That was when Wilford Woodruff was a young man; let us hear him forty-eight years' later, when he stood up under the weight of eighty-five years and in the presence of a large congregation said:
I remember the last speech that he [Joseph the prophet] ever gave us before his death. It was before we started upon our mission to the East. He stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was filled as with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and he was clothed upon by the power of God. He laid before us our duty. He laid before us the fullness of this great work of God; and in his remarks to us he said: "I have had sealed upon my head every key, every power, every principle of life and salvation that God has ever given to any man who ever lived upon the face of the earth. And these principles and this Priesthood and power belong to this great and last dispensation which the God of heaven has set his hand to establish in the earth, "now," said he, addressing the Twelve, "I have sealed upon your heads every key, every power, and every principle which the Lord has sealed upon my head." And continuing he said: "I have lived up to the present time, I have been in the midst of this people and in the great work and labor of redemption. I have desired to live to see this temple [the Nauvoo temple] built. But I shall never live to see it completed, but you will. After addressing us in this manner he said: "I tell you the burden of this kingdom now rests upon your shoulders; you have got to bear it off in all the world, and if you don't do it you will be damned."[A]
[Footnote A: Remarks of President Woodruff following a discourse on
Priesthood and the Right of Succession, by the writer in 1892.—See
Appendix.]
The testimony of Wilford Woodruff in his youth is the same as in his old age; the same when a missionary in the eastern states traveling without purse or scrip, as when President of the church of Jesus Christ, honored and loved for his unswerving integrity and truth.
Under date of January 23rd, 1848, President Brigham Young, in a letter to Orson Spencer, President of the British Mission, informing him of the organization of the First Presidency of the church at Winter Quarters in 1848, said:—
Joseph told the Twelve, the year before he died, there is not one key or power to be bestowed on this Church to lead the people into the celestial gate but I have given you, showed you, and talked it over to you, the kingdom is set up, and you have the perfect pattern, you can go and build up the kingdom, and go in at the celestial gate, taking your train with you.[A]
[Footnote A: Mill. Star, Vol. X, p. 115.]
And now for a testimony from the "enemy's" camp that the Twelve were the proper persons to lead the church, after the prophet Joseph's death:
NOTICE!!!
After mature and candid deliberation I am fully and satisfactorily convinced that Mr. Sidney Rigdon's claims to the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are not founded in Truth. I have been deceived by his specious pretences, and now feel to warn every one over whom I have any influence to beware of him, and his pretended visions and revelations. The Twelve are the proper persons to lead the church.[A]