[Footnote A: Hist. of Joseph Smith, Mill. Star, Vol. XV, 261.]
Surely no one will contend that the standing high council in one stake could go into another stake and attempt to regulate the affairs thereof; for that would create confusion. Nothing can be clearer in the organization of the church than the fact that the standing high councils in the stakes of Zion are judicial not executive bodies, limited in their jurisdiction to the stakes in which they are respectively located; and hence not the proper councils to undertake the general Presidency of the church, or administrative functions of any kind.
VIII.
Let us now proceed to the proof that Joseph Smith, the prophet, did not take the keys of authority with him from the church, when he fell a martyr to the truth, but that said keys of authority remained with the church, more especially with the quorum of the Twelve.
On March 8th, 1833, the Lord said to Joseph Smith:
Verily, I say unto you, the keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come; nevertheless, through you shall the oracles be given unto another yea, even to the church![A]
[Footnote A: The italics are mine. R. Doc. and Cov., sec. xc.]
Joseph and Hyrum, then, did not take with them the "oracles" of God necessary to make the church efficient in accomplishing the work that God designed it to perform. Though the keys given to the prophet were never to be taken from him, either in this world or that which is to come—though for ever he is to stand as the President of the great dispensation of the fullness of times—yet the keys of authority and power committed to his hands may be given to another, "even to the church," not to his posterity, mark you.
This revelation makes it easy to believe that there was inspiration in the declaration of Brigham Young, uttered when he heard for the first time of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum. He was at Peterboro, N. H., when the sad intelligence reached him:—
The first thing that I thought of was whether Joseph had taken the keys of the kingdom with him from the earth. Brother Orson Pratt sat on my left, we were both leaning back in our chairs. Bringing my hand down on my knee, I said, the keys of the kingdom are right here with the church.[A]