My brethren, again I sense that this is a great privilege to stand before you for a few minutes, and to say something to you that I hope may be helpful. Before I finish I shall want to return to my solo on the G string, "Unity," but I want to say a little something beforehand, and I trust the Lord will be with me that what I say may be in harmony with what He would have said.

THE PRIESTHOOD

The question of the priesthood has always been to me an alluring question, and not only alluring, but more or less elusive. We use the word priesthood apparently in at least two, if not three senses. We use it sometimes to mean the power of the priesthood I suppose in fact the priesthood is power. We use it sometimes to indicate the organization through which the priesthood operates and we use it sometimes, apparently, to indicate the service which the priesthood is to render.

I am going to read two or three extracts from the brethren of the past regarding the priesthood. The Prophet Joseph said: "The priesthood is an everlasting principle and existed with God from eternity, and will to eternity, without beginning of days or end of years. The keys have to be brought from heaven whenever the gospel is sent. When they are revealed from heaven it is by Adam's authority." On another occasion the Prophet said that Adam received the priesthood before the world was created.

PRE-EXISTENT CALLING

You may remember that as the account is given in the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham, the Father told Abraham that sometime he had come down and organized the spirits, and then he told Abraham that when he came down among them he found many that were great and good, and further on he said to Abraham, and I will read this to you:

". . . there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers: for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born"  Abr. 3:21-23

Following upon this general principle, the Prophet Joseph said: "Every man who has a calling," every man, "to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the grand council of heaven before this world was. I suppose," said he, "that I was ordained to this very office in that grand council" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 365).

BRIGHAM YOUNG QUOTED

Now I think I might read two statements from Brigham Young: "If anybody wants to know what the priesthood of the Son of God is, it is the law by which the worlds are, were and will continue forever and ever. It is that system which brings worlds into existence and peoples them, gives them their revolutions, their days, weeks, months, years, their seasons and times, and by which they are rolled up as a scroll, as it were, and grown to a higher state of existence" (Journal of Discourses 15:127).

And on another occasion he declared the priesthood to be "a perfect system of government, of laws and ordinances, by which we can be prepared to pass from one gate to another and from one sentinel to another until we go into the presence of our Father and God" (Journal of Discourses 2:139).

These various quotations must inevitably lead us to a great deal of reflection, and as I have indicated, to me they suggest we are using the term, priesthood, in the manner that I have spoken about.

ANALOGY MADE

Now, I have often wondered if I could find an analogy to the priesthood, and the best I have been able to do is to liken the priesthood to citizenship. Potentially every citizen of the United States is a president of the United States, speaking generally and disregarding the limitations as to who may be president, but we are not all presidents. Every one of us may be a senator or a congressman. We have that power as citizens. We may be governors; we may be state legislators; we may be city councilmen; we may be county commissioners; we may be judges. All of these or each of them or any of them may come to any citizen, but in order to exercise any particular function we must be duly appointed to it or duly elected to it.

Now there are many differences between citizenship and priesthood, many. One that occurs to one offhand is that a man elected to be a judge in one locality, one jurisdiction, loses that power when he moves to another jurisdiction. That is not true of the priesthood. A man remains a deacon wherever he goes, or a high priest, and may perform his functions under certain limitations and rules.

But we do not now have the keys to do some of the things which Brother Brigham said the priesthood was to do, or that the priesthood did, for example, the creation and the governing of worlds. I can think of this situation, this power in terms of human government, civil government; the powers of sovereignty that rest in the people and that are delegated to government, to be exercised, by this man as a governor, by that man as a senator, and by another man as a president of the United States. So do we in the priesthood. Each one of us, as it seems to me, has certain functions of the whole priesthood. A deacon has his, the teacher has his, the priest his, and so on. And while under the priesthood, a man in a high place may perform all the functions of those who are below, the one in the lower bracket may not perform the functions of anybody in the higher bracket. This principle does not of course obtain in our civil government.

ORDINATION IN GRAND COUNCIL

I do not know whether we have a right to interpret the Prophet's statement, "Every man who has a calling to administer to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the grand council of heaven, before the world was," I do not know that we may interpret that to mean any but those who have charge of dispensations or are leaders therein, but I like to think that it does include those of us of lesser calling and lesser stature. We have been told ever since I was old enough to remember that those who are coming forth among the Latter-day Saints were choice spirits, and I like to think that perhaps in that grand council something at least was said to us indicating what would be expected of us, and empowering us, subject to the re-confirmation here, to do certain things in building up the kingdom of God on earth.

EACH PART HAS OWN FUNCTION

Now the lesson that I would like to get out of that, has been referred to by President McKay, and that is that this whole priesthood organization—I am now using the term in the sense of organization—each part of it, has its own function, and each man belonging to the given order of priesthood, deacon, teacher, priest, and so on, has certain things to do. If a quorum fails in a ward, the ward is not carrying on as it should. If a member fails in a quorum, the quorum is not carrying on as it should. We are all bound together as one, and insofar as we fail, as individuals, to carry on the work which we are supposed to do, we are to that extent hindering the carrying on of the work of the Lord and to that extent we are responsible for the lack or fulness of growth that may occur on account of our failure.

There is no escape, as I see it, brethren, from that conclusion.

PERFECT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Now, before passing to the unity matter, I wish to call your attention to the fact that the Prophet said we had a perfect system, "the priesthood was a perfect system of government."

Have you ever thought, and if you have not I suggest you do think about it, that if the civil government of any of our communities were to be suddenly wiped out, that the Church organization could govern the community if it were given the necessary civil sanction. To illustrate, our teachers who are to keep the Church in order, could act as the police force. Our bishops are authorized to hold court, the high council and the president of the stake another court, both of appellate and of original jurisdiction, with an appeal to the Presidency of the Church from that decision. And in the First Presidency of the Church, the President of the Church resides the power and authority to make all necessary rules and regulations for the government of the people.

We have already, therefore, set up in this Church of ours, an organization of the Priesthood which could govern any community if it were given the necessary civil sanction, and if chaos should come, and if we travel along our present line far enough it will come, some of you may live to see the necessity of such an action as that.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

Now, brethren, coming back to our individual responsibility for the welfare of the carrying on of the work of the Lord. Every man having his own place must, if he is to fulfill his full duty and perform his full functions, work with those about him. He cannot go off on a line of his own and still help to carry on the work of the Lord. The quorum must be united if it is to function properly, and united means seeing and working eye to eye. The ward and all the quorums in it must so function if the ward is to carry on and do its work as it should. So with the stake and so with the Church as a whole.

URGES UNITY

And now I will repeat to you, brethren, what I have said to you every time I have had the opportunity to talk to you, and that has been every time since I came into this position, and I believe I have attended every general priesthood meeting since then; if we were united there is nothing that the body of priesthood of this Church might not do within the functions of the priesthood, no matter what it is. And I say to you further that if we saw eye to eye on matters of civil government, which we are not likely to do, there is nothing we might not accomplish there within the places and jurisdictions where we live.

Now, brethren, I again pray, as I have always, that we will be united. The Lord has laid down with sufficient clearness that none of us needs have any doubt about it as to what his will is. He set up this government under his divine guidance, and so far as I am concerned, as I have said before so I say now, this government of ours under the Constitution, being thus set up by the Lord, is a part of my religion, and we shall not succeed, and we shall not preserve our independence, our free institutions, our liberties, unless we safeguard our rights under the Constitution.

This was said to us in the opening session of the conference by President George Albert Smith.

May God give us his power and his wisdom and his inspiration to help us do the things that we should do, to help us magnify the priesthood which we have, which is a delegation of the power of God himself—how greatly sobering that concept is—that we may bring to pass the things which he has declared we should do, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus, Amen.