[Heber J. Grant]
... I do not claim to have received any special revelation for the people, but I do claim that the Lord had directed me and helped me beyond my natural ability to accomplish the work evolving upon me as President of the Church....
So far as changing the language of the ordination to the Priesthood is concerned permit me to say that president Joseph F. Smith said it did not make a particle of difference s to the exact language in conferring the Priesthood, whether the one officiating said 'I ordain you to the Aaronic'or Melchizedek'Priesthood'; and then set the person apart to an office in the Priesthood; or whether he ordained him to an office in the Priesthood and gave him all the authority pertaining to that particular office. You need not worry as to whether you have the Priesthood, but you should see earnestly to the Lord to help you to magnify the Priesthood. ...
The Church is the principal stockholder in the Sugar Company, and under the inspiration of the Lord, in my judgment, to Wilford Woodruff, the Church borrowed money and loaned it to the Sugar Company to establish the first beet factory ever built in the United States with American machinery. Brother Woodruff said, 'When I think of not establishing this industry and pray about it, it is darkness; and when I think of the Church helping and getting the money and building this factory, it is light'; and I have followed the light all my life, and we are going to follow it in building the Lehi factory. ...
The Prophet Joseph Smith gave a key that the majority of the authorities would never go wrong. ... Brigham Young had said that anyone who would fool with a planchette would be led into spiritualism, and of course that meant apostasy. 'The fruits of the Gospel are health and vigor of body and mind; the fruits of spiritualism,' President young said, 'are suicide and insanity.' ...
I understand that Mr. Godbe's [of the Godbeite spiritualist breakoff] wife went insane. ... [Godbe's son] committed suicide.
One of my schoolmates who joined 'The New Movement' as the followers of Godbe were called one of the brightest and most intelligent young men in school, finally committed suicide.
Neither you nor any other man will ever go wrong if you follow the majority of the Presidency and the Apostles. ...
Any claim by any person that he received authority from President John Taylor to do that which is contrary to the decisions and counsel of the constituted Authorities of the Church, is an absolute falsehood. [Fundementalist leader] Lorin Woolley claimed to have this authority. He was a falsifier. He claimed to have followed me to a hotel in Los Angeles, and that while there he heard Anthony W. Ivins perform a ceremony marrying a wife to me. This was a falsehood, as Anthony W. Ivins and I were never in a hotel together in Los Angeles. Woolley was excommunicated from the Church for lieing, and he is now dead and gone. ...
There is no necessity ... for you to go without food and water for two days in order to get spiritual advice; all you need to do is keep the commandment of the Lord, and the Lord will bless you with wisdom and strength. I know any number of people who have fasted until they lost their minds. You will never feel more sure of yourself by shaking hands with me, as to whether or not I am a Prophet of God. The only way you can get that knowledge is by living the Gospel. All you need to do, my dear brother, is to be a trit observer of the Word of Wisdom and a tithe-payer, and to keep the promises that you made in the temple of God, to sustain the Authorities of the Church, and to keep all the commandments the Lord has given or may give.
[Heber J. Grant, Letter to Burton Dye, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]
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