWisconsin, Mr. Strang's gathering place, and not go to Nauvoo. This\ncompany, however, were prudent enough not to receive his\nrepresentations without investigation. They sent messengers to Nauvoo\nwho received such instructions from the Twelve as preserved them from\nthe deceitfulness of this apostate Apostle. John E. Page continued to\nsupport the claims of James J. Strang, and for doing so was\nexcommunicated from the church,[A] and swelled the number of those who\nhave made shipwreck of faith through opposing legitimate authority.\n\n[Footnote A: John E. Page was disfellowshipped from the quorum of the\nTwelve, February 9th, 1846; and excommunicated from the church June\n27, 1846.]\n\nMr. Strang in a short time changed his gathering place from Voree,\nWisconsin, to Beaver Island, in the north end of Lake Michigan. He\norganized a township on Beaver Island, went to the state legislature\nand succeeded in having the whole group of islands in north Lake\nMichigan organized into a county, under the name of Manitou County,\nwhich for some years Mr. Strang represented in the Michigan state\nlegislature.\n\nMr. Strang was not satisfied with being Prophet and President of the\nchurch, he must also be a king; and accordingly was crowned and given\na scepter[A]--\"The attribute to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the\ndread and fear of kings!\"\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXV, p. 718.]\n\nHe was crowned by George J. Adams, also an apostate from the church.\nAt one time Mr. Adams had been appointed to go on a mission to the\nempire of Russia, to preach the gospel; but before he started he was\nfound to be in transgression. His appointment was, of course,\ncancelled; and subsequently, as he still further transgressed, he was\nexcommunicated from the church, after which he joined Mr. Strang at\nBeaver Island.\n\nIt may be well to observe, in passing, that all these aspirants for\nplace and power manifested an insatiable desire for the honors and\ntitles of men, a thing which shows them to be as vain as they were\nambitious, and distinguishes them from true leaders (especially those\nwhom God calls), who so loose themselves in their work, that self is\nunthought of, much less the empty honors and titles of men. Mr. Strang\nwas not only a \"king\" in name, but also one in disposition if those\nwho represent his conduct speak truly. Arbitrary and cruel in his\nmethods of government, he finally provoked much dissatisfaction among\nhis followers, and not a few dissensions.\n\nThe people whom he gathered together on Beaver Island soon fell into\ndisrepute with their neighbors. They are represented as claiming that\nthe earth was the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; that they were the\nLord's saints and heirs to that which was the Lord's, and hence did\nnot hesitate to purloin their neighbor's goods. In other words, they\nwere accused by their neighbors with being an organized community of\nthieves, who thrived by plundering more honest people. It is not our\nprerogative to pronounce upon the truth or falsity of these charges.\nIt is enough to say that Mr. Strang and his followers were held in\ngreat abhorrence by the other inhabitants of the Manitou group of\nislands and the people on the neighboring main-land; and in the summer\nof 1856, there was a general uprising of the people in those parts\nwhich resulted in the killing of Mr. Strang--some accounts say, by two\nmen of his own party, and the breaking up of his organization.\n\nOnce more we stand face to face with the prophetic words of President\nYoung:\n\n    _All that want to draw away a party from the church after them,\n    let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper!_\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\n\nWe now come to the last organization that was brought into existence\nthrough the agency of men once associated with the Church of Jesus\nChrist of Latter-day Saints--the so-called \"Re-organized Church of\nJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\" commonly called the \"Josephite\nChurch.\" This organization is still in existence, and has for its\nPresident, Joseph Smith, the eldest son of the prophet Joseph. It is\nmy purpose first to give an account of how this organization came into\nexistence, and then consider the claims of Mr. Joseph Smith to be of\nright the President of the church founded, under God, by his father.\n\nJason W. Briggs, one of the founders and leaders in the Josephite\nmovement, informs us that in the spring of 1850, William Smith, whose\nacquaintance the reader has already formed, called a conference at\nCovington, Kentucky:\n\n    \"From which time he visited many of the branches and scattered\n    saints, teaching \"lineal Priesthood\" as applying to the Presidency\n    of the Church. . . . This principle, though pretty clearly shown\n    in the books, had been almost entirely overlooked or forgotten by\n    the saints; but when their attention was _thus_[A] called to it,\n    many at once received it as the solution of the question of\n    Presidency.\"[B]\n\n[Footnote A: That is, by the preaching of William Smith.]\n\n[Footnote B: Tullidge's supplement to Josephite edition of Life of\nJoseph the Prophet, p. 576.]\n\nWilliam Smith as the reader is already informed, claimed the right as\nnatural guardian of the \"seed\" of Joseph the prophet, to stand as\nPresident _pro tem_ of the church until the \"seed\" should come forward\nto take his place; and proceeded to organize a church with that\nunderstanding. This organization as already stated held a conference,\nin October, 1851, at which was proclaimed a belief in and practice of\npolygamy. Among those who attended this conference of William Smith's\nchurch was Jason W. Briggs, who, after returning to his home in\nWisconsin, was much perplexed over the condition of the church. While\npondering in his heart the situation, on the 18th of November, 1851,\non the prairie some three miles from the town of Beloit, Wisconsin, he\nclaims to have received a revelation from God. In that \"revelation\"\nthe Lord is represented as declaring it to be the duty of those elders\nwho had been ordained by the prophet Joseph, or by the hand of those\nordained by him, to preach the gospel--\n\n    As revealed in the record of the Jews, and the Book of Mormon and\n    the Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and cry repentance and\n    remission of sins through obedience to the gospel, and I will\n    sustain them and give them my spirit; and in my own due time will\n    I call upon the seed of Joseph Smith, and I will bring one forth,\n    and he shall be mighty and strong, and he shall preside over the\n    High Priesthood of my Church; and then shall the quorums assemble,\n    and the pure in heart shall gather, and Zion shall be\n    re-inhabited, as I said unto my servant Joseph Smith; after many\n    days shall all these things be accomplished, saith the spirit.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Josephite edition of Life of Joseph the Prophet, p. 578.]\n\nThis \"revelation\" Mr. Briggs was commanded to send to the churches at\nPalestine, Voree, Waukesha and other places.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid.]\n\nWhile the messengers of Mr. Briggs are carrying his \"revelation\" to\nthe scattered churches in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan, it is\nnecessary to relate some incidents said to have occurred in another\npart of Wisconsin, in what is called the \"Yellow Stone Branch.\"[A]\nThis \"branch\" belonged to that organization founded by James J.\nStrang, and was presided over by Zenas H. Gurley, frequently called\n\"Father Gurley.\" During the year 1850, according to Mr. Gurley's own\nstatement, several strange things came to his knowledge which\nsatisfied him that\n\n[Footnote A: The \"Yellow Stone Branch\" where \"Father Gurley\" was\nlocated was in La Fayette Co., South Western Wisconsin. Beloit where\nJason W. Briggs operated was in extreme south of the same state.]\n\n    \"Neither J. J. Strang, Brigham Young, William Smith, nor any that\n    had claimed to be prophets, since Joseph's death, were the\n    servants of God.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 580.]\n\nThe doubts born in 1850, grew stronger in Mr. Gurley's mind in 1851;\nand one Sunday evening, in the fall of that year, while reflecting\nupon the prophecies of Isaiah, respecting the great latter-day\nwork--especially of that prophecy which speaks of the house of the\nLord in the last days being established in the top of the mountains,\nand all nations flowing unto it[A]--he thought then of Strang's Beaver\nIsland operation, and felt ashamed that he had ever thought that this\nwould bring to pass the work predicted by the Hebrew prophet. He\nclaims then to have heard the voice of the spirit say to him:\n\n[Footnote A: Isaiah ii. 2-4.]\n\n    Rise up, cast off all that claim to be prophets, and go forth and\n    preach the gospel and say that God will raise up a prophet to\n    complete his work.\n\nA few weeks afterwards this commandment and prophecy was repeated, and\nhe began looking about for a starting point. Meantime one David Powell\narrived at Yellow Stone with Mr. Briggs's \"revelation,\" which\npredicted the coming forth of one from the seed of Joseph the prophet,\nto lead the church. Mr. Gurley, however, could not wholly accept the\n\"revelation\" of Mr. Briggs. It had been \"revealed\" to him that God\nwould raise up a prophet, but who it would be had not been made known\nto him. About ten or fifteen days after the arrival of Mr. Briggs's\nmessenger, word was brought to Mr. Gurley that his little daughter was\n\"singing and speaking in tongues\" at a neighbor's house. Mr. Gurley\nhurried to the house and after listening to the child a short time, he\nrequested all present to join with him in asking the Lord to tell them\nwho the successor of Joseph was. They spent a few moments in prayer\nwhen the Holy Spirit declared:[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Through whom is not stated.]\n\n    The successor of Joseph Smith is Joseph Smith, the son of Joseph\n    Smith the prophet. It is his right by lineage, saith the Lord your\n    God.\n\nShortly after this manifestation of the gift of tongues and the\nproclamation of the above reputed revelation, the \"Yellow Stone\nbranch\" was convened and James J. Strang formally renounced as a\nprophet, seer and revelator to the church, and the allegiance of the\nbranch pledged to the \"seed\" of Joseph Smith the prophet. The above\n\"revelation\" made it possible for Mr. Gurley to unite with Mr. Briggs,\nand word was accordingly sent to the latter, that evidence of the\ntruth of his \"revelation\" had been received, and proposed the holding\nof a conference in June, 1852. After some correspondence it was\nfinally settled that the conference be held in the town of Beloit,\nWisconsin.\n\nThis conference by resolution first disclaimed all connection and\nfellowship with those men who had presumed to lead the church,\ncharging them with having assumed powers contrary to the law of God.\nSecondly the conference\n\n    Resolved, That the successor of Joseph Smith, junior, as the\n    presiding High Priest in the Melchisedek Priesthood, must of\n    necessity be of the seed of Joseph Smith, junior, in fulfillment\n    of the law and promises of God.\n\nThe other resolutions of importance adopted by the conference declared\nthat the office of President of the church grew out of the authority\nof the presiding high priest in the high priesthood; that they\nrecognize the validity of all legal ordinations in the church; that\nthe whole law of the church is contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon,\nDoctrine and Covenants; that there was no stake of Zion to which the\nsaints are commanded at present to gather; and that it was the duty of\nthe elders to cry repentance and remission of sins to this generation.\nA committee was appointed to write a pamphlet based on these\nresolutions entitled \"A Word of Consolation to the Scattered Saints.\"\n\nIt was about this time, viz, during the summer of 1852, that the\n\"stake of Zion\" in Lee county, Illinois, founded by William Smith's\nchurch, went to pieces and a number of the members thereof joined this\nJosephite movement set on foot by Messrs. Briggs and Gurley.\n\nThe next conference of the Josephite church was held in October, 1852,\nat the Yellow Stone branch, and then more especially was considered\nthe question of authority to preside in the church that was forming,\npending the coming forth of \"young Joseph\" to be its president. The\npamphlet which the June conference had ordered written, announced that\nthe \"highest authority presides always,\" and the deliberations of the\nconference resulted in the following:\n\n    Resolved, That in the opinion of this conference, the one holding\n    the highest priesthood in the church is to preside, and represent\n    the rightfull heir to the presidency of the high priesthood in a\n    presiding capacity.\n\nThese men, however, found great difficulty in determining who held the\nhighest authority as many unwarrantable ordinations had taken place in\nthe various factions.\n\n    After earnest discussion it was determined that all ordinations\n    not within the limits of the law should be ignored, and all within\n    the limit recognized. This excluded all above an high priest, who\n    being the highest recognized, was sustained as the presiding\n    authority.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 592.]\n\nI have been unable to learn, however, that any one of the high priests\nwas selected to preside over the Josephite church at this juncture,\nand one is left to infer that the whole body of so-called high priests\nwere to preside. During the winter of 1853, the \"spirit\" intimated to\nMr. Gurley, that they must \"organize;\" but this they knew not how to\ndo, further than they had done.[A] They were even unable to decide on\nthe validity of the ordinations of the men who had attended the\nOctober conference.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid, p. 594.]\n\n[Footnote B: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 594.]\n\nIn the month of March, 1853, the subject of organization being still\nagitated, the question was put to the Lord: \"Were those ordained\napostles by William Smith recognized by God?\" The answer was that\nthose ordinations were not acceptable--were not of God.[A] Near the\nclose of this revelation the men engaged in this movement were\ncommanded to organize themselves:\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid, 595.]\n\n    \"'For ere long,' saith the Lord, 'I will require the prophet at\n    your hand.'\"\n\nBut how to organize they did not know. They claim to have had two high\npriests and one senior president of the seventies among them. \"But how\ncould these men organize the church?\" asks Mr. Gurley:\n\n    It was impossible, utterly impossible. We counseled upon it, and\n    concluded that possibly, under the present circumstances, it might\n    be right for high priests, and for the senior President of\n    seventies to ordain seventies; but when done what would it\n    accomplish? Nothing, just nothing. We were in trouble--deep\n    trouble! To refuse to organize was disobedience; to go forward in\n    the attempt was darkness. There was but one alternative, and that\n    was to seek wisdom from above.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 595.]\n\nThe result of inquiring of the Lord, according to the statement of Mr.\nGurley, was that a commandment was given appointing a day of fasting\nand prayer, and the Lord promised to show them how to organize. When\nthe meeting assembled the following question was put to the Lord:\n\n    Will the Lord please to tell us how to organize. . . . . And who\n    among us will he acknowledge as the representative of the legal\n    heir to the Presidency of the Church.\n\nTo this inquiry it is claimed that an answer was obtained through a\n\"revelation\" to one H. H. Deam, a high priest, which reads as follows:\n\n    Verily thus saith the Lord, as I said unto my servant Moses,--see\n    thou do all things according to the pattern,--so I say unto you.\n    Behold the pattern is before you. It is my will that you respect\n    authority in my Church; therefore let the greatest among you\n    preside at your conference. Let three men be appointed by the\n    conference to select seven men from among you, who shall compose\n    the majority of the Twelve, for it is my will that that quorum\n    should not be filled up at present. Let the President of the\n    conference, assisted by two others, ordain them. The senior of\n    them shall stand as the representative. Let them select twelve men\n    from among you, and ordain them to compose the high council.\n    Behold ye understand the order of the bishopric, the seventies,\n    the elders, the priests, the teachers, and deacons. Therefore\n    organize according to the pattern; behold I will be with you unto\n    the end.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph, the Prophet, Josephite edition, p.\n596-7.]\n\nThis alleged revelation was given on the 20th of March, 1853, and at\nthe April conference following an organization was effected on the\nabove indicated plan. After a long discussion, about whose priesthood\nwas the highest--in the course of which a great deal of ill-feeling\nwas manifested--finally the controversy ended in favor of Mr. Briggs,\nand he was called to preside at the conference. Ethan Griffith,\nWilliam Cline and Cyrus Newkirk were appointed the committee to select\nthe seven \"apostles\" to form the majority of the quorum of the Twelve.\nThe men selected were Zenas H. [Father] Gurley, Henry H. Deam, Jason\nW. Briggs, Daniel B. Razy, John Cunningham, George White and Reuben\nNewkirk. It was voted that a \"stake of Zion\" be organized in the town\nof Argyle, Lafayette Co., Wisconsin, of which William Cline, Cyrus\nNewkirk and Isaac Butterfield were chosen and ordained the presidency.\nA number of \"seventies\" were also ordained. At the close of the\nconference a \"revelation\" was received informing the conference that\nwhat had been done was recorded in heaven, and to the seven \"apostles\"\nit was said:\n\n    I give unto you the care of my flock on earth; take the oversight\n    of them, as you shall give an account unto me in the day of\n    judgment.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 601.]\n\nThe period between the time of this organization effected in April,\n1853, and the time when Joseph Smith, son of the prophet became its\npresident, April, 1860, is called by the Josephite historian Tullidge,\n\"an apostolic interval.\" During that interval the Josephite church\nseemed not to make much progress. Joseph Smith was several times\nsolicited to take the Presidency of it, but he seemed not at all\nanxious for the place.\n\nIn 1856, the \"reorganized church\" sent to the predicted head of it,\nthe word of the Lord, urging him to come and take his place. The\ndocument was signed by J. W. Briggs, \"representative president of the\nchurch and the priesthood in Zarahemla.\" Messrs. Briggs and Gurley\nwere appointed a committee to present this message to Mr. Smith, which\nthey did at his home near Nauvoo. According to Mr. Smith's own amount\nof this visit, these messengers did not meet with a very cordial\nreception; and when Mr. Briggs vehemently urged the matter upon him,\nand \"announced the culmination of the message in tones of thunder, and\nalmost dictatorially\" urged him to accept the message and do as\ndirected therein, or reject it at his peril, he says he met this\n\"vehemence indignantly, and almost turned these messengers out of\ndoors.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 767.]\n\nThe effort on the part of Messrs. Briggs and Gurley to induce Mr.\nSmith to become their president ended on this occasion in\ndisappointment, though before leaving Nauvoo the whole situation was\ntalked over in the presence of Mrs. Emma Smith, mother of Joseph.\n\nIt is to be remarked as passing strange that neither on this occasion,\nnor on any other that Josephite history speaks of, was it urged upon\nJoseph Smith that he had already been formally anointed by his father\nto be the President of the church.\n\nEarly in February, 1860, a call was issued, signed by Z. H. Gurley and\nReuben Newkirk, calling for a general conference to assemble at Amboy,\nIllinois, the following April. All the branches of the church in\nWisconsin, Illinois and Michigan were urged to send representatives,\nas it was desirable to choose a high council and organize and set in\norder all the quorums under the First Presidency; and an intimation\nwas made that much more than was anticipated might be realized--was it\nan intimation that Joseph Smith would come and accept the Presidency\nof their church?\n\nMeantime Joseph Smith who, according to his own autobiography, had\nfailed as storekeeper, railroad contractor, in the study of law, in\nfarming, and while keeping soul and body together by labor and from\nhis fees as justice of the peace, was confronted with the question of\nhis connection with his \"father's work;\" and in the winter of 1859,\nresolved to put himself in communication with the \"reorganized\nchurch.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: For the above acts see his autobiography in the Life of\nJoseph, Josephite ed., pp. 743-773.]\n\nHe accordingly wrote to Mr. William Marks, informing him that he was\n\"soon going to take his father's place at the head of the Mormon\nchurch,\" and requested him and others that he considered nearest him,\nto come to Nauvoo and confer with him.[A] Mr. Smith states as his\nreason for sending for Mr. Marks that he was president of the stake of\nZion at Nauvoo at the death of Joseph, the prophet; that he had\nretained his faith in Mormonism as taught by Joseph and Hyrum; and\nhence his council would be valuable. Mr. Smith also announced his\nintention to his mother and step-father; the former approved his\ncourse, the latter took a speculative view of it and built fond\nschemes for obtaining wealth through the position to be taken by his\nstep-son.\n\n[Footnote A: William Marks, according to the statement of Joseph Smith\nin his autobiography, came in company with James J. Strang to Fulton\nCity, where Emma Smith and her son Joseph lived during the winter of\n1845-6, and had a brief interview with Joseph and his mother,\npromising to meet them again. Messrs. Marks and Strang held meetings\nin the neighborhood, but Mr. Smith says he did not see them again. It\nwas claimed by Mr. Strang that he on this occasion ordained \"young\nJoseph\" to the same priesthood that his uncle Hyrum held, and it seems\nthat he afterwards so reported to some of his followers. As late as\nJune, 1891, Mr L. D. Hickey, a Strangite, wrote a tract entitled,\n\"_Who was the Successor of Joseph Smith?_\" in which the following\noccurs: \"Nov. 6 1846, James J. Strang was commanded to go and anoint\nand ordain Joseph Smith, the son of the martyr, to the same priesthood\nhis uncle Hyrum held. We have all the proof we want that James did\nobey God; and that left the son of Joseph as one of the Presidents of\nthe church, and the Book of Rules says in case of the death of either\nof the First Presidents, the other shall preside until the vacancy is\nfilled. This was the situation of the church at the dead of James [J.\nStrang]. So that by virtue of the ordination Joseph obtained under the\nhands of James and no other ordination, we [the Strangites] hold him\nthe legal President of the Church from the death of James to this\nday.\"--(page 5.) Joseph Smith denies any such ordination having taken\nplace unless it was done when he was unconscious and unknown to\nWilliam Marks.--See _Life of Joseph the Prophet_, Josephite edition,\np. 754.]\n\nSoon after this, Mr. Marks, one Israel L. Rogers and William W. Blair,\nall interested in the \"Reorganized church\" movement, visited Mr. Smith\nat his mother's home in Nauvoo, and held an interview with them. It\nwas finally decided that Mr. Smith and his mother should attend the\nensuing April conference, called to assemble at Amboy, Lee county,\nIllinois, and the matter was to be laid before the church and a\ndecision arrived at:\n\n    \"For, said Elder Marks; we have had enough of man-made prophets,\n    and we don't want any more of that sort. If God has called you, we\n    want to know it. If he has, the Church is ready to sustain you; if\n    not, we want nothing to do with you.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition p. 767.]\n\nMessrs. Marks, Rogers and Blair, in 1860, seem not to have been so\nurgent as Messrs. Briggs and Gurley had been in 1856; the latter had\ncommanded him to take the Presidency of the church, or refuse to do so\nat his peril; the former merely agreed to see about it, by presenting\nthe matter to the church. Indeed for men who professed to have\nevidence that Mr. Smith had been called, blessed and anointed by\nJoseph the prophet to be the President of the church, and to possess\nthe right to that position by virtue of lineage, the reply of Mr.\nMarks to Mr. Smith's proposition to take the Presidency of the\nReorganized church seems unaccountably cold, and too much burdened\nwith doubt and independence when addressing the only man who, on the\ntheory of the \"Reorganized church,\" could possibly succeed to the\nPresidency. Mr. Smith affects to have been made indignant at the\nurgency of Messrs. Briggs and Gurley, in 1856; the coldness and\nindependence of Messrs. Marks, Rogers and Blair must have been a still\ngreater source of annoyance.\n\nMr. Smith went to the conference at Amboy, and in the afternoon of the\n6th of April, 1860, made a speech, at the conclusion of which it was\nmoved that he be received as a prophet,--the successor of his father.\nThe motion was carried by a unanimous vote, after which Mr. Gurley\nwho, assisted by Mr. William Marks, presided at the conference, arose\nand said:\n\n    Brother Joseph, I present this Church to you in the name of Jesus\n    Christ!\n\nAnd of course Mr. Smith accepted it.\n\nThe speech made by Mr. Smith at the above mentioned conference is\nremarkable only for its tameness; but I quote a few sentences that may\nbe of special interest; first as showing that he claimed to be called\nto his position by a power not his own:--\n\n    I came not here of myself, but by the influence of the spirit. For\n    some time past I have received manifestations pointing to the\n    position I am about to assume. I wish to say that I have come here\n    not to be dictated by any men or set of men. I have come in\n    obedience to a power not my own, and shall be dictated by the\n    power which sent me.\n\n    . . . Some, who ought to know the proprieties of the church, have\n    told me that no certain form was necessary in order for me to\n    assume the leadership, that the position came by right of lineage,\n    yet I know that if I attempted to lead as a prophet by these\n    considerations, and _not by a call from heaven_, men would not be\n    lead to believe who do not believe now. And so I have come not of\n    my own dictation to this sacred office.\n\nAs to revelations he said:\n\n    I have my peculiar notions in regard to revelations, but am happy\n    to say that they accord with those I am to associate with, at\n    least with those of them with whom I have conversed. I am not very\n    conversant with those books (pointing to a volume before him), not\n    so conversant as I should be and will be.\n\nThat his \"notions in regard to revelations\" were indeed \"peculiar,\"\none only has to read the following to be convinced:\n\n    _I pledge myself to promulgate no doctrine that shall not be\n    approved by you_, or the code of good morals.\n\nHow different this from the reply of one of the ancient prophets, when\nsome sought to have him give out no prophecy or revelation but what\nshould be approved by them:\n\n    And Micaiah said, as the Lord liveth what the Lord saith unto me,\n    that will I speak![A]\n\n[Footnote A: I Kings xxii, 7-14]\n\nHow different, too, from the spirit of Brigham Young who shortly after\nbeing chosen President of the church wrote:\n\n    As the Lord's will is my will all the time--as He dictates so will\n    I perform. If He don't guide the ship, we'll go down in the\n    whirlpool.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Letter to Orson Spencer, Jan. 23rd. 1848, _Mill. Star_,\nVol. X, p. 115.]\n\nWhat a contrast also between his \"I-pledge-myself-to-promulgate-no-\ndoctrine-that-shall-not-be-approved-by-you\" position of the son of the\ngreat prophet, and the position in which the Almighty God of heaven\nplaced his father. The prophet Joseph's position may be learned from\nthe following revelation given the very day the church was organized:\n\n    Behold there shall be a record kept among you, and in it thou\n    shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of\n    Jesus Christ, an elder of the church, through the will of God the\n    Father and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Wherefore,\n    meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and\n    commandments which he shall give unto you _as he receiveth them_,\n    walking in all holiness before me. _For his words ye shall\n    receive, as if from mine own mouth_, in all patience and faith;\n    for by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail\n    against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of\n    darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your\n    good and his name's glory.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. xxi.]\n\nAs the heavens are higher than the earth, so is this position given to\nthe prophet Joseph by the Lord higher than that assumed by his son,\nwho claims to be his successor, and yet stands pledged to promulgate\nno doctrine that shall not be approved by his associates! What manner\nof prophet is this?\n\nFollowing Mr. Smith's acceptance of the church at the hands of Mr.\nGurley, he was ordained to the office of President of the high\npriesthood and President of the church by William Marks, Zenas H.\nGurley, Samuel Powers and W. W. Blair. Mr. Marks was president of the\nNauvoo stake of Zion at the death of the prophet, and the other three\ngentlemen were \"apostles\" in the Reorganized church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, (Josephite pamphlet,) pp. 10, II, also\n_The Saint's Herald_, Vol XXXIX, No. 24. p. 375.]\n\nWe have now followed the history of the \"Reorganized church\" as far as\nit is necessary. It only remains to remark that it is a stream formed\nby the confluence of two other streams; one of which, represented by\nMr. Gurley and his following, flows from Strangism; and the other,\nrepresented by Mr. Briggs and his following, flows from the church\norganized by William Smith. We leave it for Josephites to inform us on\nwhat principle of philosophy two corrupt, apostate streams by uniting,\nmake a pure one!\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\n\nLet us now consider the claims of Mr. Joseph Smith to be of right the\nPresident of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His\nclaims, or those made in his behalf by his friends and followers, are\nbased upon the following assumptions:--\n\nFirst, that he was called to that position when a boy, through his\nfather, (1) by prophecy and blessing in Liberty jail, Missouri, where\nhis father was confined in the winter of 1838-9 (2) by revelation in\n1841; and (3) by a formal anointing in a council of the priesthood at\nNauvoo, in 1844:--\n\nSecond, that the position in his by lineage--it is his birthright:--\n\nThird, that he was called to the position by \"revelation\" to himself;\nand,\n\nFourth, he was ordained to it by those holding legal authority.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See _The Saint's Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, p. 337; and also\n_The Successor_, a Josephite pamphlet, pp. 8, 9, 10, 11.]\n\nIt is my purpose to consider these claims in their order, one by one,\nand show the untrustworthiness of the evidence upon which they are\nbased, the weakness of the argument by which they are sustained, and\nfinally how these claims contradict both the facts of history and the\norder that exists in the holy priesthood. I take up the first\nassumption in its several parts:\n\nHe was called to that position [_i. e._, to be President of the\nchurch], through his father, by prophecy and blessing in Liberty jail.\n\nThis claim is based solely upon the testimony of Lyman Wight. They\nquote him as follows:\n\n    In the private journal of Lyman Wight, . . . . this is found:\n    \"Sunday, December 8th, 1850, bore testimony that Joseph Smith\n    appointed those of his own posterity to be his successor.\"\n\n    And in a letter he wrote in July, 1855, from Medina river, Texas,\n    to the _Northern Islander_, a Strangite paper, Brother Wight said:\n    Now Mr. Editor, if you had been present _when Joseph called on me\n    shortly after we came out of jail_,[A] [Liberty jail, Missouri.\n    --Ed.] to lay hands with him on the head of a youth, and heard him\n    cry aloud, \"you are my successor when I depart.\" and heard the\n    blessings poured on his head,--I say had you heard all this, and\n    seen the tears streaming from his eyes--you would not have been\n    led [into following Strang] by blind fanaticism, or a zeal without\n    knowledge.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: The _italics_ are mine, note them. R.]\n\n[Footnote B: _The Saint's Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 338-9.]\n\nOf this testimony it is to be said, first on the entry in Mr. Wight's\njournal, that it is too general in its character to be of much service\nin supporting the claims of \"young Joseph.\" We are not certain that he\nrefers to him at all. Then if Lyman Wight knew in 1850 that Joseph the\nprophet had blessed his son Joseph to be his successor, as prophet and\npresident of the church, Mr. Wight knew it in 1844; and is it not\nstrange that he did not speak of it and advocate it when the question\nof a successor was warmly discussed in Nauvoo, during the autumn of\n1844? Why is it that we have nothing from him on the subject earlier\nthan 1850? And this silence on the part of Mr. Wight is the more\nsignificant when it is remembered that he was a bold, fearless man. It\ncannot be said in truth, that Brigham Young's influence was so\nmasterly as to awe him into silence. As a matter of fact he violently\nopposed Brigham Young in some of his measures, and at last rebelled\nagainst him; but nothing is said by him until 1850, about the\nappointment of any of the prophet's posterity to succeed to the\npresidency of the church.\n\nThe letter quoted from the _Northern Islander_, might be of some force\nif its statements were not contradicted as to time and place and\ncircumstance by another statement, also made in a Josephite\npublication. Let it be observed that according to the testimony of Mr\nWight, in the _Northern Islander_, the \"blessing and prophecy\" under\nconsideration was given at a time that the prophet called on Mr.\nWight, _shortly after they came out of Liberty jail_. With that in\nmind read the following in _The Successor:_--[A]\n\n[Footnote A: A Josephite tract sustaining the claims of \"young\nJoseph,\" p. 3.]\n\n    Lyman Wight, one of the Twelve, always taught the saints whom he\n    led into Texas, that none but \"little Joseph\" could lead the\n    church, as successor to the martyr. He said he knew it, _for in\n    1839, when Hyrum, Joseph, and himself were in prison, in Liberty\n    jail, Missouri_, \"little Joseph\" was brought by his mother _and\n    left with his father in the jail_, while she was attending to\n    business affairs in the town--_and that then and there_[A] Joseph,\n    with Hyrum and himself, laid their hands upon the lad's head, and\n    Joseph proceeded to bless him, and prophesied that he would yet\n    lead the church of the living God; and he blessed him to that end.\n    Such was the testimony of Lyman Wight up to 1858, the year in\n    which he died.\n\n[Footnote A: The _italics_ are mine. R.]\n\nThis statement makes the \"blessing and prophecy\" to have been\npronounced upon the head of \"young Joseph,\" in Liberty jail; whereas\nthe statement made by Mr. Wight in the _Northern Islander_, places it\nshortly after they came out of Liberty jail. And be it further\nremarked, that if it took place after they came out of prison, then it\nmust have taken place in Illinois and not in Missouri at all. For the\nfamily of the prophet started from Far West on the 7th of February,\n1839, in charge of Stephen Markham, and after many hardships arrived\non the banks of the Mississippi, opposite the town of Quincy,\nIllinois, on the 15th of the same month.[A] Joseph Smith and his\nfellow prisoners were taken from Liberty jail to Gallatin, for trial,\nin April. They applied for and obtained a change of venue from Daviess\nto Boone county, and while en route escaped from their guards. After\nmaking their escape the prophet says:\n\n[Footnote A: History of Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XVI., p.\n742.]\n\n    We continued our journey, both by night and by day; and after\n    suffering much fatigue and hunger, I arrived in Quincy, Illinois\n    (Monday, April 22nd) amidst the congratulations of my friends and\n    the embraces of my family, whom I found as well as could be\n    expected, considering what they had been called on to endure.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_ Vol. XVII, p.148.]\n\nHence if the \"prophecy and blessing\" on the head of \"young Joseph\"\ntook place after Mr. Wight and the prophet Joseph got out of prison,\nit must have taken place in Illinois and not in Liberty jail,\nMissouri, as related in the second statement with such detail of\ncircumstance. This contradiction in the testimony of Mr. Wight, taken\nin connection with the fact that at the time of making it, viz, in\n1855, he had lost his honor, was an apostate, neither being true to\nthe church of Christ led by his fellow apostles nor true to the son of\nthe prophet whom he claimed to know had been set apart to succeed to\nthe Presidency of the church--these considerations, I say, render the\ntestimony of Lyman Wight worthless.\n\nFurthermore, Caleb Baldwin and Alexander McRae were fellow-prisoners\nof Joseph and Hyrum Smith as well as Lyman Wight. They all occupied\nthe same prison-cell--how is it, if the ordination of \"young Joseph\"\nto succeed his father took place in Liberty Jail, that these men knew\nnothing of it; for that they knew nothing of it is evident from their\nsilence. Surely such a thing could not occur in Liberty jail without\ntheir knowing it. And had it occurred it is a matter that would have\nbeen well remembered and frequently spoken of as one of the notable\nincidents of their Liberty-prison life. But not one word have either\nCaleb Baldwin or Alexander McRae left on record that such a notable\nthing ever took place; neither has Lyman Wight in any way that carries\neven so much as a poor shadow of conviction with it.\n\n_(2) Mr. Smith further claims that he was called to be President of\nthe church through his father by revelation in 1841_.\n\nThe revelation referred to was given the 19th of January, 1841. The\npassage in it supposed to sustain the claim of appointment of \"young\nJoseph\" to be the President of the church is the following:\n\n    And now I say unto you, as pertaining to my boarding house which I\n    have commanded you to build for the boarding of strangers, let it\n    be built unto my name, and let my name be named upon it, and let\n    my servant Joseph, and his house have place therein, from\n    generation to generation; for this anointing have I put upon his\n    head, that his blessing shall also be put upon the head of his\n    posterity after him, and as I said unto Abraham concerning the\n    kindreds of the earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph, in\n    thee and in thy seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed.\n    Therefore let my servant Joseph and his seed after him have place\n    in that house, from generation to generation, for ever and for\n    ever, saith the Lord.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. xxiv, 56-59.]\n\nThis is not difficult to comprehend as it stands thus in the Doctrine\nand Covenants unmarred. It is simply this: a commandment was given to\nbuild the Nauvoo House, a tavern, for the boarding and lodging of\nstrangers. Joseph Smith and his family were also to have a home\ntherein; for he was commanded to put stock in the house, and as a\nmatter of fact did put considerable stock into it; and his family\nafter him, from generation to generation, was to have that inheritance\nin the house. It was to be theirs because the prophet Joseph had\npurchased the stock which secured to him, and his posterity after him,\nthe right of a home within it. The passage does not in any manner\nrefer to succession in the Presidency of the church. What it does\nrefer to is clearly seen in the commencement of the paragraph--\"And\nnow I say unto you, _as pertaining to my boarding house, which I have\ncommanded you to build for the boarding of strangers, etc._\" That is\nthe subject of the passage, not the priesthood, nor the succession of\nthe prophet Joseph's son to his father's position as President of the\nchurch. How absurd the argument that because a man's posterity are to\ninherit his stock in a hotel, or succeed to the right of living in it\nas a return for having paid a large sum towards the construction of\nit, that therefore we must conclude that it means, too, that a man's\nposterity or at least the \"head\" of it--the eldest son--must also\ninherit the father's priesthood and calling as President of the\nchurch! Yet this is the construction Josephites put upon this passage.\nTo do it, however, they are under the necessity of reading into the\nrevelation something which the Lord never put there. In evidence of\nwhich, and also as an illustration of Josephite methods, I reproduce\nthe passage as they print it in their controversial writings, with\nthis exception that I write the lines which they insert in brackets in\n_italics_ also, that they may the more readily be observed:\n\n    And now I say unto you as pertaining to my boarding house which I\n    have commanded you to build for the boarding of strangers, let it\n    be built unto my name, and let my name be named upon it, and let\n    my servant Joseph Smith and his house have place therein from\n    generation to generation; for this anointing [_appointment and\n    consecration to be prophet and president of the church_] have I\n    put upon his head, that his blessings [_to these offices and\n    callings_] shall also be put upon the head of his posterity after\n    him, and as I said unto Abraham, concerning the kindreds of the\n    earth, even so I say unto my servant Joseph, in thee and in thy\n    seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed. Therefore [_for\n    that reason_] let my servant Joseph and his seed after him, have\n    place in that house from generation to generation, forever and\n    forever saith the Lord.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 338.]\n\nOf this it is only necessary to say that a cause which requires such a\nwresting of the word of God to wring a promise out of it that the\neldest son of the prophet would succeed to the office of the President\nof the church after the death of his father--a cause which requires\nsuch a reading as is here thrust into the revelation in brackets, is\ndesperate indeed!\n\n_(3) Mr. Smith claims that he was called through his father to be\nPresident of the church by a formal anointing in a council at Nauvoo,\nin 1844_.\n\nIn support of this claim Josephites quote only the testimony of Mr.\nJames Whitehead, who resides at Lamoni, Iowa, and who is said to have\nbeen one of the secretaries of Joseph the prophet. It is said of him\nrather than by him, that for the past twenty and more years he has\n\n    Testified publicly that he personally knew that Joseph the seer,\n    in the presence of a number of the ministry, in Nauvoo, anointed\n    and set apart his son Joseph to be his successor in the prophetic\n    office and Presidency of the church, and that soon after the seer\n    announced publicly from the stand, on a Sunday, that his son\n    Joseph would be his successor.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nIn _The Successor_, already several times quoted, it is said that Mr.\nWhitehead testifies that Bishop Newel K. Whitney was present and held\nthe horn of oil on the occasion of this anointing. He asserts that\nGeorge J. Adams was also present; and Emma, wife of the prophet, is\nrepresented as having said:--\n\n    She well remembers the time, and, though not present, she heard\n    her husband say that young Joseph was set apart to be his\n    successor. She also says that after young Joseph was anointed and\n    set apart, George J. Adams came down to her room greatly elated\n    with what had transpired, saying that they now knew who would be\n    the successor of Joseph; that it was young Joseph, for his father\n    had just set him apart to that office and calling.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, p. 8.]\n\nI would have more respect for this evidence if, instead of being the\nalleged statements of these several parties, it had been the very\nstatements themselves--the statements of Mr. Whitehead and of Emma\nSmith, instead of a report of what they said by some Josephite writer.\nSo far as Mr. George J. Adams is concerned he must very soon have\nforgotten his elation at finding out who the true successor of the\nprophet was; for he afterwards became a follower of Mr. Strang, and\nthe very man who crowned him \"king\" at Beaver Island.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXV, p. 718.]\n\nOf this alleged anointing in 1844, when Mr. Smith was a lad twelve\nyears of age, he himself can only say:\n\n    Before the death of my father and uncle Hyrum, I was blessed by\n    the first, in the presence of quite a number of then prominent\n    Elders in the Church, this blessing being confirmed just prior to\n    the tragedy at Carthage.\n\nThis is the only personal statement of his that I have ever seen in\nall the writings of the Josephites in regard to his ordination and\nblessing by his father, and it appears that he has no recollection of\nthe nature of this \"blessing;\" if he was anointed and blessed to be\nthe future prophet and President of the church, he evidently has no\nrecollection of it, though he was of an age when such a circumstance\nwould make a deep impression on the mind and would never have left him\nin the doubt he confesses to, respecting his connection with the work\nof his father to which for many years, in his youth, he exhibited\nalmost complete indifference.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See his autobiography published in Josephite edition of\nthe Life of Joseph the Prophet, from p. 743-801.]\n\nOf the alleged statement of Emma Smith, that she well remembers,\nthough not present, the circumstance of the anointing in 1844--the\nelation of George J. Adams on learning who the successor of Joseph the\nprophet was to be, he coming immediately to her room after the\nceremony of anointing to tell her the glad news; and also about well\nremembering her husband say that \"young Joseph\" was anointed and set\napart to be his successor--of all this, I say, it is somewhat strange\nthat Mrs. Emma Smith did not \"well remember\" it during the years of\ndoubt through which \"her son\" passed, respecting his connection with\nthe work of his father. How is it that she did not then come to his\nassistance by reminding him--since he had forgotten it, if he ever\nknew it--that he had been anointed and set apart to be the successor\nof his father,--both her husband and George J. Adams having told her\nso! Especially is her silence astonishing on the occasion of the visit\nof Messrs. Briggs and Gurley in 1856 to \"young Joseph,\" when those\ngentlemen almost, as we have seen, commanded him to become the\nPresident of their organization. One of the interviews between these\ngentlemen and Mr. Smith was conducted in the home of Mrs. Emma Smith,\nthey being introduced at that time both to her and her husband, Mr.\nBidamon. It was on that very occasion, too, that Mr. Smith gave these\ngentlemen the answer that he would not go with them to be their\nleader, and he plodded on four years longer, in doubt as to what his\nfuture connection would be with the church. Instinctively one exclaims\nwhy did not his mother at that crisis come to the rescue, and say:\nWhy, my son, you are yet to become the prophet and President of the\nchurch, founded under God, by your father. I well remember, though not\npresent, the occasion on which you were anointed and set apart to that\nposition by your father. Both your father and George J. Adams told me\nof it--the day you were blessed, don't you remember it? Instead of\nthis we see her absolutely silent!\n\nIt is claimed, however, that at the Amboy conference in 1860, she\nendorsed her son as President of the church.\n\n    She publicly bore a faithful testimony to the work begun through\n    her martyred husband, and said the present occasion was one she\n    had looked for for the last sixteen years. Said she knew such a\n    time must come, but had not known until a short time before that\n    it was so near at hand.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, p. 14.]\n\nAnd this is the best she could do! Much stress is laid upon Mrs. Emma\nSmith being spoken of in one of the revelations in the Doctrine and\nCovenants as an \"elect lady,\"[A] and since the \"elect\"[B] cannot be\ndeceived, her endorsement of her son, and her rejection of all others,\nis taken as\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. xxv.]\n\n[Footnote B: Matt. xxiv, 24.]\n\n    Conclusive testimony that young Joseph is his father's\n    successor![A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, p. 15.]\n\nBut would not the \"testimony\" have been more \"conclusive,\" if on that\noccasion she had given a personal statement that her son had been\nanointed and set apart in 1844, by his father; and though not present,\nshe knew it upon the statement of both her husband and George J.\nAdams? Was not the occasion worthy of such a statement? Would it not\nhave been opportune? Would it not have been at least more conclusive\nthan the argument based on Mrs. Emma Smith being an \"elect lady,\" and\nher endorsement of \"young Joseph?\"\n\nI now proceed to examine the testimony given in a general way, that\nis, without reference to special occasions on which Mr. Smith was\ncalled or anointed to be his father's successor, as prophet and\nPresident of the church; but which represents the general idea that he\nwas to succeed to these positions.\n\n    Charles Derry, whose word will not be questioned by those who know\n    him, says that William Clayton, of Salt Lake City, told him at the\n    time they were laboring together in England, that he knew it was\n    for \"little Joseph\" to lead the church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saint's Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nYet William Clayton, a man of unyielding determination and probity of\ncharacter, continued a member of the church of Christ, led to Utah by\nPresident Brigham Young and his fellow apostles, giving to it and its\nleaders his unqualified support! To accept the statement of Charles\nDerry is to make the best part of William Clayton's life a lie--those\nwho knew him, at least, will refuse to do that. I put the character of\nWilliam Clayton and the fact of his allegiance to the church of Christ\nunder the Presidency of Brigham Young, against the statement of\nCharles Derry.\n\n    W. W. Phelps wrote to Alpheus Cutler in 1847, that church affairs\n    were in a bad condition, and that he did not look for a change for\n    the better until the Lord should send \"young Joseph\" to lead the\n    church.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nThis is a case similar to the one which precedes it--Mr. Phelps gave\nhis allegiance to the church of Christ in Utah up to the time of his\ndeath, and the fact of his allegiance is put against the statement he\nis said to have made in a letter to Alpheus Cutler--mark you, we have\nnot the letter, nor even a quotation from it. It is the life and\ncharacter of W. W. Phelps against the alleged statement of Mr. Cutler.\n\n    P. P. Pratt said to D. S. Mills, now of Santa Ana, California, and\n    to others when they were going from Utah to California, that the\n    church would never be fully and properly organized till young\n    Joseph was called to lead it.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nThis testimony is on a par with the two quotations which precede it.\nThe statement attributed to Elder Pratt is contradicted by the facts\nof his life and allegiance to the church of Christ led to Utah by\nPresident Brigham Young.\n\n    Sister Lucy Smith, the mother of Joseph the seer, used to tell the\n    saints who called on her that young Joseph would yet lead the\n    church, for he had been appointed by his father.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nTo controvert this testimony it is only necessary to refer to the\n\"visions?\" of Lucy Smith published in this work, where she attempts to\nsustain the claims of her son William to be the President of the\nchurch; and wherein she says:\n\n    The Presidency of the Church belongs to William, _he being the\n    last of the heads of the Church, according to the lineage_, he\n    having inherited it from the family from before the foundation of\n    the world.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: See pp. 19-21.]\n\nBishop Geo. Miller in a letter to the _Northern Islander_, in 1855, is\nrepresented as saying:\n\n    From hints and inuendoes that I heard frequently, I was induced to\n    believe that Joseph had designated his son to succeed him in the\n    prophetic office, and on this belief I rested. . . . . I had\n    frequent attempts at conversation with Brigham Young and H. C.\n    Kimball, in regard to Joseph's leaving one to succeed him in the\n    prophetic office, and in all my attempts to ascertain the desired\n    truth as to that personage, I was invariably met with the inuendo,\n    \"stop\" or \"hush Brother Miller, let there be nothing said in\n    regard to that matter, or we will have little Joseph killed as his\n    father was;\" inferring indirectly that Joseph Smith had appointed\n    his son Joseph to succeed him in the prophetic office.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nIf Bishop Miller had any testimony of any weight that Mr. Smith, the\nson of the prophet, had been appointed to succeed to the position of\nprophet and President of the church, will those who rely on his\nstatements explain how it is that with such testimony in his\npossession he ran off after other leaders? First following Mr. Lyman\nWight to Texas, and after quarrelling with him joining Mr. Strang in\nMichigan. Bishop Miller, like Lyman Wight, lost his honor, he was\nneither true to the church of Christ led by the Twelve after the\nmartyrdom of the prophet Joseph, nor true to Mr. Wight, nor \"young\nJoseph.\" He became a restless man after his apostasy, unstable as\nwater. There is nothing either in the nature of his testimony or the\ncharacter of the man after his apostasy which gives any influence to\nhis statement.\n\n    This is to certify to all concerned, that we, the undersigned,\n    heard Brigham Young, in Salt Lake City, in 1854, and in Brigham\n    City, Utah, about 1859, when he was speaking in public meeting\n    concerning young Joseph Smith, son of Joseph the seer, say that\n    there was no man in the church more willing and ready than he to\n    give the Presidency of the church to young Joseph, when the latter\n    would come and claim it.\n                                       LOUIS GAULTER,\n                                       HARRIET E. GAULTER.[A]\n\n    LAMONI, Iowa, May 26, 1892.\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nIn line with this is the following:\n\n    Brigham Young, at the April conference in 1854, said that young\n    Joseph was the man to lead the church, and that were it not for\n    his mother's influence, he would have been in Utah long before;\n    but he would come, and he would to God he was then in Utah to take\n    the burden off his shoulders; he would receive him with open\n    arms.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid, p. 339.]\n\nI have carefully examined the minutes of the April conference of 1854,\nand also all the discourses published that President Brigham Young\ndelivered at that conference; and neither in the minutes or in the\ndiscourses can I find anything which justifies the above statement in\nregard to what President Young said at that conference. I take it\ntherefore that the assertion is based upon the statement of Louis and\nHarriet Gaulter which precede it. If there is anything in the\ndiscourses of President Brigham Young, or the minutes of any of the\nconferences of the church which would bear out the case of the\n\"Reorganized church,\" the writers thereof would be at great pains to\npublish it. The fact that they do not publish the words of President\nYoung, but the words of others who claim to have heard him say that\n\"young Joseph\" was the man to lead the church, is pretty fair evidence\nthat they can find nothing directly upon the point at issue in\nPresident Young's own words.\n\n    The late Arthur Millikin, who resided at Colchester, Illinois,\n    brother-in-law to the martyr, said in a letter to young Joseph in\n    1868, Brigham Young said in a council, at our house in Nauvoo,\n    shortly after your father's death, that neither Rigdon, himself,\n    nor any other man but \"young Joseph\" could lead this people, when\n    he comes of age, and no person can take it from him, and that to\n    talk about it in public would endanger the boy's life.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nAmos B. Moore, of Lamoni, Iowa, is represented as saying:\n\n    I heard Brigham Young say from the public stand, in Nauvoo, soon\n    after the death of Joseph the Seer, that he and the Saints knew\n    \"Little Joseph\" would stand in his father's place and lead the\n    Church, but it would not do to teach it then, for their enemies\n    would kill him as they did his father.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saint's Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, No. 22, p. 339.]\n\nIs it worth while to stop to point out the inconsistencies of this\ntestimony? What Bishop Miller represents as having been conveyed to\nhim in private conversation (himself at the time a trusted leader,)\nonly in the most vague manner--by \"hints and inuendoes;\" and to Mr.\nMillikin in the privacy of a confidential council of the priesthood,\nwith the caution that nothing must be said about it least the boy's\nlife be put in jeopardy thereby--what was conveyed to these parties in\nsecret, Mr. Moore represents Brigham Young as teaching from the public\nstand! Yet so far recognizing the danger of having it taught as to say\nit must not be mentioned least their enemies kill the boy as they had\nhis father--yet Brigham Young teaching it the while in the most public\nmanner! I will not here write an apostrophe to consistency. I will\nmerely put Brigham Young's reputation for common sense and discretion\nagainst the testimony of Mr. Moore.\n\nThis is the Josephite case on the matter of Mr. Smith being appointed\nby his father to the position of prophet and President of the church.\nI have given all the testimony they have been able to rake together,\nand have quoted it as they give it in their own works, not a word\nchanged, not a witness of theirs overlooked, so far as they have\npublished their statements. And now that this testimony is before the\nreader, I ask him: What is its value? Look it over, there is not a\ndirect statement at first hand in it, except, perhaps, in the case of\nMr. Wight, and in his testimony, as presented by the Josephites\nthemselves, there is such conflict as to time and place as to render\nit worthless. Not even Mr. Smith, the claimant himself, makes a direct\naverment that he was ordained by his father to succeed him as prophet\nand President of the church. The best he can do is to say that he was\nblessed by his father in the year 1844, in the presence of quite a\nnumber of then prominent elders in the church; but as to the nature of\nthat blessing he is silent. The testimony the Reorganized church\ndepends on is hear-say testimony only, and that of a very questionable\ncharacter--of the nature of old wives' fables, and the assertions of\napostates!\n\nFollowing the several testimonies relied upon by Josephites to sustain\ntheir claims that \"young Joseph\" was appointed by his father to\nsucceed to the Presidency, I have made such remarks as point out the\nworthlessness of each statement, I now wish to call attention to\nconsiderations which destroy the whole theory:\n\nFirst, the silence of Sidney Rigdon in respect to \"young Joseph,\" when\nhe was putting forth his claims to be the \"Guardian of the church,\" to\nbuild it up to Joseph the martyr. Had the idea prevailed at Nauvoo, as\nJosephites claim, that the son of the martyred prophet was to succeed\nhis father as President of the church, what an opportunity for Sidney\nRigdon, when putting forth his claims to be the \"Guardian of the\nchurch!\" How greatly would it have strengthened his position, if he\ncould in truth have said: I claim the right to be the Guardian of the\nchurch until \"young Joseph,\" whom our late prophet anointed and\nordained to succeed him, shall have arrived at a suitable age to take\nhis place. There would have been some significance to the phrase,\n\"Guardian of the church,\" if Sidney Rigdon could have assumed this\nposition. But he did not assume it, and the fair inference is that the\nreason why he did not assume it is because there was no idea prevalent\nat Nauvoo that \"young Joseph\" would succeed to his father's place.\n\nSecond, the silence of William Smith in respect to \"young Joseph\" in\nhis controversy with the Twelve in respect to leadership. Had any idea\nprevailed at Nauvoo that \"young Joseph\" was to succeed to the\nPresidency of the church, this man, his uncle, would have known it;\nand would have strengthened his own claims at that time to the right\nof leadership, by proclaiming himself, as he did afterwards, in 1850,\nthe natural guardian of the one who had been anointed and ordained to\nsucceed to the office of President. But this he did not do. On the\ncontrary, he claimed the place for himself by virtue of being the\n_brother_ of the prophet. When he failed to secure the position of\nleadership for himself, he followed the leadership of James J. Strang\ninstead of supporting the claims of \"young Joseph.\" Not until 1850 did\nhe begin to proclaim the right of \"young Joseph\" to be the President\nof the church; and then not by any virtue of appointment from his\nfather, but by right of lineage; and with this movement on his part\noriginates the claims of Mr. Smith to the Presidency.\n\nThird, Mr. Edward Tullidge, in his life of Joseph the prophet--the\nJosephite edition--quotes the prophet Joseph as saying:\n\n    \"I told Stephen Markham,\" says Joseph, \"that if I and Hyrum were\n    ever taken again, we should [would?] be massacred, or I was not a\n    Prophet of God. _I want Hyrum to live to lead the Church, but he\n    is determined not to leave me_.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Page 491.--Let it be remembered that the Josephites in\nthis work quoted accepted Mr. Tullidge as their historian. Italics are\nmine. R.]\n\nMr. Tullidge quotes this passage differently from what it is written\nin the history of Joseph Smith; what authority he has for doing it he\ndoes not say. In Joseph's own history it is written:\n\n    I want Hyrum to live to avenge my blood, but he is determined not\n    to leave me.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXIV, p. 332.]\n\nBut though Mr. Tullidge misquotes this passage, there is evidence in\naddition to his word, that Joseph did desire and even ordained Hyrum\nSmith to succeed him. At the October conference following the\nmartyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, and the 8th of August meeting at which\nthe Twelve were recognized as the presiding quorum in the church,\nPresident Young in a discourse said:\n\n    If Hyrum had lived he would not have stood between Joseph and the\n    Twelve, but he would have stood for Joseph. Did Joseph ordain any\n    man to take his place? He did. Who was it? It was Hyrum. But Hyrum\n    fell a martyr before Joseph did.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Times and Seasons_, Vol. V, p. 683.]\n\nIf the prophet Joseph wanted Hyrum to lead the church, as asserted by\nMr. Tullidge, and had \"ordained\" him to that position--according to\nthe statement of President Young--what becomes of the claims made in\nbehalf of \"young Joseph\" to an appointment and ordination to lead the\nchurch? In desiring and ordaining Hyrum to fill his place had the\nprophet forgotten the \"anointing\" and \"ordination\" of his son? This\nclearly disposes of the claims of \"young Joseph\" through any\nappointment by his father; for if the prophet Joseph appointed and\nordained his brother Hyrum to succeed him, he did not appoint or\nordain his son Joseph to do the same thing. If ever there was a case\nof a claim not proven, Mr. Smith's claim of appointment to the\nPresidency of the church through his father is that case.\n\nHaving disposed of Mr. Smith's claim to the right of the Presidency of\nthe church so far as it is based upon an appointment through his\nfather, let us now take up his second claim, viz:\n\n_The position is his by lineage--his birth-right_.\n\nThere are two offices and only two, in the church which descend by\nlineage from father to son: the office of patriarch and that of\nbishop. Of patriarchs it is said:\n\n    It is the duty of the Twelve, in all large branches of the Church,\n    to ordain evangelical[A] ministers, as they shall be designated\n    unto them by revelation. The order of this priesthood was\n    confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly\n    belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed to whom the\n    promises were made. This order was instituted in the days of Adam,\n    and came down by lineage in the following manner.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: \"An evangelist is a patriarch, even the oldest man of the\nblood of Joseph or of the seed of Abraham.\"--_Joseph Smith_ (Hist. of\nJoseph, under date of June 27, 1839).]\n\n[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov, cvii, 39, 40.]\n\nThe revelation then traces the lineage from Adam to Noah. This passage\napplies solely to patriarchs in the church, and yet Josephites attempt\nin their arguments to make it apply to the Presidency of the church.\nThey say:\n\n    The law of lineage points unmistakably to young Joseph as the\n    legal successor of his father. The law in the Doctrine and\n    Covenants informs us that.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, pp. 4, 5.]\n\nAnd then follows part of the foregoing quotation--beginning with \"The\norder of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father\nto son, etc.\"--being careful to omit the clause of the passage which\nshows it to refer to evangelists or patriarchs only.[A] This is the\nway the passage is used by the writer of the Josephite tract called\n_The Successor_. Another writer, or perhaps the same one in another\nplace, thus quotes it in support of \"young Joseph's\" claims:\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, p. 4.]\n\n    The order [_including offices_] of this Priesthood was confirmed\n    to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the\n    literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were\n    made. This order [_not the Priesthood, but the offices therein_]\n    was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in\n    the following manner: From Adam to Seth [_Abel having been\n    slain_].[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX. p. 337.]\n\nI have written the words inserted by the Josephite writer in brackets\nin italics, that they may all the more readily be noticed. The\nJosephites are not only guilty of making a clear misapplication of\nthis passage, but they read into the revelation by their inserted\nwords in brackets what is not there, and what was never intended to be\nconveyed even by inference. The statement of the revelation is that\nthe patriarchal order of priesthood was confirmed to be handed down\nfrom father to son, etc.; and not the offices in the priesthood as the\nJosephite writer quoted above affirms by his bracketed inserted words\nin the revelation.\n\nI cannot think this is merely a mistake on the part of Josephite\nwriters, the matter is so plainly a perversion of scripture, that it\namounts to downright dishonesty.\n\nIn like manner Josephites misapply a passage in the writings of\nAbraham,[A] where Abraham is represented as seeking after the\npatriarchal order of priesthood which was his by virtue of his\nlineage. Abraham sought for his rights as a patriarch--which right\ncomes down from father to son, but Josephite writers make his words\napply to the office of high priests in general, instead of confining\nit to patriarchs.\n\n[Footnote A: Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham.]\n\nOf the second office in the church which descends from father to\nson--the office of bishop--the revelations of God provide that the\nliteral descendants of Aaron--among the first born of his sons--have a\nright by virtue of their lineage to that position, if at any time they\ncan prove their lineage, or do ascertain it by revelation from the\nLord. But even in that case they must be designated by the Presidency\nof the Melchisedek priesthood, found worthy, and ordained by that\nPresidency, or by its direction, otherwise they are not legally\nauthorized to officiate in that calling.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. lxviii.]\n\nThese are the only offices in the priesthood which descend by lineage;\nyet Josephite writers quote the following in support of \"young\nJoseph's\" claims to the Presidency by lineage:\n\n    Therefore thus saith the Lord unto you [Joseph the martyr][A] with\n    whom the Priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your\n    fathers, for ye are _lawful heirs according to the flesh_, and\n    have been hid from the world with Christ in God; therefore your\n    life and the Priesthood hath remained, and must needs _remain_[B]\n    through you and your lineage, until the restoration of all things\n    spoken of by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world\n    began.[C]\n\n[Footnote A: Words in brackets are the Josephite writer's.]\n\n[Footnote B: Italics in the above are Josephite's.]\n\n[Footnote C: Doc. and Cov. sec. lxviii.]\n\nIt is only by inserting the words, \"Joseph the martyr,\" into the\nrevelation--as the Josephite writer has done--that the passage can be\nmade to apply at all to the prophet Joseph personally. The revelation\nquoted is one that was given, explaining the parable of the wheat and\ntares, and begins thus:\n\n    Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servants, concerning the\n    parable of the wheat and of the tares, etc.\n\nThroughout the Lord addresses his \"servants\" and not Joseph Smith\npersonally. Hence the statement in the passage that the priesthood had\ncontinued through the lineage of their fathers; that they were lawful\nheirs according to the flesh; that it must remain through them and\ntheir lineage until the restoration of all things--was a statement\nconcerning, and a promise made as much to the other elders addressed\non that occasion and their posterity, as to Joseph Smith and his\nposterity; and the insertion in the passage of \"Joseph the martyr\" in\norder to make the passage apply to him personally and to his posterity\nalone, is another instance of a Josephite writer's trickery.\n\nMoreover, the statement and promise made to all the servants of God to\nwhom the revelation is addressed, is in relation to the\npriesthood--not the Presidency of the priesthood, or the Presidency of\nthe church, or any other office in the priesthood or church of Christ.\nPriesthood, and office in the priesthood are two things quite\ndistinct; and even if a man inherited the priesthood of his fathers,\nit does not follow that he would inherit their office, which must come\nto him by appointment as the law of the Lord directs, and hereafter to\nbe considered.\n\nJosephites are at great pains to trace in the Book of Mormon the\nhanding down of records and other sacred things from father to son,[A]\nand this to prove--what? That the office of President of the church or\nleader of the people, descends by right of lineage from father to son!\nThat is, because the records of a people are handed down from father\nto son, therefore the Presidency of the church descends by lineage\nalso! What can be more absurd than this? Nor does it help our\nopponents out of the absurdity because some of those who held the\nrecords among the Nephites were presiding high priests over the\nchurch. Its only significance is that in those particular cases the\noffice of presiding high priest and that of recorder were united.\n\n[Footnote A: See _Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX., pp. 358-9-0.]\n\nMoreover, in the matter of the records descending from father to son\nthe chain of succession is frequently broken, and in some instances\nthose breaks make a divergence from the direct line. Out of sixteen\ntransfers of the records and other sacred things from one person to\nanother, from the time Lehi left Jerusalem to the coming of Messiah to\nthe Nephites--in seven instances the transfer is _not_ made from\nfather to son! In three instances the transfer is made to brothers\ninstead of from father to son; in two cases the transfer is made to\nnephews; and in two instances the transfer is made to those who are no\nkin at all, making seven exceptions to the rule out of sixteen cases;\nlacking only one of being half! Out of six transfers of the sacred\nthings, from the coming of Messiah among the Nephites to Joseph Smith,\nthree of them are not from father to son. One transfer is made to a\nbrother; and two are made to persons of no kin whatever to their\npredecessors. Josephites say the \"exceptions\" in this matter \"prove\nthe rule,\" but a \"rule\" that is violated in half the cases where it is\nsupposed to operate, has rather too many exceptions to prove it--they\ndestroy it.\n\nLet it not be lost sight of, however, that the argument based upon the\ntransfer of records among the Nephites from father to son has nothing\nto do with the office of President of the church descending by\nlineage.\n\nAs a conclusion to my argument against the claim of Mr. Smith, that\nthe position of President of the church is his by right of lineage, I\nquote the words of his illustrious father. In a discourse delivered on\nthe 27th of August, 1843, having for his text the seventh chapter of\nHebrews, and explaining the phrase in the third verse--\"without\nfather, without mother, _without descent_,\" etc., he said:\n\n    The Melchisedek priesthood holds the right from the eternal God,\n    _and not by descent from father and mother;_[A] and that\n    priesthood is eternal as God himself, having neither beginning of\n    days nor end of life.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: _Italics_ mine.--R.]\n\n[Footnote B: Hist, of Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXII, p. 55.]\n\nIn the face of this how can Mr. Smith claim any right, by virtue of\nlineage, to the Melchisedek priesthood, much less to the highest\noffice in that priesthood? His claim is denied by that very father\nfrom whom he claims to have received it by inheritance. It occurs to\nme here to ask a question: If the office of President of the church\ndoes descend by lineage from the fathers, through the line of the\neldest sons, how is it that the \"law\" did not operate on the other\nside of the prophet Joseph as well as on this side of him? If that\n\"law\" had operated so--and there is no good reason why it should not\nso operate, if indeed it be the \"law\" of the priesthood--it would have\nleft out not only the present Mr. Smith but even the prophet Joseph\nhimself. For in that event it would have come first to Joseph Smith,\nthe father of the prophet, who was a noble, righteous man; and then\nafter his death to his eldest living son, Hyrum Smith, than whom there\nhas been no more righteous man among all the sons of God who have\nlived in this generation; and from him it would have passed on to his\neldest son, thus leaving out the prophet Joseph altogether, as well as\nMr. Smith. But let us leave a claim already disproved, and an argument\nwhich proves too much for those who employ it.\n\nThe third claim made in behalf of Mr. Smith is:\n\n_He was called to the position of President of the church by\n\"revelation\" to himself_.\n\nOf this it is not necessary to say very much. It could only be\nimportant if sustained by the other two claims, viz: that he was\nappointed by his father to succeed to the office of President of the\nchurch; and secondly, that the office is his by lineage. Since these\ntwo claims have been disproven, it renders his third claim of no\neffect. The \"revelations\" to himself by which he was called, however,\nare as shadowy as the arguments by which it is attempted to sustain\nhis two preceding claims are weak.\n\nThose \"revelations\" calling him to the Presidency of the church, as I\ngather them from Mr. Smith's Autobiography, are as follows: First, a\nvision just after recovering from an illness, in 1853, in which was\nshown to him, on the one hand, the busy marts of the world where men\nstruggle for place, power and distinction; and on the other hand, an\nextended plain covered with the peaceful homes of a thrifty, happy\npeople. A personage who appeared by his side said:\n\n    Which would you prefer, life, success and renown among the busy\n    scenes that you first saw; or a place among these people without\n    honors or renown? Think of it well, for the choice will be offered\n    to you sooner or later, and you must be prepared to decide. Your\n    decision once made you cannot recall it, and must abide the\n    result.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Aut. of Joseph Smith, in Josephite edition, Life of\nJoseph, p. 753.]\n\nSecond, one day out in an open field, while considering the question,\n\"why not go to Utah?\" he was overshadowed by a bright cloud and he\nheard the words: \"Because the light in which you stand is greater than\ntheirs.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Aut. of Mr. Smith, in Josephite edition of Life of\nJoseph, p. 763.]\n\nThird, a manifestation was given to him that he must oppose polygamy;\nbut in what way the manifestation was given is not stated.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid.]\n\nFourth, in 1859, when revolving the question in his mind: \"where and\nwith whom shall my life-labor lie,\" he received a manifestation--how\nhe does not say--to the following effect:\n\n    The Saints reorganizing at Zarahemla and other places, is the only\n    organized portion of the Church accepted by me. I have given them\n    my spirit, and will continue to do so while they remain humble and\n    faithful.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Aut. of Mr. Smith, Life of Joseph, Josephite edition, p.\n772.]\n\nThese are all the \"revelations\" spoken of by Mr. Smith in his\nautobiography, or quoted by his supporters, hence these must be the\n\"revelations\" to himself by which he was called to be President of the\nchurch! Just where the \"call\" can be found in them is the thing which\nthe writer of these pages cannot see: and he challenges anybody else\nto point it out.\n\nIt should be observed here, perhaps, that \"revelations\" to a man\npersonally, that he is called to be President of the church, even when\nclear and definite, do not constitute him the President. Something\nelse is necessary. As observed elsewhere, not only must a man be\ncalled of God, but he must be accepted by the church--\"chosen by the\nbody, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the\nconfidence, faith, and prayer of the church.\"[A] Besides having no\ndefinite call by \"revelation,\" even to himself (judging by the visions\nand manifestations related by Mr. Smith) to preside over the church,\nMr. Smith has never complied with the conditions of the law of the\nchurch stated above. That is, he has never been \"chosen by the body\n. . . . upheld by the confidence, faith and prayers of the\nchurch\"--unless, indeed, the few people, scarce a corporal's guard,\nwho gathered at the Josephite conference at Amboy, in 1860,\nconstituted out of all the tens of thousands of saints in this country\nat the time, the church! What of the scores of thousands of saints in\nUtah at that time who never so much as received notice of or an\ninvitation to be present at that \"general conference of the church\" at\nAmboy? Surely _Messrs._ Gurley and Newkirk were somewhat at fault in\nneglecting to notify the majority of the saints to attend that\nconference at which the only true President of the church was to be\nchosen! To call that gathering at Amboy the general conference of the\nchurch, is as ridiculous as absurdity can make it. It is on a par,\nhowever, with the \"revelations\" to Mr. Smith, calling him to be\nPresident of the church--the one is a fitting concomitant of the\nother.\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. cvii, 22.]\n\nOf course Josephites see the absurdity of this gathering at Amboy\nbeing called a general conference of the church, and try to escape it\nby explaining that all the rest of the saints were in transgression,\nand could not call a conference--those represented at the Amboy\nconference were the only saints;[A] that is, the only saints who were\n\"faithfully honoring and obeying the law of the Lord, and the order of\nhis church\"[B]--so easy is it to say:\n\n[Footnote A: _The Successor_, p. 9.]\n\n[Footnote B: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, p. 375.]\n\n    Orthodoxy, my lord, is _my_ doxy; and heterodoxy is some other\n    man's doxy![A]\n\n[Footnote A: Bishop Warburton's answer to Lord Sandwich when he said\nhe did not know the difference between heterodoxy and orthodoxy.]\n\nI come next to the fourth and last claim made in behalf of Mr. Smith,\nviz:--\n\n_He was ordained to be President of the church by those holding legal\nauthority_.\n\nMr. Smith was ordained by Messrs. William Marks, Z. H. Gurley, Samuel\nPowers and W. W. Blair; William Marks, I think, being mouth. This is\nthat William Marks, who in 1839, was chosen president of the stake of\nZion at Commerce, afterwards Nauvoo;--who a year or two before the\nprophet Joseph's death was associated with traitors and distrusted by\nthe prophet;[A]--who sustained the claims of Sidney Rigdon to be\n\"Guardian of the church\";--who at the general conference of the church\nin Nauvoo, October, 1844, was rejected by the saints as president of\nthe Nauvoo stake of Zion, two persons only voting in his favor, the\nrest against him;[B]--who as we shall see further on, in December,\n1844, over his own signature said: \"_The Twelve are the proper persons\nto lead the church;_\"--who, in 1846, as per statement of Mr. Smith\nhimself,[C] was associated with Mr. Strang, the apostate, in preaching\nin Fulton city and vicinity, calling upon Mr. Smith and his mother at\nthe time;--and who in 1860 is the chief man in ordaining Mr. Smith\n\"President of the church\"--one possessing \"legal\" authority to do so!\nTo say the least, in the light of William Marks' record, his \"legal\nauthority\" to ordain the President of the church is very questionable.\n\n[Footnote A: In the winter of 1843, at a time of great danger to the\nprophet, and when Nauvoo was in danger of being invaded from Missouri\nto capture him, forty men were sworn into service as special police.\nIn addressing them on the occasion of their being sworn in, the\nprophet, then mayor of the city, spoke of the danger he was in from\ntraitors living in Nauvoo, saying, \"We have a Judas in our midst.\"\nThis appears to have had an unpleasant effect upon the minds of some\nleading men in the church, especially upon the minds of Wm. Law and\nWm. Marks, who complained before the mayor's court about the actions\nof these special police. After the investigation of their complaints\nJoseph, in his journal, says: \"Whatever can be the matter with these\nmen?\" [Law and Marks] Is it that the wicked flee when no man pursueth,\nthat hit pigeons always flutter, that drowning men catch at straws, or\nthat presidents Law and Marks are absolutely traitors to the church,\nthat my remarks should produce such excitement in their minds? . . .\nThe people in the town are astonished, almost every man saying to his\nneighbor, \"Is it possible that brother Law or brother Marks is a\ntraitor, and would deliver brother Joseph into the hands of his\nenemies in Missouri? If not, what can be the meaning of all this? The\nrighteous are as bold as a lion.\"--(Hist. Jos. S., _Mill. S_., Vol.\nXXII, p. 631.) Yet this man of whom the prophet could write these\nwords, is the chief man in ordaining his son \"President of the\nchurch!\"]\n\n[Footnote B: He had previously been dropped by the high council\nbecause he persisted in sustaining the claims of Sidney Rigdon as\nagainst those of the Twelve.--_Times and Seasons_, Vol. V, p. 692.]\n\n[Footnote C: See his Aut. in Josephite Ed., Life of Joseph, p. 754.]\n\nZenas H. Gurley for years followed fames J. Strang's leadership, and\nadvocated his claims. Subsequently apostatizing from him and uniting\nwith Mr. Jason W. Briggs, in forming the \"Reorganized church.\" Any\nauthority held by Mr. Gurley previous to the death of Joseph the\nprophet, was destroyed by his leaving the church of Christ to follow\nthe apostate James J. Strang; hence any ordination received under his\nhands was worthless.\n\nI have not been able to learn what position, if any, Messrs. Powers\nand Blair held in the church previous to the martyrdom of the prophet;\nbut it is enough to know that about the time \"young Joseph\" decided to\ntake the Presidency of the \"Reorganized church,\" they were associated\nwith William Marks[A] in the work of \"reorganizing\" the church. It is\nclaimed for them, however, as also for Mr. Gurley, that \"they were\napostles called by prophecy in the Reorganized church.\"[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph Smith (Tullidge) Josephite Ed. p. 774.]\n\n[Footnote B: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, p. 375.]\n\nIt has already been stated how seven Josephite apostles were called\nand ordained in our sketch of the rise of the Josephite church. Seven\nmen were \"called\" to form a majority of the quorum of the twelve, by a\n\"revelation\" through H. H. Deam; but Messrs. Rogers and Blair were not\nin that number, hence they must have been \"called\" subsequently. But\nno matter when they were \"called,\" if they held any apostolic\nauthority, they held it by virtue of some ordination received at the\nhands of some one or more of the seven apostles, chosen through Mr.\nDeam's \"revelation.\" Now, I affirm that among all those seven men who\nwere \"called\" to form the majority of the quorum of the twelve, in the\n\"Reorganization\" not one of them held the apostleship; that they could\nnot give what they did not possess; that therefore neither the seven\nmen called to be apostles, in April, 1853, received the apostleship,\nnor any whom they subsequently ordained.\n\nFurther on I shall show that the church of Christ was not disorganized\nat the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, nor at any other time since it\nwas organized by the commandment of God, to Joseph the prophet, in\n1830; and therefore, this \"Reorganization\" which began its existence\nin 1852-3 must have been a spurious institution, and, therefore,\nincapable of bestowing legitimate authority upon anyone.\n\nThe methods of argument by which the claims of the \"Reorganization\"\nare sustained must be noticed, for they are as erroneous as they are\nmisleading. After the April conference of the \"Reorganization\" in\n1853, a pamphlet was issued entitled \"_A word of consolation to the\nscattered Saints_,\" in which a justification of the proceedings of\nsaid conference is attempted. In that pamphlet it is said:\n\n    In justification of the course then taken, and the principles\n    involved on the question of _authority_, we have ever courted, and\n    still court, investigation in the rigid character of the facts in\n    the first organization.[A] Here they are: Joseph Smith and Oliver\n    Cowdery were ordained to the lesser priesthood by an angel; then\n    by their authority, and a commandment, they on the 6th day of\n    April, ordained each other Elders, and the eldership ordained high\n    priests and apostles, and this high priesthood, ordained, by\n    _commandment_, the president of the high priesthood, the highest\n    office in the Church; so that the alleged lesser, ordaining the\n    greater is common to both the first organization and the\n    Reorganization alike. The same class of facts justify both, or\n    condemn both.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Meaning the organization on the 6th of April, 1830.]\n\n[Footnote B: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 601.]\n\nThere is one important fact in the history of the organization of the\nchurch in 1830, which the authors of the above quoted pamphlet have\noverlooked. It is a fact, too, which destroys all likeness between the\norganization of the church and its alleged reorganization, and all the\nfine-spun theories about the lesser ordaining the greater. That\noverlooked fact is that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery held the\napostleship on the 6th of April, 1830, and by its power, and not by\nthe power of the Aaronic priesthood--as alleged by the Josephite\nwriters--organized the church of Christ. In proof of this I submit the\nfollowing:\n\nWhen Joseph and Oliver were ordained to the Aaronic priesthood by John\nthe Baptist, May 15th, 1829, they were informed by John that he\noperated under the direction of the apostles Peter, James and John,\nwho held the keys of the Melchisedek priesthood, which, in due time,\nthe heavenly messenger said, would be conferred upon them.[A] Here\nthen is a promise made to them of the Melchisedek priesthood.\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XIV, p. 15,\nsupplement.]\n\nIn an address written to the saints by the prophet Joseph, under date\nof September 6th, 1842, he says:\n\n    Again what do we hear? . . . . The voice of Peter, James and John\n    in the wilderness between Harmony, Susquehanna county, and\n    Colesville, Broome county, on the Susquehanna River, declaring\n    themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom and of the\n    dispensation of the fullness of times.\n\nThis doubtless fixes the place where the apostleship was conferred\nupon the prophet. Now as to the time. In a revelation given in\nSeptember, 1830, referring to Joseph and Oliver, and speaking of\npartaking of the sacrament again on earth, the Lord said:--\n\n    The hour cometh that I will drink of the fruit of the vine with\n    you on the earth, and with Moroni . . . . . and also with John the\n    son of Zacharias . . . . and also with Peter, James and John whom\n    I have sent unto you, by whom I have ordained you and confirmed\n    you apostles, and especial witnesses of my name.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. xxvii.]\n\nIn another revelation dated June, 1829, the Lord says:--\n\n    And now, Oliver Cowdery, I speak unto you and also unto David\n    Whitmer, by the way of commandment; for behold, I command all men\n    everywhere to repent, and I speak unto you, even as unto Paul mine\n    Apostle, _for you are called even with that same calling with\n    which he was called_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. Sec. xviii.]\n\nThis revelation is the one which informed these men that Twelve\nApostles would be called and foretold that Oliver Cowdery and David\nWhitmer would be appointed to select them. From the above quotation it\nis evident that Oliver and David had received the apostleship at that\ntime, and, of course, Joseph had received it also.[A] This revelation,\nlet it be remembered, was given in June, 1829, ten months before the\norganization of the church in April, 1830. And it was by virtue and\npower of that apostleship which holds the keys of the Melchisedek\npriesthood, that the church of Christ was organized; elders, high\npriests, seventies, and apostles ordained; high councils and stakes of\nZion organized; and the whole church of Christ set in order. It was\nnot the lesser ordaining the higher--as claimed by Josephite\nwriters--that is not the order in the church, nor the manner in which\nthe church was organized on the 6th of April, 1830. It is true that\nJoseph and Oliver ordained each other elders \"of the church of Jesus\nChrist of Latter-day Saints,\" on the day the church was organized; but\nthey did not do that by virtue of the Aaronic priesthood which had\nbeen conferred upon them, but by virtue of the apostleship they had\nreceived. Joseph and Oliver had just been accepted by their brethren\nto be the presiding elders in the church, and proceeded to ordain each\nother to that office.[B] Whereupon Josephite writers rush to the\nconclusion that by virtue of their ordination to the lesser\npriesthood, they proceeded to ordain each other elders in the higher\nor Melchisedek priesthood, and that that \"eldership ordained high\npriests, and apostles,\" and that the \"high priesthood,\" thus brought\ninto existence, \"by commandment ordained the President of the high\npriesthood--the highest office in the church.\" That is the order of\nthings by which the Josephite reorganization was brought into\nexistence; that is, the lesser ordaining the greater! This argument in\nsupport of their proceeding commits them forever to that position,\nthey cannot escape it, and it damns their organization beyond all hope\nof redemption; for nothing can be clearer than the self-evident\nproposition that a man cannot give that which he does not possess.\nBesides the contention is straight against the statement of the\nprophet Joseph himself as to how we in this generation came by the\npriesthood, even as published in Josephite works:--\n\n[Footnote A: While in this revelation which refers to Oliver and David\nas apostles, Joseph is not called an apostle, yet we know he was such\nfor in the revelation which commanded that the church be organized on\nthe 6th of April, 1830, it is said: \"Which commandments were given to\nJesus Christ, to be the first elder of this church; and to Oliver\nCowdery, who was called of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the\nsecond elder of the church, and ordained under his hand.\"--Doc. and\nCov., sec. xx, 2, 3.]\n\n[Footnote B: His. Joseph Smith, Mill. Star, Vol. XIV (Supplement), p.\n26.]\n\n    \"The Savior, Moses, and Elias gave the keys of the priesthood to\n    Peter, James and John on the mount, when they were transfigured\n    before him. . . . How have we come at the Priesthood in the last\n    days? It came down in regular succession. Peter, James and John\n    had it given to them, and they gave it to others\"--presumably\n    referring to himself and Oliver Cowdery.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Life of Joseph the Prophet, Josephite edition, p. 493.]\n\nThere is no similarity between the organization of the church of\nChrist on the 6th of April, 1830, and the alleged reorganization in\n1853. The first was organized by men holding the keys of the holy\nMelchisedek priesthood--the apostleship--which possesses the power to\norganize the church, ordain all the officers therein and set all\nthings pertaining to it in order. But the \"reorganization\" is\naccomplished by men of very questionable standing and authority as to\ntheir priesthood; and apparently conscious of the inadequacy of even\nthe priesthood they claim to have possessed to perform the task before\nthem--virtually the organization of the church of Christ--they fly to\nthe untenable position, as false in philosophy as it is in fact, that\nthe lesser can ordain the greater, until that greater thus created can\nordain a still greater, even the greatest of all! Investigated, then,\n\"in the rigid character of the facts in the first organization,\" the\n\"reorganization\" is found strewn along the sharp-edged rocks of\nabsurdity; and the conviction is forced upon the mind of the\ninvestigator that Mr. Smith was not ordained to be \"President of the\nchurch\" by those holding legal authority.\n\nJosephites lay much stress upon the following passage in one of the\nrevelations:\n\n    I say unto you that ye have received a commandment for a law unto\n    my church through him whom I have appointed unto you to receive\n    commandments and revelations from my hand. And this ye shall know\n    assuredly, that there is none other appointed unto you to receive\n    commandments and revelations until he be taken, if he abide in me.\n    But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none else shall be\n    appointed unto this gift except it be through him, for if it be\n    taken from him, he shall not have power, except to appoint another\n    in his stead; and this shall be a law unto you, that ye receive\n    not the teachings of any that shall come before you as revelations\n    and commandments; and this I give unto you that you may not be\n    deceived, that you may know that they are not of me. For verily I\n    say unto you, that he that is ordained of me, shall come in at the\n    gate and be ordained, as I have told you before, to teach those\n    revelations which you have received, and shall receive through him\n    whom I have appointed.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. xliii.]\n\nJosephites insist that this revelation provides that the successor of\nthe prophet Joseph must be appointed by him. Following is their\nreasoning upon the passage:\n\n    We find in a former commandment, given February, 1831, . . . these\n    very pertinent and instructive words in respect to _how_ and _by\n    whom_ the successor of Joseph the Seer would be selected and\n    appointed. It says: \"But verily, verily, I say unto you, that none\n    else shall be appointed unto this gift [of revelator, seer,\n    prophet, etc., for the church, to receive 'commandments and\n    revelations' for a 'law' unto the church--Ed] except it be through\n    him [Joseph the Seer];\" and it then adds that even if the Lord\n    should take that \"gift\" from Joseph, he shall not have power\n    _except_ to appoint another in his stead; so that in any event the\n    successor in the office of chief presiding seer, prophet and\n    revelator to the church (which always carries with it the\n    presidency of the church and its priesthood), must be selected and\n    appointed through and by the predecessor--Joseph the Seer.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, p. 358, the words in\nitalics are all the Josephite writer's.]\n\nThe circumstances under which the revelation above quoted was given\nare these: There came to the church at Kirtland in 1831 a woman making\ngreat pretentions to the power of revealing laws and commandments to\nthe church; and some of the saints were much perplexed to know in what\nlight to regard her and her alleged revelations. Joseph, to set their\nminds at rest, inquired of the Lord and received the revelation from\nwhich the passage under consideration is taken.[A] The revelation read\nin the light of these facts means simply this: First the Lord gives\nthe saints to understand that He has appointed Joseph Smith, the\nprophet, to receive revelations as laws and commandments for His\nchurch and no one else but him, until he should be taken from the\nearth, provided he remained faithful to the Lord; second, in the event\nof the prophet Joseph not being faithful, even then he shall still\nhave power to ordain some one else to take his place; third, the one\nwho succeeds to the position of the prophet Joseph, must come in at\nthe gate, and be ordained as the Lord had before instructed the\nchurch--that is, he must be accepted by the church, and be ordained by\nthe direction of a general conference.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. of Joseph, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XIV, p. 60,\nsupplement.]\n\n[Footnote B: The revelation teaching that none but Joseph should be\nthe law-giver to the church until he be taken from the earth if he\nremained faithful, etc., was given February, 1831, but before this the\nLord had made it the law of the church that \"no person is to be\nordained to any office in this church, where there is a regularly\norganized branch of the same, without the vote of that church. . . .\nEvery president of the high priesthood (or presiding elder) . . . is\nto be ordained by the direction of a high council or general\nconference.\"--(Rev. given April, 1830, Doc. and Cov. sec. xx.) The\n\"president of the high priesthood\" is also the President of the\nchurch, hence the foregoing law applies to the President as well as\nother officers of the church--he must be sustained by the church and\nif he is not, he cannot act in that position.]\n\nThe information thus given officially to the church was calculated to\npreserve the saints from following unauthorized \"law-givers.\" Through\nit they learned that Joseph, if he remained faithful, would be the\nlaw-giver to Israel; if he transgressed he should retain sufficient of\nthe power of revelation to designate whom the Lord would have to\nsucceed him; and in that or any other event the man who becomes\nPresident must come in at the gate and be ordained as described in one\nof the laws of the church previously given. There was surely no need\nafter this that any should be deceived. But to argue from what is set\ndown in this revelation that the only possible way for a successor \"in\nany event,\" to be appointed to the church was through Joseph Smith the\nprophet, is clearly an error; for the only provision made in this\nrevelation for him to appoint his successor is in the event of his own\ntransgression; and I affirm that Joseph Smith was faithful to God and\nthe church up to the day of his death. Never in his life was he more\nfaithful, more favored by God, or more powerful, or fruitful in\nrevelation or intelligence than in the closing year of his life. He\nwas God's mouthpiece to the church of Christ on earth to the very\nmoment that he sealed his testimony with his blood at Carthage,\nIllinois.\n\nHaving received premonitions of his approaching fate, he desired that\nhis brother Hyrum who had shared his toils, dangers and\nresponsibilities, and who under all circumstances however trying had\nbeen true and just and merciful--he desired that this brother should\nsucceed him in leading the church. It so happened, however, in the\nprovidences of God that Hyrum fell a martyr before Joseph; and\ntherefore the man whom the prophet desired to succeed him, as well as\nhimself, were taken from the earth. So that notwithstanding the fact\nthat Joseph desired Hyrum to succeed to the Presidency, and had\nappointed him to that place, both himself and the one he appointed\nbeing taken away by the hand of death--the question confronts us just\nas it would have done had Joseph never intimated that he wanted Hyrum\nto succeed him. And I now ask, in the absence of both Joseph and\nHyrum, where was the authority lodged to lead the church and carry on\nthe work of God? Was the church disorganized? Had God been so\nshortsighted, so unlike himself, as to establish his church in such a\nmanner that at the death of two of his servants it crumbled to pieces?\nCan it be that God, with whom all things are as present, had not\nforeseen this fate which overtook his servants Joseph and Hyrum, and\nfailed to provide for such an emergency? O, charge not the Lord with\nsuch lack of wisdom, or his church with such imperfection in its\norganization!\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\n\nIn the church there are three general presiding councils, of equal\nauthority. These are the First Presidency; the traveling presiding\nhigh council, or Twelve Apostles; and the first quorum of Seventy. In\nproof of the assertion, I quote the Doctrine and Covenants:\n\n    Of the Melchisedek priesthood, three presiding high priests,\n    chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and\n    upheld by the confidence, faith and prayer of the church, form a\n    quorum of the Presidency of the church.\n\n    The twelve traveling counselors are called to be the Twelve\n    Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the\n    world; thus differing from other officers in the church in the\n    duties of their calling. _And they form a quorum, equal in\n    authority and power to the three Presidents previously mentioned_.\n\n    The Seventy are also called to preach the gospel and to be\n    especial witnesses unto the Gentiles and in all the world. Thus\n    differing from other officers in the church in the duties of their\n    calling; _and they form a quorum equal in authority to that of the\n    Twelve special witnesses or Apostles just named_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. cvii]\n\nIt is the order of the law of God, however, that the Twelve act under\nthe direction of the First Presidency, and the Seventy under the\ndirection of the Twelve. It is also provided that in the decisions of\neither the Twelve or the Seventy, those quorums must be\nunanimous--\"every member in each quorum must be agreed to its\ndecisions,\" in order for said decisions to be entitled to the same\nblessings that the decisions of a quorum of three Presidents receive.\nHowever, when circumstances render it impossible to be otherwise, a\nmajority of the members may form a quorum.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., sec. xvii.]\n\nThe decisions of these quorums or either of them are to be made in all\nrighteousness, in holiness, and lowliness of heart, meekness and long\nsuffering; and in that event their decisions are final. But if their\ndecisions are unrighteous they may be brought before a general\nassembly of the several quorums which constitute the spiritual\nauthorities of the church--in no other way can there be an appeal from\ntheir decisions.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Ibid, verses 27-33.]\n\nThese are the limitations set to the equality of these quorums and the\nonly limitations, and now in case of the absence, destruction or\nrejection of the first of these three great councils, upon whom does\nthe duty and responsibility of Presidency fall? We could well-nigh let\nthe Josephites themselves answer that question. They say:\n\n    Now let us examine the order of Presidency in the Church.\n    Supposing the First President is absent, who presides in council\n    or in conference? The counselors, both or either of them. And why?\n    Because they are the highest authority present. True. Then here is\n    the key to unlock the whole secret of the Presidency of the\n    Church. Hear it then! _The highest authority presides always._[A]\n\n[Footnote A: From the pamphlet issued by the Reorganization, entitled\n\"A Word of Consolation to the Scattered Saints,\" quoted by Tullidge.\nLife of Joseph, Josephite edition, pp. 589-90.]\n\nThe closing assertion is made well-nigh as strong as type can be made\nto say it; and to it I respond: that is true. Now let us consider the\nsituation at Nauvoo after the death of the prophet Joseph, and then\nsee where the Presidency of the church would fall according to this\nJosephite doctrine that \"the highest authority presides always.\"\n\nThe prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum and Sidney Rigdon constituted\nthe First Presidency at the time of the martyrdom. Joseph and Hyrum\nbeing taken, Sidney Rigdon alone was left of that great quorum. We\nhave already spoken of the delinquency of Mr. Rigdon in the\nperformance of his duty during the five years preceding the prophet's\ndeath, of Joseph's efforts to be rid of him and of his standing in his\nquorum at the time his two associates were assassinated at Carthage.\nHe sought to be appointed Guardian of the church, but was unanimously\nrejected by the assembled quorums of priesthood and the saints at\nNauvoo. This was clearly their right, and when the unfaithfulness of\nSidney Rigdon and his unfitness for the place is taken into account,\nnot even Josephites can say the church did wrong in rejecting him. In\nthe very meetings where he sought to be appointed \"Guardian of the\nchurch\" there stood the man whom the prophet Joseph had ordained to\ntake his place--Amasa Lyman. But Elder Lyman had never been presented\nto the people to be sustained by their vote, and hence his appointment\nwas not completed, and he had no claim even to the counselorship to\nthe Presidency. The death of the prophets, Joseph and Hyrum, and the\nrejection of the unworthy Sidney Rigdon, removed the First Presidency\nfrom the church. In Hyrum Smith there fell by martyrdom the only man\nthat the prophet Joseph had designated to succeed him in the\nPresidency; so that not only was the First Presidency removed from the\nchurch, but the only man concerning whom the prophet had expressed a\ndesire to succeed him was also removed. Then upon whom devolved the\nPresidency? Upon the next highest authority in the church--the Twelve\nApostles. And as they possessed equal authority with the First\nPresidency, there was nothing the First Presidency could do but what\nthe Twelve could do. So long as the First Presidency existed the\nTwelve could only operate under their direction, but now that there\nwas no First Presidency in existence, the Twelve stood in their place,\nwith full power and authority to act as the presiding quorum in the\nchurch.\n\nThe church was no more disorganized by the death of Joseph and Hyrum\nand the rejection of Sidney Rigdon than the government of the United\nStates becomes disorganized when the president dies, or is impeached.\nThe Twelve possessing equal power and authority with the First\nPresidency, in case of the death or removal of that Presidency, have\nall the keys and authority necessary to preside over all the church,\ndirect in all the affairs thereof, and move right on with the work of\nGod.\n\nWhen the Lord stretched forth his hand to establish his church in\nthese last days, and for the last time, committing unto men the keys\nof his kingdom, and a dispensation of the gospel for the last time;\nand for the fullness of times, in the which God will gather together\nin one, all things, both which are in heaven and which are in\nearth--it is not to be supposed, I say,[A] that in a few years he\nwould permit that church thus brought forth out of obscurity to become\ndisorganized, and fall back into darkness. The thought is\npreposterous. There is nothing in all that God has revealed to\nindicate that he ever contemplated its disorganization; but on the\ncontrary, there is every encouragement to believe that it will go on\nfrom grace to grace, from faith to faith, from one victory to another\nuntil, like the little stone of Daniel's vision, it shall become a\ngreat mountain and fill the whole earth.\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. xxvii, 13.]\n\nThe position of Josephite writers that it was an usurpation for the\nTwelve to assume the Presidency of the church when the First\nPresidency was removed by the death of Joseph and Hyrum and the\nrejection of Sidney Rigdon, is false. The other position that the high\ncouncil at Nauvoo was the proper authority to succeed to the functions\nof the Presidency is equally false.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: In proof that Josephite writers assume both these\npositions, see _The Saints' Herald_, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 407-8]\n\nIn support of their first position, viz., that it was an usurpation\nfor the Twelve to assume the Presidency of the church at Nauvoo after\nthe death of the prophet, Josephites rely upon the following:\n\n    The Twelve will have no right to go into Zion, or any of her\n    stakes, and there undertake to regulate the affairs thereof where\n    there is a standing high council; but it is their duty to go\n    abroad and regulate all matters relative to the different branches\n    of the church. When the Twelve are together, or a quorum of them,\n    in any church, they will have authority to act independently, and\n    make decisions, and those decisions will be valid. But where there\n    is not a quorum they will have to do business by the voice of the\n    church. No standing high council has authority to go into the\n    churches abroad and regulate the matters thereof, for this belongs\n    to the Twelve.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XV, p. 261. The\ninstructions are from the prophet Joseph.]\n\nWherein the usurpation lies, according to Josephite argument, is in\nthis: The Twelve came to Nauvoo, where there was a regularly organized\nstake, and undertook to regulate the affairs thereof. The reply to\nthat sophistry--no, it is not even sophistry--it is simply an\ninaccurate, not to say untrue, statement. The Twelve did not come to\nNauvoo to regulate the affairs of that stake independent of its\nstanding high council. Their action was in relation to the whole\nchurch of Christ, and not to the affairs of Nauvoo stake. It was a\nmatter which affected all the stakes of Zion and all the branches of\nthe church throughout the world, as much those branches scattered\nthroughout the United States and Great Britain as those in the stake\nat Nauvoo, that the Twelve came to Nauvoo to regulate. Matters of such\nhigh importance were considered and decided upon which the Twelve and\nthe Twelve only, in the absence of the First Presidency, could deal\nwith; and in those matters the Twelve not only consulted with the high\ncouncil of the Nauvoo stake, but they called a general assembly of all\nthe quorums and arranged them in their order[A] to act as the highest\nspiritual authorities in the church. The quorums sustained the action\nof the Twelve in every particular, and from the united action of the\nassembled quorums of the priesthood _there is no appeal_.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV. Nos. 14, 15, 16.]\n\n[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., sec. cvii.]\n\nIn support of the Josephite assumption that the high council at Nauvoo\nwas the proper authority to regulate the affairs of the church and not\nthe Twelve, the following is quoted:\n\n    The standing high councils, at the Stakes of Zion, form a quorum\n    _equal_ in authority, _in the affairs of the Church_, in _all_\n    their decisions, to the quorum of the Presidency, or to the\n    traveling high council.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. sec. cvii, 36.]\n\nThe answer to this assumption is, first, that the high council is a\njudicial and not a presiding or executive council, as is proven by the\nfollowing:\n\n    The high council was appointed by revelation for the purpose of\n    settling important difficulties which might arise in the Church,\n    which could not be settled by the Church or the bishop's\n    council[A] to the satisfaction of the parties.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: That is, court.]\n\n[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov. sec. cii, 2.]\n\nHence the \"equality\" here referred to must have reference to judicial\nnot to administrative affairs in the church. The second answer to the\nassumption is that the standing high council in a stake of Zion is a\nlocal council, limited in its operations to the particular district of\ncountry comprising the stake. If any proof were needed to sustain the\nstatement it would be found in the words of the prophet Joseph:\n\n    No standing high council has authority to go into the churches\n    abroad and regulate the matters thereof, for this belongs to the\n    Twelve.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. of Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XV, 261.]\n\nSurely no one will contend that the standing high council in one stake\ncould go into another stake and attempt to regulate the affairs\nthereof; for that would create confusion. Nothing can be clearer in\nthe organization of the church than the fact that the standing high\ncouncils in the stakes of Zion are judicial not executive bodies,\nlimited in their jurisdiction to the stakes in which they are\nrespectively located; and hence not the proper councils to undertake\nthe general Presidency of the church, or administrative functions of\nany kind.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\n\nLet us now proceed to the proof that Joseph Smith, the prophet, did\nnot take the keys of authority with him from the church, when he fell\na martyr to the truth, but that said keys of authority remained with\nthe church, more especially with the quorum of the Twelve.\n\nOn March 8th, 1833, the Lord said to Joseph Smith:\n\n    Verily, I say unto you, the keys of this kingdom shall never be\n    taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world\n    to come; nevertheless, through you shall the oracles be given unto\n    another yea, _even to the church!_[A]\n\n[Footnote A: The _italics_ are mine. R. Doc. and Cov., sec. xc.]\n\nJoseph and Hyrum, then, did not take with them the \"oracles\" of God\nnecessary to make the church efficient in accomplishing the work that\nGod designed it to perform. Though the keys given to the prophet were\nnever to be taken from him, either in this world or that which is to\ncome--though for ever he is to stand as the President of the great\ndispensation of the fullness of times--yet the keys of authority and\npower committed to his hands may be given to another, \"even to the\nchurch,\" not to his posterity, mark you.\n\nThis revelation makes it easy to believe that there was inspiration in\nthe declaration of Brigham Young, uttered when he heard for the first\ntime of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. He was at Peterboro, N. H.,\nwhen the sad intelligence reached him:--\n\n    The first thing that I thought of was whether Joseph had taken the\n    keys of the kingdom with him from the earth. Brother Orson Pratt\n    sat on my left, we were both leaning back in our chairs. Bringing\n    my hand down on my knee, I said, _the keys of the kingdom are\n    right here with the church_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Brigham Young, quoted by Tullidge. See Life of Brigham\nYoung, p. 106.]\n\nIn line also with this revelation under consideration is the testimony\nof the spirit of God to Parley P. Pratt. This elder while making his\nway on foot across the prairies of Illinois towards Nauvoo, bowed down\nwith grief at the loss of Joseph and Hyrum, heard the spirit of God\nsay:\n\n    Lift up your head and rejoice, for behold it is well with my\n    servants Joseph and Hyrum. My servant Joseph still holds the keys\n    of my kingdom in this dispensation, and he shall stand in due time\n    on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is\n    appointed. Go and say to my people in Nauvoo that they shall\n    continue to pursue their daily duties, and take care of\n    themselves, and make no movement in church government to organize\n    or alter anything until the return of the remainder of the quorum\n    of the Twelve; but exhort them that they continue to build up the\n    house of the Lord, which I have commanded them to build in\n    Nauvoo.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Autobiography P. P. Pratt, p. 361.]\n\nThe keys had not been taken from Joseph--he is yet to stand on the\nearth and fulfill all that is appointed to him--the work which under\nGod he had founded was to go on, is the significance of this message\nof the spirit.\n\nA carping criticism may ask: How can Joseph Smith forever stand at the\nhead of the dispensation of the fullness of times, never have the keys\nof authority thereof taken from him, and yet give those keys or\noracles to another, \"even to the church\"--how can this thing be? It\ncan be upon the same principle that God can give his power to men,\neven the priesthood, and yet not diminish aught from his own power:\nUpon the same principle that Jesus could say to Peter, \"I give unto\nyou the keys of the kingdom, and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be\nbound in heaven,\"[A] and yet Jesus lose nothing in dignity of office,\nin authority, or the possession of keys. Upon the same principle that\nPeter, James and John, (whom John the Baptist declared to Joseph Smith\nand Oliver Cowdery possessed the keys of the priesthood of\nMelchisedek,) could give the keys of the priesthood of Melchisedek to\nJoseph Smith, and yet not strip themselves of them. So Joseph Smith\ncould give the keys or oracles of the priesthood to the church and\nstill hold them--giving the keys to the Twelve more especially, and\nyet stand in his place, without losing one iota of power ever\nconferred upon him. It is a case where the one possessing keys of\npower and authority can give and not diminish his own store; but even\nincrease it more abundantly, being made richer the more he gives, when\nbestowing upon those who are worthy to receive such high things; even\nas God increases the ever widening circle of his own power by giving\nthat power--the priesthood--to his faithful sons.\n\n[Footnote A: Matt. xvi.]\n\nIt now remains for me to prove that the prophet Joseph did give the\n\"oracles to another\"--and that they remained with the church.\n\nOn the 7th of August, 1844, at a meeting of the Twelve Apostles, high\ncouncil of the Nauvoo stake, and high priests, held in the Seventies'\nHall, in a speech following one made by Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young,\nspeaking of the Twelve, said:\n\n    Joseph conferred upon our heads all the keys and powers belonging\n    to the apostleship which he himself held before he was taken away,\n    and no man or set of men can get between Joseph and the Twelve in\n    this world or the world to come. How often has Joseph said to the\n    Twelve, \"I have laid the foundation and you must build thereon,\n    for upon your shoulders the kingdom rests.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, Vol. XXV, p. 232.]\n\nIn his speech in behalf of the claims of the Twelve Apostles to lead\nthe church, on that memorable day, the 8th of August, 1844, Brigham\nYoung said:\n\n    I say unto you that the quorum of the Twelve have the keys of the\n    kingdom of God in all the world.\n\n    . . . . You[A] cannot appoint a prophet; but if you will let the\n    Twelve remain and act in their place, the keys of the kingdom are\n    with them and they can manage the affairs of the church and direct\n    in all things aright.[B]\n\n[Footnote A: The saints.]\n\n[Footnote B: History of Joseph Smith, _Mill. Star_, p. 215-6.]\n\nWhence this confidence on the part of Brigham Young before the church\nto make so bold a declaration that the keys of the kingdom were still\nwith the church--held more especially by the Twelve? It arose from the\nfact that the prophet Joseph had committed those keys to the Twelve.\n\nElder Woodruff, writing from Salem, Mass., under date of October 11th,\n1844, at a time when the claims of Sidney Rigdon were still agitated,\nsaid:\n\n    Has the prophet Joseph found Elder Rigdon in his counsels when he\n    organized the quorum of the Twelve, a few months before his death,\n    to prepare them for their endowment? And when they received their\n    endowment, and actually received the keys of the Kingdom of God,\n    and the oracles of God, keys of revelation, and the pattern of\n    heavenly things; and thus addressing the Twelve, exclaimed, \"upon\n    your shoulders the kingdom rests, and you must round up your\n    shoulders, and bear it; for I have had to do it until now. But now\n    the responsibility rests upon you. It mattereth not what becomes\n    of me.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Times and Seasons_, Vol. V, p. 698.]\n\nThat was when Wilford Woodruff was a young man; let us hear him\nforty-eight years' later, when he stood up under the weight of\neighty-five years and in the presence of a large congregation said:\n\n    I remember the last speech that he [Joseph the prophet] ever gave\n    us before his death. It was before we started upon our mission to\n    the East. He stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was\n    filled as with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and\n    he was clothed upon by the power of God. He laid before us our\n    duty. He laid before us the fullness of this great work of God;\n    and in his remarks to us he said: \"I have had sealed upon my head\n    every key, every power, every principle of life and salvation that\n    God has ever given to any man who ever lived upon the face of the\n    earth. And these principles and this Priesthood and power belong\n    to this great and last dispensation which the God of heaven has\n    set his hand to establish in the earth, \"now,\" said he, addressing\n    the Twelve, \"I have sealed upon your heads every key, every power,\n    and every principle which the Lord has sealed upon my head.\" And\n    continuing he said: \"I have lived up to the present time, I have\n    been in the midst of this people and in the great work and labor\n    of redemption. I have desired to live to see this temple [the\n    Nauvoo temple] built. But I shall never live to see it completed,\n    but you will. After addressing us in this manner he said: \"I tell\n    you the burden of this kingdom now rests upon your shoulders; you\n    have got to bear it off in all the world, and if you don't do it\n    you will be damned.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Remarks of President Woodruff following a discourse on\nPriesthood and the Right of Succession, by the writer in 1892.--See\nAppendix.]\n\nThe testimony of Wilford Woodruff in his youth is the same as in his\nold age; the same when a missionary in the eastern states traveling\nwithout purse or scrip, as when President of the church of Jesus\nChrist, honored and loved for his unswerving integrity and truth.\n\nUnder date of January 23rd, 1848, President Brigham Young, in a letter\nto Orson Spencer, President of the British Mission, informing him of\nthe organization of the First Presidency of the church at Winter\nQuarters in 1848, said:--\n\n    Joseph told the Twelve, the year before he died, there is not one\n    key or power to be bestowed on this Church to lead the people into\n    the celestial gate but I have given you, showed you, and talked it\n    over to you, the kingdom is set up, and you have the perfect\n    pattern, you can go and build up the kingdom, and go in at the\n    celestial gate, taking your train with you.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: _Mill. Star_, Vol. X, p. 115.]\n\nAnd now for a testimony from the \"enemy's\" camp that the Twelve were\nthe proper persons to lead the church, after the prophet Joseph's\ndeath:\n\n                               NOTICE!!!\n\n    After mature and candid deliberation I am fully and satisfactorily\n    convinced that Mr. Sidney Rigdon's claims to the Presidency of the\n    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are not founded in\n    Truth. I have been deceived by his specious pretences, and now\n    feel to warn every one over whom I have any influence to beware of\n    him, and his pretended visions and revelations. _The Twelve are\n    the proper persons to lead the church._[A]\n\n                                                   WILLIAM MARKS.[B]\n\n    NAUVOO, Dec. 9, 1844.\n\n[Footnote A: _Italics_ are mine, R.]\n\n[Footnote B: _Times and Seasons_, Vol. V, p. 742.]\n\nThis is that same William Marks who after this testimony became the\nassociate of James J. Strang and subsequently was the chief man in\nordaining \"young Joseph\" to be President of the church. He is a type\nof the character of men who founded the \"Reorganized church.\"\n\nThis completes our direct testimony that the keys of authority and\npower held by the prophet Joseph were not taken from the earth by him,\nbut that he had given them to another, \"even to the church,\" the\nauthority to exercise the powers thereof, after his death, more\nespecially belonging to the Twelve as the highest general presiding\nquorum in the church in case of the absence, destruction or rejection\nof the First Presidency. Let it be remembered that all the keys of\npriesthood which the prophet Joseph held were given to the Twelve; and\nthey from time to time, as occasions required, have given those keys\nof authority to other worthy men; and thus all the authority, keys of\npriesthood, and heavenly powers conferred upon the prophet Joseph have\nbeen preserved unto the church, and are with it to this day.\n\nThe array of testimony presented, taken in connection with the law of\nthe church as given in the revelations of God, clearly demonstrates\nthat the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not\ndisorganized at the death of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum; that such\na thing was never contemplated in the work of God in this\ndispensation; and since the church has never been disorganized, any\norganization claiming to be the \"Reorganized church of Jesus Christ of\nLatter-day Saints\" is a counterfeit, and writes fraud in the very\ntitle of it.\n\nNow that we draw to the close of our consideration of the claims of\nthis \"Reorganized church,\" we cannot point to its destruction as we\nhave done in the case of Sidney Rigdon's church, William Smith's\nchurch and James J. Strang's church; for the Reorganized church still\nexists. But its doom is written as distinctly as that of the other\nfalse churches that we have seen crumble to pieces into shapeless\nheaps of ruin. It is only a question of time with regard to its\nfailure. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, is written upon its walls--God hath\nnumbered thy kingdom--weighed in the balances--found wanting!\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\n\n_If any man thinks he has influence among this people to lead away a\nparty, let him try it, and he will find out that there is power with\nthe Apostles which will carry them off victorious through all the\nworld, and build up and defend the church and kingdom of God_.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: History of Joseph Smith, _Mill Star_, Vol. XXV, p. 216.]\n\nThere is yet another line of evidence to be adduced in support of\nthe great truth that the church has never been disorganized in this\ndispensation, and therefore has never stood in need of a\n\"reorganization.\"[A] That evidence is based upon the favor and blessing\nof God which has followed the church of Christ led by the Twelve\nApostles from Nauvoo, and their successors in the leadership of the\nchurch.\n\n[Footnote A: Josephites try to make it appear from a statement in the\ngeneral epistle of the Twelve issued in 1847, to the effect that they\nwere about to \"reorganize\" the church with a President and two\ncounselors, that President Brigham Young and his associates considered\nthe church disorganized, (see discourse by Alexander H. Smith. _The\nSaints' Herald_ supplement of June 24th, 1893.) But it will be\nobserved that the reorganization contemplated in the epistle of the\nTwelve is limited to reorganizing the First Presidency, the only\nquorum that was disorganized. For the same purpose, reference (see\nsame discourse) is made to the re-baptism of the saints after their\narrival in Salt Lake valley. But this was merely a renewal of\ncovenants, which to make more impressive was accompanied by baptism;\nand neither reflected discredit on the first baptisms of the\nparties--from which is always reckoned the standing of the person in\nthe church--nor carried any idea with it that the church had become\ndisorganized.]\n\nThe first thing to be considered as indicating the favor of God which\nattended the church under the Presidency of the Twelve Apostles, is\nthe fact that the church was held together through that trying period\nimmediately following the martyrdom of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum.\nThough aspirants arose on every hand to usurp authority and deceive\nthe saints, calm and unmoved stood the quorum of the Twelve, as\nwatchmen upon the towers of Zion. They sounded a warning when danger\narose; they reproved the saints with sharpness when moved upon by the\nHoly Ghost to do so; and members of their own quorum did not escape\nthis reproof whenever pride or vain ambition or any other evil was\nseen in their conduct. The fear of man was taken from their hearts.\nConscious of the rectitude of their own intentions, and strong in the\nfavor of God, they neither trembled at the frowns of men in high\nplaces, nor fawned at the feet of those in power. With manly courage\nthey put their trust in God, and sought only to do that which the\ninspiration of God dictated. The saints recognized in their deportment\nthe conduct of true shepherds, ready to lay down their lives for the\nflock of Christ, and they trusted them implicitly.\n\nThus trusted by the saints the Twelve went on building upon the\nfoundation laid by the prophet Joseph. They took steps to push the\nbuilding up of Nauvoo, but their chief interest and their most\nstrenuous efforts centered in completing the Temple and Nauvoo House.\nThe work of God so well begun by Joseph Smith, instead of being\nretarded by his martyrdom, seemed to receive fresh impetus; as if the\nblood of the martyrs had already added new strength to the church. Men\nwho had thought the whole of \"Mormonism\" was comprised in what they\ncalled the \"genius\" of Joseph Smith, looked on in astonishment as they\nsaw the church become more firmly established after his taking off\nthan while he lived. They soon began to see that Joseph Smith a martyr\nwas more potent than Joseph Smith alive.\n\nThe quorums of the priesthood were greatly increased; the number of\nmissionaries multiplied. Not only was the welfare of the church at\nNauvoo the subject of the Apostles' care, but the branches scattered\nthroughout the states of the American Union and Great Britain received\ntheir watchful attention.\n\nThe Temple was completed, many of the servants and saints of God\nreceived their washings, anointings and blessings therein, in\nfulfillment of the great desire of the prophet Joseph.\n\nThis accomplished, and mobocracy again raising its horrid front, to\nplague the church, the Twelve turned their faces towards the west; for\nthey remembered that Joseph himself had prophesied that the saints\nwould yet be driven to the Rocky Mountains, and there become a mighty\npeople.[A] Isaiah, too, long centuries before this time, had declared\nthat it should come to pass\n\n[Footnote A: Under date of _August 6th, 1842_, Joseph writes in his\nhistory: \"I prophesied that the saints would continue to suffer much\naffliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would\napostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose\ntheir lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you\nwill live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and\nsee them become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.\"]\n\n    In the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be\n    established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted\n    above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Isaiah ii, 2.]\n\nIt gives evidence of divine inspiration in the Twelve that in the\nmidst of their perplexities at Nauvoo, during the last year the church\nremained there, their hearts were inclined to lead the church of God\nto the place indicated as its abode in the last days, both by ancient\nand modern prophecy.\n\nThat great exodus of the church from Nauvoo, with the subsequent\njourney of the saints across the wilderness of Iowa and the great\nplains which form the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, is one of\nthe most remarkable events in either ancient or modern history, when\nconsidered in the light of the circumstances under which it took\nplace--a people well nigh stripped of all their worldly possessions,\nteams and wagons improvised with such animals and materials as in the\nhurry of their departure, under the menace of mob violence, could be\ngathered together;--indifferently clothed and provisioned for contact\nwith the hardships inseparably connected with such an enterprise, and\nthe lapse of time ere they could replenish their scanty stores;--\nmaking their way through an unexplored wilderness, a great part of\nwhich was desert;--seeking a destination a thousand miles from the\nfrontiers of civilization;--absolutely without any base of supplies,\ntrusting solely to the providences of God for their daily needs;--\nwarlike tribes of Indians on every hand--and yet, under the direction\nof the Apostles, they accomplished the great enterprise with little\nloss of life, and in an incredibly short space of time!\n\nThis exodus and the subsequent settlement of the saints in the valleys\nof Utah, confirmed the greatness of President Young's genius in the\nminds of the men of the world, but to all who have an abiding faith in\nthe divinity of the great work of God in the last days, it bears\nwitness that the Lord was with President Brigham Young and his fellow\nApostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and confirms the\nfaith of the Latter-day Saints, that their leaders held divine\nauthority, and were the proper men to preside over the church of\nChrist after the martyrdom, of the prophet Joseph.\n\nNot only was the exodus from Nauvoo successfully executed, but the\nlocation of the Latter-day Saints in the Rocky Mountains was equally\nwell carried out. Removing the church to Salt Lake valley resulted in\nfounding commonwealths throughout the inter-Rocky Mountain region; for\nthe saints settling in the mountains made it possible for others to\nestablish homes there also; and it must be remembered that the\nLatter-day Saints have not only settled Utah but have formed extensive\ncolonies in Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado.\n\nThe church while in the eastern states never numbered more than three\nor at the most four stakes of Zion. But since coming to the west the\nstakes of Zion have increased to thirty-six, each with its high\ncouncil, its high priests' quorum, its several elders' quorums, and\nstake organizations of Relief Societies, Improvement Associations for\nboth sexes; and quite a number of the stakes have church academies\nwhere theology is made a leading feature of the curriculum.\n\nWithin these thirty-six stakes are about five hundred organized wards,\npresided over by bishops, who are assisted in their labor of\npreserving the saints in the faith, looking after the poor, and\nkeeping down iniquity, etc., by local quorums of priests, teachers and\ndeacons. In addition to all this, there are ward organizations of\nRelief Societies, Improvement Associations for both sexes, and Primary\nSocieties for children. In each ward, also, is a Sunday School for the\ninstruction of the youth. Throughout the stakes of Zion there are 504\nSunday Schools, with a total membership, including officers, teachers\nand pupils, of 72,519; in the libraries of the Sunday Schools are\n23,541 volumes; and more than fifteen thousand dollars is expended\nannually in Sunday School work.\n\nIn the organized stakes the saints number about two hundred and fifty\nthousand; and though but few individuals among them can be considered\nwealthy, yet they are a prosperous, contented, and therefore a happy\npeople. A greater per centage of them own the homes they live in and\nthe lands they cultivate, than is the case with any other community in\nall the world; and they are freer than any other people on earth from\nthose difficulties arising in the industrial world which embitter the\nrelations of employer and employed. Peace is in their habitations; God\nis honored at the family altars, as well as in the public sanctuaries;\nfaith and confidence in God abound on every hand, and everywhere one\nmay see evidences that God is with the people. He has neither forsaken\nthem nor their leaders, as He would have done had they turned away\nfrom His gospel, trampled His church under their feet, or blasphemed\nHis priesthood by employing it to fleece the saints and aggrandize\nthemselves.\n\nSuch is the condition of the work of God within the organized stakes\nof Zion--such are the results attained, the development as to\norganization, increase of numbers, and temporal and spiritual\nprosperity. But while this great work has been going on at the\ngathering places of the saints, the foreign work of the church has not\nbeen neglected. On the contrary the work of preaching the gospel to\nthe world has been made to keep pace with the development of the work\nat the gathering places of the saints. Among the first acts of the\nTwelve after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum was one to greatly\nincrease the numbers of the seventies--the quorums of the priesthood\nwhich more especially constitute the foreign ministry of the church.\nAt the October conference in 1844 the quorums of seventies were\nincreased from two to ten. Since that time the seventies have been\nincreased, until now[A] they number one hundred and seven quorums,\ncomprising a body of seven thousand men, whose special calling it is\nto preach the gospel abroad. Josephites complain against the church\nfor thus increasing the number of quorums of seventy; and mark it down\nas a violation of the order of the church, and quote as proof the\nfollowing from the Doctrine and Covenants:\n\n[Footnote A: 1894.]\n\n    And these seven presidents are to choose other seventies, besides\n    the first seventy, to whom they belong, and are to preside over\n    them; and also other seventy, until seven times seventy, if the\n    labor in the vineyard of necessity requires it.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. cvii, 95, 96.]\n\nThis they say limits the number of quorums to seven, and therefore no\nmore than seven ought to be chosen. The prophet Joseph, however, when\nthe first quorums of seventy were being organized said:\n\n    If the first Seventy are all employed, and there is a call for\n    more laborers, it will be the duty of the seven Presidents of the\n    first Seventy to call and ordain other seventy and send them forth\n    to labor in the vineyard, until if needs be, they set apart seven\n    times seventy, and even until there are one hundred and forty and\n    four thousand thus set apart for the ministry.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Hist. Joseph Smith, under date of May 2nd, 1835. _Mill.\nStar_, Vol. XV, p. 261.]\n\nNot only have the quorums designed to form the foreign ministry of the\nchurch been greatly increased, but they have been employed. Since the\ndeath of the prophet Joseph, in addition to maintaining the missions\nin those countries where proclamation of the gospel had been made\nduring his lifetime, missions have been established in the following\ncountries, and tens of thousands of the honest in heart gathered out\nof them:\n\n_France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland,\nItaly, Switzerland, Jersey Islands, Hindostan, Malta, Cape of Good\nHope, Mexico, among a number of Indian tribes in the Western States\nand Territories in the United States, Sandwich Islands, Samoa,\nFriendly Islands, New Zealand, Turkey_, and the mission has lately\nbeen reopened in _Palestine_.\n\nIn a number of these countries periodicals have been published. This\nis the case in France, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark.\n\nThe Book of Mormon since the death of the prophet Joseph has been\ntranslated and published in the following languages:\n\n_French, German, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Welsh, Swedish, Spanish,\nHawaiian and Maori_.\n\nIt has also been translated but not yet published in Hindostanee and\nmodern Hebrew. And thus the testimony of the Nephites to the great\ntruths that the Lord is God, that Jesus is the Christ, and the gospel\nthe power of God unto salvation to all those who believe and obey it,\nis being sent to all the world in well-nigh all the languages thereof\nby the church of Christ; and the saints are ridding their garments of\nthe blood of this generation both by preaching the gospel by word of\nmouth and also by sending forth the written word.\n\nThe phase of the great Latter-day work which seemed most to occupy the\nattention of the prophet Joseph Smith in the last year of his life,\nwas that which relates to the salvation for the dead. Of this he\npreached most frequently; often was it the subject of his\ncorrespondence, his whole mind seemed given to it. Elijah had visited\nhim in Kirtland Temple and had restored the keys of the priesthood\nwhich \"turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the\nchildren to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a\ncurse.\" \"Therefore,\" said Elijah, \"the keys of this dispensation are\ncommitted into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and\ndreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors.\"[A] No wonder\nthen that this matter occupied his mind when the keys for the\nsalvation of the dead were placed in his hands attended with all the\nresponsibility that attaches thereto. Following are his views upon the\ngreatness, importance and future prospects of this work for the dead:\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov. Sec. cx.]\n\n    The earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding\n    link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children,\n    upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It is\n    the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made\n    perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can\n    they nor we be made perfect, without those who have died in the\n    gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the\n    dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now\n    beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect\n    union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and\n    powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the\n    days of Adam even to the present time; and not only this, but\n    those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of\n    the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and the prudent,\n    shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings, in this dispensation\n    of the fullness of times.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. cxxviii.]\n\nAnd this is the work the prophet of God had in mind to do for all the\ngenerations of men from Adam to the present dispensation! No wonder it\nwas the controling theme of both his tongue and pen; his meditation by\nnight, his thought by day. And as a proof to the world that the keys\nof the priesthood which administer in these holy ordinances for the\ndead were committed to the Twelve and have been with the Presidency of\nthe church from the days of the prophet until now, I point to the four\nmagnificent temples reared by the saints in Utah to the name of the\nmost high God--erected for the express purpose of performing this work\nwhich so burdened the mind of the prophet Joseph in the last year of\nhis life.\n\n\nJosephites of course profess a belief in this great feature of the\nwork of God--in baptism for the dead and the sealing powers linking\ntogether all the dispensations that have been given to man, and all\nthe families and kindred of the earth; but where are their temples in\nwhich this work is going on? Show me thy faith by thy works! Mr. Smith\nclaims to have been ordained by his father to be President of the\nchurch, to have inherited his father's priesthood and office, but\nwhere, I ask, is the evidence that he has inherited his father's\ninterest, anxiety, and activity in respect to his greater part of the\nwork of the dispensation of the fulness of times--the work that\ntouches the interests of the generations of men that are past as well\nas those that are now alive, or shall live in the generations to come?\nWhen Elijah's cloak fell from his receding form to the shoulders of\nElisha, not only the material garment fell upon him, but also the\nspirit and the power of Elijah was upon Elisha, and he did the works\nof the departed prophet. So has it been with those who have succeeded\nto the Presidency of the church since the death of the prophet Joseph.\nGreat as the work for the living has been since then, still greater\nhas been the work for the dead; in proof of which I give the following\ninformation respecting the work done in the temples of God. The report\nfrom each temple dates from the commencement of work therein up to\nDecember 31st, 1893.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: I am indebted to the Presidents and Recorders of the\nrespective temples for the information here given.]\n\n_St. George Temple:_\n\n    Baptisms for the dead..........................264,158\n    Ordinations to the priesthood for the dead......43,753\n    Endowments for the dead........................112,350\n\n_Logan Temple:_\n\n    Baptisms for the dead..........................239,480\n    Ordinations to the priesthood for the dead......43,433\n    Endowments for the dead........................107,456\n    Sealings (husbands and wives) for the dead......30,072\n    Sealings (children to parents) for the dead......6,735\n\n_Manti Temple:_\n\n    Baptisms for the dead..........................157,989\n    Ordination to the priesthood for the dead.......28,076\n    Endowments for the dead.........................67,062\n    Sealings (husbands and wives) for the dead......23,800\n    Sealings (children to parents) for the dead......4,449\n\n_Salt Lake Temple:_[A]\n\n    Baptisms for the dead,..........................21,750\n    Ordinations to the priesthood for the dead,......4,980\n    Endowments for the dead,.........................3,643\n    Sealings (husbands and wives) for the dead,......3,700\n    Sealings (children to parents) for the dead,.......973\n\n[Footnote A: Dedicated April, 1893, the report is for 8 months.]\n\nThe total number of baptisms for the dead,.........683,377\nOf ordinations to the priesthood,..................120,232\nOf Endowments,.....................................300,511\nOf sealings (including wives and husbands and\nchildren to the parents--3 Temples only reported,)..69,749\n\nLet us consider another proof that the church led to the mountains of\nIsrael under the Presidency of the Apostles is indeed the very church\nof Christ, and that it has never been disorganized, or lost the favor\nof God.\n\nDuring his personal ministry on earth, Jesus said:\n\n    If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated\n    you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but\n    because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the\n    world therefore the world hateth you.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: St. John, xv.]\n\nAgain he said:\n\n    Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall\n    separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast\n    out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice ye in\n    that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in\n    heaven; for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets . .\n    . . . Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you? for so\n    did their fathers to the false prophets.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: St. Luke vi.]\n\nDuring the lifetime of the prophet Joseph from the first time he\ncalled upon the Lord when a mere lad, to the day he fell by the old\nwell-curb at Carthage jail, pierced by the bullets of assassins, the\nadversary was ever upon the alert for his destruction. The hearts of\nthe wicked were stirred against him, false priests combined both\nagainst him and the work which under God, he founded; officers of the\nlaw with false charges and unlawful warrants dogged his footsteps,\nmobs rose in acts of violence against him and his people; he was made\nacquainted with the tyranny of unjust judges, corrupt courts, and the\ngloom of the prison cell. He was made to feel that the world did not\nlove him, that he was not of the world, that the Powers of Darkness\nhated the church of Christ. Since the death of the prophet Joseph, the\nsame Powers which pursued him and the work he established have\ncontinued their hostilities against the Church of Jesus Christ of\nLatter-day Saints. It is the elders of that church, not the elders of\nthe Reorganized church, who have been hunted by mobs, and beaten for\nno other crime than calling men to repentance. It is the blood of the\nelders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not of the\n\"Reorganized church,\" which today unavenged crimsons the soil of the\nstates of Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi.\n\nIt is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not the\n\"Reorganized church\" which has been constantly assailed, despoiled of\nits property, its members driven into exile, hundreds thrust into\nprison, whole communities terrorized--and all this through the\nadministrators of the government acting under a mistaken zeal created\nby the persistent misrepresentations of sectarian priests and\nreligious bigots--some of our \"friends\" of high standing in the\n\"Reorganization\" joining in the hue and cry against the saints of God\nand aiding in the work of misrepresentation.\n\nYet all this has not retarded the work of God. It has gone steadily\nforward. The injustice that has been done the church is beginning to\nbe recognized. Already the government has restored the personal\nproperty it confiscated. And as for the fines, imprisonment, and exile\ninflicted on so many of the saints during the past ten years, these\nthings have only contributed to spreading abroad knowledge respecting\nthe gospel and its restoration. The Lord has his own way of\naccomplishing his purposes. To the peasant shepherds on the hills of\nJudea, he sent the angels of heaven to testify of the birth of the\nMessiah; and doubtless the testimony of these men was sufficient to\nfound faith in the minds of the people among whom they moved that the\ngreat hope of Israel was fulfilled--the Messiah was born. But the king\nas well as the peasant must have a testimony that the Son of God had\ncome into the world; and hence from the far east wise men skilled in\nthe knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their movements and their\nsigns are brought to the court of proud King Herod, to testify that\nMessiah, the promised King and Redeemer of Israel is born.\n\nPreaching without purse or scrip by the Twelve Apostles, and other\nservants of God, might answer all the purposes for spreading abroad a\nknowledge of the gospel among the common people. The gospel, however,\nwas not designed for the poor and the lowly only; it is meant also for\nthe rich and the proud among men. And when God would have it\nproclaimed to magistrates, rulers, governors, kings and emperors, he\ncalled his servant Paul and led him through such experiences,\nincluding mobbings, whippings, exile and imprisonment, as brought him\nin contact with the great and high ones of the earth. Not only before\nthe judges and governors of Judea and the petty kings who visited them\nwas the gospel preached, but, as there is good reason to believe, it\nwas declared before the purple-robed Emperor of Rome. Through this\nmeans the kings of the earth learned the Christian story and the plan\nof salvation included in it. It was preached not only in the humble\nhomes of the poor, but also in the marble palaces of the Caesars.\n\nSo in this dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord has led his\nservants and his church through such experiences as will best make\nknown the great work of the last days--the opening of the heavens and\nthe committing of a dispensation of the gospel to the children of men.\n\nPreaching the gospel without purse and scrip by the elders of the\nchurch has been a very successful method of making known the truth\namong men. There is something in it which goes right home to the\nhearts of the honest. It is a method, too, which has, in the main,\nbuilt up the church so far. There are classes, however, as in the\ndispensation opened by the personal ministry of Messiah, that would\nnever be reached by such a method. These are the rich and great, the\nproud and high, the judges, legislators, presidents and kings of the\nearth. How long, for example, would it be under the method of\npreaching the gospel without purse and scrip before the humble elders\nof the church working in that way would get a hearing before the\npresident and his cabinet, not once but repeatedly? Or how long would\nit be under the aforesaid method of preaching before the House of\nRepresentatives, or the more aristocratic Senate of the United States\nwould devote day after day to the consideration of Mormonism? How long\nwould the elders be preaching without purse and scrip, though zealous\nas angels, before they could arrest the attention of the Supreme Court\nof the United States sufficiently to have the judges sit in solemn\nsession, clad in all the vestments of their high office to listen to\nan explanation of \"Mormonism?\" I risk the assertion that such things\ncould never have been attained by the elders preaching without purse\nor scrip. Yet such a remarkable hearing as hinted at above has been\ngiven to \"Mormonism\" in all these great divisions of the general\ngovernment of the United States. And by becoming for many years a\nnational question, it has been kept prominently before the world; and\nnot only the masses have been aroused by the proclamation of its\nprinciples, but the attention of statesmen and rulers has been\nattracted to it, and to them, in a manner, the gospel has been\npreached. What though it hath been preached by some through envy and\nstrife, to paraphrase the words of Paul? What then? Notwithstanding\nevery way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and\ntherein do the saints rejoice, yea, and they will rejoice; for they\nknow that this shall turn to their salvation.[A] God hath not left\nhimself without witnesses among the great ones of the earth; but ever\nand anon as they have heard about the truth and of the truth, in\ncabinet council, Senate chamber, legislative hall, the courts of kings\nand the palaces of princes--the spirit of God hath testified to their\nhearts that the gospel they heard preached, whether preached of strife\nor of good-will, was the truth of heaven, and for that testimony\nstatesmen, judges, governors and kings shall give an account in the\nday of judgment to the God who gave it to them.\n\n[Footnote A: The passage paraphrased will be found in Paul to the\nPhilippians i, 15-20.]\n\nBut what of all this? Why, where the lambs are the vultures are\ngathered together. The very violence towards the church of Christ on\nthe part of hate-inspired men, moved upon by the spirit of him who in\nheaven rebelled against the truth of God and the priesthood, bears\nwitness that the keys of the priesthood are still with the Church of\nJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and hence Lucifer, through wicked\nmen and in diverse ways, seeks its destruction. \"Marvel not if the\nworld hate you, it hated me before it hated you, if you were of the\nworld the world would love its own!\" And in the evidences of the\nhatred of the wicked for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day\nSaints may be read the negative proof of their acceptance with God as\nhis church.\n\nMy task is ended. I have taken two great prophecies of Brigham Young,\nprophet, seer, and President of the church of Jesus Christ of\nLatter-day Saints in his day, and traced out their fulfillment. The\nfirst prophecy--\n\n_All that want to draw away a party from the church after them, let\nthem do it if they can, but they will not prosper_--was proven to be\ntrue by a brief consideration of the rise and fall of the principal\nfactions called into existence under the leadership of ambitious,\nwicked men. We have seen go to pieces upon the rock of President\nYoung's inspired prediction Sidney Rigdon's church, William Smith's,\nJames J. Strang's, and the organization, such as it was, founded by\nGeorge Miller and Lyman Wight--none of them prospered. We have\nconsidered the claims of the Reorganized or Josephite church, built\nfrom the ruins of these other churches just enumerated. Its\npretentions have been viewed from every standpoint, and are found\nlacking in every element of consistency and truth. Misconceptions of\nthe work and laws of God constituted its foundation; and the folly,\nsophistry, ignorance and vain ambition of--to be charitable--mistaken\nmen, comprise its superstructure!\n\nWe have taken the second part of President Brigham Young's inspired\nprophecy--_If any man thinks he has influence among this people to\nlead away a party, let him try it, and he will find out that there is\npower with the Apostles which will carry them off victorious through\nall the world, and build up and defend the church and kingdom of\nGod_--and have found the truth of it demonstrated in the history of\nthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The favor, blessing,\npower and glory of God have indeed attended the labors of the Apostles\nwho led the Saints from Nauvoo, and the Presidencies of the church\nwhich succeeded them; of a truth there has been with those Apostles\nand their successors a power which has carried them off victorious\nthrough all the world, and built up and defended the church and\nkingdom of God.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nTESTIMONY OF PREST. WILFORD WOODRUFF.\n\n    _Remarks following a lecture delivered by Elder B. H. Roberts, in\n    the Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, February 23rd, 1892, under the\n    auspices of the Y. M. M. I. Associations of the Salt Lake Stake,\n    on \"Priesthood and the Right of Succession.\"_\n\n\nI realize it is somewhat late, but I want to beg the indulgence of\nthis assembly a few moments. I felt that as I was a member of these\nMutual Improvement Associations I wanted to attend this meeting and\nhear this lecture. I did not wish to interfere with the time of\nBrother Roberts. He has given us an excellent discourse, and has told\nus the truth. There are a few things pertaining to this subject about\nwhich I wish to bear my testimony to the young men of Israel.\n\nFirst, I wish to say a few words regarding Priesthood. There is no\nmistake about the Priesthood of God Almighty. The God of heaven\nhimself has created and redeemed this world by the power of that\nPriesthood; and no being that ever dwelt on this earth ever has been\nor ever will be able to do or perform any work pertaining to salvation\nunless it is by that eternal and everlasting Priesthood. And where\nthat Priesthood of Almighty God is manifest, the power of that\nPriesthood is with the people, no matter what age or generation they\nhave lived in. And I wish to say that there has been no generation, no\ndispensation, any greater than the one in which Joseph Smith was\nraised up. He laid the foundation of this great work, under God, and\nHe established the Church upon the face of the whole earth, in\nfulfillment of revelation and prophecy, from Father Adam down to our\nday; and the Lord has made, and will make no mistake in regard to\ncalling a people or giving them the Priesthood.\n\nAs I have said, Joseph Smith organized the Church. He lived but a\nshort time with us--though longer than the Savior did after He entered\nthe ministry. The Savior lived about three and a half years from the\ntime He commenced His ministrations among the people until He was\ncrucified. Joseph Smith lived some fourteen years, if I mistake not,\nafter he organized this Church. He also was slain. But before he died,\nhe organized the Church with Apostles, Patriarchs, Pastors, Teachers,\nand the whole government of the Church of God; and that Priesthood he\norganized or laid the foundations of remained with the people after\nhis death, as Brother Roberts has said tonight. The Twelve Apostles\nstood next to the First Presidency of the Church; and I am a living\nwitness myself to this work. I am a living witness to the testimony\nthat he gave to the Twelve Apostles when all of us received our\nendowments under his hands. I remember the last speech that he ever\ngave us before his death. It was before we started upon our mission to\nthe East. He stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was filled\nas with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and he was\nclothed upon by the power of God. He laid before us our duty. He laid\nbefore us the fullness of this great work of God; and in his remarks\nto us he said: \"I have had sealed upon my head every key, every power,\nevery principle of life and salvation that God has ever given to any\nman who ever lived upon the face of the earth. And these principles\nand this Priesthood and power belong to this great and last\ndispensation which the God of Heaven has set His hand to establish in\nthe earth.\" \"Now,\" said he addressing the Twelve, \"I have sealed upon\nyour heads every key, every power, and every principle which the Lord\nhas sealed upon my head.\" Continuing, he said, \"I have lived so\nlong--up to the present time--I have been in the midst of this people,\nand in the great work and labor of redemption. I have desired to live\nto see this Temple [at Nauvoo] built. But I shall never live to see it\ncompleted; but you will.\" Now, we didn't suppose but what he would\nlive. We didn't comprehend what he meant. Neither did the Twelve in\nthe days of the Savior comprehend what He meant when He said, \"I am\ngoing away from you; if I go not the Comforter will not come unto\nyou.\" And so we did not understand Joseph when he said he would not\nlive to see that Temple completed; it was not given us to realize it\nat that time.\n\nAfter addressing us in this manner he said: \"I tell you the burden of\nthis kingdom now rests upon your shoulders; you have got to bear it\noff in all the world, and if you don't do it you will be damned.\" That\nwas pretty strong language, but it was full of meaning, it was full of\nsignificance. Joseph was trained in the Priesthood before he came to\nthis planet. He understood the Priesthood perfectly before he came\nhere. He understood its work and its lineage, so far as lineage\napplies to offices in the priesthood. He also understood that he was\ngoing away from this earth; but we did not know it until after he was\nput to death. I was in Boston with President Young the very hour he\nand his brother Hyrum were slain. And at that moment there was a power\nof darkness surrounded us, a feeling of heaviness that I never felt\nbefore. I had never seen President Young feel so bad in my life before\nas he did that hour.\n\nNearly all the quorum of the Twelve were on missions in the eastern\nStates when the terrible tragedy at Carthage took place; and we did\nnot hear of it for some time afterwards. We returned to Nauvoo. It has\nbeen repeated to you here tonight what was done in the conference in\nNauvoo. I do not know whether there is anyone present here tonight but\nmyself who was at that conference--there are but few living who were\npresent on that occasion. Brigham stepped forth as a leader of Israel,\nas has been said here tonight by Brother Roberts, and Sidney Rigdon\nalso tried to get the presidency; but when his name was put to a vote\nbefore the conference of the Latter-day Saints, and they were asked if\nthey wanted him as their guardian, to guide them in the Celestial\nKingdom, Brigham said: \"All who do, raise your right hand,\" and I did\nnot see a hand raised in his favor in that congregation.\n\nBrigham then asked if they wanted the Twelve Apostles to step forth\nand magnify their calling and build up the Church and establish the\nKingdom of God in all the earth. \"All who do, raise your right hand,\"\nand almost every soul in that congregation voted; and when Brigham\nYoung arose and commenced speaking, if I had not seen him with my own\neyes, there is no one that could have convinced me that it was not\nJoseph Smith speaking. It was as the voice and face of Joseph Smith;\nas anyone can testify who was there and acquainted with these two men.\n\nSeveral men have claimed authority to lead the Church, but the Prophet\nJoseph never conferred any such authority upon any of them. The keys\nof the Presidency after his death were held by the Twelve Apostles,\nand by them only, until the Council of the First Presidency was\nreorganized.\n\nI name these things to show that the Lord has put his mark of approval\nupon the acts of the Apostles who followed the Prophet Joseph Smith in\nthe establishment of this great work upon the earth; and the\nPriesthood will continue here and the work increase until Jesus Christ\nshall come in the clouds of heaven.\n\nI wish here to ask a question. How has every man who has gone on his\nown authority and left the Church, and undertaken to build up a Church\nto himself, succeeded? How has he prospered? What has he done? Why,\njust as they did who tried to establish \"Strangism,\" and \"Rigdonism\"\nand every other \"ism\" that has ever arisen? They have gone overboard.\nThe power and influence of God have not been with them; the Priesthood\nhas not been with them; the Lord has not called them to do the work\nthey tried to do, and the result has been a failure--a complete\nfailure every time.\n\nOn the other hand, how has He prospered and blessed those who have\ngone forth to the nations of the earth and declared the Gospel of\nChrist to the millions upon millions of their fellow men? Why, He has\nprospered and blessed them richly, and opened their way to success.\nWho are they who have gone forth to the nations of the earth and who\nhave visited the islands of the sea, and have accomplished this great\nwork of gathering, built cities and reclaimed the desert? Not those\nwho tried to lead different factions from the Church, not those who\nwere ambitious to lead the people of God; but it has been the Elders\nof Israel, those who have received the Priesthood from the hands of\nJoseph Smith and his followers, or through the authority which God\ngave them. Who are they who came here to these valleys of the\nmountains whose coming had been pointed out by the finger of God? Who\nare they who have built these Temples and erected edifices to the\ngreat Jehovah? Why, it is the same class of men that was true to\nJoseph, those who have been true to God and the covenants they made.\nHas God made any mistake? Read the revelations of the Almighty; they\nspeak for themselves. The Lord has appointed this people to come to\nthis land; this is a great work; we are living in a great\ndispensation--the dispensation of the last days. The Lord has not\ndeceived any one in this matter; He will deceive no man in regard to\nthis work. This people have traveled from place to place ever since\nthe organization of this Church, until today they are settled here in\nthe valleys of these mountains and have prospered and increased\nmarvelously; and they will continue to grow and increase in strength\nand power until Christ comes upon the earth.\n\nA man cannot leave this Church without the power of God leaves him. It\nhas been the power of the Priesthood that made men great; and no man\ncan handle it only according to the order of God. If they do they will\nfall, as has been stated in the revelations of God, read by Brother\nRoberts this evening. I want to say to the young men of Israel, go and\ndo what is right; you need have no fears regarding the authority of\nthis work. The Lord has called the weak things of this earth. He has\ncalled them from the plow, from the plane the workshop and the\nhammer--He has taken the illiterate men of the world and sent them\nforth to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. Even the\nLord Jesus Christ was born in a stable and cradled in a manger. He\ncame forth and fulfilled the prophecies. His whole life was one of\npoverty and affliction. He was scorned and hated by the world of\nmankind. His Apostles were selected from among the poor and the humble\nof the earth. So it is with the men who have led the Church in these\ndays. They have been called from various vocations. They have been men\nwho were humble, and God has been with them. God has established His\nwork, and He has sent ministers to the different nations of the earth.\n\nI wish to say to the Latter-day Saints, all that we have to do is to\nbe faithful, to keep His commandments, to be humble, to seek Him in\nmighty prayer and all will be well with us.\n\nThere has been a great deal of work done in this dispensation. The\nLord called this people to the valleys of the mountains in fulfillment\nof prophecy. Old father Jacob, in blessing Joseph and Ephraim, told\nthem what would take place with them and their posterity to the latest\ngeneration; that their blessings should extend to the utmost bounds of\nthe everlasting hills. We are here as descendants of Joseph and\nEphraim, and Abraham, who were patriarchs and holy men of God. They\nhad the Priesthood, and it has been continued and handed down from\ngeneration to generation as long as God has had a people upon the\nearth. He has revealed it in this dispensation through the Prophet\nJoseph, and it is here to stay and will remain until Christ comes.\n\nI want to say to the young men and maidens of the Latter-day Saints,\nhave no fears from what you hear through the outside world or from\nthose who are professing to build up the kingdom of God, but who have\nnot got the Priesthood as established by the Almighty through Joseph\nSmith. If you will do your duty all will be right. I am thankful for\nthe privilege of living so long. I have seen the progress of this work\nalmost from the commencement. I thank God for what I see today. I see\ngreat improvement but there is still great room for improvement among\nus now.\n\nI wish to say to our young men there is an evil power, a growing power\nof darkness around and amongst us. The powers of darkness desire to\nlead the young men of Israel astray. They think if they can do this,\nif they can get them to do wickedly, they can weaken this Church. But\nour young men are raised up to follow in the footsteps of their\nfathers, and not to be easily led astray.\n\nI pray God my Heavenly Father to bless the Latter-day Saints, that we\nmay all have faith in Him and in the revelations and promises He has\ngiven, and in all the truths we have received, and if we do so, all\nwill be well with us. We have come here upon a mission. Our mission is\na great and responsible one; it is mighty. In fact, we have been\ncalled to leave our homes, our fathers, our mothers, our wives, our\nchildren, all that is dear to us, and to go abroad to preach the\nGospel to the inhabitants of the earth. We have been called to do\nthis, and as Brother Joseph Smith said, if we do not round up our\nshoulders and help to bear off this kingdom, we shall be damned. No\nman can receive the Priesthood from the hands of the Almighty and\nabuse it but what it will be answered upon his head.\n\nTherefore, let us all, old and young, improve the time, live our\nreligion, have faith in God and His works. The Lord brought us here,\nHis power has been upon us; by His power and His blessings we have\nbuilt temples and beautified homes; and there has never been a people\nthat I know of that have ever had the power to rear as many temples in\nso short a time as we have done in the mountains of Israel. Let us\nremember this and be faithful, remembering our fasting and prayers,\ncall upon the Lord in secret prayer, and ask him to bless and direct\nus.\n\nThe Lord is with us, His hand is over us, and he is guiding this work\nand will continue to do so until Zion shall arise and be built up and\nshall stand in beauty, power and become the glory of the whole earth,\nwhile the judgments of God shall extend throughout the nations.\n\nMay God bless you as Mutual Improvement Associations, may He bless\nevery organization and association that has been established as helps\nand governments to this great latter-day work; and may we be blessed\nin all our endeavors to do right--which may God grant, for Christ's\nsake. Amen.\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Succession in the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":41001}