"While we were thus employed, praying and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descending in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us; saying unto us--_'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 from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.' "The messenger who visited us on this occasion, and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament; and that he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Melchisedec Priesthood, and who in due season visit us and confer that, the higher Priesthood, upon us, which holds the keys of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost and right to all the offices in the church." Thus was the way opened up for the ushering in of the great latter-day dispensation and the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man" (_Luke xvii._, 26); and as Noah knew when the flood was to come, and prepared himself therefor, so the comparison would not be complete unless some knew of the second coming of the Savior. "But," says one, "of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (_Matt. xxiv._, 36); and the same might have been said appropriately of the {296} birth of our Lord two thousand years prior thereto. But as the first coming was heralded by angels who came to the shepherds upon the plains of Bethlehem, and lighted the earth with their glory, singing the glad songs of "Peace on earth, good will toward men," so His second coming was ushered in by visits to the earth of great and mighty angels. John the Baptist came to confer the Priesthood of Aaron. Peter, James and John the Revelator came to confer the Melchisedec Priesthood. Elijah came (_Mal. iv._, 5) to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers. (_I. Peter iii._, 18, 19, 20; _iv._, 6; _I. Cor. xv._, 19-29). Moses came to confer the keys of the gathering of the house of Israel to their promised land--the carrying of the Jews back to Jerusalem, of the ten tribes from the north country (_Jer. xxxi._, 8, 9; _Ezek. xx._, 34, 35), and of the descendants of Joseph (The American Indians) to their possessions. Michael, or Adam, came to give the authority that links the generation of men together, from the days of Father Adam down to to-day.