Show arm BT ny FRIES IDENT join JOHN TAYLOE AT sr 4 ogden tabernacle on sunday march lit 1980 1680 r REPORTED BY GEORGE F GIBES IT affords me pleasure to have the opportunity of being with the saints of this place today to day I 1 came here fiere to attend to your primary meeting of the juveniles and as I 1 was here I 1 thought I 1 would stay over sunday and talk to the fathers and mothers a little and I 1 would state as is generally understood by you all that we do not have our discourses arranged for us mr or marked out particularly ticul arly our ideas are to present ourselves before the people and to seek for the influence of the spirit of the lord that such things may be communicated as may be advantageous and interesting to those who hear and therefore when we meet together in an assembly like thisbe this we ought all of us both speaker and hearer bearer to feel that we are in the hands bands of our heavenly father and to seek for the aid of his holy hoby spirit that the speaker may speak correctly and understandingly and in a manner that shall shail be calculated to promote the welfare of the tiie people eo and that the people themselves may also be prepared to to receive such thin thins things s as may be communicated we occupy a peculiar position on the earth at the present time perhaps a little different from that of any other people that have llave existed on the earth carth our thoughts our ideas our principles our organization our doe doctrines t rines our ordinances and everything connect connected edwith with our religious matters are different dif dlf from those of other people and it is our opinion and not only gur vur our opinion but a certainty in fact it amounts to knowledge among a great many of the latter day saints that the influences and principles that we have received have been communicated to us by the almighty we were not the originators of the principles we believe in neither was joseph nor hyrum smith nor prest brigham young nor the twelve neither was any individual nor any people associated with the priesthood or the organization of the church at the present time we believe that these things have been communicated to us by the lord that they are in strict harmony wi wl ii principles that have existed heretofore to a certain extent with this difference ho however weyer that in the various dispensations that have existed upon the earth since its formation each one has had its peculiar role to fulfill fulfil with certain duties devolving upon those operating to attend to we are living an in the dispensation which is emphatically called the dispensation of the f ulness of times which we are informed from the scriptures has been spoken of by ity all the holy prophets prophets since the world was and this tilis eing being the case the dispensation in which we live embraces necessarily all that was contained in any and all of the other dispensations that have existed in all the ages preceding ours and that consequently whatever organizations manifestations revelations or communications that have ever come from god to the human family in their times and dispensa eions we may consistently expect to be embodied in this one and therefore in some respects as I 1 stated before the dispensation or time in which we live dimmers diners in many particulars tic ulars from those in which god has communicated to man we have for instance what is called the patriarchal dispensation which existed before and after the flood and those patriarchs and men of god clod that lived in those remote ages had communications with the almighty Al mAty and they also had the gospel and they not only received revelations pertaining to their own day and age but also in in regard to the future and hence we are told that adam three years before his death gh gathered together a great many of his people and the prominent authorities of the holy priesthood and he blessed them and being filled with the holy ghost predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest dispensation including all the leading events that should transpire in the different ages of time even until the winding up scene associated with this our earth embracing those things that have been and are to be brought forth in this the present dispensation and in fact tilis this dispensation we f are t re told I 1 has las been ff spoken of by all the holy prophets sinfo sinco iho pho word was and therefore it must of necessity have been boen associated with the teachings of adam of seth beth of enoch of methuselah and of noah abraham moses ana and many other prominent characters that held communication muni cation catlon with Hh and who had revealed unto them his purposes and des deslis designs lis ils in the days in which they lived livid many people listened to the principles of truth in their day enoch was a remarkable man and had a special mission to the people in his day and he was full of the spirit of prophecy and revelation he also had a church organization as we have to a certain extent and he preached to the people and forewarned them of certain events that should transpire upon the earth and the wicked were angry with them as they are sometimes with us they did not like their teachings and operations and they conspired against them and great numbers of their enemies assembled for the pose of destroying them and enoch och was clothed upon by the power ver and spirit and revelation of god L and whilst under the ins inspiration ira lra of the almighty he uttered his prophecies cs and his enemies and the people generally trembled at the power of his words and the earth shook and the people fled from his presence afar off and were not able to injure him for god was with him and enoch with the united labors of the elders of his day gathered the people to together ether other who hearkened to his words and believed the message sent to them in the same manner as you bave have been gathered together they built up a city which was called zion and the people who inhabited it were under the in inspiration P 1 ra of the lord for a great r ea number of years receive receiving n g instruction st guidance and direction from him and finally as wickedness grew and iner increased easM and as the testimony went forth among them the good the virtuous the honorable the pure and those who desired to fear god and work righteousness assembled themselves together constituting sti the city of zion and the others became more corrupt and enoch and his brethren prophesied unto the people about the calamities that should overtake them that the world was to be destroyed by a floody flood and there were provisions made for the continuance of the human family and it was made known to methuselah thu selah that his seed should be the medium through which should be perpetuated the human family upon the earth and methuselah was so very desirous to have this thing fulfilled that noah his grandson who was the son of lamech was ordained by methuselah when he was ten years old the tile people we learn grew to be so corrupt that the imaginations of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil and that continually and wa we are told that it even repented the lord that he had made man but the servants of god went forth preaching the gospel of life and salvation to this wicked people and warned them 1 of the destruction that was coming u upon on the earth before this great calamity took place enoch and his city were translated the power of translation was a principle that existed in the church in that dispensation there is something very peculiar in these things some people who are not in the me where I 1 got my evidence from froin to the latter day saints I 1 would say we get it by revelation we do not believe that say some that we cannot help I 1 am speaking now to those who do believe belleve so to those who are believers in god and who are believers in the bible the book of mormon the doctrine and covenants and who believe in the revelations which the lord has given and in those he continues to communicate it is to those people I 1 am speaking today to day on these points the bible does not give us a very extensive history of these matters in fact it is very very brief referring to that great irrean man enoch it tells us that lie was not for god took him and that is all this is a very short history for so important a subject after that the flood came which was a terrible calamity to overtake the inhabitants of the earth and they were swept away ac according coWing to the prophecy gut cut put off from theearta the earth deprived of life and existence and shut tip up in ifil prison after some thousands of years jesus came associated with another dispensation aspen tion an and when he e appeared red on the earth and ba had got th through ugh with his minis ministry an and had bad su suffered or in the flesh an and was quickened by the spirit he went and preached to Q the fhe 11 prison wha were as slatted sometime disobedient in the ays of or noah and hence thou thousands sandi of people that had suffered the wrath of god for so long iong C a time had bad the opportunity of listening to the principles ples pies of the gospel in another dispensation that jesus came to proclaim and when he had got through with his mission on the earth to those who lived he went then to preach to those who had been dead and I 1 might properly say were damned for so many years and what was the especial mission he had to proclaim he came to preach the gospel to the poor to open the eyes of the blind to set at liberty those that i were bound hound and to preach the a acceptable year of the lord and the day of vengeance of our god that was part of his mission the whole of his mission however has not yet been fulfilled but he came to liberator liberate the the prisoners which he did in the spirit when he got through 0 with his mission on the earth on the back of that noah steps forward in a prominent position and he had his work to perform which he be did perform and began to raise up another seed and they lived jived also in what may bo be termed a patriarchal dispensation and among them were many of his leading posterity there was for instance who was called the ring king of salem and the prince of peace of whom paul makes some curious remarks among which was that christ was a priest forever after the order of if he was then of course was a priest after the order of christ and as christ introduced trod the gospel so had the gospel and had and held and administered in the same priesthood that jesus did and we read too according to some mens ideas a very singular thing concerning him that he was without father and mother and without beginning of days or end of years and arideth a priest continually he must be indeed a very singular man to be without father and without mother and without descent and yet that he should be a priest forever well howl how is sit it you generally understand it but I 1 will inform those who do not that the apostle paul referred to the priesthood that Melch isedee neld held and that they had what was termed the or lievi priesthood griest priesthood hood in their then day that is the day ay in which paul lived and that a man to be a priest had to be a literal descendant of aaron and of the tribe of levi and he had to be able to prove his lineage tracing his descent back to the time when this tills priesthood was given by moses in the wa wilderness but the priesthood was dif dlf different from that it had nothing to do particularly with either father or mother it being without descent and therefore people holding it were not alt gether dependent upon their father or mother or descent for this authority but that priesthood is an everlasting priesthood administering in time and in eternity and this is what paul referred to by way of contradistinction to the aaronie priesthood which then exi exl existed associated with this priesthood there were certain powers and privileges riv these abraham possess possessed erand eNand and enjoyed some people think that he was a kind of a shepherd with very few more ideas than a mushroom that he lived inthe dark ages and ana did not comprehend much that he was not intelligent and had had a species of what we term nowadays now a days old but it we examine into his character and the position lie he occupied and if we understand something about the principles lie he promulgated we shall find that he was another character entirely in giving g his history he tells us that he sought ought for the blessings of the father and kend the right whereunto lie should be ordained to administer tile the same he further says having been myself a follower of righteousness desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge and to be a great follower of righteousness and to possess a greater knowledge and to be a father of many nations a prince of peace and desiring to receive instructions and to keep the commandments of god I 1 became a rightful heir a high priest est holding the right belonging to the fathers it was conferred upon me from the fathers it came down from the fathers from the beg beginning muing of time yea even from the beginning or before the foundations of the earth to tile present time even the right of the farst bomon bobon bom on the first man who was adam or first father through the fathers unto me times and seasons vol 11 iii p ills hia father however was an idolater alator hut blit lad 1194 iad probA hlf bIF dogs poga essed eased 4 ta record of his genealogy for abraham in his record continues 1 I shall endeavor he hereafter to delineate the chronology running r back from myself to the beginning of the creation for the records have come into my han hands d which I 1 hold until the present time and having found out that he had bad a right to the priesthood he therefore sought an ordination and he was ordained by to the Melch isedee priesthood and the lord gave unto him illges and powers that were very great not oily only did lie he have an ordination di in the way I 1 refer to but he sought more information from the lord and the lord communicated with him and gave him a arim and by which he was enabled to interpret to read and comprehend the mind and will and the laws jaws and purposes of god and furthermore I 1 would state that he went still further he asked god for certain blessings and privileges and powers which belonged to him and which he considered were within his reach and which were his privilege to obtain and the lord revealed himself to him and communicated munica ted unto him certain eter eternal rial ilal principles principles that no man can comprehend end unless god does reveal them and many other things the motion of the planets and the t e planetary system of the earth on which we live and the sun and the moon and the stars and the various bodies that compose our solar system and then of other suns suris and other heavenly bodies and the laws 90 verning governing the them in abraham wrote those things and was well versed in those thae great principles and some men affirm today to day that he was the founder of or certain abstruse principles which they tiley allege are discovered in what is called the great pyramid of E egypt gyp t principles n that not only pertain to the planetary s system y stem but to events yet to transpire on the earth I 1 am not going to say anything about the truth or the untruth of those latter statements as I 1 have not investigated them sufficiently to comprehend them but I 1 merely give the opinion of a great many men respecting him and the intelligence he possessed but suffice it to say that the lord himself instructed abraham in things pertaining to this and other worlds and that he in his day possessed more light li on the principles I 1 s alluded to than all the combine combined wisdom of the ivorid of today to day row new this tills was the kind of a man that abraham was and his |