| 683 that the priesthood is taken from us, it will be led by revelation all the time. The question arises with some who has the right to revelation? I will not ascend any higher than a priest, and ask the priest what is your right? You have the right to receive the administration of angels. If an angel was to come to you and tell you what the Lord was going to do in this day, you would say you had a revelation. The president of the priests have a right to the Urim and Thummim, which gives all revelation. He has the right of receiving visits from angels. Every priest then in the church has the right of receiving revelations. Every member has the right of receiving revelations for themselves, both male and female. It is the very life of the church of the living God, in all ages of the world. The spirit of truth is sent forth into all the world to reprove the world of sin and righteousness, and of a judgment to come. If we were here to-day and had never heard this gospel, and a man was to come bounding into onr [our] midst, saying, he had come to preach the gospel, to tell us that God was about to restore the priesthood and save the people, &c.; it would be your privilege, and my privilege to ask God in the name of Jesus Christ, as individuals, concerning this thing, whether it was of God, and get a testimony from God that it was true, and this would be revelation. Let us take some of these old fathers for an example, they have heard the gospel, they have been baptised [baptized] &c.. had hands laid on them for the gift of the Holy Ghost-he has got a family of children, he has been led all his days by his own spirit, but now begins to come to understand he has the right to bow before the Lord and receive instruction from God, from day to day, how to manage his family, his farm, his merchandize [merchandise], and to govern all the affairs of his house. I will take some of my younger brethren who have received the gospel, they have been ordained an elder to hold the keys, &c. What is your privilege? It is your privilege to go and preach the gospel to the world, and to go by the power of the Holy Ghost, and you have no right to go without it. You have been ordained to go forth and build up the kingdom to a certain extent. No man ever preached a gospel discourse, nor never will, unless, he does it by revelation. You will do it by the Holy Ghost, or when you tell the history of the gospel and gospel will not be there. It has got to be done by revelation or the gospel you have not got, and when you preach, the people will still be left without the gospel.-There never was a prophet on the earth that dictated to the people, but he dictated their temporal affairs as well as spiritual. It is the right of an individual to get revelations to guide himself. It is the right of the head of a family to get revelations to guide and govern his family. It is the right of an elder when he has built up a church to get revelations to guide and lead that people until he leads them and delivers them up to his superiors. An elder will always be a little in advance of those whom he has raised up if he is faithful.
He next showed how the saints are delivered up in their progress from those who give them up to the High Council, and from the High Council to the prophet, and from the prophet to the son, the elder brother, and from the son to his father. Is the keys of the kingdom taken from Joseph? On no; well then he still lives. He that believes in Jesus as Joseph did, they will never die. They may lay down their lives, but they still hold the keys. You are not going to be led without revelation. The prophet has stepped behind the vail [veil] and you have the right to obtain revelations for your own salvation. Who stood next to the prophet when he was here. You have all acknowledged that the Twelve were the presidents of the whole church when Joseph was not; and now he has stepped behind the vail [veil], he is not here, and the Twelve are the presidents of the whole church. When did Joseph become a prophet? I can tell you, when he became an apostle. Years and years before he had the right of holding the keys of the Aaronic priesthood, he was a prophet, even before he was baptised [baptized]. There has been a perfect flood of revelation poured from this stand all the time and you did not know it. Every spirit that confesses that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that he lived and died a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, is of God, and every spirit that does not is of anti-christ.
It is the test of our fellowship to believe and confess that Joseph lived and died a prophet of God in good standing; and I don't want any one to fellowship the Twelve who says that Joseph is fallen. If you don't know whose right it is to give revelations, I will tell you. It is I. There never has a man stood between Joseph and the Twelve, and unless we apostatize there never will. If Hyrum had lived he would not have stood between Joseph and the Twelve but he would have stood for Joseph.-Did Joseph ordain any man to take his place? He did. Who was it? It was Hyrum, but, Hyrum fell a martyr before Joseph did. If Hyrum had lived he would have acted for Joseph, and then when we had gone up, the
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