Do not reject anything because it is new or strange, and do not sneer nor jeer at what comes from the Lord, for if we do, we endanger our salvation. It is given to us, as agents, to choose or refuse, as brother S. W. Richards has set before you, but we are agents within limits, if it were not so there would be no law. (Brigham Young, July 14, 1855, JD 3:267)
I [Editor of the Millennial Star, probably Orson Hyde] met with the twelve at Brother Joseph’s. He conversed with us in a familiar manner on a variety of subjects and explained to us the Urim and Thummin which, found with the plates, called in the Book of Mormon the Interpreters. He said that every man who lives on the earth was entitled to a seer stone, and should have one, but they are kept from them in consequence of their wickedness, and most of those who do not make an evil use of it; he showed us his seer stone. (Millennial Star 26:118)
Every man that gets his endowments, whether he is a high priest or seventy may go into any part of the world and build up the kingdom if he has the keys. (Brigham Young, 26 December 1845, DHC 7:553)
I was asked if certain ordinances could be performed in different places. I told them, yes, under certain circumstances. “Where,” I was asked-”Anywhere besides in temples?” Yes. Anywhere besides the Endowment House? Yes. “Where, in some other house?” In another house or out of doors, as the circumstances might be. Why did I say that? . . . It is the authority of the Priesthood, not the place, that validates and sanctifies the ordinance. I was asked if people could be sealed outside. Yes. I could have told them I was sealed outside, and lots of others. (President John Taylor, October 19, 1884, JD 25:355-356)
All truth may be new to the ignorant, though old as eternity to the Gods, and whom the Gods make wise. Much that is true, is not expedient. The Prophet Joseph could not tell all he knew, even to the Elders; nor the Elders all they knew to the people. Paul, caught up unto “the third heaven”; Joseph, unto “the seventh heaven,” saw and heard things unspeakable, things “unlawful to be uttered.” The mysteries of God’s kingdom are not for the world, nor for novices in the faith until it is wisdom in the Lord, “lest they perish.” (Life of Heber C. Kimball, by Apostle Orson F. Whitney, 1888,, Second Collector’s Edition, 1996, p. 162)
When a man is capable of correcting you, and of giving you light, and true doctrine, do not get up an altercation, but submit to be taught like little children, and strive with all your might to understand. (Brigham Young, April 9, 1852, JD1:47)
THE Journal of Discourses deservedly ranks as one of the standard works of the Church, and every rightminded Saint will certainly welcome with joy every Number as it comes forth from the press as an additional reflector of “the light that shines from Zion’s hill.” We rejoice, therefore, in being able to present to the Saints another completed Volume-the Eighth of the series; and, in so doing, we sincerely commend the varied and important instructions it contains to their earnest consideration. (George Q. Cannon, Preface to Volume 8 of the Journal of Discourses)
And we would here take occasion to remark, that it would be well if all our readers would secure a copy of the Journal of Discourses as it is issued, and also of every standard work of the Church; and not only secure these works but attentively read them, and thoroughly study the principles they contain. Those of the Saints who fail to obtain the standard publications of the Church, will not be likely to prove very intelligent Saints, and will be very liable to wake up some day, and find themselves wonderfully behind the times, and consequently will not be able to stand the day of trial, which will come upon all the world. Without the intelligence that comes through the Holy Priesthood, the Saints cannot gain salvation, and this intelligence is given in the various publications of the Church. Who then will endanger his salvation by being behind the times? (Samuel F. Richards, Millennial Star Editorial, 15:780, 26 November 1853)
We have seen that the mission of Christ to the dead was spoken of by Isaiah in the forty-second chapter. The same great prophet utters a prediction in the twenty-fourth chapter as follows: “The earth is also defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant.” The context shows clearly that this prophecy refers to the last days, because it predicts that “the inhabitants of the earth are burned and but few men left.” The term “everlasting covenant” cannot refer to the Mosaic law, which existed under the lesser priesthood. This law consisted in the rites and ceremonies of the offering of sacrifice, pointing to the great sacrifice of the Messiah, and of the law of carnal commandments, which served, Paul says, as a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. The Mosaic law was done away in Him, because he fulfilled the law. It was not everlasting. Breaking the everlasting covenant must, therefore, refer to an apostasy from the fullness of the Gospel as instituted by the Savior. (Matthias F. Cowley, Cowley’s Talks on Doctrine, p 126-237)
The Latter-day Saints have been so repeatedly and generally misrepresented and maligned, that ordinarily little has been done by way of refutation. Were the people to undertake to meet every lie uttered against them and set it right, they would devote the whole of their lives to it and then die without accomplishing the desired object. But there are times when a refutation is necessary; when the whole people awake in earnestness to deny the misrepresentations of those who purposely and wilfully assail them. (Junius F. Wells, The Contributor, Vol. XIII, No. 1, November 1891, P. 52)
Praying with Hands Raised:
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. (1 Timothy 2:8)
[At the meeting] Joseph then gave instruction to prepare their minds. He told them to kneel and pray with uplifted hands. (Remembrances of Zebedee Coltrin, quoted in Andrew Ehat’s Master’s Thesis, “Joseph Smith’s Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question.” BYU, December 1982, p. )
That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High. * * * And when any shall come in after him, let the teacher arise, and with uplifted hands to heaven, yea, even directly, salute his brother or brethren with these words: (D&C 88:120, 132)
That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High— . . . And that all their salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with holy hands, uplifted to the Most High; (D&C 109:9, 19)
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)
Shem was Melchizedek:
From this definite account of driving the “nations apart, when the ancient hills did bow,” all reflecting minds may judge that man was scattered over the whole face of the earth: And with the superior knowledge of men like Noah, Shem, (who was Melchisedec) and Abraham, the father of the faithful, three cotemporaries, holding the keys of the highest order of the priesthood: connecting the creation, and fall; memorizing the righteous of Enoch; and glorying in the construction of the ark for the salvation of a world; still retaining the model and pattern of that ark, than which a greater, ah, we may say, half so great a vessel has never been built since. (Times and Seasons, December 15, 1844, Vol 23, page 746.)
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“….because the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out.” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 137)
“I advise all to go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness.” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 364)
“Truth is a pursuit too difficult for most men to accept, and the sacrificial demands at its altar will almost extinguish their numbers.” (anonymous)
“If any man attempts to refute what I am about to say, after I have made it plain, let him be accursed.” (Joseph Smith, TLC D&C 162:57, DHC 5:426)
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