Discourse 1896-04-05
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The highest calling the Lord ever called any human being to, in any
age of the world, has been to receive the Holy Priesthood, with its keys
and powers, and to be called to go forth to the inhabitants of the earth
and teach them the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to qualify
and prepare them for a part in the first resurrection and to go back into
the presence of God, their Creator, to dwell in glory worlds without end.
The Lord bestowed that blessing, that Priesthood and that power in the
beginning of creation. Father Adam was called of God and ordained to
the fullness of the Melchisedek Priesthood—ordained to the highest office
and gift of God to man on the earth. Adam bestowed that blessing upon
seven of his sons—Seth, Enos, Jared, Canaan, Mahalaleel, Enoch and
Methuselah. They were all ordained High Priests by their father Adam,
and possessed the privilege and the right to understand the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and to give it to the human family, so that they might
qualify and prepare themselves for eternal life. [Doctrine and Covenants 107:53] In tracing the history
of the dealings of God with men from that day to this, we find the Lord
has in various dispensations and times given unto the sons of men that
blessing. Israel had it in the beginning, from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
down, and until Moses, who traveled with the children of Israel forty
years in the wilderness. They had the gifts and graces of that Priesthood
bestowed upon them, and they had the privilege of magnifying their
callings and preparing themselves for eternal life. But Israel would not
accept the Melchisedek Priesthood, and therefore it was taken from them,
and the Lesser Priesthood was conferred upon them while they traveled [Doctrine and Covenants 84:23-26]
