Samuel Roskelley, Dear Brother; Your letter of the 1st reached me last night. I arrived here last night to have an interview with S. Snow, as he will be here to attend Conference. I have read your letter carefully. Now concerning endowments in all its phases: my own views are these—that we ought to follow out, as far as we can, the pat- tern laid down by our leaders. I consider that if there ever was any man who thoroughly understood the principle of the Endowments it was Brigham Young. He had been with Joseph Smith from the beginning of the Endowments to the end; and he understood it if any man did. And before his death he required me to write in a book every Ordinance in the Church and Kingdom of God, from the first to the last; beginning with Baptism to the last Ordinance performed through every department of the Endowments. I was several weeks doing this writing, and President Young corrected it all until he got through. Then he said to me, "Now, there you have a pattern of all the Ordinances and Endowments for every Temple, we shall build, until the coming of the Son of Man." Now if I ever have anything to do, or to say, in any Temple on the earth, concerning Endowments, I would say: follow tehe pattern that President Young has set us; and not deviate from it one iota. And if we do that, we may have a hundred Temples at work, and all the work and ceremonies will be alike in every Temple. While on the other hand, if every man who is called to preside over a Temple has his own way, and introduces his own term and ceremonies, our Temple work would be as diverse as the sectarian world and God would not approbate it. Brother Roskelley, I have given Endowments in Salt Lake City for twenty years, and I have my Endowments under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I direcedted the fixing up of the Temple in St. George for giving Endowments under the direct- ion of President Young; and since the rules are written for our guidance in all future time, I feel very strenuous that in our giving Endowments we should all work alike, and not deviate from the written word. You say, "we are told here so and so concerning sealing and adoptions". Who is it that has told you these things and given these instructions? I don't think it can be President Taylor, for neither he nor I have ever received such teachings from either Joseph Smith or Broigham Young. But I have been taught right the reverse by Pres- ident Young. He told me to have the single women of my father's and mother's households sealed to me. I asked him "how many?" He said if there was not over nine hundred and ninety-nine to take them. I had some three hundred sealed to me by his instructions. I don't know whether I shall have to build them each a palace in the Celestial Kingdom of God or not. If I do, I shall have time to do it. I did as I was told. So in relation to Adoptions, most, if not all, of the Presidency and Twelve, have had men adopted to them, and all these Sealings and Adoptions are for the Salvation of the living and the dead. I have never asked any man to be adopted into my family that I can recollect of; but I have had a nyumber of families of friends adopted into my family, as have other men, with- out any regard as to whether it will, in the future, cost me one dollar or a million. What we have done in this matter has been for the salvation of man. It may possibly be a correct doctrice that a man's Kingdom will consist of only the fruit of his own loins. Yet Jusus Christ died to save the whole world, and if we, as Apostles and Elders, do nothing for the human family only for the fruit of own loins, we shall not do much towards mag- nifying the Holy Priesthood God has given us for saving the souls of men—either the liv- ing or the dead. Brother Roskelley, we must not get our minds too puckered up in these principles