B. H. Roberts

“ Peace is in their habitations; God is honored at the family altars, as well as in the public sanctuaries; faith and confidence in God abound on every hand, and everywhere one may see evidences that God is with the people. He has neither forsaken them nor their leaders, as He would have done had they turned away from His gospel, trampled His church under their feet, or blasphemed His priesthood by employing it to fleece the saints and aggrandize themselves. ”

“ And where that Priesthood of Almighty God is manifest, the power of that Priesthood is with the people, no matter what age or generation they have lived in. And I wish to say that there has been no generation, no dispensation, any greater than the one in which Joseph Smith was raised up. He laid the foundation of this great work, under God, and He established the Church upon the face of the whole earth, in fulfillment of revelation and prophecy, from Father Adam down to our day; and the Lord has made, and will make no mistake in regard to calling a people or giving them the Priesthood. ”

“ Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy ”

“ Therefore, let us all, old and young, improve the time, live our religion, have faith in God and His works. The Lord brought us here, His power has been upon us; by His power and His blessings we have built temples and beautified homes; and there has never been a people that I know of that have ever had the power to rear as many temples in so short a time as we have done in the mountains of Israel. ”

“ We have considered the claims of the Reorganized or Josephite church, built from the ruins of these other churches just enumerated. Its pretentions have been viewed from every standpoint, and are found lacking in every element of consistency and truth. Misconceptions of the work and laws of God constituted its foundation; and the folly, sophistry, ignorance and vain ambition of—to be charitable—mistaken men, comprise its superstructure! ”

“ Preaching the gospel without purse and scrip by the elders of the church has been a very successful method of making known the truth among men. There is something in it which goes right home to the hearts of the honest. It is a method, too, which has, in the main, built up the church so far. There are classes, however, as in the dispensation opened by the personal ministry of Messiah, that would never be reached by such a method. These are the rich and great, the proud and high, the judges, legislators, presidents and kings of the earth. ”

“ Brigham then asked if they wanted the Twelve Apostles to step forth and magnify their calling and build up the Church and establish the Kingdom of God in all the earth. "All who do, raise your right hand," and almost every soul in that congregation voted; and when Brigham Young arose and commenced speaking, if I had not seen him with my own eyes, there is no one that could have convinced me that it was not Joseph Smith speaking. ”

“ I want to say to the young men of Israel, go and do what is right; you need have no fears regarding the authority of this work. The Lord has called the weak things of this earth. He has called them from the plow, from the plane the workshop and the hammer—He has taken the illiterate men of the world and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. Even the Lord Jesus Christ was born in a stable and cradled in a manger. ”

“ Some, who ought to know the proprieties of the church, have told me that no certain form was necessary in order for me to assume the leadership, that the position came by right of lineage, yet I know that if I attempted to lead as a prophet by these considerations, and not by a call from heaven, men would not be lead to believe who do not believe now. ”

“ The powers of darkness desire to lead the young men of Israel astray. They think if they can do this, if they can get them to do wickedly, they can weaken this Church. But our young men are raised up to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, and not to be easily led astray.
I pray God my Heavenly Father to bless the Latter-day Saints, that we may all have faith in Him and in the revelations and promises He has given, and in all the truths we have received, and if we do so, all will be well with us. We have come here upon a mission. Our mission is a great and responsible one; it is mighty. ”

“ The Lord called this people to the valleys of the mountains in fulfillment of prophecy. Old father Jacob, in blessing Joseph and Ephraim, told them what would take place with them and their posterity to the latest generation; that their blessings should extend to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. We are here as descendants of Joseph and Ephraim, and Abraham, who were patriarchs and holy men of God. They had the Priesthood, and it has been continued and handed down from generation to generation as long as God has had a people upon the earth. ”

“ There is nothing in all that God has revealed to indicate that he ever contemplated its disorganization; but on the contrary, there is every encouragement to believe that it will go on from grace to grace, from faith to faith, from one victory to another until, like the little stone of Daniel's vision, it shall become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. ”

“ God hath not left himself without witnesses among the great ones of the earth; but ever and anon as they have heard about the truth and of the truth, in cabinet council, Senate chamber, legislative hall, the courts of kings and the palaces of princes—the spirit of God hath testified to their hearts that the gospel they heard preached, whether preached of strife or of good-will, was the truth of heaven, and for that testimony statesmen, judges, governors and kings shall give an account in the day of judgment to the God who gave it to them. ”

“ Let it be remembered that all the keys of priesthood which the prophet Joseph held were given to the Twelve; and they from time to time, as occasions required, have given those keys of authority to other worthy men; and thus all the authority, keys of priesthood, and heavenly powers conferred upon the prophet Joseph have been preserved unto the church, and are with it to this day. ”

“ For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect, without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time ”

“ His appointment was, of course, cancelled; and subsequently, as he still further transgressed, he was excommunicated from the church, after which he joined Mr. Strang at Beaver Island.
It may be well to observe, in passing, that all these aspirants for place and power manifested an insatiable desire for the honors and titles of men, a thing which shows them to be as vain as they were ambitious, and distinguishes them from true leaders (especially those whom God calls) , who so loose themselves in their work, that self is unthought of, much less the empty honors and titles of men. ”

“ All that want to draw away a party from the church after them, let them do it if they can, but they will not prosper—was proven to be true by a brief consideration of the rise and fall of the principal factions called into existence under the leadership of ambitious, wicked men. We have seen go to pieces upon the rock of President Young's inspired prediction Sidney Rigdon's church, William Smith's, James J. Strang's, and the organization, such as it was, founded by George Miller and Lyman Wight—none of them prospered. ”

“ The truth is that from the expulsion of the saints from Missouri in 1838-9, Sidney Rigdon had been of but little service either to the church or to the prophet as a counselor. He was a man of admitted ability as an orator, but lacked discretion; a man of fervid imagination, but of inferior judgment; ambitious of place and honor, but without that steadiness of purpose and other qualities of soul which in time secure them. In the early years of the church he suffered much for the cause of God, but he also complained much ”

“ Why, it is the same class of men that was true to Joseph, those who have been true to God and the covenants they made. Has God made any mistake? Read the revelations of the Almighty; they speak for themselves. The Lord has appointed this people to come to this land; this is a great work; we are living in a great dispensation—the dispensation of the last days. The Lord has not deceived any one in this matter; He will deceive no man in regard to this work. ”

“ The church was no more disorganized by the death of Joseph and Hyrum and the rejection of Sidney Rigdon than the government of the United States becomes disorganized when the president dies, or is impeached. The Twelve possessing equal power and authority with the First Presidency, in case of the death or removal of that Presidency, have all the keys and authority necessary to preside over all the church, direct in all the affairs thereof, and move right on with the work of God. ”

“ So Joseph Smith could give the keys or oracles of the priesthood to the church and still hold them—giving the keys to the Twelve more especially, and yet stand in his place, without losing one iota of power ever conferred upon him. It is a case where the one possessing keys of power and authority can give and not diminish his own store; but even increase it more abundantly, being made richer the more he gives, when bestowing upon those who are worthy to receive such high things ”

“ It is my will that you respect authority in my Church; therefore let the greatest among you preside at your conference. Let three men be appointed by the conference to select seven men from among you, who shall compose the majority of the Twelve, for it is my will that that quorum should not be filled up at present. Let the President of the conference, assisted by two others, ordain them. The senior of them shall stand as the representative. Let them select twelve men from among you, and ordain them to compose the high council. ”

“ Early in February, 1860, a call was issued, signed by Z. H. Gurley and Reuben Newkirk, calling for a general conference to assemble at Amboy, Illinois, the following April. All the branches of the church in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan were urged to send representatives, as it was desirable to choose a high council and organize and set in order all the quorums under the First Presidency; and an intimation was made that much more than was anticipated might be realized—was it an intimation that Joseph Smith would come and accept the Presidency of their church? ”

“ First the Lord gives the saints to understand that He has appointed Joseph Smith, the prophet, to receive revelations as laws and commandments for His church and no one else but him, until he should be taken from the earth, provided he remained faithful to the Lord; second, in the event of the prophet Joseph not being faithful, even then he shall still have power to ordain some one else to take his place ”