There still remains, I can tell by the letters I have alluded to, an idea among some of the people that Adam was and is the Almighty and Eternal God. He is the father of his race, of course, the great patriarch over the human family, and being begotten unto him, he is the father of us in our earthly condition, in our mortality, and stands as the primal patriarch. But God says He put him there. Now, so far as that is concerned that is all right. In the 107th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, you will read about that. Three years before his death we are told Adam gathered together the majority of his posterity who were righteous into the valley of Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and they rose up and blessed him and called him Michael the prince, the arch-angel, and the Lord appeared unto them. Now, mark you, there was Adam and his posterity, so far as they were brought forth at that time, and the Lord appeared to them—that wasn't Adam, was it? "And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam and said: I have set thee to be at the head"—the head of his race, the head of the human family in their mortal condition—"I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee and thou art a prince over them forever" (verses 53-55).

Here is Adam with his posterity, they recognizing him and acknowledging him as their patriarch and father and prince, and recognizing the fact that in his first estate he was Michael, recognizing also that the Lord appears and declares He places Adam at the head. Now, Adam had transgressed a law and because of that he had to pay the penalty, and because of that, death came upon his posterity on natural principles, (as we will understand better when we comprehend fully how these things occur, and how our tendencies and traits and taints are handed down from the fathers to the children to the different generations that come). But although he had transgressed, that had been foreseen, and, according to the revelations that we have, a plan had been prepared before this transgression took place whereby the results of it might be removed and whereby a blessing might come in that very thing that was called "the curse." That the knowledge of good and evil might come to mankind, that they might have an opportunity of showing whether they loved the truth and loved the good or loved the evil and the untruth, and that they might be judged according to their works, and that their different capabilities and their different degrees of worthiness or unworthiness might be exhibited and developed and showed forth so that justice might be done and that mercy might be extended where it was needful, that mercy should not rob justice and justice should not rob mercy, the Lord, in view of the fact that a Redeemer had been pre- pared from the foundation of the world for the redemption of the whole human family, in their different degrees, smiled upon Adam and blessed him and placed him at the head of his posterity as the great patriarch of the race, as a prince over them forever.

Now, because of that and some other little matters that might be mentioned, the notion has taken hold of some of our brethren that Adam is the being that we should worship. This has been explained, I think, from this stand several times, but notwithstanding that, peculiar ideas get into people's minds, not always because they are stubborn and wilfull and wicked or that they desire anything that is wrong, but because it gets into their heads and it is a very hard job to get it out of their heads, like the Scotchman who asked the Lord to keep him in the right path so that he might not go "wrang, for the Lord knew that if he once got anything into his head, it would be a mighty hard job to get it out of him." That is the way it is with lots of our folks, not because they are all Scotchmen, however, the idea has obtained in the minds of some of the brethren and we ought to get right concerning it. I am sorry that has not been rectified long ago, because plain answers have been given to brethren and sisters who write and desire to know about it, and yet it still lingers, and contentions arise in regard to it, and there should be no contentions among the Latter-day Saints. It is all right for people to have their own views and express them, if they will do it in a proper spirit; it is all right for people to stand up for what they really believe to be true, but when this spirit of contention comes, then, as we are told in the Book of Mormon, it is of the devil.

Now, if Adam, as claimed by some of our brethren, is the being that we should worship, to whom we should pray, who was that per- son that put Adam at the head of his race ? Who was the person that Adam prayed to ? Adam prayed to God and we are told, as we can find in the Pearl of Great Price, which gives us a great deal of information on this matter, as revealed to Moses, and as revealed to Enoch, that Adam, after his transgression, was taught the gospel, the same gospel that we have, and the Lord said He would not suffer that Adams hould die as to the temporal death until He "sent forth angels to pro- claim faith and redemption through the name of His Only Begotten Son" (see Doc. and Cov. Sec. 29). So that Adam had to believe and re- pent and be baptized as we have to do, and we are told that he was baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." So Adam was neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holv Ghost, was he? Then, who was he? Why, we are told he was Michael in his first estate, and as Adam he will stand at the head of his race. Daniel saw him "in the night vision"—Michael who was the arch-angel before he came here. Remember when you talk about Adam, that name only applies to the man Adam on the earth with a body made out of the dust, but Michael, the archangel, the Ancient of days did sit; so Daniel saw, and "ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." And, then, we are told, "One like the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven and was brought before the Ancient of days, and there was given Him do- minion and an everlasting kingdom that all people should serve him" (Daniel 7:9-14). We will find that this will be the case; for when we learn a little more about this person—the Son of Man—we will see that this is His due—that He will be at the head of the Kingdom; He will be King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is "the first and the last," so He proclaims. You will find it in the Old Testament and in the New, and in the Book of Mormon, and in the Pearl of Great Price, that He is "The First and the last" and that all things were made by Him and they are of Him and through Him and for Him.

Now, who is this person, this Jesus Christ? Is He Adam or a son of Adam? Not at all, except in the sense that Jesus of Nazareth was born of Mary, and therein was His humanity and that is traced right up to Adam, of course, in the scriptural genealogy.