26th Aug 1843 The quorum of the Twelve
met with the Saints in in conference
meeting opened by prayer President
arose & addressed the meeting in an interesting
manner upon the subject of the gathering, the
Building of the & . He spoke
of the Priesthood & said that it was a perfect
system of goverment and made many useful
remarks.
In the afternoon the conference again
met Prayr By Elder the meeting was addressed
by Elder , spoke in parables, gather in the
wheat and tares thrash the wheat & the mill will
blow away the chaff &c Said an Elder would
get a people together & could get the priest &
people to receive the work if they did not whip
the sect so like a shepherd who would call up a
buck & a flock of sheep & hand them a little salt
& Just as they begin to eat hit him with a club
across the head & the sheep will run away.
Elder followed & bore testimony of the
work told several anecdotes one from
said that a man told of a story so big about his
cheese house that a woman did not believ it & asked
a servant if it was true He said that his master
did not let him go into the cheese house but one thing
he new that his master had a tremendous
great cheese house & a great mill of four run of
stone that was carryed by the whay that runs
from the cheese house so let the Elders tel
about the whey but not about what is in the
cheese house as long as they have not seen it
let the misteries alone & speak of things that
you understand. spoke of his collegiate
education he received from President which was, to preach short sermans
& make short prayers which had done him
much good in life.
Elder next spoke
& made some useful remarks said the scriptures
had been mistifyed to that degree that the greatest
divine of the day is as ignorant as the dumm ass
concerning the things of God they dont know their
right hand from their left & we are trying to
revere it to make it so simple that the people
can understand it. Place a man in this room
that is ignorant of science & take evry thing out
that we can see & then ask him if their is
any thing in the room, he says no nothing but
we two. I tel him that there is millions of live
animals in the room even we breath them & I
will show him by the aid of glasses that their
is live animals in one drop of water eight feet long
but he dont believe it untill he sees it through
glasses so with the unbeliever he does not
believe in God, in Angels, in spirits because he
cannot see them, but let him have spiritual
glasses or obey the commandments of God &
get the spirit of God & then he can see & many
other usful remarks he made. A Hymn was
then sung. Then several question were asked
1st Can any member officer in any branch
of the Church say their word is law & should
be obayed (No) Is it right for anA priest to be
joined to a Teacher to go & visit the houses of
each member when their duty is set forth in
the covenants. (Yes any members that are
officers from High priest to Deacon may visit
the church or members & be set apart for this
purpose if the Church will receive it)
[2] I instruction If Elders or High Priest are
on an Island & cannot get word from the
Prophet or the Twelve [they] may get a revelation
concerning themselves, the Twelve may get
a revelation in any part of the world concer-
ning the building up the kingdom as they have
to esstablished the kingdom in all parts of the
world, so any person can ask the Lord for a
witness concerning himself he can get an answ
er to himself but not to lead the Church that
Belongs to the head of the Church
3rd Can a Church make buy laws as expediences
for themselves that are not specifyed
in any revelation (yes if they wish, they may
make laws to stick their fingers in their eyes
if they wish, but it is like sticking their finger
through a not hole, in the wall to see what
custom will do
4th When any person is ordained legally
by the vote of the Church to any office can
he be releaced from that office & priesthood
(No) and hold his standing in the Church (No)
Elder made many useful remark
conference Adjourned untill tomorrow
