to Jesus and His apostles. Holy men of God have felt it in every
age. Only those who have been divinely called have been qualified
to speak in the name of the Lord. This statement is as true for the
modern Prophet as it is for the prophets of old. For it may be said
with truth, that few things about Joseph Smith are more striking or
unquestionable than his sense of the necessity of authority. He had
seen the Father and the Son in vision; he had been visited repeatedly
by an angel of heaven; he had translated a sacred record by the power
of God,--yet, he did not presume to promulgate the restored Gospel, or
to send others to do so, or to organize a Church. He felt that he had
not yet divine authority to do these things. He waited till authority
should be given him. Was he an impostor? Had he been so he might easily
have assumed authority. He might have proclaimed to the world that he
had received authority, and trusted that the world would believe his
statement. Certainly, had he been an impostor, he would have called in
no man to witness the imposture he was foisting upon the world. What
did Joseph Smith do? In the previous chapter, we have learned how the
opening visions of the New Dispensation--the revelations that form
the foundation stone of the Church--are attested by the testimony of
witnesses. It has been said that the Latter-day Saints lay claim to
so much, and that there are so many impostures in the world, that it
is more than fortunate to have the mission of the American prophet
attested, not only by the marvelous results of his work, but also
by the words of witnesses. It will be interesting now to recall the
way in which Joseph Smith received authority from heaven. It will be
interesting further to learn whether or not there were witnesses to
the fact. It will not be too much again to assert that not a single
important step in the progress of the Restoration was taken without
corroborative testimony or the presence of witnesses.
The Prophet Joseph Smith, teaches that there are two divisions of
the priesthood of God; and he asserts that he received the authority
of both divisions by the direct ministration of heavenly beings. He
does more than assert that he received the Holy Priesthood by divine
ordination. An impostor might do so much. Joseph Smith describes the
manner in which the priesthood was conferred upon him; and he provides
a witness who, after many years confirms by his solemn testimony the
words of the Prophet. Such a procedure is contrary to the methods of an
impostor.
The Aaronic priesthood--the lesser division of the priesthood of
God--was restored through the ministration of one heavenly being. It
appears that John the Baptizer was the man of presiding authority to
hold that division of the priesthood during the dispensation of the
Meridian of Time. When it became necessary to restore the Aaronic
Priesthood, in the new Gospel dispensation, John the Baptizer came to
perform the important ceremony. Joseph Smith relates how this great
forerunner of Messiah came down from heaven, and in awe-inspiring
words, conferred upon him the Holy Priesthood after the order of Aaron.
The relation is plain, ungarnished. There is no comment; there is no
argument; there is no embellishment; there is no ecstatic eloquence. It
is a matter of fact that has happened, and the Prophet states it in his
usual, simple, matter of fact way. The Holy Priesthood after the Order
of Aaron had been restored, May fifteenth, 1829.
But the Aaronic priesthood did not endow the Prophet with full
authority to establish the Church of Christ, or even to officiate
in the higher ordinances of the Church. The authority of the Higher
Priesthood was still necessary to the full accomplishment of the
mission of the Prophet. That authority was not long in coming. Less
than two months after the appearance of John the Baptizer, Peter, James
and John appeared on the banks of the Susquehanna river, and conferred
upon the Prophet the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. Peter,
James, and John constituted the presidency of the primitive Church
after the crucifixion of Jesus. They formed the presidency of the
Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek before the dispensation of
the fulness of times. When it became necessary in the new dispensation
to restore this Priesthood, Peter, James, and John attended personally
to the holy ordinance. Again the narrative is plain and simple. The
Prophet, however, comes nearer to ecstatic utterance in speaking of the
sublime manifestation than is customary with him. Yet, it is after all
a matter-of-fact narration of a matter of fact. The Holy Priesthood
after the order of Melchizedek was restored through the ministration of
Peter, James, and John.
Can Joseph Smith be believed in these assertions? Fortunately, he was
not alone in these two marvelous manifestations, as he had been in
those earlier visions that laid the foundation for the superstructure
of the Church. When Joseph Smith went into the wood to pray on May
fifteenth, 1829, that he might get light on the ordinance of baptism,
Oliver Cowdery was with him. When John the Baptizer appeared, it was
not Joseph Smith alone who saw him. Oliver Cowdery saw him as well. And
when the Baptizer restored officially the Aaronic Priesthood, it was
not Joseph Smith alone whom he ordained. Oliver Cowdery received the
same ordination with the Prophet. And Oliver Cowdery has described the
event in words of power and vividness.
"These were days never to be forgotten--to sit under the sound of
a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost
gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to
write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and Thummim, or
as the Nephites would have said, 'Interpreters,' the history or record
called 'The Book of Mormon.'
"To notice, in even few words, the interesting account given by Mormon
and his faithful son Moroni, of a people once beloved and favored of
heaven, would supersede my present design; I shall therefore defer
this to a future period, and, as I said in the introduction, pass
more directly to some few incidents immediately connected with the
rise of this Church, which may be entertaining to some thousands who
have stepped forward amid the frowns of bigots and the calumny of
hypocrites, and embraced the Gospel of Christ.
"No men, in their sober senses, could translate and write the
directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the
precise manner in which men should build up His Church, and especially
when corruption had spread an uncertainty over all forms and systems
practiced among men, without desiring a privilege of showing the
willingness of the heart by being buried in the liquid grave, to answer
a 'good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.'
"After writing the account given of the Savior's ministry to the
remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be
seen, as the prophet said would be, that darkness covered the earth
and gross darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it
was easy to be seen, that amid the great strife and noise concerning
religion, none had authority from God to administer the ordinances
of the Gospel. For the question might be asked, have men authority
to administer in the name of Christ, who deny revelations, when His
testimony is no less than the spirit of prophecy and His religion
based, built, and sustained by immediate revelations in all ages of the
world when He has had a people on earth? If these facts were buried,
and carefully concealed by men whose craft would have been in danger
if once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no longer to
us; and we only waited for the commandment to be given 'Arise and be
baptized.'
"This was not long desired before it was realized. The Lord who is
rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of
the humble, after we had called upon Him in a fervent manner, aside
from the abodes of men, condescended to manifest to us His will. On a
sudden, as from the midst of eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake
peace to us, while the vail was parted and the angel of God came down
clothed with glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message,
and the keys of the Gospel of repentance. What joy! what wonder! what
amazement! While the world was racked and distracted--while millions
were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all men were resting
upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our ears heard,
as in the 'blaze of day;' yes, more--above the glitter of the May
sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then
his voice, though mild, pierced to the centre, and his words, 'I am
thy fellow-servant,' dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we
admired! 'Twas the voice of an angel from glory, 'twas a message from
the Most High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while his love enkindled
upon our souls, and we were wrapt in the vision of the Almighty! Where
was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt, had sunk no
more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled forever!
"But, dear brother, think, further think for a moment, what joy filled
our hearts, and with what surprise we must have bowed, (for who would
not have bowed the knee for such a blessing?) when we received under
his hand the Holy Priesthood as he said, 'Upon you my fellow-servants,
in the name of Messiah, I confer this Priesthood and this authority,
which shall remain upon earth, till the sons of Levi may yet offer an
offering unto the Lord in righteousness!'
"I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor
the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but
you will believe me when I say, the earth, nor men, with the eloquence
of time, cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime
a manner as this holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give
the joy, to bestow the peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was
contained in each sentence as they were delivered by the power of the
Holy Spirit! Man may deceive his fellow-man, deception may follow
deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce
the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and
the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave;
but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from
the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the
bosom of eternity strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it
forever from the mind! The assurance that we were in the presence of an
angel; the certainty that we heard the voice of Jesus, and the truth
unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage, dictated by the will
of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look upon this
expression of the Savior's goodness with wonder and thanksgiving while
I am permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells
and sin never comes, I hope to adore in that DAY which shall never
cease!"[I]
[Footnote I: "Times and Seasons," p. 201.]
This description and fervent testimony was written in 1834. Four years
later, however, Oliver Cowdrey was excommunicated from the Church. He
left the state where the Church was located, and never again returned
to the Saints during the lifetime of the Prophet Joseph Smith. But he
remained true to his testimony to the last. There was no doubt in his
mind as to the reality of the vision he had beheld. He had felt the
hands of the angels upon his head; there was no denying the fact that
had taken place. His steadfastness in this testimony included also the
ministration of Peter, James, and John.
Oliver Cowdery returned to the Church at Kanesville, Iowa, in 1848.
He had been out of the Church for eleven years. On his re-admittance
into the Church, he delivered a public discourse, in which he said,
"I was present with Joseph when an holy angel from God came down
from heaven and conferred on us, or restored, the lesser or Aaronic
Priesthood, and said to us, at the same time, that it should remain
upon the earth while the earth stands. I was also present with Joseph
when the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood was conferred by the holy
angels from on high. This Priesthood, we then conferred on each other
by the will and commandment of God."[J] Less than three months later,
under date January thirteenth, 1849, Oliver Cowdery gave a signed
statement to Samuel W. Richards. In that statement Cowdery said, "John
the Baptist, holding the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James,
and John, holding the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, have also
ministered for those who shall be heirs to salvation, and with these
administrations ordained men to the same Priesthood. These Priesthoods,
with their authority, are now, and must continue to be in the body of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. * * Accept assurances,
dear brother, of the unfeigned prayer of him who, in connection with
Joseph, the Seer, was blessed with the above administrations."[K]
[Footnote J: "History of the Church," Vol. I, p. 41, footnote.]
[Footnote K: "History of the Church," Vol. I, p. 42, footnote.]
Thus did Oliver Cowdery testify to the last--as he did to the testimony
of the Book of Mormon--that he was with the Prophet when the Holy
Priesthood was restored, and shared the restoration with him. It is
certainly significant that the great manifestations in which John the
Baptizer, and the apostles, Peter, James, and John, appeared to restore
the Holy Priesthood, did not happen to Joseph Smith alone. A mere
impostor would undoubtedly have had them so occur. Oliver Cowdery also
received the Aaronic Priesthood. He, too, was ordained an apostle. He
became the second elder in the Church--almost a joint president with
the Prophet himself. Although he became estranged from the Prophet, he
remained true to his testimony; and at the last, he returned to the
fold. Not a single important step in the progress of the Restoration
was taken without corroborative testimony or the presence of
witnesses.[L]
[Footnote L: Since these chapters were written, the following
invaluable testimony has appeared in the _Improvement Era_, for March,
1912. The testimony was written by Jacob F. Gates, of Salt Lake City,
whose father, Jacob Gates, was in his day a member of the First Council
of Seventy:
"My father, Jacob Gates, while on his way to England, in 1849, stopped
at the town of Richmond, where lived at that time Oliver Cowdery.
Hearing that Oliver was in poor health, and wishing to renew old
acquaintance as they had been friends in earlier days, father called on
him at his home. Their conversation, during the visit drifted to early
Church history, and to their mutual experiences during the troublous
times in Missouri and Illinois. Finally father put this question to
him: 'Oliver,' said he, 'I want you to tell me the whole truth about
your testimony concerning the Book of Mormon--the testimony sent forth
to the world over your signature and found in the front of that book.
Was your testimony based on a dream, was it the imagination of your
mind, was it an illusion, a myth--tell me truthfully?'
"To question him thus seemed to touch Oliver very deeply. He answered
not a word, but arose from his easy chair, went to the book case, took
down a Book of Mormon of the first edition, turned to the testimony of
the Three Witnesses, and read in the most solemn manner the words to
which he had subscribed his name, nearly twenty years before. Facing my
father, he said: 'Jacob, I want you to remember what I say to you. I am
a dying man, and what would it profit me to tell you a lie? I know,'
said he, 'that this Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power
of God. My eyes saw, my ears heard, and my understanding was touched,
and I know that whereof I testified is true. It was no dream, no vain
imagination of the mind--it was real.'
"Then father asked him about the angel under whose hands he received
the Priesthood, to which he made answer thus: 'Jacob, I felt the hand
of the angel on my head as plainly as I could feel yours, and could
hear his voice as I now hear yours.'
"Then father asked this question: 'If all that you tell me is true, why
did you leave the Church?' Oliver made only this explanation; said he:
'When I left the Church, I felt wicked, I felt like shedding blood, but
I have got all over that now.'
"State of Utah, County of Salt Lake,
"Jacob F. Gates, of Salt Lake City, being first duly sworn, deposes
and says that he is a citizen of the United States, of the age of
fifty-seven years, and that he is the son of Jacob Gates, who, prior to
his death, related to affiant a conversation which he had with Oliver
Cowdery, at the town of Richmond, State of Missouri, and that the above
and foregoing is a true and correct statement of said conversation as
given to aim by his father.
"JACOB F. GATES.
"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of January, 1912.
"ARTHUR WINTER, Notary Public. "My commission expires December 3,
1915."]
The Gospel restored through the ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith
was not only for the living, but also for the dead. Those who had
passed away before the Gospel was restored must also have the privilege
of obeying it. The first great message of the Angel Moroni to the
young Seer, was that the fathers can not be made perfect without the
children, nor the children without the fathers. Even after receiving
the Holy Priesthood, then, it became necessary further to receive
divine commission to promulgate the Gospel among the living--among
both Jew and Gentile--and divine authority to officiate vicariously
for the dead. Joseph Smith tells in revelation that both commission
and authority to perform these duties were conferred in a divine
manifestation in Kirtland temple. Moses committed the keys of the
gathering of Israel; Elias committed the dispensation of the gospel
of Abraham; and Elijah restored authority to perform vicarious work
for the dead. Moreover, Jesus Himself appeared in the holy house, and
commended the work of His servant, the Prophet. That these holy men did
actually appear and commit the keys of authority to perform special
labors, Joseph Smith affirms in all seriousness.[M]
[Footnote M: Doc. and Cov. 110.]
Happily, again, Joseph Smith was not alone in receiving these divine
manifestations. Oliver Cowdery was once more with him. And once again,
Oliver Cowdery bears corroborative testimony. More than that, he was an
eyewitness and a partaker of the blessings. He bears direct testimony
to the reality of the visions. And as with the Testimony of Three
Witnesses, and the visits of John the Baptizer, and Peter, James, and
John, so also now, Oliver Cowdery bears his testimony faithfully to the
last. Not a single important step in the progress of the Restoration
was taken without corroborative testimony or the presence of witnesses.
The chain of evidence is thus complete. The authority necessary for the
promulgation of the Gospel and the establishment of the Church, and
all the working principles of the Gospel, have been restored. Every
important act of restoration is attested by belief-worthy witnesses.
These witnesses are eleven in number, eight of whom are not in any
way related to the Prophet. Their testimony has never been impeached.
If such an array of evidence and worthy testimony were presented in a
federal court, the jury would hardly need to retire for consultation.
They might hand in a unanimous verdict at once. Yet, the evidence here
presented for the reality of the divine acts of the Restoration is
often called into question. The student at school accepts with perfect
faith principles of science that he cannot himself demonstrate, and is
willing almost to lay down his life in defense of those principles. He
is told, for example--for he cannot prove it himself--that there is
an attractive or repulsive force operative in the universe, and that
that force varies directly as the product of the masses between which
it is operating, and inversely as the square of the distance between
them. This is the law of gravitation, laid down by Sir Isaac Newton.
The student believes it, as he believes a thousand other principles
presented to him in more or less arbitrary fashion. Yet, many of the
established principles of science are not half so well authenticated
as are the acts of the Restoration of the Gospel in the Dispensation
of the Fulness of Times. In His divine wisdom, the Lord God has
wonderfully safeguarded every act in the story of the Restoration, so
that there can be no reasonable question as to its reality. Says the
Apostle Paul, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word
be established."
Note:--There is still another important witness to the reality of the
revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This witness does not testify,
however, to the restoration of any authority of the Gospel. Section
76 of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants relates the wonderful vision
of glories. Joseph Smith was accompanied in this vision by Sidney
Rigdon. Sidney Rigdon was excommunicated Sept. 8, 1844. Like the other
witnesses, however, Rigdon remained true to the testimony that he had
seen a vision. Sidney Rigdon died out of the Church. His son John W.
Rigdon, testifies as follows:--"When I went to father just before his
death, and told him that if he knew anything regarding the coming forth
of the Book of Mormon, that had not been told, he owed it as a duty to
himself and his family, to tell it, he reiterated that he had but one
story to tell, and that was the story told him by the Prophet, Joseph
Smith, that the records from which the book was taken were engraved on
gold plates. Father then testified to me that Joseph was a prophet of
God, and that an angel had handed him the plates from which was taken
the Book of Mormon" ("Improvement Era," Vol. III, p. 697).
XXII.
THE TEST OF SECTION SIXTY-SEVEN.
Whatever Joseph Smith was or was not, he was certainly fearless in
all his assertions of divine inspiration. We have learned that, at a
time when high religious excitement proclaimed belief in an immaterial
God, and in the actual unity of an immaterial trinity, the boy-prophet
declared that he had beheld a vision in which the Father and the Son,
had appeared to him, as two separate beings, and as beings of tangible
existence in the form of man. Greatly elated over this incomparable
vision, the young boy hastened to communicate the things he had learned
to a distinguished friend, a sectarian minister; but to his utter
astonishment, the boy was ridiculed and called a fool, maligned and
persecuted. Yet he had seen a vision, and fearlessly he remained true
to that assertion.
Again, not many years after, an angel visited him. Angels were, in
Christian theology, however, supernatural beings of a bygone age. No
one believed in them when Moroni came to Joseph. Yet, Joseph declared
in soberness that an angel had visited him, and had restored the gospel
of Christ. And for that fearless assertion, the young man was further
persecuted.
Then Joseph published a book in his young manhood. He called it the
Book of Mormon, and said it was a translation of certain ancient
American records, revealed to him by divine power. The world stood
aghast at his audacity. It tried to prove the book of spurious
workmanship. It tried to prove the book merely a feeble effort of a
literary quack. It tried in every way to throw discredit upon the book.
But Joseph Smith remained undaunted. The world could not intimidate
him, and so it persecuted him.
Then, in his maturity, this remarkable man declared himself to be a
prophet of God. He claimed to hold divine communion with the Creator
of the world, and issued revelation upon revelation to the Church
and to its individual members. Unbelievers laughed in derision;
enemies protested indignantly against such blasphemy; and even some
followers of the daring prophet began to doubt his inspiration. But
intrepid as ever, the prophet maintained that he was divinely called,
and fearlessly gave to all the world an infallible test by which his
revelations could be tried to the uttermost.