| 24 fish went up the stream, and why they were so small and shy; it was in consequence of these dead ones laying across the stream. This is the dream-and in the morning the following interpretation was strongly impressed upon my mind. These dead fish represent the dead members scattered abroad, hither and thither, who are considered as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but are in fact but dead branches; they not complying with the revelations of God, which command them to gather together to the body; and as the branch of the vine cannot gather sap and nourishment from the body when separated from it, so the members of the church abroad, when commanded to gather to the body, cannot receive life and intelligence away from it, nor grow in the things of the kingdom of God as is their privilege; and such characters stand in the way of the gospel and prevent many from obeying the gospel through their neglect. I further thought that it was not impossible that the bad smell of the dead fish represented those people who are to be met with, some with a chew of tobacco in their mouths, and some a pipe, and others whose breath smells sufficiently strong of whiskey to sicken a sober man when he comes near them.
Much of our time was spent in endeavoring to remove these obstacles, by persuading the members to comply with the commandments given on the subject, that the channel might be cleared and a way opened for more live fish to pass up the stream; and we hoped that we should yet see the stream full of live fish, and the fishing places become exceeding good, and live fish plentiful.
TIMES AND SEASONS
CITY OF NAUVOO,
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1842.
MELCHISEDEC PRIESTHOOD.
(continued)
There are several prerequisites which are necessary for the establishment of a kingdom; first there must be subjects to be governed; again there must be a king, to rule or govern; there must also be laws, and administrators of those laws; and as those things are necessary in the kingdoms of the earth, thy are also requisite in the kingdom of heaven.-The Lord is that king; his people are his subjects; his revealed will is the law of his kingdom; the priesthood is the administrator of those laws;-and as it requires a continued succession of kings, inhabitants, laws, and administrators to regulate and perpetuate the kingdoms of men; so it requires the same things to regulate and perpetuate the kingdom of God; and if in the absence of laws and administrators the governments of men would become confused and crumble into ruin, so in the absence of the priesthood, the children of men are left in the dark pertaining to the laws and government of the kingdom of God; and although they may have some notions about a heavenly king, their ideas are confused, they have no knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel, of the ordinances of God's house, of the nature of the government of heaven, or the power of the priesthood, of the present purposes or future design of Jehovah; hence the conflicting opinions, the clash of doctrines, the diversity of sentiment, and the wofully [woefully] and benighted state that the religious world presents itself in at the present time, to very enlightened understanding. Let the Melchisedec priesthood be introduced, and men be subject to their teaching, and their sectarian, narrow contracted notions would flee away like the morning dew; they would vanish before the more resplendent beams of the light of heaven; the anarchy and confusion that pervails [prevails] among men would disappear, and the world would be organized upon principles of intelligence, purity, justice, truth and righteousness; principles that governed all the ancient saints of God; that regulate the angels of heaven, and by which Jehovah governs himself in the eternal world. It was through the power of the priesthood that the world was framed, "through faith; by the power of God." Hence, the heavenly priesthood consulted together before this world rolled into existence, and said, "let us make man after our own image and likeness." They possess the power and the intelligence to do this thing, and knowledge is power, and the priesthood holds the keys of this power, both in heaven and on earth. It is the law by which all things are governed, and hence if we have correct principles unfolded unto us on the earth, we have also a pattern of heavenly things. Thus it was said unto Moses when he was making the ark, "see that you make all things according to the pattern I shewed [showed] thee in the mount." And Paul writing to the Hebrews says, "It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Hence Christ officiated in the ordinances of God on
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