NAUVOO, Dec. 9, 1844.
[Footnote A: _Italics_ are mine, R.]
[Footnote B: _Times and Seasons_, Vol. V, p. 742.]
This is that same William Marks who after this testimony became the
associate of James J. Strang and subsequently was the chief man in
ordaining "young Joseph" to be President of the church. He is a type
of the character of men who founded the "Reorganized church."
This completes our direct testimony that the keys of authority and
power held by the prophet Joseph were not taken from the earth by him,
but that he had given them to another, "even to the church," the
authority to exercise the powers thereof, after his death, more
especially belonging to the Twelve as the highest general presiding
quorum in the church in case of the absence, destruction or rejection
of the First Presidency. Let it be remembered that all the keys of
priesthood which the prophet Joseph held were given to the Twelve; and
they from time to time, as occasions required, have given those keys
of authority to other worthy men; and thus all the authority, keys of
priesthood, and heavenly powers conferred upon the prophet Joseph have
been preserved unto the church, and are with it to this day.
The array of testimony presented, taken in connection with the law of
the church as given in the revelations of God, clearly demonstrates
that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not
disorganized at the death of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum; that such
a thing was never contemplated in the work of God in this
dispensation; and since the church has never been disorganized, any
organization claiming to be the "Reorganized church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints" is a counterfeit, and writes fraud in the very
title of it.
Now that we draw to the close of our consideration of the claims of
this "Reorganized church," we cannot point to its destruction as we
have done in the case of Sidney Rigdon's church, William Smith's
church and James J. Strang's church; for the Reorganized church still
exists. But its doom is written as distinctly as that of the other
false churches that we have seen crumble to pieces into shapeless
heaps of ruin. It is only a question of time with regard to its
failure. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, is written upon its walls--God hath
numbered thy kingdom--weighed in the balances--found wanting!