| 545 the uncomfortable situation of the saints with regard to a place of worship and a place of public entertainment.
The conference was then called upon by the President to elect a general church clerk in place of R. B. Thompson, deceased. Conference made choice of James Sloan. Bro. Lyman Wight then called upon the conference to elect a President of the High Priests Quorum in place of Don Carlos Smith, deceased. Bro. George Miller was nominated and duly elected.
Bro. B. Young then presented to the notice of the conference the business commenced at a late special conference, with regard to the appointment of suitable and faithful men to the several important stations of labor in this and other countries.
Bro. L. Wight then addressed the conference on the importance of order and uniformity of instruction, and of a unanimity of effort to spread the work of the kingdom. President Joseph Smith then made some corrections of doctrine in quoting a passage from 1 Corinthians 12:28, showing it to be a principle of order or gradation in rising from one office to another in the priesthood.
Bro. Hyrum Smith made remarks disapprobatory of the course pursued by some elders in withstanding the efforts of the Presidency to gather the saints, and in enticing them to stop in places not appointed for the gathering; particularly the conduct of Elder Almon Babbitt, of Kirtland. Brn. Lyman Wight and Henry Miller having traveled in places where Bro. A. Babbitt had been in his journeying eastward from his visit to Nauvoo, testified that he had in many places taught doctrine contrary to the revelations of God and detrimental to the interest of the church.
Moved, seconded, and carried that Elder Almon Babbitt be disfellowshipped by the Conference as an elder till such time as he shall make satisfaction.
Closed with singing by the choir, hymn 124, and prayer by Bro. George Smith.
Conference adjourned till to-morrow morning, nine o'clock.
Sunday, 3d, a. m. Conference assembled and was called to order by President Marks, and divine service commenced by the choir singing hymn 274, and prayer by Bro. H. C. Kimball.
President Joseph Smith, by request of some of the Twelve, gave instructions on the doctrine of baptism for the dead, which was listened to with intense interest by the large assembly. The speaker presented baptism for the dead as the only way that man can appear as saviors on Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the gospel was a means of salvation to men individually; and it was the truth, not men, that saved them, but men by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutionally, became instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the kingdom of God. He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit ministering to embodied spirits; the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a ministering spirit (while his body was lying in the sepulcher) to the spirits in prison; to fulfill an important part of his mission, without which he could not have perfected his work or entered into his rest. After his resurrection he appeared as an angel to his disciples, etc. Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions. The angel that appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos was a translated or resurrected body. Jesus Christ went in body, after his resurrection to minister to translated and resurrected bodies. There has been a claim of authority and power from Adam down to the present
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