March 10^th 1844 Sunday [FIGURES] I mailed a letter
to Sister Sarah B. Foss & wrote one letter to
Col Solomon Copeland. Brother King Follet
was buried this day under Masonic honors he was
killed while in a well by having a bucket of stone
fall onto him

A large assembly of the Saints met at the temple
& was Addressed by President Joseph Smith
upon one of the most important & interesting
subjects ever presented to the Saints & the principles
presented were of the greatest importance to be
understood it was as follows the work & calling
& spirit of Elias, Elijah, & Mesiah. The following
is a synopsis of the discourse

Their is a differance between the spirit & office
of Elias & Eligah it is the spirit of Elias I wish first
to speak of. And in order to come at the subject
I will bring some of the testimony from the
scripture & give mey own. in the first place
suffice it to say I went into the woods to inq-
wire of the Lord by prayer his will concern-
ing me, & I saw an angel & he laid his hands
upon my head & ordained me to be a priest
after the order of Aaron & to hold the keys
of this priesthood which office was to
preach repentance & Baptism for the remission
of sins & also to baptise but was informed
that this office did not extend to the laying on
of hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost that
that office was a greater work & was to be given
afterwards [Joseph Smith-History 1:68-70] but that my ordination was a
preparetory work or a going before which was the
spirit of Elias for the spirit of Elias was a going
before to prepare the way for the greater, which
was the case with John the Baptist he came
balling through the wilderness prepare ye the [Matthew 3:1-3]

the way of the Lord & make his paths strait [Matthew 3:3]
& they were informed if they could receive it it
was the spirit of Elias & John was vary particular
to tlell the people He was not that light but was sent
to bear witness of that light. [John 1:6-9] He told the people
that his mission was to preach repentane & baptize
with water, but it was he that should come after
hism that should baptise with fire & the Holy Ghost [Matthew 3:11]
if he had been an imposture he might have gone
to work beyound his bounds & undertook to have
performed ordinances that did not belong to that
office & calling under the spirit of Elias. The
spirit of Elias is to prepare the way for a greater
revelation of God which is the priesthood of Elias
or the priesthood arof Aaron was ordained unto.

And when God sends a man into the world to prepare
for a greater work holds the keys of the power
of Elias it was called the doctrin of Elias even
from the early ages of the world. John's
mission was limited to preaching & Baptizeing but
what he done was legal & when Jesus Christ
came to any of John's deciples He baptized them
with fire & the Holy Ghost. We find the Apostles
endowed with greater power than John their
office was more under the spirit & power of
Elijah than Elias.

In the case of Philip when
he went down to Samaria was under the spirit
of Elias he baptised both men & women. when
Peter & John herd of it they went down
& lade hands on them & they received the
Holy Ghost [Acts 8:12-17] this shows the distinction between
the two powers. when paul came to certain
deciples He asked if they had received the
Holy Ghost they said no, who baptized you
then we were Baptized unto Johns Baptism [Acts 19:1-6]

No John did not baptized you for he did
his work right, & so Paul went & baptized them [Acts 19:1-6]
for He knew what the true doctrin was & he
knew that John Had not Baptised them, & these
principles and is strange to me that men who have
red the scriptures of the New Testament are so
far from it. What I want to impress upon your
minds is the difference of power in the different
parts of the Priesthood, so that when any man
comes among you saying I have the spirit of Elias
you can know whether he be true or fals, for
any man that comes having the spirit & power of
Elias he will not transend his bounds. John
did not transend his bound but faithfully performed
that part belonging to his office, and evry portion
of the great building should be prepared right &
assigned to its proper place, & it is necessary
to know who holds the keys of power & who
dont, or we may be likely to be decieved. That
person who holds the keys of Elias hath a prep-
aritory work. But if I spend much more
time in conversing about the spirit of Elias I
shall not have time to do justice to the spirit &
power of Elijah. this is the Elias spoken of in the
last days & here is the rock upon which many
split thinking the time was past in the days of
John & Christ & no more to be, but the spirit of
Elias was revealed to me & I know it is true therefore
I speak with boldness for I know varily my doctrin
is true. Now for Elijah, the spirit power &
calling of Elijah is that ye have power to hold the keys
of the revelations ordinances, oricles powers & endow-
ments of the fulness of the Melchezedek Priesthood
& of the kindgdom of God on the Earth & to receiieve,
obtain & perform all the ordinances belonging to the
kingdom of God even unto the sealing of the hearts

of the hearts fathers unto the children & the hearts
of the children unto the fathers even those who are
in heaven. Malachi says I will send Eligjah befor
the great and dredful day of the Lord come & He
shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children
and the hearts of the Children to the Fathers lest I
come & smite the earth with a curse. [Malachi 4:5-6] Now what I
am after is the knowledge of God & I take my own
course to obtain it. what are we to under^stand^ by this
in the last days. in the days of Noah God destroyed
the world by a flood [Genesis 7] & has promised to destroy
it by fire in the last days [2 Peter 3:12] but before it took place
Elijah should first come & turn the hearts of
the Fathers to the children &c. now comes the
point what is this office & work of Elijah. it is
one of the greatest & most important subjects that
God has revealed. He should send Elijah to seal the
children to the fathers & fathers to the children. now
was this merely confined to the living to settle diffic-
ulties with families on earth. by no means, it was a
far greater work Elijah what would you do if you
was here? would you confine ^refer^ ^confine^ your work to the
living alone. No I would confine ^refer^ you to the
scriptures whare the subject is manifest, ie without
us they could not be made perfect, nor we
without them, the fathers without the children
nor the children without the fathers. [Doctrine and Covenants 128:15] I wish
you to understand this subject for it is important
& if you will recieve it this is the spirit of Elijah
that we redeem our dead & connect ourselves
with our fathers which are in heaven & seal
up our dead to come forth in the first resurrection
& here we want the power of Elijah to seal
those who dwell on earth to those which dwell
in heaven this is the power of Elijah & the keys

of the kingdom of Jehovah. Let us suppose
a case. suppose the great God who dwells in heaven
should reveal himself to Father Cutler here
by the opening heavens and tell him I offer
up a decree that whatsoever you seal on earth
with your decree I will seal it in heaven. you have
power then can it be taken of? No. Then what
you seal on earth by the keys of Elijah is sealed in
heaven & this is the power of Elijah, & this is
the differenc between the spirit & power of Elias
and Elijah for while the spirit of Elias is a fore
runner the power of Elijah is sufficient to make
our calling & Election sure & the same doctrin
whare we are exhorted to go on unto perfection not
laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works but of laying on of hands, resurrection
of the dead &c [Hebrews 6:1-2] we cannot be perfect without the
fathers, &c we must have revelations then
& we can see that the doctrin of revelation
a^s^ for transcends the doctrin of no revelation as
knowlede is above ignorance for one truth revealed
from heaven is worth all the sectarian notions in
exhistance. This spirit of Elijah was manifest in
the days of the Apostles in delivering certain ones
to the buffitings of Satan that they may be saved in
the day of the Lord Jesus [1 Corinthians 5:5] they were sealed by the
spirit of Elijah unto the damnation of Hell untill the
day of the Lord or revelation of Jesus Christ
Here is the doctrin of Election that the world
have quarreled so much about, but they do
not know any thing about it. The doctrin
that the Prysbeterians & Methodist have
quarreled so much about once in grace always in
grace, or falling away from Grace I will say a word
about. they are both wrong. truth takes a road
between them both. for while the Presbyterian
says once in grace you cannot fall the

Methodist says you can have grace to day, fall
from it to morrow, next day have grace again & so
follow it, but the doctrin of the scriptures & the
spirit of Elijah would show them both fals &
take a road between them both for according to the
scriptures if a man has receive the good word of
God & tasted of the powers of the world to come if
they shall fall away it is impossible to renew them
again, seeing they have crucified the Son of God
afresh & put him to an open frame shame, [Hebrews 6:4-6] so their
is a possibility of falling away you could not be
renewed again, & the power of Elijah cannont
seal against this sin, for this is a reserve made
in the seals & power of the priesthood. I will make
evry doctrin plain that I present & it shall stand
upon a firm bases And I am at the defianc of
the world for I will take shelter under the
broad shelter ^cover^ of the wings of the work in which
I am ingaged. it matters not to me if all hell boils
over I regard it ownly as I would the crackling
of thorns under a pot. A murderer, for instance
one that sheds innocent Blood cannot have
forgiveness. David sought repentance at the hand
of God carefully with tears but he could ownly
get it through Hell. he got a promise that his
soul should not be left in Hell. Although David
was a king he never did obtain the spirit & power
of Elijah & the fulness of the Priesthood, & the
priesthood that he received & the throne & kingdom
of David is to be taken from him & given to another
by the name of David in the last days raised up
out of his linage. Peter refered to the same
subject on the day of pentecost, but the multi-
tude did not get the endowment that Peter had
but several adays after the people asked what shall [Acts 2:25-38]

we do. Peter says I would ye had done it ignorantly
speaking of crucifying the Lord &c He did not say
to them repent & be baptized for the remission
of your sins but he said repent therefore & be
converted that your sins may be blotted out when the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord Acts III, 19 this is the case with murderers
they could not be baptized for the remission
of sins for they had shed innocent Blood.

Again the doctrin or sealing power of Elijah is
as follows if you have power to seal on earth & in
heaven then we should be crafty the first
thing you do go & seal on earth your sons & daughters
unto yourself, & yourself unto your fathers in
eternal glory, & go ahead and not go back, but
use a little craftiness & seal all you can; & when
you get to heaven tell your father that what
you seal on earth should be sealed in heaven
I will walk through the gate of heaven and claim
what I seal & those that follow me & my council
The Lord once told me that what I asked for
I should have. I have been afraid to aske to
ask God to kill my enemies lest some of them
should rperadventure should repent. I asked a
short time since for the Lord to deliver me
out of the hands of the govornor of Missouri &
if it must needs be to accomplish it to take
him away, & the next news that came pouring
down from their, was Govornor Reynolds had
shot himself, and I would now say beware O earth
how you fight against the Saints of God & shed innocent
Blood, for in the days of Elijah his enemies came
upon him & fire was called down from heaven
& destroyed them. the spirit of Elias is first,
Elijah second, & Masiah last. Elias is a fore runner
to prepare the way, & the spirit & power of Elijah

is to come after holding the keys of power building
the Temple to the cap stone, placing the seals of
the Melchezedeck priesthood up on the house of Israel
& making all things ready then Mesiah comes to
his Temple which is last of all. Mesiah is above
the spirit & power of Elijah for he made the world
& was that spiritual rock unto Moses in the
wilderness. Elijah was to come & prepare the way
& build up the kingdom before the coming of
the great day of the Lord. Although the spirit of
Elias might begin it, I have asked of the
Lord concerning his coming & while asking, the
Lord gave me a sign & said in the days of Noah
I set a bow in the heavens as a sign & token [Genesis 9:16-17] that
in any year that the bow should be seen the Lord
would not come, but their should be seed time &
harvest during that year, but whenever you
see the bow withdraw, it shall be a token that their
shall be famin pestilence & great distress among
the nations. But I take the responsibility upon
myself to prophesy in the name of the Lord, that
Christ will not come this year as Miller has
prophecyed, for we have seen the bow. And
I also prophecy in the name of the Lord that
Christ will not Come in forty years &
if God ever spake by my mouth he will not
come in that length of time, & Jesus Christ
never did reveal to any man the precise time that
he would come. go & read the scriptures & you
cannot find any thing that specifies the exact [time] he
would come & all that say so are fals teachers
Their are some important things concerning the
office of the Mesiah in the organization of the
worlds which I will speak of hereafter. May
God Almighty bless you & pour out his spirit upon you
is the prayer of your unworthy servant Amen

At the close of the meeting I was informed
my son Wilford that was out at Br Benbows was
vary sick I immediately in company with Mrs
Woodruff went out to see him we found him
quite sick we spent the night at Br Benbows
we had prayers and administered unto our son
according to the order of the priesthood [FIGURE] & he revived
in some measure