"Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness." {242} There is nothing said here about the offices of this priesthood. They were an after consideration. I will remark here that the priesthood is greater than the offices which grew out of it, and are mere appendages to it, "all other authorities or offices in the Church are appendages to this priesthood"--meaning the Melchizedek Priesthood. But there are two divisions or grand heads (not three, nor many); one is the Melchizedek priesthood and the other is the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood. The offices in the priesthood are necessary appendages thereof--for the purposes of order and government, and the duties of these several offices are defined in the revelations and laws and commandments of God. This most sacred and important event, above quoted, occurred at or near a place called Harmony, in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, while Joseph Smith was living there, engaged in the translation of the Book of Mormon, and Oliver Cowdery was writing for him. We have not, unfortunately, any account so definite, of the reception by Joseph and Oliver, of the Melchizedek priesthood as we have the confirmation of the Aaronic priesthood. But we have positive information and knowledge that they did receive this priesthood at the hands of Peter, James and John, to whom the keys and power thereof were committed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and who were commissioned to restore it to the earth in the dispensation of the fulness of times. We cannot fix the exact date when this priesthood was restored, but it occurred some time between the 15th of May, 1829, and the 6th of April, 1830. We can approximate to within a few months of the exact time, but no further, from any of the records of the Church, Joseph, the Prophet, designates the place where their ordination took place, in his address to the Saints (Sec. 128:20) written in 1842, as follows: