This was purposed in the mind of God before the world was, and it was for this purpose that God designed to gather together the Jews oft, but they would not. It is for the same purpose that God gathers together the people in the last days—to build unto the Lord an house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc. Elder Woodruff frequently exhorted his fellow Saints to partake of the blessings available in the temple.
Like many other prophets of his day, Elder Woodruff prophesied that the time would come when there would be temples all over the world. The Lord promised me that I should live to find the people of God and have a name and a place … within his house, a name better than of sons or of daughters, a name that should not be cut off.
And I today rejoice in having a name with his people and assist in the dedication of another temple to his most holy name.
Praise be unto God and the Lamb forever. But in the providence of God it is laid upon me, and I pray God my Heavenly Father to give me grace equal to my day. It is a high and responsible position for any man to occupy and a position that needs great wisdom. I never expected to outlive President Taylor.
May thy servant Wilford be prepared for whatever awaits him on earth and have power to perform whatever is required at his hands by the God of Heaven. He was the fourth President of the Church in this dispensation. Cannon, left, and Joseph F. Smith, right. In his messages to the members of the Church, President Woodruff repeatedly testified of the Restoration of the gospel, just as he had done throughout his ministry. However, he bore testimony with increased urgency during those last nine years of his life.
He was the last living man to have served as an Apostle with Joseph Smith, and he felt a pressing need to leave a clear and abiding testimony of the Prophet of the Restoration.
About a year before he died, he said:. I do not understand why I have been preserved as long as I have been when so many Apostles and Prophets have been called home. I am the only man in the flesh that was with the Twelve Apostles when he turned over the kingdom of God to them and laid upon them the commandment to bear off this kingdom.
He stood for some three hours in a room delivering to us his last lecture. The room was filled as with consuming fire. His face was as clear as amber; his words were like vivid lightning to us.
They penetrated every part of our bodies from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet. I have sealed upon your heads all those principles, Priesthood, apostleship, and keys of the kingdom of God, and now you have got to round up your shoulders and bear off this kingdom or you will be damned.
That was the last speech he ever made in the flesh. Soon afterward he was martyred and called home to glory. As President of the Church, President Woodruff urged the Saints to seek and follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost, be true to their covenants, preach the gospel at home and abroad, be honest in their temporal responsibilities, and be diligent in temple and family history work. We have obeyed a different law and gospel to what other people have obeyed, and we have a different kingdom in view, and our aim should be correspondingly higher before the Lord our God, and we should govern and control ourselves accordingly, and I pray God my Heavenly Father that his Spirit may rest upon us and enable us to do so.
These developments also opened legal channels for the prosecution of Latter-day Saints who were practicing plural marriage. The Church made legal appeals, but to no avail.
These circumstances weighed heavily on President Woodruff. He sought the will of the Lord on the matter and eventually received a revelation that Latter-day Saints should cease the practice of entering into plural marriage. In this public declaration, dated September 24, , he stated his intention to submit to the laws of the land. He also testified that the Church had ceased teaching the practice of plural marriage.
About three months before the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, he delivered a discourse to a large assembly of Saints. He spoke of the need to be sealed to our parents and to continue that sealing ordinance throughout our generations:. I have not felt satisfied, neither did President [John] Taylor, neither has any man since the Prophet Joseph who has attended to the ordinance of adoption in the temples of our God.
We have felt that there was more to be revealed upon this subject than we had received. That additional revelation came to President Woodruff on April 5, Why not be adopted to him? I want all men who preside over these temples in these mountains of Israel to bear this in mind. What business have I to take away the rights of the lineage of any man? What right has any man to do this? No; I say let every man be adopted to his father; and then you will do exactly what God said when he declared He would send Elijah the prophet in the last days [see Malachi —6 ].
Have children sealed to their parents, and run this chain through as far as you can get it. Let us go on with our records, fill them up righteously before the Lord, and carry out this principle, and the blessings of God will attend us, and those who are redeemed will bless us in days to come.
I pray God that as a people our eyes may be opened to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to understand the great and mighty work that rests upon our shoulders, and that the God of heaven requires at our hands.
All that is meet and best while thou shalt live. It allowed sound vibrations generated by speaking into the mouthpiece to be engraved into a cylinder by a recording needle. Two decades later, Joseph J. Daynes Jr. Woodruff to talk into it. Wilford Woodruff spoke again into the graphaphone, or phonograph, the same words which he uttered into the instrument on March 12th.
They were repeated in order to obtain better results than were secured on that date. After reading his testimony as recorded on the 12th inst. Truman G. But this recording preserves indelible firsthand experience.
No work has been done on the actual cylinders since , and another attempt to capture the recordings is planned in the near future when technology is identified that will not destroy them.
Michael De Groote, a reporter at the Deseret News , recently completed research into the history of the three cylinders found in the Church History Library. His research suggests that the March 12 recordings have not survived. Therefore, the carefully worded four-minute testimony required two cylinders. DeGroote summarized how the testimony was transferred from the cylinders:. Christine R. Marin, an information specialist archivist at the Church History Library, said that in , the cylinders were taken to Recording Arts in Salt Lake City to have the testimony transferred onto tape.
The electronic media department at BYU also tried to make a more complete transfer. Welch at Syracuse University in New York. He completed the transfer on September 27, He recorded:.
I bear my testimony that the Prophet Joseph Smith said, before a large assemblage in Illinois, that if he were the emperor of the world and had control over the whole human family he would sustain every man, woman and child in the enjoyment of their religion. These are my sentiments today. I bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, ordained of God to lay the foundation of his church and kingdom in the last dispensation of the fulness of times.
I bear my testimony that in the early spring of , in Nauvoo, the Prophet Joseph Smith called the Twelve Apostles together and he delivered unto them the ordinances of the church and kingdom of God; and all the keys and powers that God had bestowed upon him, he sealed upon our heads, and he told us that we must round up our shoulders and bear off this kingdom, or we would be damned.
I am the only man now living in the flesh who heard that testimony from his mouth, and I know that it was true by the power of God manifest to him. At that meeting he stood on his feet for about three hours and taught us the things of the kingdom.
His face was as clear as amber, and he was covered with a power that I had never seen in any man in the flesh before. I bear testimony that Joseph Smith was the author of the endowments as received by the Latter-day Saints. I received my own endowments under his hands and direction, and I know they are true principles. I not only received my own endowments under his hands, but I bear my testimony that Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, George A.
Smith, John Taylor and other brethren received their endowments under the hands and direction of the Prophet Joseph; and also my wife Phoebe, Bathsheba Smith, Leonora Taylor, Mary Smith and others whose names I cannot recall now.
The Prophet Joseph laid down his life for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ, and he will be crowned as a martyr in the presence of God and the Lamb. This is my testimony, spoken by myself into a talking machine on this the 19th day of March, , in the 91st year of my age. I had my second anointings and sealings under his hands. There is not a single principle in this Church that he did not lay the foundation for; he called the Twelve together the last time he spoke to us, and his face shone like amber.
These accounts repeat similar ideas and in some case certain phrases word for word over a period of five decades. Instead of seeing the combined collection of reminiscences as providing a layer of tradition built upon earlier tellings of the story that have to be peeled back like an onion to get to the original core, what the collection reveals is the existence of a consistent and stable story repeated for over fifty years.
Following the martyrdom, questions about succession and what ordinances and institutions had been revealed through and established by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo were debated and argued by a number of individuals and organizations that challenged the authority of the Twelve to lead the Church. Wilford Woodruff was acutely aware of his role as witness and the significance of what he experienced. Wilford Woodruff provides both his memory of key events in the history of the Restoration at a critical period in the s and his interpretation of those events as he understood them.
However, some of the facts noted in the testimony are irrefutable. There can be no dispute about the broad historical context painted by Wilford Woodruff in his reminiscence.
For example, there is universal agreement that Joseph Smith spoke to large congregations in Illinois on several occasions between and Wilford Woodruff defends the Manifesto that discontinues the practice of plural marriage. President Woodruff bears testimony of the importance of journals and record keeping. President Woodruff teaches of the importance of bringing up our children in the ways of the Lord. Our children will be the leaders of the next generation.
President Woodruff teaches the importance of finding the records of our ancestors and completing temple work for them. Wilford Woodruff journals and papers, — Museum Treasures. Appointed member of the Seventy, 31 May Stockholder in Kirtland Safety Society. Married to Phebe Carter by Frederick G. Williams, 13 Apr.
Served mission to Great Britain, — Appointed assistant chaplain in Nauvoo Legion, 3 July Member of city council, —, in Nauvoo, Hancock Co. Member of Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. Served mission to eastern U.
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