-- Sunday, Oct 9, 1898
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
President George Q. Cannon presented the Authoraties and the Apostles voted first for President Lorenzo Snow. Then the Patriarch, Presidents of stakes and High Councils. Then High Priests. Then the Seventies. Then the Elders. Then the Bishoprics, then the Priests, Teachers and Deacons. Then all of the Congregation voted. Rudger Clawson filled the vacancy in the Council of the Apostles.
All were unanimous but in the case of John W. Taylor. Some few voted against him for remarks made on Friday about Kamas Ward and the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir.
Bro. John W. Taylor at the close of the meeting met with the choir and arranged his trouble with them. (1)
-- Monday, Oct 10, 1898
[Apostle Rudger Clawson Diary] Ordination of Rudger Clawson to the office of an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 12 o'clock noon. The First Presidency and Apostles (Eleven) laid their hands upon him, Prest. Lorenzo Snow being mouth. The following is a verbatim report of the ordination:
Brother Rudger Clawson, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood, we place our hands upon your head and we ordain you an Apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and confer upon you all the gifts, blessings, rights, Keys, and powers that pertain unto this holy and sacred Apostleship. And we say unto you, Brother Rudger, in the name of the Lord, inasmuch as you will be humble and seek the Lord for His Spirit, it shall be even as the Spirit of revelation upon you, which it is your privilege to have as an Apostle and to testify of your Knowledge that there is a God over the inhabitants of the earth, and that there is a Jesus, the Son of the living God, who was crucified upon Mount Calvary—that you may testify of this, having a most perfect Knowledge of it by the power of God and the Holy Ghost.
All the blessings, all the qualifications, and all that is necessary to make you perfect in this Apostleship, in the name of the Lord Jesus we seal upon you, and say that these blessings that we have sealed upon you shall continue upon you during your life and also throughout all eternity. These blessings, gifts, powers, rights, and Keys we seal upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
President Lorenzo Snow delivered the following charge to Brother Rudger Clawson [age forty-one]: A few words I want to say as to the obligations you are placed under now that you have received the Apostleship. The Lord will reveal unto you according to your faithfulness and the circumstances and the duties that will be required of you. You must understand that it is not man that has chosen you; it is not the wisdom of man that has selected you. If it had been man that selected you, or the wisdom of man, there would be a possibility of a failure in the future, and you would not be so well satisfied if you understood that you had been selected by a Council that talked over this matter in a common way, as we generally talk over matters of lesser importance. But you have been chosen because the Lord wanted you to fill this place and because of your faithfulness in the past. You have been placed in circumstances that have been very tempting to you to depart a little from the path
of wisdom, and you have resisted those temptations, and you have kept in the path of truth and righteousness, just where the Lord wanted you to keep. You have been wonderfully blessed. I do not know of any young man that has been called to positions like you have been, or any other important positions that the Lord has blessed any more than he has blessed you. It seems that almost every effort you have made has been a success. You were willing to go to the penitentiary for nearly three years, I think. (3 yrs., I mo., 10 days.) You had the opportunity of escaping that if you had been pleased to have done so; but you performed your duty under those circumstances acceptably to the Lord and pleasing to your brethren. And now you have been appointed of the Lord to a high and holy calling. Your success depends entirely upon yourself. There is no man that lives and no impediment that you can get into your path, but will be removed, and you will go right along, providing that you preserve
your humility, and your meekness, and lowliness, as you have done in the past. Do not think of yourself when important duties are to be performed wherein perhaps there might be advantages to yourself, but think of what the Lord requires of you; think of the good that will be accomplished to others without reference to yourself at all. In this way you can go on and your faith [will] be increased.
You are now, of course, the youngest of the Apostles, so far as coming into the quorum is concerned. There are many of this Quorum that have been in this relation to the Church, as apostles, for a great many years, and have had a long experience, and the Lord has blessed them wonderfully. You must not expect that at once you can feel yourself at home and be equal with them in that knowledge which they have obtained through perseverance and a long movement in the path of duty; that you can be as wise and prudent as they, their experience having given them the right to blessings that have been very great to them in the line pertaining to their duties. You will, of course, not feel it your duty to take up all the time, but to let others speak. Let those who have had long experience speak when it comes to matters of high importance and you listen. Do not occupy too much time at first. Wait until you have had the experience and get the wisdom and the understanding the Lord has
given to them and will give to you.
Now, Brother Clawson, we are glad to receive you. President Richards, who is President of the Quorum of the Twelve, is glad to receive you, and all the brethren of the Quorum welcome you to the Quorum with their whole hearts. The more they get acquainted with you, Brother Clawson, the more they will love you; and the more you get acquainted with the brethren, the more you will love them. Move along slowly and pause as you make your steps along; and the Lord will be with you. He will be your leader, and His Spirit will suggest how you should act under the circumstances that may surround you.
Now, we all feel, Brother Clawson—I speak in the name of my Counselors and the brethren of the Twelve—we all feel to welcome you with all our hearts. God bless you.
President Joseph F. Smith said: There is one principle that I would like to have presented to Brother Clawson. Perhaps, Prest. Snow, it may not be my place to do that, but as it did not come to your mind, I thought I would like to mention this fact, that one of the great callings and special duties of the Apostles is to become a living witness of the Lord Jesus Christ; to know Him and to be able to testify that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. That is essential to the calling of an Apostle of Jesus Christ.
Another principle is, that the Apostles must acknowledge the order and organization of the Priesthood and the united counsels of the leading presiding quorums of the Priesthood as supreme above his own judgment, his own predilections, choice, or desires, no matter how strong his predilections, desires, or choice may be. All the Apostles and all those holding the Priesthood, especially in the Council of the Apostles and of the First Presidency, we must covenant and agree before God, angels, and men, and with each other, that we will acknowledge this organization that God has instituted as His supreme authority on earth. We must do that in order to preserve the integrity of the work of the Lord and of the organization of the Holy Priesthood. This is one thing that Brother Clawson, as well as each of us, must accede to in order to obtain the spirit of the Apostleship.
President George Q. Cannon: I would like Brother Rudger Clawson to understand, when he takes upon himself this ministry, that it is the first and most important thing, that he should not set this aside to attend to anything else. His whole life, and all that pertains to his power of life, his talents, and everything should be devoted exclusively to the Apostleship and everything else should be entirely subordinate to that.
Elder Rudger Clawson then made the following remarks: All I can say, brethren, is that I very much appreciate the instructions and suggestions that have been given and I fully accept and endorse them. I feel very weak—a great deal more so than I did at the conference.
Since I have come to think the matter over, a great deal has opened up to my mind. If I could not feel that this call had come to me from the Lord, I would shrink from it, I could not accept it, because the responsibility of it, it seems to me, is so very great that no man of his own wisdom could magnify a calling of this kind. With that feeling in my heart, and the testimonies given here that this is a call from the Lord, that it is His will, why, I feel very much blessed in it and in the acceptance of it; and all that I ask at this time, brethren, is that I may have the faith and prayers of the brethren. If I can have the prayers in my behalf of the Presidency of the Church, of the President of the Twelve, and of my brethren of the Twelve—if I can have their prayers, and sympathy, and support to sustain me—I will endeavor humbly to do my duty and to be one with you. I have been one with you always in my feelings; I have always sustained with my whole heart the Presidency of this
Church in their calling and I have accepted and revered their counsels. I believe that my success, if I have attained to any success in the Box Elder Stake where I presided, is due to this spirit to submit fully to the counsels of the Presidency of this Church and the brethren who have presided over me; and I believe that my success in the future can only be in following those lines.
I pray fervently that the Spirit of this appointment and the Spirit of the Apostleship may rest upon me and that I may live so as to deserve the confidence of my brethren. That is all I ask, and I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
4 p.m. The First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles and their wives were invited to take dinner with Brother John R. Winder at "Poplar Farm," a few miles south of Salt Lake City. All were present. A sumptuous repast was provided and the afternoon passed swiftly and pleasantly away. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
2 - Stan Larson (editor), A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic diaries of Rudger Clawson, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1993, http://bit.ly/rudgerclawson
LDS History Chronology: Lorenzo Snow
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Lorenzo Snow
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
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