Page:The City of the Saints.djvu/419

Rh aged and fatherly men. Among the high priests are included, ex-officio, the bishops and the high council.

The Mormon ἐπίσκοπος is a steward, who renders an account of his stewardship both in time and eternity, and who superintends the elders, keeps the Lord's store-house, receives the funds of the Church, administers to the wants of those beneath him, and supplies assistance to those who manage the "literary concerns," probably editors and magazine publishers. The bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic priesthood, and has authority over it. No man has a legal right to the office except a literal descendant of Aaron. As these, however, are non inventi, and as a high priest of the Melchisedek order may officiate in all lesser offices, the bishop, who never affects a nolo episcopari, can be ordained by the First Presidency, or Mr. Brigham Young. Thus the episcopate is a local authority in stakes, settlements, and wards, with the directorship of affairs temporal as well as spiritual. This "overseer" receives the tithes on the commutation-labor, which he forwards to the public store-house; superintends the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, makes domiciliary visits, and hears and determines complaints either laical or ecclesiastic.

The High Council was organized by revelation in Kirtland (Feb. 17, 1834) for the purpose of settling, when the Church or the "Bishop's" council might fail, important difficulties that might arise between two believers. Revelation directed it to consist of twelve high priests, ascertained by lots or ballot, and one or three presidents, as the case might require. The first councilors, when named, were asked if they would act in that office according to the law of heaven: they accepted, and at once, more Americano—"voted." After deciding that the President of the Church should also be President of the Council, it was laid down that the duty of the twelve councilors should be to cast lots by numbers, and thereby ascertain who of the twelve shall speak first, commencing with number one, and so in succession to number twelve. In an easy case only two speak; in a difficult one, six. The defendant has a right to one half of the council, and "those who draw even numbers, that is, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, are the individuals who are to stand up in behalf of the accused, and to prevent insult or injustice." After the evidence is heard, and the councilors, as well as the accuser and the accused, have "said their say," the president decides, and calls upon the "twelve" to sanction his decision by their vote. When error is suspected, the case is subject to a "careful rehearing;" and in peculiar difficulties the appeal is to revelation. I venture to recommend this form of special jury to those who have lost faith in a certain effete and obsolete "palladium of British liberty" that dates from the days of Ethelbert. After all, it is sometimes better, jurare in verba magistri, especially of an inspired master.

The High Council is a standing council. It bears the same re-