The Vitality of Mormonism: Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

by James E. Talmage

If a mother church be devoid of Divine commission in the Holy Priesthood, definitely and authoritatively vested, no sect springing from that parent institution can inherit the Priesthood.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints positively avers that it lays claim to no priestly authority through mortal succession reaching back to the Primitive Church of the East, nor by descent from the Nephite Church of Christ as established on the Western Continent.

To the contrary, this Church affirms the complete cessation of Divine commission in churchly organizations, and the consequent necessity of a restoration—a new dispensation from the heavens.

This Church disavows any and all derivation of appointment or commission, direct or implied, from other organizations, Catholic or Protestant, "established" or dissenting churches sects or parties. It defends the rights of all men, whether church members or not, to worship as they severally choose to do, and to believe in and advocate the genuineness of any sect or church to which they elect to belong; and, by the same principle of liberty, it claims the right to set forth its own professions and doctrines, the while bespeaking for these a dispassionate and prayerful consideration.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints avows that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth in the present age, by means and manner strictly in accord with prophecy; and that through direct bestowal from the heavens the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, which are indispensable to individual salvation, is operative today in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is near, as hath been predicted by the mouths of holy prophets and by the coming Lord Himself.

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DIVINE COMMAND AND HUMAN AGENCY

The Church a Democracy

THE compound character of the name-title—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—has elicited inquiries from many thoughtful readers. Does the organization profess to be The Church of Jesus Christ, or The Church of the Latter-day Saints?