[pages 198-199]

Women and the Priesthood

One other remark I want to make, and that is this: There seems to be a revival of the idea among some of our sisters that they hold the Priesthood. President Clawson sat down on that in his remarks on Sunday. He said "No, the sisters do not hold the Priesthood." Well, is that right? Yes; but then there is a little qualification to it, perhaps very slight. When a woman is sealed to a man holding the Priesthood, she becomes one with him. Sometimes the man is the one and sometimes he is not, but she receives blessings in association with him. The glory and power and dominion that he will exercise when he has the fulness of the Priesthood and becomes a "king and a priest unto God," she will share with him. Sisters have said to me sometimes, "But, I hold the Priesthood with my husband." "Well," I asked, "what office do you hold in the Priesthood?" Then they could not say much more. The sisters are not ordained to any office in the Priesthood and there is authority in the Church which they cannot exercise; it does not belong to them; they cannot do that properly any more than they can change themselves into a man. Now sisters, do not take the idea that I wish to convey that you have no blessings or authority or power belonging to the Priesthood. When you are sealed to a man of God who holds it and who, by overcoming, inherits the fulness of the glory of God, you will share that with him if you are for it, and I guess you will be.

AS TO WOMAN'S RIGHT TO ADMINISTER TO THE SICK.

There is another thing connected with that. I have had sisters visit me and ask me if they did not have the right to administer to the sick. "Well," I have said, "yes, you have in one way; Jesus Christ said, 'These signs shall follow them that believe-in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.'" As I say, there are occasions when perhaps it would be wise for a woman to lay her hands upon a child, or upon one another sometimes, and there have been appointments made for our sisters, some good women, to anoint and bless others of their sex who expect to go through times of great personal trial, travail and "labor;" so that is all right, so far as it goes. But when women go around and declare that they have been set apart to administer to the sick and take the place that is given to the elders of the Church by revelation as declared through James of old, and through the Prophet Joseph in modern times, that is an assumption of authority and contrary to scripture, which is that when people are sick they shall call for the elders of the Church and they shall pray over and officially lay hands on them.

It is the prayer of faith that saves the sick; faith in God not in some particular man, although some men seem to have more of the gift of healing than others, that is true, but the authority in the Church is vested in the elders. True, a priest, of course, can, a teacher can, and so can a deacon, although neither a teacher nor a deacon can exercise the power in the lesser Priesthood which is for the remission of sins through baptism; he cannot do that, he has not the authority, but he may lay hands on the sick and pray God to heal them; so can a member. So can people out of the Church, and so they have done. Having faith in God, they have asked God in the name of Jesus Christ to heal the sick by the laying on their hands, and some of them have got well, and a good many others have died, like it is with all of us.