Apostles, and while his Church remained upon the earth, the opposite of the principles of heaven were specially made manifest, causing a lull in the public mind. The world is more or less controlled all the time by influences that Lucifer evidently is not opposed to; he has little objection to the present organization of human society, from the fact that every thing passes along in the wake that agrees with his religion, and rather tends to forward his purposes.

Now some suppose if they can see a miracle, as they call it, that is, something beyond that which is ordinary with man, they are bound to believe; but I am of opinion that Lucifer and his associates can show as many miracles as the people desire to see; they can show as many as were exhibited in Egypt in the days of king Pharaoh. I believe Lucifer has just as much power to make lice now as ever he had, he has just as much ability to display his power in making a serpent to oppose a Moses as ever. Has he lost his power during the last two, three, or four thousand years? We do not believe he has. If, then, he possesses the same power as he once did, why is he not able in this dispensation to make manifestations corresponding to those in previous

ones?

God on the earth. What do we see at this time? We see the manifestations of the power of Satan immediately after the revelations of the angel to Joseph. For instance, there were spirit mediums in Kirtland, when the Church was first organized there by brother Parley P. Pratt and others; but when Joseph went with the Priesthood, the devil had to leave, for he had learned the power of Lucifer; and Joseph organized the Church, established the Priesthood, and set every thing right.

I might go on with a long routine of manifestations of the power of God, and of the power of the devil; but you who have come from the old country, and some of the first Elders that went over there-Presidents Young, Kimball, Hyde, and others, recollect manifestations of the spirits of the devil in that land. They attacked those brethren by hundreds and by thousands, and the spirits were actually visible. If you could call up brother Willard Snow, and converse with him, I have no doubt that he would tell you he was attacked by them, and they overcame his body.

I am not surprised to see these manifestations increased upon the earth; but where is the anchor to the faith of the Saints? Where is the I wish to come down to our own surety of the Saints against these day, for you know I am fond of root- manifestations? Inasmuch as the ing, grubbing, building, fencing, and world would not listen to the Prophet doing the things needed right here at Joseph, and receive the word of God home. Let us then confine our re- through him, I look for the Lord to marks to this dispensation, when the fulfil His word, and send them strong Prophet Joseph Smith was visited by delusion, inasmuch as they believe an holy angel, clad in robes of light, not the truth, and will permit them who authorized him to sound the now to believe a lie, that all who have trump of the Gospel of peace, and re-pleasure in unrighteousness may be ceive the sacred records from the damned. I anticipate seeing strong earth, and the Urim and Thummim, delusion among the wicked in the day and who laid hands upon him and in which we live, but where is the gave him the Holy Ghost, and author- anchor for the faith of the Saints? I ized him to baptize for the remission will tell you where mine is. of sins, and organize the kingdom of

When Joseph Smith was alive, his

declaration to me was as the voice of upon earth as it is in heaven, it folAlmighty God. Why? Because he lows that the government of God is had the Priesthood of God on the upon the earth. I allude to the earth; the Priesthood that is with- Church which it dictates, and then to out father, without mother, without the whole earth which it will dictate. beginning of days or end of years, Satan may succeed for a season to curwhich is God's authority, the eternal tail the extent of this government, power and right of the government of and the free working of its machinery, God upon the earth. I was subject but if the Lord Almighty has organto that government in the days of Jo-ized a government upon the earth, and seph. Men used to talk on this wise has committed the keys and Priest"But would you believe in the Pro-hood of it to His Prophet, that Prophet if he should demand all your property?" Lucifer would suggest this idea to them. "No," says another, "I would not." "Suppose he should come to you, and tell you, you must sell your farm in the east, and go to Kirtland, and consecrate your property to the Lord, would you do it ?" No," answers his neighbor, "the Lord has no use for my property, I would not do it." "Well," says one, "do you think Joseph is right to dictate in temporal matters ?" No. There were quite a majority, I believe, in the days of Joseph, who believed he had no right to dictate in temporal matters, in farms, houses, merchandize, gold, silver, &c.; and they were tried on various points.

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When the family organization was revealed from heaven-the patriarchal order of God, and Joseph began, on the right and on the left, to add to his family, what a quaking there was in Israel. Says one brother to another, Joseph says all covenants are done away, and none are binding but the new covenants; now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that?" “I would tell him to go to hell." This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church.

If you maintain the fact that the Priesthood of God is upon the earth, and God's representatives are upon the earth, the mouth-piece of Jehovah, the head of the kingdom of God upon earth, and the will of God is done

phet holds jurisdiction over the earth, the same as Adam did in the beginning. And righteous men in every dispensation since the creation, if they had any keys, had the keys of the kingdom of God; and they extended over this wide world wherever God had a people and a government; and just as far as the Priesthood exercised its authority, just so far the rule of the Almighty reached.

If Joseph had a right to dictato me in relation to salvation, in relation to a hereafter, he had a right to dictate me in relation to all my earthly affairs, in relation to the treasures of the earth, and in relation to the earth itself. He had a right to dictate in relation to the cities of the earth, to the natives of the earth, and in relation to everything on land and on sea. That is what he had a right to do, if he had any right at all. If he did not have that right, he did not have the Priesthood of God, he did not have the endless Priesthood that emanates from an eternal being. A Priesthood that is clipped, and lacks length, is not the Priesthood of God; if it lacks depth, it is not the Priesthood of God; for the Priesthood in ancient times extended over the wide world, and coped with the universe, and had a right to govern and control the inhabitants. thereof, to regulate them, give them laws, and execute those laws. That power looked like the Priesthood of God. This same Priesthood has been given to Joseph

Smith, and has been handed down to his successors.

I do not care how many devils rap, it is no trouble to me. I say, rap away, and give as many revelations as you please, whether you are good spirits or bad ones, it does not trouble my cranium. Rap away, for I trust in the anchor of my soul that is sure and steadfast, in the Priesthood of God upon the earth.

What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when Joseph asked him for his money? He would say, "Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the kingdom of God." Or if he came and said, "I want your wife ?" "O yes," he would say, here she is, there are plenty more.'

these points, but I now could pick you out hundreds of men that cannot be tried in this way, but they will hand over every thing they possess. They understand the nature of such doctrines, and the object of such requirements. They know it is to prove the people, both men and women, and to develop what they will do. How can the Priesthood judge the people, if it does not prove them.

If ever you are brought into the presence of God, and exalted to a seat in His celestial kingdom, it will be by virtue of the Holy Priesthood, therefore you have got to be proved, not only by being tempted by the devil, but the Priesthood will try you-it will try you to the core. If one thing won't try you, something else will be adopted, until you are like the passive clay in the hands of the Potter. If the Lord our God does not see fit to let the devil loose upon you, and mob you, He will employ some other means to try you as in a crucible, to prove you as gold is tried seven times in the furnace.

There is another main thread connected with this, that I have not brought out. You know in fishing with the hook and line, if you draw out suddenly on the line when you have got a large trout, you may break your line; you must therefore angle a little, and manage your prize carefully. I would ask you if Jehovah has not in all ages tried His people by the power of The world philosophizes about the Lucifer and his associates; and on the" Mormons," about their leaders, and other hand, has He not tried them and the life they are living. There are proved them by His Prophets? Did a thousand conjectures among them the Lord actually want Abraham to kill in relation to the "Mormons." The Isaac? Did the Prophet Joseph want grand secret is told in a few words; every man's wife he asked for? He the fact is, the Almighty God has did not, but in that thing was the spoken from the heavens, sent heavengrand thread of the Priesthood de- ly messengers, and organized His veloped. The grand object in view Church, restored the Holy Priesthood, was to try the people of God, to see established His government on the what was in them. If such a man of earth, and exerted his power to extend God should come to me and say, Iit, and send forth His word. And want your gold and silver, or your that Priesthood understands the prinwives," I should say, "Here they are, ciples and motives by which men are I wish I had more to give you, take actuated, and it understands the workall I have got." A man who has got ings of the devil on the earth; that the Spirit of God, and the light of Priesthood knows how to govern, when eternity in him, has no trouble about to strike, and when not to strike. such matters.

I am talking now of the present day. There was a time when we could be tried pretty severely upon

Some things in this Church start up at times, that you would think the whole Church would be rent asunder, like the clans of Scotland. Clanism,

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and Mormonism are like that and religion enough to suffer his [putting his fingers across]; Mor- agents to run along with the truth monism" is one, it is governed by one hand in hand, and make himself aphead, one President, and that head pear like an angel of light, and teach representing God on earth. If Joseph hundreds of true principles, if he can Smith held the keys of the kingdom of only thereby get you to swallow one God on earth, of the Apostleship, item of false doctrine. But the grand does not his successor possess the story is, the devil may rage as long same? Does he not have a right to as he pleases, and use all the cunning give laws, to instruct, to control and and craft that he may, yet he never rule the people of God? can overreach those who hold the keys of the Priesthood, nor succeed in deceiving them. This Joseph taught the people, but they were slow to believe. But now the energies of the people move as one man; and if they want to build a Temple, they can build it, and whatever they want to accomplish they can do.

I might still go on, and explain to your understandings exactly what I mean by rule. If this Priesthood is upon the earth, and you are controlled thereby, and listen to its counsels, you will be united as one people. I know the time was that many of this people believed that if a man was adopted here and there, one man would hold this way, and another that; but the fact is, in the kingdom and Church of the Lord they are all in one pile. I do not care how many of you have been adopted here or there; that is the doctrine to me.

The Priesthood is a power we should respect, reverence, and obey, no matter in whose hands it is. Let Lucifer mix in truths with error, and work great signs and wonders to deceive the very elect, but it is not possible. Why? Because they have learned the Priesthood, and they possess the power thereof that cannot be shaken. Let the Rappers go ahead, then, for it is not possible for them to deceive the elect of God; and let the witch of Endor, and all other witches and wizards, with the prince and power of the air at their head, do their best, if we keep the commandments of God we shall continually soar far above their power and influence.

Let the devils rap, then, and let them talk, and mutter, and have their mediums; what do I care, so long as the Priesthood is upon the earth, and the Apostleship is upon the earth, and the government of God, and the light | and influence of the Holy Ghost, are upon the earth? Can they shake the Saints? No. But let a man lose the Spirit of God, and depart from this Church, and from the men that hold the Priesthood of God on the I want to have nothing to do with earth, and I have no doubt that Lu- Satan, I desire not to shake hands cifer will reveal a great many truths with him, nor to do anything that will to him, and teach and advocate prin- bring me in contact with him, for he ciples and sentiments that will agree is powerful, and if he once gets you with doctrines of this Church. And in his grasp and shakes you, you will they will even imitate Joseph Smith's hand writing, and the hand writing of brother Hyrum, of Bishop Partridge, and of Bishop Whitney, and others; and they will give you flaming revelations, and the light they emit will blaze like a comet.

Now Lucifer has philosophy enough

think you are less than a grasshopper. Let us rally round the standard of God, and when we are in the circle of truth, then let the devil and the enemies of the Church of God fire their loudest guns, and wage their war, and marshal their strength, yet, armed with the armor of righteousness,

THE WORD OF WISDOM ESPECIALLY SUITED TO INFANTS AND YOUTH-PRIVATIONS IN MISSOURI-NECESSITY OF INTEGRITY, AND STRIFE FOR EXCELLENCE-RESPON SIBILITY OF PARENTS.

AN ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG, TO THE CHILDREN WHO FORMED THE PROCESSION AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ENTRANCE OF THE PIONEERS INTO GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY, DELIVERED IN THE TABERNACLE, GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, JULY 24, 1854.