After the second or third century
there was a departure from the faith so that nowhere upon the earth could there
be found a man holding the priesthood of God with authority to officiate in the
ordinances of the gospel; no one authorized to call men to repentance and
administer to them the gospel ordinances; hence, according to the belief of the
Latter-day Saints, it required a restoration of the gospel; and the Prophet
Joseph Smith [who] received that authority, . . . and became the restorer of
the priesthood and the gospel in this dispensation. (Nephi L. Morris,
"Infinite Possibilities of Man," A Discourse Delivered in the
Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, August 9, 1908, repr. Deseret Evening News [August
15, 1908]: 25)
Further
Reading:
John
A. Tvedtnes, Rejection
of Priesthood Leaders as a Cause of the Great Apostasy