[Brigham Young Sermon] President Brigham Young then rose and said: I am going to talk upon the principles of the priesthood, and the keys thereof, and if I teach any thing that I don't understand, and anybody else understands the principles, I want them to tell the whys and the wherefores; and I say unto all this congregation that those who are spiritually minded can understand it with all ease. The Elders of Israel are in deep mystery of many things pertaining to godliness, as they were in the days of Paul. The mystery among them then was that the Son of God could take upon him a tabernacle of flesh, and that the Lord could bring for his Only Begotten Son in the flesh independent of man. Its no mystery at all when understood. Paul knew that God Almighty had the power to beget the body without asking, odds of any man to do it for him; he had the qualifications in him, he had an eternity of qualifications far beyond their conceptions or imagination. The priesthood now is a mystery to many of the Elders. It is as plain and simple as the law or the first principles of the Gospel. Go and ask any woman or child, how are you going to get a remission of your sins? Why they will all say, be baptized for the remission of your sins. And if you ask a child how are you to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, every child in this kingdom will tell you to lay on hands for that gift. All the order of the kingdom of God is as simple as the ABC to old school teachers when it is understood. With regard to power and authority I am going to teach you; there is a great deal said about power and authority; and now I will tell you a mystery, if the 12 or the twelve thousand or the one-hundred and fortyfour thousand, or as few, or as many men who have obeyed the Gospel of Christ, with full purpose of heart, and are faithful to all the requirements thereof, and is ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ, has all the keys, and all the power, and the authority that ever was conferred on mortal man; but the right of acting is when he is called by the people, and required to act at the hand of the Lord. If there is one, there is one only, or if twelve then twelve only; or if all the seventies, or as many as are ordained apostles, they have all the power, and all the authority ever delegated to man until he passes through the resurrection; he can then teach it, and bring men up to the knowledge thereof. Now for the proof! And I know men cant produce scripture to contradict it, many of you will remember that I taught this, the first sermon after Joseph's death. Joseph had angels to visit him, the Lord visited him, and the Lord commanded him to prophecy, without his seeing or hearing him in his corruptible body. He had all these things year after year. The Lord sent messengers unto him and they ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, to the lesser priesthood. He had all the keys of that priesthood conferred upon him, he was Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; and notwithstanding al this, he had not the power to build up the kingdom of God with all the offices and ordinances until he was ordained an Apostle. He was faithful in what was committed to his charge, and he was then ordained to be an Apostle. He was never ordained to anything else but an Apostle. I ask you if any of you ever knew him to be ordained to any higher office but that of an Apostle and he only received the keys of the apostleship at that time. And the Lord added unto him light and wisdom and strength. And he grew in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. He received revelations to appoint Patriarchs in the church. I don't suppose he ever thought a word about it, until my brother Joseph and myself called upon him to know if we could not receive a blessing from a patriarch as in days of old. He told us to call again and he would think about it. My brother was the first man that was a patriarch. Joseph told brother Joseph Young and myself to call our family together for a blessing meeting and he would come also. He then ordained father Young to be a Patriarch. At the end of the meeting he received a revelation dictating him the order of the Patriarchal Priesthood in the church. He had the family called together again and had them again blessed, and a record kept of it. Many of you have seen the rise of Oliver Cowdery and knew his first walk and final downfall. He was ordained an Apostle as well as Joseph, and he was all the time trying to make God, angels, and men believe he was as high as Joseph Smith, and that was the cause of his downfall, and will be the same with all the apostles in these last days who think they are as great. God set Joseph to dictate Oliver, he was the first, God made him so. And God made me the first in the 12. And I can just walk over all opposition. I am the chap that don't fear opposition. I don't fear bears. From the time of Joseph's death we had packed off the kingdom with one hand tied behind us and the Lord told me we should fall it. We did not have a First Presidency, and I knew it then. My brethren of the 12 have the same power and authority that I have, but God has told me to lead them and not them to lead me. I will just enquire who stood up and defended this people? Who of the 12 Apostles stepped forward and defended this Kingdom when Sidney [Rigdon] was trying to lead this people to hell. I magnified my calling. I went up to the stand and scarce a man stood by me to bear the brunt of the battle. There was a mighty flood of prayers [that] went up to our Heavenly Father, that the 12 might get home before anything should be done by Sidney. I stood up and did my duty and have done the best I could ever since and always shall do. When I magnify my calling I am not to be put down by any man's influence. You can't put any greater power on an apostle than that which he already holds, but he may be sent to one place or the other to do this or that. I have seen men magnify their calling. I saw them magnify their calling the day before yesterday and a precious dust flew (excuse me brethren). At the first conference after Joseph's death the 12 were acknowledged [as] the First Presidency of the church from that time until there was a First Presidency appointed, you could not catch me dictating the affairs of the church without having a Quorum of the Twelve by me. I have always had a quorum of the 12 with me, in Winter Quarters and on the journey to this valley, so that I could call them together in fifteen minutes when they were wanted. You never caught me interfering with or altering any affairs that the Quorum had, as some have. I like men to have power and influence and knowledge and have the heavens opened to them, and then they could teach me if I should be wrong. And I would to God that every man and woman would so live that they would have the heavens opened to them continually. I want to live right in the presence of the Almighty and then they will witness to me that I am right. You never catch Brigham without a Quorum of the Twelve with him. Everything was done by the Quorum of the Twelve. And they stuck together until last April conference when the First Presidency was appointed. Now say I brethren, magnify your calling; go to the nations of the earth. The word of the Lord now is: Ho! Ye Elders of Israel, wake up! Rise up and shake yourselves! Cease your frivolity! Cease your nonsense and think of the souls of men. Arise and shake off your lethargy and do make yourselves ready to preach the Gospel to the children of men. This is now the business of this people. At the last conference we took into consideration [of] the propriety of uncle John Smith being the Patriarch of the whole church. We have unanimously voted that he should hold the keys over the Patriarchal Priesthood, he has go to receive the imposition of the hands of the First Presidency or he don't receive it. He had not the keys yet. This brings up another question. There are many enquiries. How is brother Brigham going to be ordained to preside over this people? You will read in the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, the man or men who shall be upheld by this people and ordained to that power. If Br. Taylo
r or Br. Pratt were the men, they could not receive any more power than they already have; only the knowledge how to use it. But Father Smith has got to receive the ordination and then he will act in the place of Br. Hyrum. It was Williams by right but he forfeited it by his wickedness. He made shipwreck of his faith and it was taken from him. I don't consider I am a legal heir to anything, but what the Almighty gives me. I hope he will give me prudence to use it. It is now the good pleasure of this people to put it on the head of Father John Smith, although Father John is not as old as uncle Asael Smith; so if it went by birthright it would belong to bro. Asael, but we will hop over this stick and give it to Uncle John and if Uncle John [is] please[d] to call his son George, we don't care about that. I wish every man would use his influence and his power, and magnify his calling and then the people will love him. I was ordained an Elder while the clothes were yet wet upon my back [baptism], and when Br. David Patten came to ordain me a High Priest I said unto him, Br. David, if you will show me an elder that does magnify his calling and office, I will feel almost to worship him. He would speak by the Holy Ghost and live by that power and his words would be like melted lead running into the hearts of a congregation, and they could not help themselves. All I ask of this people is for them to do as they ought to do and give all their energies to maintain what is commonly called Mormonism. Many mere say what is the Lord going to do with me. I don't care what the Lord is going to do with me, but I want to do as near right as I can. Brethren, overlook each others faults and do as well as you can. Now I'll sit down. -- SLC Bowery [General Church Minutes. Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints DVD 1 (2002)]
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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