Because they have not received the gospel, nor have they received that priesthood {177} by the laying on of hands by those having authority to confer it.--_Improvement Era,_ Vol. 14, December, 1910, p. 176. SANCTITY OF THE ORDINANCES OF THE PRIESTHOOD. There appears to be, among some of our people, an inadequate conception of the sanctity attending certain of the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood. True, the ministrations of those in authority among us are not attended with the pomp and worldly ceremony that characterize the procedure in other churches so-called, but the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in possession of the priesthood is sufficient to make any and every ordinance administered by due authority within the Church an event of supreme importance. In performing any such ordinance the one who officiates speaks and acts, not of himself and of his personal authority, but by virtue of his ordination and appointment as a representative of the powers of heaven. We do not set apart bishops and other officers in the Church, with the show and ceremony of a gala day, as do certain sectarians, nor do we make the ordinance of baptism a spectacular display; but the simplicity of the order established in the Church of Christ ought rather to add to than take from the sacred character of the several ordinances. An illustration of the fact that many do not understand the full sanctity of certain ordinances is found in the desire some evince to have them repeated. Until within a few years, it was a very general custom in the Church to allow a repetition of the baptismal rite to adults before they enter the temples. This custom, first established by due authority, and for good cause (see _Articles of Faith,_ by Talmage, 144-148) finally came to be regarded by many members of the Church as essential, and indeed, "re-baptism" was generally looked upon, though wrongly, as separate and different from the first ordinance of the gospel--by which alone one may gain entrance to the Church of Christ. But the most hurtful feature of this misunderstanding was the disposition {178} of some to look upon the repeated baptisms as a sure means of securing forgiveness of sins from time to time, and this might easily have led to the thought that one may sin with comparative impunity if he were baptized at frequent intervals. This condition has been changed in the Church, and at the present time only those who, having been admitted to the fold of Christ by baptism, afterwards stray therefrom, or are disfellowshiped or excommunicated by due process of the Church courts, are considered as fit subjects to receive a repetition of the initiatory ordinance. These remarks, it must be understood, have no reference to the baptisms and other ordinances performed in the temples.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 38, p. 18, January, 1903.