Sunday Morning. . REPORTED BY J. V. LONG. Brethren and sisters, I have been called upon and requested to occupy a portion of the time this morning, and I can truly say that I always take pleasure, when I have an oppor- tunity, to bear my testimony of the work of the Lord in which we are engaged. I hope that what little time I may speak that I may be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord, that I may speak of such things as will be edifying to you, for there is certainly not much advan- tage in talking to the people for the sake of occupying the time, unless it will be beneficial to us. I know that it is our duty, in this church and kingdom, to live in such a manner that we may feel interested in the things of the king- dom of our God. I reflect a great deal upon the blessings which we are enjoying here in the valleys of the mountains, and I often think that I do not fully prize the blessings the Lord has imparted unto me. When I bring these things to bear upon my mind, I realize, to a great extent, the necessity of prizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon me, and the same duty devolves upon all the saints of God. If we can be made to rightly value the gifts which the Almighty bestows upon us, we shall certainly not do any thing that is wrong; we shall not walk where we ought not to walk, but we shall be devoted to the build- ing up of the kingdom of our God. If our eyes were opened to see things as they are, we should live and act as men of God. When my mind is quickened by the Holy Spirit to comprehend the things of God, I feel very thankful for the light and intelligence be- stowed upon me by the Almighty. I feel satisfied that our president and leader would not be inspired to reprove and correct us as a people, as he is often moved upon to do, if we were living to our privileges; we should not be exhorted to turn from the course that we are in to some other, if we were all doing just right. But I can say truly, brethren and sis- ters, that we are a blessed people, yes, we are blessed above all other people upon the earth. We have the kingdom of God here with us; we live in a dispensation and generation in which the kingdom has been built up, and it will be permanently established never more to be thrown down. In this dispensation the Lord has anointed men to preach the gospel to every creature. In every other dispensation the powers of darkness have in a great measure overcome the kingdom of God, or in other words have had dominion, so much so that the kingdom could not live but a little while; it could not grow and spread itself upon the earth, and finally that power which was acting through the agency of the children of men, even the holy priesthood, was taken home to God, and it has remained there from generation to generation, and the world have been without these blessi[n]gs for many hun- dreds of years. This has been the difficulty ever since the creation of the world. Even when Christ came and established the gospel upon the earth, it was here but a little season before the devil, the arch-enemy of the king- dom of God, overcame those who held the priesthood, so that the priesthood and author- ity of the kingdom was taken from the earth, and the church went into the wilderness, leaving the people without any inspired men to say this is the way; walk ye in it. From that time until the introduction of the fulness of the gospel by the Prophet Joseph in our own day and age of the world, there has been no Peter or Philip, nor any other man, to teach the people the way of life and salvation, but they have had to live by the best laws of morality which they knew; hence the di[v]ision and contention that has existed in the sectar- ian world. But we have had the privilege of living in the dispensation in which the Lord has pro- mised that he would establish his kingdom, and perfect it ready for the appearance of the Great Bridegroom. This is the privilege which we enjoy as Latter day Saints. When the time had come, ac- cording to the decree of the Almighty, an angel visited the earth and committed the priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cow- dery, and gave them instructions and a pro- mise that they should be inspired to lay it before the people. We have embraced this gospel, and the Spirit of God enlightens our minds so that we comprehend, by the inspira- tion of the Almighty, those principles that are necessary for our present and eternal salva- tion; and by receiving the principles of life in our minds, we were led to come to the valleys of the mountains. We can all now compre- hend that this is the church and kingdom of our God, that he has established, to remain for ever; therefore, instead of being given up to those evil principles and practices that reign in the hearts of the children of men, we are walking in the path of life, and those truths are now uppermost in our minds. We are constantly striving to spread abroad this truth, that the hearts of the children of men may be inspired to take hold and help this kingdom to take root and spread abroad until it shall entirely overcome that power which has always, in past ages, overcome the kingdom of God. It is a blessing to us, to the whole house of Israel, and to the Gentile nations; it is a blessing that the world never before have enjoyed. It is true that other dispensations have had their prophets and apostles, but they never enjoyed the privilege that we do of having the kingdom of God continue upon the earth until it triumphs over all other king- doms upon the face of the earth, and stands for ever. Former apostles and prophets had the unpleasant reflection that the church which they had built up would fall away, or be overcome by the power of the devil and wicked men, and that when they passed off the earth and went behind the vail, they would have to take the priesthood with them, because there would be none living worthy to receive it from under their hands. They will be crowned with the Savior according to the promises, but in their lifetime they never had the opportunity of planting on the earth a kingdom that should remain until Jesus should reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. Lucifer has gained possession of the earth by overcoming the children of men; but it does not belong to him, although he has had possession of it for a great many generations. I rejoice that the day is dawning when the principles of right- eousness and truth will bear rule and bring forth fruit, until the kingdom and the dominion shall be given to the saints of the Most High, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God and his Christ. The very idea of our becoming co-workers with Jesus Christ ought to inspire every one of us with a determination to aid all we can in this dissemination of those great and glori- ous principles that are calculated to exalt the human family from their low and degraded positions to the favor of God, angels and men. This is the way I feel in relation to the church and kingdom of which we are members. These blessings are above the blessings of the riches and comforts of life that we are all seeking after; they are far more valuable and more lasting than any other blessing in this life. Man may have earthly wealth and honor, but his life is not his own; he has not the power to prolong his life one day; and when he dies, his honor, his wealth, and all that he possesses in this life, passes away. He receives nothing in this world of riches or honor that he can carry with him, and except he stores his mind with knowledge and obeys the fulness of the gospel, he cannot have the blessings of a clear conscience and the com- forts of the Holy Ghost. The rich man, the rulers of the land, the kings and potentates of the earth, no matter what they possess, when they die they can take nothing with them; they came into the world naked, and they go into the spirit world as poor as the poor man who lives and dies in rags. Then all their acts of greatness and affluence sink into ob- livion, but still the Lord may hold the kings, rulers and potentates of the earth responsible for their official acts. When an apostle, or president, bishop, or any man holding the priesthood officiates, he ad- ministers by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, then that priesthood has effect, and all the blessings that a servant of God bestows upon the children of men, will take effect both in this life and in that which is to come. If I have a blessing given to me by the holy priest- hood, or if I receive a blessing from a pa- triarch, those gifts and blessings will reach into the other world; and if I am true to my covenants through this life, I can claim every blessing that has been conferred upon me, be- cause that authority by which they were con- ferred is ordained of God, and it is that by which the sons of the Most High administer unto the children of men the ordinances of life and salvation, and those official acts will have their effect upon those persons beyond the grave as well as in this life. These are the true riches; they are riches that will last to all eternity, and we have power through these blessings, conferred by the gospel, to receive our bodies again, and to preserve our identity in eternity. Yes, we can claim this by virtue of the holy priesthood, but it is not so in the world. There is not a priest in the world that has administered one of the ordi- nances of the gospel since the priesthood was taken away, because, properly speaking, there can be no ordinance of the gospel administer- ed without the authority of the priesthood; hence I say that from the time the priesthood was taken from the earth until Joseph received it again from the angel of the Lord, there was no gospel ordinances legally administered. I admit, however, that all men will be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body, and they will be judged according to the light which was given to them. This will be the condition of all who are not called and ordain- ed of God, notwithstanding they may have administered what they believe to be the ordi- nances of the gospel; yet their administra- tions will have no effect beyond the vail. When we bring this subject home and con- sider the difference between the blessings of the gospel as revealed in its fulness and puri- ty and being shut out from the light of heav- en, from the revelations of the Almighty, from the administration of Angels and from the voice of God, we ought to prize our priv- ileges and blessings as Saints far more than we have done heretofore. Mankind in all ages search for happiness, they desire social and domestic peace, and when they think of the vast future, they desire to participate in the blessings which are spoken of as pertaining to that state of existence, but they know not how to obtain them, except a servant of God comes along and points out the way of life. We have the way open before us, and the gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God, is promised unto us on condition that we will continue in well-doing, but we can attain to that through no other means than strict obe- dience to the commandments of God. I refer to these things, brethren and sisters, because I think we do not sufficiently prize the great responsibility that we are under to God and to this generation. It is indeed a great responsibility which the Lord lays upon a man when he calls him to the ministry and sends him to declare to the people that he is commissioned to preach the gospel, and ad- minister the ordinances by which they can be saved, secure a part in the first resurrection and inherit thrones and dominions in the pres- ence of God and the Lamb. We have re- ceived this gospel, and many of the Elders have gone forth, having been called of God as was Aaron, and they have offered the truth to the nations of the earth, a few have re- ceived the message, but the vast majority have rejected it, and they are condemned. [Hebrews 5:4] The Lord told Oliver Cowdery that if he la- bored in the vineyard and brought in but one soul, his reward should be great. Then con- sider how great our reward will be when you see hundreds and thousands gathering into