"The plea of many is that we have no right to receive revelations, but if we do not receive revelations we do not have the oracles of God, and they who do not have His oracles are not His people. You ask. 'What will become of the world and the various professors of religion who do not believe in revelation and in the oracles of God as contained in His Church in the ages of the world when he had a people upon the earth?' I tell you in the name of Jesus Christ, they will be damned, and when you get into the eternal world you will find it so. They cannot escape the damnation of hell.
"As touching the gospel and baptism of John, I would say that John came preaching the gospel for the remission of sins. He had authority from God, and his oracles were with him, and the Kingdom for a season seemed to rest with John alone. He was a legal administrator. Those who were baptized were subjects for the Kingdom. The laws and oracles of God were there; so also was the Kingdom of God. No man could have better authority to administer than John, and even the Savior Himself submitted to that authority by being baptized of John. John was a priest after the order of Aaron and held the keys of that priesthood. He came forth preaching repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, but at the same time crying: 'There cometh one after me mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.' Christ came, according to the word of John. He was greater than John because he held the keys of the Melchizedek priesthood and the Kingdom of God, and had before revealed the priesthood to Moses. Jesus says in his teachings: 'Upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' What rock? The rock of revelation. Yet Christ was baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness. He says, 'Except ye are born of the water and of the spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; though the heavens and the earth pass away my word shall not pass away.' If a man be born of the water and the spirit he can enter into the Kingdom of God. It is evident that the Kingdom of God was upon the earth and that John prepared subjects for that Kingdom by preaching the gospel and by baptizing them. He preached the same gospel and baptism that Jesus and the apostles preached after him.
"The endowment of Pentecost was to prepare the disciples for their mission in the world. Whenever a man can find out the will of God and find an administrator legally authorized from Him, there is the Kingdom of God; but where these are not, there the Kingdom of God is not. All the ordinances, systems, and administrations on the earth are of no use to the children of men unless they are ordained and authorized of God. None others will be acknowledged either by God or by angels.
"I know what I say, I understand my mission, God almighty is my shield and what can man do if He is my friend. I shall not be sacrificed until my time comes, then I shall be offered freely. I thank the Lord for delivering me from my enemies. I have no enmity, I have no desire but to do all men good. I feel to pray for all men. We do not ask people to throw away any good which they have, we only ask them to come and receive more. What if all the world should embrace this gospel? We should then see eye to eye and the blessings of God would be poured out upon the people, which is my whole soul's desire. Amen."
We are not informed whether there were present men and women ready to criticize this address as a want of discretion in the Prophet for the use of such language. No doubt there were. He had just gotten out of trouble and they, no doubt, argued, why should he use language that would bring upon him more trouble. The Prophet was not thinking of trouble; he was not occupied in selecting the most discreet words. He had a mission that put upon him obligations; come what may, these obligations must be fulfilled. He was not concerned so much about his personal welfare and safety as he was about the welfare and salvation of mankind.
Not long after this, on the 10th of March, Elder Woodruff gives an account of peculiar signs which he witnessed in the heavens. The occurrence took place about seven o'clock in the evening and lasted for about three hours. There was a stream of light in the form of a drawn broadsword with the hilt downward and the blade pointing upward from the southeast at an angle of 45 degrees. This sign appeared for five successive evenings. On the evening of the 14th it moved to a position near the moon. It then formed itself into a large ring on the inside of which appeared balls of light, something like sundogs. Another half ring issued from these balls in the shape of a horseshoe. They extended outside of the ring with one line running through the center of the moon. Of this manifestation he quotes the Prophet as saying: "As sure as there is a God who sits in the heavens, and as sure as He ever spoke by my mouth, there will be a bloody war; and the broadsword sign in the heavens is a sign thereof."
Several days later other remarkable signs were seen in the heavens. Orson Pratt, professor of mathematics in the University of Nauvoo, sketched a diagram of the halos and perihelion, or circles; and mock suns were discovered in the heavens on the morning of March 23rd, 1843; there were still other signs. As in the case of the sword there was seen on the opposite side of the horizon a streak of blackness, the other appeared like the blaze of a comet.
During these times the river banks along Nauvoo presented busy scenes. The city was full of activity and was constantly enlarging by reason of the emigration from abroad. On the 12th and 13th of March steamboats landed at Nauvoo bringing 480 Saints, 250 of these wintered in St. Louis. Parley P. Pratt and Dr. Levi Richards were among the returning elders. Many of the Saints were old acquaintances of President Woodruff who hailed them with delight and they in turn were happy to meet again the man who had first brought the gospel to them. They were made welcome by the authorities and the Saints in Nauvoo. The day after their arrival, they were addressed in public assembly by the Prophet.
About this time word came that Elder Lorenzo Barnes, then a missionary of the Church, had died in a foreign land. Speaking of the death of Elder Barnes, the prophet, in a discourse delivered on the 16th of April in reference to Elder Barnes, said: "I should have been more reconciled to the death of Elder Barnes could his body have been laid in the grave in Nauvoo or among the Saints. I have very peculiar feelings in the matter of receiving an honorable burial with my fathers. The ancient Saints were very particular about their burial places. Joseph, before his death, made his kindred promise to carry his bones to the land of Canaan, and they did so. They embalmed his body and buried him with his fathers. There is a blessing in such a privilege which many do not comprehend; still it is true that in the resurrection the Saints will all rise to meet the Lord and they will all be brought together though their bodies be scattered on the face of the whole earth.
"I wish the Saints to be comforted by the thought of the victory they will gain through the resurrection. The thought is sufficient to encourage the Saints to overcome obstacles in the midst of their trial, trouble, and tribulation. Though the thunders roar and the earthquakes roar or bellow; though lightnings flash and war be on every hand, suffer not a joint to tremble nor let your hearts faint for the great Eloheim will deliver you. If you are not delivered before the resurrection, you will be set free by it from all those things and from pain, sorrow, and death.