THE DESERET WEEKLY.
Truth and Liberty.
No. 13. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MARCH 17, 1894. VOL. XLVIII.
THE RIGHTS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
Discourse delivered at the Utah Stake
Conference, Provo, Sunday After-
noon, , by
PREST. WILFORD WOODRUFF.
-[REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER.] -
I am pleased to meet with so many of
the Saints of God. I have listened to
the remarks that have been made at
this conference upon the Priesthood,
and have been very much interested
and edified. I do not know of any sub-
ject in the Church of more importance
to the inhabitants of the earth and to
ourselves than the Holy Priesthood. In
listening to Brother F. M. Lyman's re-
marks concerning the Lesser Priesthood
I had many thoughts and reflections.
Some of them I feel to express to the
Latter-day Saints. There is one prin-
ciple connected with the Priesthood
that I want all Israel to understand, and
that is this: it makes no difference what
portion of the Priesthood a man holds,
if he holds any at all, he has rights.
Whether he be a Deacon or whether he
be an Apostle, the Priesthood held by
him has rights, on earth and in the
heavens. In this connection let me
read a paragraph or two from the Book
of Doctrine and Covenants:
Behold, there are many called, but few are
chosen. And why are they not chosen?
Because their hearts are set so much upon
the things of this world, and aspire to the
honors of men, that they do not learn this one
lesson—
That the rights of the Priesthood are insepar-
ably connected with the powers of heaven, and
that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled
nor handled only upon the principles of right-
eousness. [Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-36]
That is the principle that we should
understand. Sixty years ago, the 30th
of last December, I heard the first ser-
mon I ever heard in this Church. The
next day I was baptized. There were
very few branches of the Church in the
country at that time. I was ordained a
Teacher. My mission immediately com-
menced. I traveled the next spring a
thousand miles with the Prophet Joseph
in Zion's Camp. I went through that
whole mission as a Teacher. Arrived
in Missouri, several of us stopped at
Lyman Wight's, where we held a
Teachers' meeting. I remained in that
office until at the conference I was or-
dained a Priest. I never was ordained
a Deacon. I was sorry I was not; for I
had a great desire to fill that office.
However, I was not blessed with it.
After I was ordained a Priest I was sent
by the father of Brother Partridge here
on a mission to the southern country.
That was in the fall of 1834. I had a
companion with me, and we started out
without purse and scrip. I traveled
alone a good many miles and preached
the Gospel, and I baptized a number
that I could not confirm in the Church,
because I was only a Priest. The first
time I ever met with Brother A. O.
Smoot, was upon that mission. I trav-
eled some time preaching the Gospel
before I was ordained an Elder. I was
ordained an Elder under the hands of
Warren Parrish. Afterwards, by order
of the Prophet Joseph, I was ordained a
Seventy by David Patten, who was mar-
tyred in Missouri for the word of God
and testimony of Jesus Christ. In 1837
—the same year that Brother Kimball
went to England and opened the mis-
sion there—I got permission from the
Presidency in Kirtland to go to Fox Is-
lands, being impressed by the Spirit to
go there. While I was there I was
called by revelation, with several others,
to fill the places of those who were
fallen of the Twelve Apostles. I have
been some fifty-four years a member of
the Twelve Apostles. I have traveled
with that and other quorums now for
sixty years; and I want to say to this
assembly that I was just as much sus-
tained by the power of God while hold-
ing the office of a Teacher, and especi-
ally while officiating in the vineyard as
a Priest, as I ever was as an Apostle.
There is no difference in this so long as
we do our duty.
When a man holding any portion of
that Priesthood goes before God, the
heavens are bound to hear him, if he
magnifies his Priesthood; and certainly
it is our duty to go before the Lord and
ask Him for what we want, and when
we do that in faith, God hears and an-
swers us. God has heard the prayers
of the men who have borne the Priest-
hood from the day that Joseph Smith
received the plates from the hands of
Moroni, and He has fulfilled the prophe-
cies contained in the Bible and the
Book of Mormon. The Church has
never fallen, notwithstanding her afflic-
tions, her persecutions, her drivings,
and her martyrdoms; but God has sus-
tained it. When the Lord bestows gifts
upon the children of men in connection
with the Priesthood, those who receive
those gifts are responsible for the use
they make of them. We are respons-
ible for the use we make of the Holy
Priesthood which has been placed upon
us. Whatever is necessary for us to
receive and enjoy, it is our duty to ask
the Lord for. We should go before
Him in secret places and make our
wants known, that our prayers may be
heard and answered upon our heads.
Herein lies our strength. Our trust is
in God, and not in man. He has com-
mitted this work into the hands of His
Son Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
world, and this mission has been upon
Him from the days of father Adam.
He was appointed as the great sacrifice
from before the foundation of the world.
He came in the meridian of time and
died for the redemption of man. We
are engaged in the last dispensation.
We are called upon to build up this
Church and this Zion. And we can
only do it by the power of the Holy
Priesthood. No man has authority from
God to administer to the children of
men the ordinances of life and salvation
only by the power of the Holy Priest-
hood. The power of that Priesthood is
with the Latter-day Saints. When our
brethren go out to the world—I do not
care whether they are Priests, or Elders,
or Seventies, or Apostles—and they offer
to the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ,
the power of God is with them, as long
as they magnify their calling. That
power bears record to every honest
man and woman concerning the truth
of the message which these men bear.
By that power men and women have
been pricked in their hearts and the
Spirit of God has borne testimony to
them. You have found this to be true;
so have I. Without this power of the
Priesthood, these effects cannot be
manifested to men in the flesh. I hope
that all Israel will understand this prin-
ciple. You have not got to wait till
you are an Elder, or a High Priest, or
an Apostle, before God can hear your
prayers. I know the Lord preserved
my life when I held the office of a Priest.
In one instance a man who sought my
life, without any action on my part fell
dead at my feet, as though he was
struck with a thunderbolt from heaven,
and I attended his funeral the next day.
I had many blessings as a Priest, and
had the spirit and power of God in that
office.
Every man in every office ought to
magnify his Priesthood. The Deacon
ought to do so. I was very much
pleased once in seeing a number of
Deacons magnify their calling, down
here at Nephi. They went through the
city and chopped every piece of wood
which every widow in that town had.
Brother Geo. Teasdale, the President of
the Stake, had three or four cords of
cedar wood in his lot, and he went home
one night and found that it had dis-
appeared. He wondered what was the
matter; but when he came to look
around he found it all chopped up in his
wood-house. They magnified their call-
ing splendidly there.
Today we are, in some respects, in
peculiar circumstances. We should
trust in the Lord and do what is right.
I know the Priesthood is given for the
salvation of men and for the adminis-
tration of ordinances both for the living
and the dead. Tens of thousands have
been redeemed in the spirit world by
their posterity who stand in the flesh
and hold the keys of the salvation of
their dead. Saviors upon Mount Zion
have been raised up, while the kingdom
is the Lord's, as the Prophet Obadiah
said they would be. This people are
doing this work now. The Lord is with
you, and your progenitors in the spirit
world rejoice. Let us be faithful, there-
fore, while we are here. God has ap-
pointed us to bear this Priesthood. Out
of the fourteen hundred millions of
people on the earth the Lord has chosen
this handful of men to bear this; to or-
dain, to organize, to warn the world, to
preach the Gospel to them. I hope my
brethren that bear this Priesthood will
remember the value of it. I want to
read a few more paragraphs from this
same revelation, and then I will close:
For there is a time appointed for every man,
according as his works shall be. [Doctrine and Covenants 121:25]
God shall give unto you (the Saints) knowl-
edge by his Holy Spirit, yea by the unspeak-
able gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been
revealed since the world was until now;
Which our forefathers have waited with
anxious expectation to be revealed in the last
times, which their minds were pointed to, by
the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of
their glory:
A time to come in the which nothing shall be
withheld, whether there be one God or many
Gods, they shall be manifest;
All thrones and dominions, principalities and
powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all
who have endured valiantly for the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And also if there be bounds set to the heavens,
or to the seas; or to the dry land, or to the sun,
moon, or stars;
All the times of their revolutions; all the
appointed days, months, and years, and all the
days of their days, months, and years, and all
their glories, laws, and set times, shall be re-
vealed, in the days of the dispensation of the
fulness of times,
According to that which was ordained in the
midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all
other Gods, before this world was, that should
be reserved unto the finishing and the end
thereof, when every man shall enter into his
eternal presence, and into his immortal rest. [Doctrine and Covenants 121:26-32]
There are things in that revelation that
are marvelous and wonderful. All
thrones and dominions, principalities
and powers, shall be revealed to the
Saints of God in the own set time of the
Lord. Today we are in this little world,
surrounded with a great many planets
that are at present unknown to us. We
scarcely know what is on this world.
We know less about Mars, or Venus, or
Jupiter, or these worlds that are neigh-
bors to us. But here we are given to
understand that all these worlds will be
revealed. A man's mind must become
immortal, and must stretch as wide as
eternity and be filled with the glory of
God, to ever comprehend these great
blessings which are promised unto His
people. Therefore, let us be true and
faithful. Do not let us lose our hold on
the Priesthood, nor upon the kingdom
of God. Let us go in secret prayer be-
fore the Lord and call upon His holy
name. There is where our strength lies.
I pray that God's blessings may rest up-
on all of us. We shall all find our re-
cord in the great library of heaven; and
I hope we may so live that when we
come to meet that record we will be
satisfied with it. I pray God to bless
President Smoot, his counselors, and
those who bear the Priesthood here, as
well as our brethren and sisters, unto
the end that we may inherit eternal life,
for Jesus' sake. Amen.