Orson Pratt

“ The Scriptures say—"If any one among you is sick, let him send for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray for him"—it is all right to pray—"and let them anoint the sick in the name of the Lord." Now, when they do this they are complying with the requisitions of the Gospel of the Son of God, and why not follow this ordinance of laying on of hands on the sick, and anointing them with oil, just as well as following the praying part? No wonder that they do not have power over sickness and disease, for they only attend to half their duties—they pray, but neglect the other part. ”

“ Why are they then baptized for the dead?" This shows plainly and clearly that, in ancient times, the people called Corinthians, organized into the Church of God, did practice the ordinance of baptism for the dead. They understood it, Paul was not writing to them about a new doctrine, but about one which they understood and practiced, and he tried to prove to them the nature of the resurrection and that such a principle as the resurrection was true, from the very fact that they were practicing baptism for those who were dead, in order that they might receive a more glorious resurrection. ”

“ To another is given, by the Spirit, the gift of healing. Some may say that the gift of healing was only intended for ancient times, to establish the Gospel; that the people in those days needed some miraculous power and evidence to convince them of the truth of the Gospel; but I find that the gift of healing was given for the benefit of all who had faith to be healed. This was the way that the Lord administered in ancient times, and there is just as much necessity in our day that the sick should be healed, as there was eighteen centuries ago ”

“ The various sects of religionists in Christendom have lost all authority; they have neither Apostles nor Prophets, no one who can have heavenly visions, who can discern spirits or have the ministrations of angels; no one to heal the sick or to speak with tongues. They have done away with all gifts and members and have blotted out the ancient Church, having merely a dead form left. ”

“ It was absolutely necessary that the Gospel should be restored, together with the authority to ad-minister its ordinances, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost; authority to build up the Church and kingdom on the earth, that the Holy Ghost might again be poured out as in ancient times, that the people might receive the gifts thereof, and that they might know of a surety, when they had received the Holy Spirit. ”

“ God judges men according to the circumstances in which they are placed, and he does not condemn the people for not obeying his message, when it is not sent to them. Now, if a man comes to me that has never been called of God, and pretends to bring to me the Gospel, and has no divine authority to administer its ordinances, I am not bound to obey his message, for that requires a man that is authorized to administer it. ”

“ When the Holy Ghost falls upon some it gives them the word of wisdom, that is, it imparts to them an understanding of things that are wise. The Spirit may whisper, "It is wise for you to do this thing,"—"it is wise for you to do that thing,"—"it is wise for you to take such a course, and to do thus and so." ”

“ Faith without works is dead, being alone. Men may profess ever so much faith in Christ, but if they do not attend to the ordinances of heaven, we know that their faith is a dead faith and will not obtain the blessings which the Lord has promised. We will pass on, however, in taking up the distinguishing characteristics, between the Latter-day Saints and other religious denominations. ”

“ How can the body of Christ be edified without Apostles and Prophets, and the gifts mentioned? And again, he says, They are given in order that the Church may become perfect, that is, that its members may grow up into perfect men, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Without these gifts the Church never can grow up, it has nothing to edify or perfect it, nothing to do the Saints any good, but with these gifts they may be perfected, and grow to the stature of the fullness of Christ. ”

“ That same God who has ordained baptism for the dead, and who has commanded the believers in this generation to be baptized for them, will in due time, when we have done all we can in searching out our genealogies, reveal to us the chain so that we shall find our fathers, no matter how many generations, until we get back to the time when the Priesthood and authority were on the earth ”

“ When the baptized believer has received the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, the question is, What will be its manifestations, &c., and how are we, as Latter-day Saints, to know that we have received the Holy Ghost? ”

“ Jesus said on that occasion, speaking to his Apostles—"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, he that believes"—that is every creature in all the world who believes—"and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe," that is, every creature in all the world that believes, showing that the believers generally might have the gift of healing, although, perhaps, to some it is given more fully than it is to others. ”

“ There are a great many in heaven who have not the right to ordain Apostles, a great many who, though they are exalted and have glory and great authority, yet do not hold the Apostleship, and therefore they have no right to come as angels from heaven and lay their hands upon any individual and ordain him to the Apostleship. It has to be a man who holds authority in heaven that can bestow it here on the earth; and such men were Peter, James and John, who restored that authority to the earth in our day, by bestowing it upon Joseph Smith. ”

“ Now must they go down to everlasting destruction, be damned to all ages of eternity because they did not happen to live in an age, when there were none authorized by heaven to administer the ordinances of the Gospel? ”

“ The spirits of men and women who leave this world are intelligent, and intelligence is founded upon free agency, and hence, inasmuch as they who are in the spirit world are agents, they can exercise that agency in believing; when they have a testimony they can exercise that agency in repenting of sins of which they have been guilty. But they cannot exercise that agency in attending to an ordinance ordained for the body; and therefore God has instituted baptism for the dead, that our fathers may have the same chance that we have. ”

“ When a person receives, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the word or gift of wisdom, he receives revelation. Herein, then, is another point in which we differ from the religious world generally. They do not believe in any later revelation than the New Testament, that is, they did not when this Church arose; but of late years, since the rise of this Church, many of them have begun to believe in revelation later than the New Testament. ”

“ Our fathers have gone down to the grave without having had such a man to administer the Gospel to them; the Lord is no respecter of persons. It is written, in the Scriptures, that except a man be born of water and of the spirit he can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. If that is so, and our fathers have gone down to the grave and have not had an opportunity to be baptized in water for the remission of their sins by men having authority, must they be shut out forever from the kingdom of God? ”

“ When we have shown that we have faith in God and in the ordinances and institutions of his kingdom; when we prove our belief in the principle of baptism by rendering obedience thereto, we then obtain the remission of our sins. When we have faith enough to have hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy Ghost, after being baptized, the Lord sees that we are complying with the institutions of his kingdom, and he is willing to bestow the blessing of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Sometimes sickness will deprive an adult person of his senses, in that case his friends may exercise faith for him. But where there is no faith in God, as in the case of infants, his servants may prevail, and heal the sick, but this is not always the case. For instance, as great a man as Paul was, a person who had the gift of healing to such a degree that even by carrying a handkerchief, or some little article from him to those who were sick, devils would flee and the sick would be healed ”

“ A person may have great wisdom and yet not have much knowledge; he may have great wisdom given by revelation to know how to exercise that degree of knowledge which he may be in possession of. Then again there are others who may receive the gift of knowledge from God and yet they may have very little wisdom; and they do not know how to turn their knowledge to the best advantage. Here is the distinction then between a revelation which gives wisdom, and a revelation which gives knowledge. ”

“ I was saying, a little while ago, that there is nothing in the New Testament to prove that the gifts which were given to and enjoyed by the ancient Saints, should ever cease from among the true people of God; and whenever there has been a Church of Christ on the earth there have been all its members, including Apostles, Prophets, speakers in tongues, interpreters of tongues, discerners of spirits, those having the gift of healing, &c. ”

“ Here while the Church remains in this world, we only prophesy in part. We have some gifts, but we do not possess them in their fullness; but when we receive our resurrected bodies, and that which is perfect is come, we shall have no need of the gift of healing, because there will be none sick, for all will be immortal. ”

“ Now, you take a Church that has no Apostles, no Prophets, no gifts, such as those that are named in the New Testament, and that Church is all the time liable to be carried away with every foolish doctrine that may come along. But when you see a Church organized with Apostles, having power to receive revelations from heaven, and having Prophets who can foretell future events through the Holy Ghost resting upon them, it is not carried away with every cunning plan and device of false doctrines ”

“ If persons come together in a religious capacity, as this assembly has done this afternoon, and God should reveal to some present something pertaining to the future, it is not necessary for them to rise up while any other person is speaking, and make confusion, but let all the Prophets who have any revelation, wait until the person speaking gets through, and then let them rise, one by one, and declare what God has revealed to them. ”

“ Everything must be made perfect and prepared for the great day of rest of a thousand years, during which Jesus will reign on the earth with all the resurrected Saints. If we would have our fathers and our ancient ancestry reign with us, we must do that for them which the Lord has required, and they and we shall be blessed ”

“ You need not think that God is so partial that he is going to save the children in the latter days, and reject all their ancestors. He is not going to do any such thing. If we would be saved we shall have to look after the salvation of the generations which are past and gone. ”

“ When we have faith enough to go to the house of worship on the first day of the week and offer up our sacrament before the Lord, according to his commandments, we witness before him that we are willing to keep his commandments ”

“ We understand it; we know that God is working with them, we know that many of those early settlers who have gone down to their graves, were just as pure and upright as men could be. God is going to remember them, and hence, there are now some four hundred records of different families that have been gotten up in the East, and they are still extending their researches, and hunting out all the ancient pilgrim fathers, and their ancestry in the old countries. The genealogy of my forefathers has been sought out by them for some eleven generations. ”

“ These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. ”

“ So in relation to our dead—if we officiate for them, we have done our duty; if they will not repent in the spirit world, and obey the principles that God has ordained for their exaltation, their condemnation will rest upon their own heads, and not upon ours. ”

“ I feel very thankful that the Lord is moving upon our friends in the New England States and in various parts of the East to get up their genealogies. They do not know why they are doing so, or why they are so anxious to find out the ancient generations who settled this continent. ”

“ We also believe that it is important and necessary that all mankind should repent of and forsake their sins, and that they should forsake everything that is contrary to the law of God, and that is in violation of his institutions ”

“ Therefore the ordinance of baptism was ordained by the Lord from the beginning of the world down until the days of Christ, and from the days of Christ down to the end, that in the dispensation of the Gospel, when the plan of salvation should be administered to the human family, they should look after the fathers—their ancestors ”