I will call the attention of the congregation to the words of the Lord
through Moses, spoken to the children of Israel, contained in the 5th
and 6th verses of the 19th chapter of Exodus:
"Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all
the earth is mine:
"And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."
In connection with this passage I will read the words of the Apostle
Peter, as recorded in the 5th verse, 2nd chap. of 1st Peter:
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ."
Also the 9th verse of the same chapter:
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,
a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who
hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
Elder Penrose referred this morning to the fact of so large a portion
of the Latter-day Saints being called and ordained to bear some
portion of the Priesthood, remarking that at times he had queried in
his mind as to why this was so appointed unto us. This reminded me of
the Scriptures I have just read in your hearing. The consideration of
the subject involves the whole mission of the Latter-day Saints. The
promise of God to ancient Israel contained in the first text sets
forth the purposes of Jehovah in choosing the seed of Abraham
especially and separating them from other peoples and nations, and
taking them under His especial care and guidance, and leading them as
he did out of Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm and planting them in Canaan in fulfillment of the promises made to
their father Abraham, and to Isaac and Jacob. And when God called
Abraham to leave his father's house and go to a land which he should
show him and which he afterwards promised to him and his seed for an inherit ance, he had this in view, to make of him and his seed
a peculiar people; to make of them instruments in his hands of
accomplishing good for the benefit of the world.
He promised Abraham on another occasion that in him and his seed all
the nations of the earth should be blessed. And although this had
reference chiefly to the coming of the Son of God through his lineage,
who was to be the Chief Apostle and High Priest of our profession, the
Redeemer of the world, it implied the fact also that through his seed
the Gospel should be carried to all the world, and the oracles of God
delivered to men; that prophets and righteous men should be raised up
who should act as the mouthpiece of God to the people among whom they
should live, and they should have Abraham for their father. Among his
descendants also, his Temple as well as the Tabernacle should be
established, and the ordinances were to be revealed through them and
the Priesthood conferred upon them, and the word of God preserved
among them and handed down to future generations, thus maintaining the
true character and knowledge of God, and perpetuating the same upon
the earth. This was a great work that the Lord purposed concerning the
seed of Abraham, and it was for this reason and purpose that he
promised to establish his covenant with them forever.
Now the Priesthood referred to in Scripture had not reference alone to
that lower or lesser order known as the Levitical Priesthood which was
confirmed by covenant upon Aaron and his seed and upon the house of
his fathers, the tribe of Levi, which Priesthood officiated in
offering sacrifices and all the lesser duties pertaining to the law;
but it comprehended something more than this, the Priesthood as a
whole, including the Melchizedek or that holy order of Priesthood
after the order of the Son of God. And when Moses was made the
mouthpiece of the Lord to Israel in this precious promise we find them
hearkening to him and keeping his covenants, they being a peculiar
people unto him, above all the earth, a chosen generation, a royal
Priesthood; and he referred to them as a whole people and not to the
Levites alone, and to the Priesthood, as I before remarked, as a whole
including, of course, the Melchizedek Priesthood, hence the words of
Peter: "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy
nation."
The same great purpose and object prevail at the present time. The
calling and mission of the Latter-day Saints are to fulfill what is
here promised in these Scriptures—to bring about the restoration of
scattered Israel, the establishment of Zion, the preparing a people
for the coming of Christ; a people who are to be Saviors upon Mount
Zion, and thus fulfilling one of the prophecies of one of the Jewish
prophets concerning the Zion of the latter days, that Saviors should
come up upon Mount Zion to save the house of Esau, but the kingdom
should be the Lord's. No matter how many might be employed in this
work of salvation, as Saviors upon Mount Zion, all should labor as
helpers and co-laborers with Christ in the salvation of men.
God has promised in the revelations given to the Latter-day Saints to
make known unto them the fullness of all former dispensations, and he
has confirmed upon his servants in this dispensation of the fullness
of times the keys of all former dispensations and revealed all the
ordinances made known to the an cients; and, therefore, it is
our calling to complete the work that was inaugurated in former
dispensations of God to man. At first Joseph Smith received the gift
of seeing visions and the gift of translating dead languages by the
Urim and Thummim, and when he had exercised himself in these gifts for
a season, he received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, together
with his Brother Oliver, under the hands of John the Baptist, who was
a resurrected being, and who was the last of the Jewish High Priests
under the dispensation of the law, the only son of Zacharias the High
Priest, and a child of promise, who was beheaded by order of Herod,
having first performed his mission in preparing the way of the Lord,
and having preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins, testifying of Jesus that was to come, and baptizing those who
received him, including the Savior himself. John having finished his
mission, seals his testimony with his blood, rose again from the dead
and continued to hold those keys of the Priesthood which he inherited
from his fathers and which were confirmed upon him by the angel of the
Lord when he was eight days old. And he was a fit and proper person to
send to confer those keys of Priesthood upon Joseph and Oliver. In due
course of time, as we read in the history which he has left, Peter,
James and John appeared to him—it was at a period when they were being
pursued by their enemies and they had to travel all night, and in the
dawn of the coming day when they were weary and worn who should appear
to them but Peter, James and John, for the purpose of conferring upon
them the Apostleship, the keys of which they themselves had held while
upon the earth, which had been bestowed upon them by the Savior. This
Priesthood conferred upon them by those three messengers embraces
within it all offices of the Priesthood from the highest to the
lowest. As has been often taught us that the keys of the presidency of
this Apostleship represent the highest authority conferred upon man in
the flesh. And by virtue of these keys of Priesthood the Prophet
Joseph from time to time proceeded to ordain and set in order the
Priesthood in its various quorums as we see it today in the Church.
And if the question be asked why, and for what purpose, the answer
would be the idea conveyed in the language I have quoted: In
accordance with the design of the Lord to raise up a peculiar people
to himself, a holy nation, a royal Priesthood—a kingdom of Priests,
that shall be saviors upon Mount Zion, not only to preach the Gospel
to the scattered remnants of Israel, but to save to the uttermost the
nations of the Gentiles, inasmuch as they will listen and can be saved
by the plan which God has provided.
The first important labor of this ministry is to go abroad and preach
the Gospel to the nations. The Gospel of the kingdom must be preached
to all people and nations and tongues before the end can come; and by
the preaching of the word and the administering of the ordinances of
the Gospel, is Israel sought out from among the nations among which
they are scattered, especially the seed of Ephraim unto whom the first
promises appertain, the promise of the keys of the Priesthood. For it
must be remembered that of all the seed of Abraham whom the Lord chose
to bear the keys pertaining to this holy order of Priesthood, the seed
of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, were the first and chief. While
the tribe of Levi, unto which Moses and Aaron belonged, was especially
charged with the administration of affairs of the lesser Priesthood
under the law, yet Ephraim, the peculiar and chosen son of Joseph, was
the one whom the Lord had named by his own mouth and through the
Prophets, to inherit the keys of presidency of this High Priesthood
after the order of the Son of God. In this also we see the fulfillment
of the covenants and promises of God; not that Joseph by birthright
inherited this blessing, for Reuben was the firstborn among the
twelve sons of Jacob; but we are told in Chronicles, the 5th chapter,
that Reuben forfeited this birthright by his adultery, and that God
took it from him and conferred it upon the sons of Joseph; and of the
sons of Joseph he chose Ephraim as the chief; and while the Patriarch
Jacob, as we read in the 49th chapter of Genesis, adopted into his own
family two of the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, yet he placed
Ephraim the younger foremost, and blessed him with the chief blessing,
saying, that Manasseh shall be great, but Ephraim shall be greater
than he; he shall become a multitude in the midst of the earth.
Another Scripture also says concerning scattered Israel, that Ephraim
has mixed himself among the people; and speaking of the gathering of
Israel in the latter-day dispensation, the Prophet Jeremiah has said
that God would gather Israel and lead them as a shepherd does his
flock, and says he, I am Father to Israel, but Ephraim is my
firstborn. Now, if Ephraim has been scattered and has mixed himself
with the people until their identity is lost among the nations, how
are they going to be recognized and receive the promised blessings—how
is it that Ephraim shall be the firstborn of the Lord in the great
gathering of the latter days? If we turn back to the blessing which
Moses gave to the twelve tribes of Israel as found in Deuteronomy, we
shall there see that in blessing the tribe of Joseph, he especially
charged them with the duty of gathering the people from the ends of
the earth. Said he, Joseph's horns are like the horns of unicorns,
which shall push the people together from the ends of the earth, and
they are the thousands of Manasseh and ten thousands of Ephraim;
showing that it shall be the ten thousands of Ephraim and thousands of
Manasseh who shall be in the foremost ranks of bearing the Gospel
message to the ends of the earth, and gathering Israel from the four
quarters of the world in the last days. Whoever has read the Book of
Mormon carefully will have learned that the remnants of the house of
Joseph dwelt upon the American continent; and that Lehi learned by
searching the records of his fathers that were written upon the plates
of brass, that he was of the lineage of Manasseh. The Prophet Joseph
informed us that the record of Lehi, was contained on the 116 pages
that were first translated and subsequently stolen, and of which an
abridgement is given us in the first Book of Nephi, which is the
record of Nephi individually, he himself being of the lineage of
Manasseh; but that Ishmael was of the lineage of Ephraim, and that his
sons married into Lehi's family, and Lehi's sons married Ishmael's
daughters, thus fulfilling the words of Jacob upon Ephraim and
Manasseh in the 48th chapter of Genesis, which says: "And let my name
be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and
Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land."
Thus these descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim grew together upon this
American continent, with a sprinkling from the house of Judah, from
Mulek descended, who left Jerusalem eleven years after Lehi, and
founded the colony afterwards known as Zarahemla and found by
Mosiah—thus making a combination, an intermixture of Ephraim and
Manasseh with the remnants of Judah; and for aught we know, the
remnants of some other tribes that might have accompanied Mulek. And
such have grown up on the American continent. But we are not informed
that the Prophet Joseph and the first Elders of this Church who were
called and chosen of God to bear the Priesthood and lay the foundation
of this work, were descended from any portion of those remnants that
peopled America anciently, and whose history is given us in the Book
of Mormon. Yet we find in the Doctrine and Covenants the declaration
concerning the first Elders of this Church, that they were of the
house of Ephraim; and another passage referring to the wicked and
rebellious says, they shall be cut off from among the people, for the
rebellious are not of the seed of Ephraim. And there is a passage in
the Book of Mormon which is a part of the prophecy of Joseph written
on the plates of brass and quoted by Lehi, concerning the Prophet
Joseph Smith, who, it says, was to be raised up in the latter days to
translate the records of the Nephites, and whose name should be
Joseph, and who should be a descendant of that Joseph that was sold
into Egypt, and also that that should be the name of his father.
Now if the Prophet Joseph Smith was that chosen vessel out of the
loins of Joseph, it may be asked by some, what evidence have we of this
lineage? I answer, the testimony of God, the best of all testimony,
for no record kept by mortal man can be equal to it; and that, too, by
reason of that quaint but sensible old maxim, "it takes a wise man to
know who his father was, but a fool may find out who his mother was."
And even if we had the lineage of the fathers, it would not be as sure
and certain to us as the word of the Lord. For he has had his eye upon
the chosen spirits that have come upon the earth in the various ages
from the beginning of the world up to this time; and as he said to
Abraham, speaking of the multitudes of spirits that were shown unto
him in heavenly vision, you see that some are more noble than others?
Yes. Then you may know there were some others still more noble than
they; and he speaks in the same manner of the multitude of the
heavenly bodies; and said he to Abraham, thou art one of those noble
ones whom I have chosen to be my rulers. The Lord has sent those noble
spirits into the world to perform a special work, and appointed their
times; and they have always fulfilled the mission given them, and
their future glory and exaltation is secured unto them; and that is
what I understand by the doctrine of election spoken of by the Apostle
Paul and other sacred writers: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren." Such were called and chosen and
elected of God to perform a certain work at a certain time of the
world's history and in due time he fitted them for that work. It will be remembered when Jeremiah was called of God in his youth
that he, in order to excuse himself, complained of his youth and of
his being slow of speech, that the Lord said unto him that he would be
mouth for him and matter to his heart, for, he said, he knew him and
called him from his mother's womb to be a prophet unto the nations.
And so he called John the Baptist by sending his angel Gabriel to his
father Zacharias, and giving him a promise that his wife Elizabeth,
though old and barren, should yet conceive and bear a son, and that
his name should be John, who should be a forerunner to the Savior to
prepare the way before his face. And so he elected the seed of Ephraim
to be that peculiar people I have referred to, that holy nation, a
kingdom of Priests, a people to receive the covenants and oracles, and
to be witnesses to certain nations of the God of Israel. And how
strict were his commands that they should have no other Gods but him,
that they might be a standing rebuke to the idol worshippers, and to
all who believe not in the true and living God.
Now the same spirit of revelation that sought out the Prophet Joseph
from the loins of Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and that raised him
up in this dispensation to receive the keys of the Priesthood and to
lay the foundation of this great work in the earth, has also called
the children of Abraham from among the kingdoms and countries of the
earth to first hear and then embrace the everlasting Gospel; and the
remnants of the seed of Ephraim who were scattered from Palestine and
who colonized the shores of the Caspian Sea and thence made their way
into the north of Europe, western Scandinavia and northern Germany,
penetrating Scotland and England, and conquering those nations and
reigning as monarchs of Great Britain, and mingling their seed with
the Anglo-Saxon race, and spreading over the waters a fruitful vine,
as predicted by Jacob, whose branches should run over the wall. Their
blood has permeated European society, and it coursed in the veins of
the early colonists of America. And when the books shall be opened and
the lineage of all men is known, it will be found that they have been
first and foremost in everything noble among men in the various
nations in breaking off the shackles of kingcraft and priestcraft and
oppression of every kind, and the foremost among men in upholding and
maintaining the principles of liberty and freedom upon this continent
and establishing a representative government, and thus preparing the
way for the coming forth of the fullness of the everlasting Gospel.
And it is the foremost of those spirits whom the Lord has prepared to
receive the Gospel when it was presented to them, and who did not wait
for the Elders to hunt them from the hills and corners of the earth,
but they were hunting for the Elders, impelled by a spirit which then
they could not understand; and for this reason were they among the
first Elders of the Church; they and the fathers having been watched
over from the days that God promised those blessings upon Isaac and
Jacob and Joseph and Ephraim. And these are they that will be found in
the front ranks of all that is noble and good in their day and time,
and who will be found among those whose efforts are directed in
establishing upon the earth those heaven-born principles which tend
directly to bles sing and salvation, to ameliorating the
condition of their fellow men, and elevating them in the scale of
their being; and among those also who receive the fullness of the
Everlasting Gospel, and the keys of Priesthood in the last days,
through whom God determined to gather up again unto himself a peculiar
people, a holy nation, a pure seed that shall stand upon Mount Zion as
saviors, not only to the house of Israel but also to the house of Esau.
Now the work of carrying the Gospel to the nations and gathering the
people, mighty as it is, is not the chief, it is but laying the
foundation for the still greater work of the redemption of the myriads
of the dead of the seed of Israel that have perished without the
fullness of the Gospel, who too are heirs to the promised blessings;
but the time had not come when they passed away for the fulfillment of
all that God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob concerning their
seed: Ezekiel in the 37th chapter of his book beautifully illustrates
this doctrine in his vision of the valley of dry bones. I respectfully
refer you to it. The substance of the vision is this: The Lord showed
Ezekiel a valley full of dry human bones; and he asks him if those
bones can live. Ezekiel answered, "O Lord God, thou knowest." The Lord
then tells him to prophesy to the bones: Oh ye dry bones. Hear the
word of the Lord; and as he did so there was a shaking, and behold the
bones came together, bone to its bone; and according to the word of
the Lord through him, flesh and skin and sinews came upon them, and
the breath of life came into them, and lo, and behold, they stood upon
their feet an exceedingly great army. The Lord then tells the Prophet
that these are the whole house of Israel; and that they complain of
the non-fulfillment of the promises upon their head, saying, "Our
bones are dried, and our hope is lost: all are cut off for our parts."
But he further tells him to prophesy unto them, saying, "Thus saith
the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause
you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of
Israel," etc. And by whom shall this great and marvelous work be
accomplished? I answer, by the thousands of Manasseh and the ten
thousands of Ephraim; by this same people who shall search out and
gather together the house of Israel, and who will come up as saviors
upon Mount Zion.
Paul tells us concerning the Melchizedek Priesthood, that it is after
the order of an endless life, without beginning of days or end of
years; or, in other words, that it is eternal; that it ministers in
time and also in eternity. Peter, James and John and their
fellow laborers still minister in their Priesthood on the other side
of the veil; and Joseph Smith and his fellow brethren still minister
in their office and calling under the counsel and direction of the
same Peter, James and John who ministered on earth, and who conferred
upon Joseph the keys of their Priesthood; and all the Elders of this
dispensation who prove faithful and magnify their calling in the flesh
will, when they pass hence, continue their labors in the spirit world,
retaining the same holy character and high responsibility that they
assume here. And these men will be engaged there hunting up the
remnants of their fathers of the house of Joseph through Ephraim and
Manasseh; and then all the other tribes of Israel; while their children and children's children remaining in the flesh, holding the
same Priesthood, are building and will continue to build Temples and
enter into them, and there officiate for the whole house of Israel,
whose bones are dry and hope lost; but with whom it will be, as the
Apostle Peter has expressed it, "Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead." When Peter buried his Lord he buried his hope also, and
when in this state of mind he said, "I go a fishing." He returned to
the old mode of living, and his fellow Apostles accompanied him. After
toiling all night and catching no fish, the Savior appeared to them,
but the disciples did not know him; and after learning that they had
caught nothing, he told them to cast the net on the other side of the
ship, and instantly the net was full of fishes. And straightway the
inspiration of the Almighty was upon Peter, who said, that's the Lord;
that's one of his tricks. And the impetuosity of his nature was such
that he could not wait, but threw himself into the water to go and
meet the Savior, knowing that it was He just as well as if the Father
himself had told him so. And when they got ashore they found that
their Lord had prepared food for them, of which they all partook. And
then the Savior takes Peter to task by giving him to understand that
He had called him and fellow apostles to be fishers of men, and says
to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these,"
(fish)? Peter answered, "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee."
The Savior said unto him, then "feed my lambs;" repeating his question
and admonition three times. This rebuke was sufficient for Peter all
the rest of his days; we never hear of his going fishing again.
The morning of the resurrection dawns upon us. Ere long we will find
Joseph and his brethren overseeing and directing the labors of the
Elders of Israel in the Temples of our God, laboring for the
redemption of the dead, which work will continue during the thousand
years rest when the Savior will bear rule over the whole earth.
The Gentile nations comprehend not these things. Congress and the
hireling priests are blind and ignorant to them. And why? Because they
have not been "born again," being in the same condition that Nicodemus
was when the Savior told him that except a man were born again—that is
born of the water and the Spirit—he could not enter into (or see) the
kingdom of God. They talk about religion, and they profess to be
teachers of Christianity; so far as they honestly believe, and show by
their works, that Christ was the Son of God, so far God will have them
in remembrance; so far as they honestly receive those principles of
morality that should govern men in their walks of life and their
intercourse with their fellows, and do respect and strive to live
them, so far will he hold them in honorable remembrance, and they will
be numbered among the honorable of the earth, and the mercy of the
Lord will reach them in his due time; but the hypocrite who conceals
his wicked heart under the cloak of religion, who has a form of
godliness, but denies the power thereof, all such will he waste away.
Understanding this as we understand them, we do not wonder at this
class of persons combining with the powers of earth to throw
stumbling blocks in the way of this community. But will the Lord
suffer them to bring persecution upon us? Peradventure he may; and he
will if it is necessary to prune the vineyard, to cleanse his people
from sin, to purge out evil and frighten away the hypocrites in Zion;
for it has been decreed that fearfulness shall surprise the hypocrites
in Zion; and if he suffers the wicked to combine against us, he will
overrule it for the salvation of the righteous. The righteous can
endure trials, realizing as they do that
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.
And that after much tribulation comes the blessing. And such are of
Ephraim. Amen.