During the early history of the Church, as well as the early settlement of Utah, second blessings [anointings] were adminsitered only to those chosen by the president of the Church, and this continued all through the administration of President Brigham Young, but later the authority [was] vested in the stake presidents to recommend to the First Presidency such men presided over by [the stake presidents and] deemed worthy by them to receive the second anointing, this for the reason that the Church had increased in numbers so that it had become a matter of impossibility for the President of the Church to be personally acquainted with every man suitable and worthy to be thus honored. * [It is suggested that] men [be recommended] whose faith has never been shaken, whose integrity to the Lord and his servants has been beyond question, men who have been valiant for the truth, men who have defended the servants of the Lord and never betrayed them, men who have done what they could, whether in preaching or in working to help their file leaders to build up Zion, and who are ever ready and willing to labor in the interests of Zion at home or abroad, and who are in harmony with[,] and [who] sustain by their faith and prayers and good works[,] the First Presidency and general authorities of the Church, and those immediately presiding over them, and the same with respect to the character of their wives.
[Source: Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, and Charles W. Penrose to David Halls, June 25, 1913, as quoted in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
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