[Wilford Woodruff]
I told the Bishops to impress upon the minds of the people the necessity of living their Religion after this date for if the people again Commit sin after being forgiven as they now were they would not again be forgiven but the Justice of the Law would be brought against them & they would have to pay the penalty or be cut off from the Church again. I told them they should not boast of their authority & power or that a Seventy was greater than a High Priest or that a High Priest was greater than a seventy. No man should boast of the power of the priesthood untill he obtained some of that power & it was manifested upon him & when that was upon him he certainly would not boast of it for the Holy spirit would teach him sens enough to know better.
It is vary seldom that I have known the power of the priesthood made manifest upon the Children of men in our [time] to a vary great Degree but in some instances it was manifest as in the Case of the prophet Joseph at the time his [house] was full of the sick & dying & his door Yard & they were Strewed along the bank of the River for 2 miles & Joseph Rose up & shook himself like an old Lyon & commenced at his own tent door & healed all the people who were not dead on both sides of the river by the power of God. His voice was as the voice of God & the earth almost trembled under his feet as he commanded the sick to arise & be made whole.
...Again this power was manifest with President Brigham Young on the bank of the Missouri River at winter Quarters when the merchants brought up goods to sell to the brethren who were going to the mountains. Old Major Miller the Indian Agent was surrounded by officers & Miller in order to show his great power He told the merchants that owned some Alcohol not to roll a Barrel off from the boat. That He would knock the head in & spill it upon the ground. Presidet Young steped up & told the man to roll it out & if Miller spilled it that moment I will spill his clarrett. He & all the officers turned pale. The liquor was rolled out & nobody hurt. And other instances might be named whare the power of the priesthood has been manifest but these men have never boasted of it nor never will.
[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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