Smith, Thomas B. Marsh, and Parley P. Pratt. At a later date the order of rank was determined by seniority, which gave the Presidency to Thomas B. Marsh.
During the same month Joseph introduced another organization—"The Seventies." This was to be a "Quorum" composed of seventy elders, the first seven members of which were to be seven presidents over the whole quorum, and" the first of these seven to preside over all; the seventies to be auxiliaries to the twelve apostles, and to form a sort of minor apostleship. Some idea of what was working in Joseph's brain at this time, about the conquest of the world, may be drawn from his instructions to the President of the Seventies:
"If the first Seventy are all employed, and there is a call for more labourers, it will be the duty of the seven Presidents of the first Seventy to call and ordain other seventy, and send them forth to labour in the vineyard, until, if need be, they set apart seventy times seventy, and even until they are one hundred and forty-four thousand."
Joseph began the selection of the elders for the first seventy from the ranks of Zion's Camp, and since that organization (Feb. 28, 1835) others have followed, till there are now in the Mormon Church eighty-five Quorums of Seventies.
Early in May the twelve apostles started from Kirtland on their missions to the Eastern States to disseminate the new faith, and labour "wherever a door was open" during all the summer and fall, returning to Kirtland in December, to relate their success, to get fresh instructions, and to tarry till the completion of the temple, when they were to be "endowed with great power from on high." During their absence Joseph was severely tried by "apostates and false brethren," and the return of the young apostles was very timely in strengthening the Prophet and encouraging the Saints.
The Kirtland Temple was now the object of hope, faith, prayer, and hard work. Everything depended upon its early completion. Disciples who begin their career with the experience of signs and wonders are always the slowest to comprehend facts, and are ever clamorous for a renewal of marvellous experience. "The Lord," as they believed it, thoroughly comprehended their wants, and held before them "great expecta-
