Читать книгу History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Joseph F. Smith - Страница 108

1. The organization of quorums of Seventy in the Church was regarded as a very strange thing in modern times, but that such an organization had existed in the Church of God, both in the days of Moses and also in the days of Messiah, is evident from the scriptures. The Lord said to Moses: "Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off. * * * Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. * * * And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink" (Exodus 24:1, 9, 11). And again, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. * * * And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease" (Numbers 11:16, 17, 24, 25).

It is not clear from the Old Testament just what the functions of the Seventy were in the Hebrew Priesthood, but they certainly were endowed with prophetic powers, and it is quite probable that the Sanhedrin (consisting of seventy-one members, inclusive of the president,) of later Jewish times had some relation to this earlier council of seventy.

The organization of the Seventy by the Savior is alluded to in the tenth chapter of Luke as follows: "After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, (from this it appears that quorums of seventy had been appointed previous to this) and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come. Therefore said He unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would sent forth laborers into His harvest. Go your way: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the Son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house." That is, while these men were sent forth without purse and scrip it was evidently not the intention of the Lord that they should beg from door to door. Continuing His instructions, the Master said: "And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you, notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. * * He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me." The Seventy, it appears went forth under these instructions and were successful, for Luke continues: "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name." After this very plain allusion to this order of the Priesthood called the Seventy, these instructions, and the definitions given of their duties and callings, there can be no doubt as to their constituting an important factor in the Christian Church Organization. The absence of such quorums of Priesthood in modern Church establishments is but one among many other evidences that the Church of Christ had ceased from among men.

2. See page 182 (note).

3. The quorums of Seventy, in other words—in connection with the Twelve Apostles, under whose direction they labor—constitute the foreign ministry or the Church; and when the kind of labor they are expected to perform is taken into account, it will be found that their organization is admirably adopted for their work—the means are adequate to the end proposed. In all other quorums of the high Priesthood, excepting the Twelve, the presidency consists of a president and two counselors, but the presidency of the quorum of Seventy consists of seven presidents, equal in authority. For the sake of order, however, precedence is recognized in seniority of ordination; that is, the senior president by ordination—not of age—presides in the council, and over the quorum; and in the event of his absence, then the next senior president by ordination has the right of initiative and presides, and so on down the line of presidents. The order established in the Church for the work of the foreign ministry is for Elders to travel two and two. This doubtless for the reason that the Lord would establish His word by the mouths of two witnesses at least, to say nothing of the pleasure that would be derived from the companionship subsisting between two Elders while traveling among strangers, and even among enemies. A quorum of Seventy, if sent out into the world as a body, is capable of realizing all the advantages conceivable from organization. It can be broken up into just seven groups of ten members; with each group would be a president; these groups can be sub-divided into five pairs, who could scatter out into various neighborhoods, occasionally meet in conference with the group of ten to which the respective pairs belonged, and at greater intervals, the several groups could be called together for quorum conference. Thus a quorum of Seventy can be a veritable flying column, making proclamation of the Gospel, the like of which is to be found nowhere outside the Church of Christ.

4. Instead of giving the forty names that here follow the statement of the Prophet in his history, I give the entire list of names that constituted the first quorum of Seventy, as written by the late President Joseph Young, in his "History of the Organization of the Seventies." All the brethren given in this list were not ordained on this 28th day of February, 1835, but all who were ordained on that date, of course, are included in this list. Of this organization of the quorum of Seventy, the statement of Elder Joseph Young, who became the senior president of the first council, has already been given at page 181.