Account of Meeting and Discourse, 5 January 1841, as Published in Clayton, Revelations
Source Note
Account of Meeting and JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL], 5 Jan. 1841. Version published [ca. 1857] in [William Clayton], Revelations, no date, 8–10. The copy used for transcription is held at CHL.
bled the roaring of a lion. He was a good orator, but is a superior orator and like Paul is active and diligent, always employing himself in doing good to his fellow men.
By Joseph, Jan. 5, 1841.— Answer to the question, Was the taken away when Moses died? All priesthood is Melchisedek, but there are different portions or degrees of it. That portion which brought Moses to speak with God face to face was taken away; but that which brought the ministry of angels remained. All the Prophets had the Melchisedek priesthood and were ordained by God himself. The world and earth are not synonymous terms. The world is the human family.— This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled and made into the one on which we live. The elements are eternal. That which has a beginning will surely have an end; take a ring, it is without beginning or end—cut it for a beginning place and at the same time you have an ending place. A : every principle proceeding from God is eternal and any principle which is not eternal is of the devil.— The sun has no beginning or end; the rays which proceed from himself have no bounds, consequently are eternal. So it is with God. If the soul of man had a beginning it will surely have an end. In the translation ‘without form and void’ it should read, empty and desolate. The word created should be formed, or organized.
Observation of the Sectarian God.—That which is without body or parts is nothing. There is no other God in heaven but that God who has flesh and bones. John v, 26, As the Father hath life in himself even so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. God the Father took life unto himself precisely as Jesus did. The first step in the salvation of man is the laws of eternal and self existent principles. Spirits are eternal. At the first organization in heaven we were all present and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made and we sanctioned it. We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has no body and herein is his punishment. He is pleased when he can obtain the tabernacle of man, and when cast out by the Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, showing that he [p. 9]