Scriptural and Secular History," by James E. Talmage. Published
by the _Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah; 176 pp.]

If the Priesthood had been once taken from the earth no human
power could re-establish it; the restoration of this authority
from heaven would be necessary. The Church claims that in the
present age this restoration has been effected by the personal
ministrations of those who exercised the authority in earlier
dispensations. Thus, in 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery
received the Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John
the Baptist, who visited them as a resurrected being--the same
Baptist who by special and divine commission held the authority
of that Priesthood in the dispensation of the "Meridian of Time."
Later, the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood was conferred upon
them through the personal ministrations of Peter, James, and
John--the same three who constituted the presidency of the
apostolic body in the primitive Church, after the departure of
the Lord Jesus Christ by whom it was founded.

That the claim is a bold one is conceded without argument. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints professes to have the
Priesthood of old restored in its fulness; and, moreover, while
acknowledging the right of every individual as of every sect or
other organization of individuals to believe and practise
according to choice in matters religious, it affirms that it is
the only Church on the face of the earth possessing this
authority and Priesthood; and that therefore it is _The Church_
and the only Church of Christ upon the earth today. It holds as
absolutely indispensable to proper Church organization, the
presence of the living oracles of God who shall be directed from