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came to him from the Lord thereon.
The heavens were opened; God the
Father and God the Son appeared to
him, and the Father said,
"This is My beloved Son;
hear ye Him." The history of Joseph
Smith from that time until he organ-
ized the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, on the 6th of April,
1830, was a constant scene of revela-
tion and visitation. His counselors
were the angels—those who held the
Priesthood in the flesh while on the
earth and administered upon this con-
tinent to the sons of Adam, to the
children of Israel who dwelt here.
They were his teachers and continued
to be so until he was called to
organize this Church and Kingdom
upon the foundation laid by the an-
cient apostles and prophets, "Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner
stone." [##Ephesians 2:20##]

The speaker said he would like to
ask that assembly of Latter-day Saints,
what power would the Prophets of God
in those early days have had to or-
ganize and build up the Church of
Christ upon earth unless they had
been taught either by the angels of
God or the Lord Himself? There was
no other way; and every step that the
Prophet Joseph took, up to the very
day of his death, was a proof of this.

Any man or woman who read the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants would
find there a code of the most sublime
revelations ever given by God to man-
kind. True, Joseph Smith was illiter-
ate, in a measure, so far as learning
was concerned; but those who had read
those revelations could see that no ig-
norant boy, without inspiration,
could have prepared such a
code. It required revelation al-
most every day. When this code
of revelations was given, after
the Church was organized, with
Prophets, Apostles, Seventies, High
Priests, High Councilors, Elders and
Teachers, it was not particularly
necessary while those revelations were
before the people that the Lord should
give special written revelations to
President Young, though the latter
had revelations. He had the power
and Spirit of God with him; it was a
living witness day by day to guide and
direct him in all the works which he
had to perform here in the flesh. What
he accomplished had shown this. He
(the speaker) wanted to make these re-
marks because he did not know to what
extent the minds and feelings of the
Latter-day Saints might be led in these
channels.

The God of heaven had not forsaken
the Presidency of this Church. He
had not closed the heavens against
them nor those associated with them.
His Spirit and power were with this
people, and would never be withdrawn
from them up to the time of the coming
of the Son of Man.

President Woodruff next adverted to
some of the early missionaries of the
Church, including Orson Pratt, Parley
Pratt and Orson Hyde, who were or-
dained Elders and sent forth to work
in the Lord's vineyard and to warn
the world. They held the Priesthood,
they had authority to preach the Gos-
pel of Christ to the children of men.
He asked the congregation, had not
Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God,
backed up the testimony which had
been borne by these men and scores of
other missionaries since their day?
Where would Utah and its inhabi-
tants have been today but foh Latter-
ter-day Saints? It would have been
a barren desert, just as they found it
on the 24th of April [July], 1847.

Turning to the subject of the Priest-
hood, the speaker remarked that they
could trace the history of Israel, the
dealings of God with men, from the
time of Father Adam down.
Not an iota of evidence could
be adduced proving that a man
ever went forth, called of God, and suc-
cessfully preached the Gospel of Christ
without he bore the Holy Priesthood.
The Lord had chosen the weak things
of the earth to confound the wise.
This had been the nature of His deal-
ings with men in every age, and thus
it was that humble men had been
called in this last dispensation of the
fullness of times to go forth and warn
the generations in the midst of which
we stood today.

Great responsibilities rested upon the
shoulders of all Latter-day Saints, and
the leaders of Israel would be held re-
sponsible before high heaven in the
day of judgment for the manner in
which they exercised their Priesthood.
He advised the Saints to read ##Doctrine and Covenants 121|section
121 Doctrine and Covenants##, relating
to the Lord's answer to the Prophet
Prophet Joseph's prayer. This was,
he said, one of the mightiest revela-
tions that God had ever given to man,
and it had been fulfilled. The Lord
had said, "Many are called but few
are chosen." [##Doctrine and Covenants 121:40##] Why was this? Be-
cause their hearts were set so much
upon the things of this world. The
rights of the Priesthood were insepar-
ably connected with the heavens, and
the heavens could be controled only on
the principles of righteousness. The
people should understand this. The
Lord would not withdraw himself from
this work, for He had set His hand to
fulfil the promised made through the
mouths of inspired men.

Some of the brethren on the previous
day bore testimony that this Church
was the work of God. They certainly
would not be qualified to preach
the Gospel and undertake to
build up Zion if they did not
know this. And how did they know
it? By the revelations of Jesus Christ,
by the inspiration of Almighty God,
that Spirit which belonged to every
man who was faithful to his covenants.
The testimony that we had in our day
a[n]d generation was the same as was
given in every age of the world.

Speaking next of the gifts and graces
which had attended this Church and
those who labored in it both at home
and abroad, President Woodruff said
he did not refer to this in any mere
spirit of boasting. No member of this
Church could undertake to preach
to the people unless moved
upon by the inspiration of God.
What man was there that ever
arose to speak on the stand who
knew beforehand what he was going
to say? If anyone else did, certainly
he himself did not. These principles
were before them, and they knew them
to be true. He prayed to God his
Heavenly Father that their hearts might
be united. He could say for himself
that if the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit had not been with him, he would
have been in his grave years ago, and
hundreds more with him. If the Lord
had not been with him in his travels
many a time he would have been lost.
President Woodruff in this connection,
mentioned a remarkable incident. On
one occasion he said he was in charge
of a company of Saints numbering up-
wards of one hundred. They had en-
gaged passage on a steamboat at Pitts-
burg; but the Spirit of God said to him,
"Do not go," and but for that the en-
tire company would doubtless have
been lost. They did not go, but went
by another boat. The one by which
they were to have gone took fire at
night some five miles down the river
and all on board were lost either by
fire or water. So the Spirit of God had
been with them all through this work.

It was the duty of all to pray, and
one of the requests which he had to
make of the Latter-day Saints was to
be a prayerful people. They did not
pray enough. They should go before
the Lord in their secret place and plead
with Him to guide and direct them in
all the affairs of this transitory life.
When the prayers of 100,000 Latter-
day Saints reached the Lord they
were always heard and answered.

The Lord would build up Zion. He
would establish His work and
gather Israel together. They had to
warn the world, so that all would be
left without excuse in the day of
judgment. The earth was heavily
burdened with the sins of its inhabit-
ants, and they were even increasing,
causing pain and affliction on every
hand. But before the judgments came
the Lord had raised up men to warn the
world, and he prayed that those warn-
ings would not be without effect.