Orson Pratt

“ Yes, for forty-two years, and upwards, God has commanded his people, not by something devised by a congregation of divines, or by human ingenuity, but by a voice from heaven which has been published and printed, requiring all who receive the everlasting Gospel to come out from the midst of great Babylon. ”

“ What can be done by us for our fathers who have lived and died during the last seventeen hundred years, without hearing the Gospel in its fullness and power? Hundreds and thousands, and millions of them were sincere and honest, and served the Lord the best they knew; but they lived in the midst of apostate Christendom, and never heard the Gospel preached by inspired men, neither had they the chance of having its ordinances administered to them by men having authority from God. ”

“ The wicked, who have disobeyed the law of God, must be sealed over unto darkness, until they have been punished and beaten with many stripes, until the last resurrection, until the last trump shall sound. But the righteous, in the flesh and behind the veil, will come forth in the first resurrection, but prior to that great event they will co-operate in their labors for the consummation of the purposes of the Almighty so far as necessary to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign here, personally, on the earth for the space of one thousand years. ”

“ During that long interval of time whenever a man has founded a Government he has been greatly honored, not only by the generation among whom he lived, and in which he formed the Government, but he has been honored generally by after generations. ”

“ It is not my intention this afternoon to examine the nature and forms of these various human Governments, but to state in a few words that there is now organized on the earth a Government which never will be broken as former Governments have been. ”

“ Perhaps there never was a work accomplished among men of so great and important a nature as that of the foundation of a kingdom that never is to be destroyed. About six thousand years have passed away since the Government established by the Patriarchs, or by the first man, was commenced here on the earth. From that time until the present vast numbers and descriptions of Governments, some Patriarchal in their nature, others taking the form of kingdoms, others of empires and so forth, have been organized here on the earth. ”

“ A great many other things might be named which must be restored in the dispensation of the fulness of times. It is a dispensation to restore all things, it is the dispensation of the spirit and power of Elias or Elijah, "to seal all things unto the end of all things" preparatory to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The wicked as well as the righteous will feel the power of these keys. The wicked as well as the righteous must be sealed to that end for which they have lived. ”

“ You have heard, Latter-day Saints, for years and years, that God has given keys, by which the living in this Church might do, not only the works necessary for their own salvation, but also certain works necessary to the salvation of their ancestors as far back as they could obtain their genealogies. ”

“ About preaching to those who are dead, Peter says that "Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing?" ”

“ Elijah, the Prophet, then, must come from heaven—that same man who was translated in a chariot of fire, and who had such power while on the earth that he could fight, as it were, all the enemies of Israel that came against him ”

“ It was a practice among them to be baptized for their dead, and Paul, knowing that they understood this principle, uses an argument to show that the dead would have a resurrection, and that baptism or immersion in water, a being buried in and the coming forth out of the water, was a simile of the resurrection from the dead. ”

“ John says that he saw, in vision, an angel come from heaven to earth, to restore the everlasting Gospel. No people on earth, prior to the advent of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ever testified to the fulfilment of John's prediction. ”

“ Another angel followed, and he cried with a loud voice, saying: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen. She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication," &c. Spiritual Babylon the Great, "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." "Mystery Babylon"—that great power that has held sway over the nations of the earth—that great ecclesiastical power which has ruled over the consciences of the children of men, she is to fall and is to be destroyed from the face of the earth. Will the righteous fall with her? ”

“ They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth. And the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them." But first, before this destruction, there is a remarkable prophecy. Says the Prophet: "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye." From this we learn that, before this great destruction, there is to be an ensign lifted up on the mountains, and this, too, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from Palestine. ”

“ It is intended that, in these sacred and holy places, appointed, set apart and dedicated by the command of the Almighty, genealogies shall be revealed, and that the living shall officiate for the dead, that those who have not had the opportunity while in the flesh in past generations to obey the Gospel, might have their friends now living, officiate for them. ”

“ There must, however, be a restoration of the eternal covenant of marriage, and also of that order of marriage which existed among the old Patriarchs, before the prophecies can be fulfilled, wherein seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, "we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach." ”

“ To restore a very important principle—a principle which will turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. Has that Prophet been sent to the earth, according to the prediction? Yes. When did he come, and to whom did he come? He came to that despised young man, Joseph Smith. According to the testimony of Joseph Smith, the Prophet Elijah stood before him, in the presence of Oliver Cowdery, and gave them these keys. ”

“ This does not destroy their agency, for although they laid down their bodies and went to their graves in a day of darkness, and they are now mingled with the hosts of spirits in the eternal worlds, their agency still continues, and that agency gives them power to believe in Jesus Christ there, just as well as we can who are here. ”

“ I suppose there must be congregated here something in the neighborhood of twelve thousand persons, and there are but very few voices or lungs that are able to reach such a multitude, and edify and instruct them. ”