supervision. It comprises bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons, who hold the keys of the ministering angels, having power to administer in certain ordi- nances and in the temporal affairs of the church, bap- tizing and sitting as judges in Israel. The bishopric is the presidency of the Aaronic priesthood. The office of a bishop is to administer in temporal matters. First-born sons, lineal descendants of Aaron, and no others, have a legal right to the bishopric. But a high-priest of the order of Melchisedek may officiate in all lesser offices, including that of bishop, when no lineal descendant of Aaron can be found, and after he has been ordained to this power by the first presidency. There is also the patriarchal priesthood/
' About 1834, Joseph Smith had a revelation to the effect that it was the •will of the Loixl that every father should bless his own children, and that patriarchs should be set apart to bless those without a father in the church. This revelation was due to an expressed desire on the part of Brigham Young's father to bless his own children before dying, after the manner of the patri- archs of old. Young's Wife No. 19, 581. Several years before this, it had been directed that every member of the church having children should bring them to the elders before the church, who were to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, aud bless them. Doctrine and Covenants, 72. During the life of the first patriarch — Jos. Smith, sen. — these blessings were nominally free to the recipients. A high-council held at Kirtland in Sept, 183d decided that when the patriarch was occupied in blessing the church, he should be paid at the rate of ten dollars a week, and his expenses; also that Frederick G. Williams be appointed to attend blessing meetings, and record the proceedings, for which services he should receive the same com- pensation. The payment of twelve dollars for a book in which to record the blessings caused discussion in this council, and brother Henry Green, who had intimated that a suitable book could be procured for less money, was ex- cluded from the church for his presumption. Mil. Star, xv. 308-9. In Jan. 183G, Smith, sen., was anointed with oil by the prophet, blessed bj' each of the presidency in turn, aud was thenceforth known as Father Smith. Id., G20. In 1837, the i^ay of the patriarch was lixed at a dollar and fifty cents a day, and that of the recorder at ten cents for each 100 words. J\Iil. Star, xvi. 109. When Hyrum became patriarch, says the author of Young's Wife No. 10, 581, the demand for blessings had so increased that one dollar each was charged for them; and in 1875 the price had advanced to two dollars. Upon the death of his father in 1840, llyrum Smith succeeded to the office of patriarch, pursuant to a revelation entailing it on the eldest son. The revelation is dated in Jan. 1841. Doctrine and Covenants, 305-G; Mil. Star, xviii. 303. The fol- lowing notice appears in Times and Seasons, Nov. 1, 1841: 'The brethren are hereby notilied that our well-beloved brother, Hyrum Smith, patriarch of the church, has erected a comfortable office opposite his dwelling-house [in Nauvoo], where himself, together with his scribe and recorder, James Sloan, will attend regularly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, during the entire day, or ujjon any other day if urgent circumstances require it, to per- form the duties of his high and holy calling. A copy of the blessings can be received immediately after being pronounced, so that the brethren who live
