He was particularly careful to set in order the quorums of the priesthood, and charged them to walk in holiness before the Lord. Who does not remember with what earnestness and power in conferences and other public meetings, he was wont to admonish Presidents of Stakes and bishops of wards to set in order the priesthood and institutions under their supervision? And how he urged them to labor with all diligence, long-suffering and kindness for the reformation of the wayward! But if they would not reform, how he then strictly charged the authorities having jurisdiction in the case to sever them from the Church, that God, angels and the world might know that Israel had no fellowship with drunkards, debauchees, thieves, liars or the dishonest. Alluding to the Priesthood and its organization he would say: "These things are given to us for what? To gratify our ambition? to enable us to ride over and trample under foot our fellow-creatures? to place power and authority upon us? No; not for any man's emolument or aggrandizement. Although there is nothing more honorable, nothing more dignified, nothing to which a man ought so much to aspire to as to be a servant of the living God, and to be commissioned by Him to do His work upon the earth. And what for? To spread correct principles among men; to combat priestcraft, statecraft, oppression, fraud and iniquity of all kinds; and to introduce among men those pure and holy principles by which the Gods are governed in the eternal worlds." In addition to these things he taught implicit trust in God, showed the Saints their dependence upon Him, and frequently alluded to the source from whence they derived their knowledge of truth. "Any intelligence which we may possess," he would say, "and which we may be able to impart, is not of ourselves, but of God. It did not originate with Joseph Smith, with Brigham Young, with the Twelve Apostles, nor was it received from any institution of learning, or of science, either religious, political or social. Our philosophy is not the philosophy of the world; but of the earth and the heavens, of time and eternity, and proceeds from God." How like in spirit is this to that famous reply of the Son of God to the Jews, who marveled at his doctrine, saying, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" What humility, what deep reverence for God there is in the reply of Messiah--"My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me!" If in these discourses preached in the latter years of his ministry there were fewer of those poetic flights of eloquence so characteristic of his earlier discourses and writings, there was a deeper solemnity, a calmer but more intense, earnestness. If there was less of the poet, there was more of the philosopher. The flower and bloom had fallen, perhaps, but it was only that the ripening fruit and golden grain might appear.