The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-02

{ programme have assigned me subject
/ The Life and Character of Brigham
| Young-Whch l have contemplated with
no degree of confidence, feeling, as l did,
utterly incompetent to do his great merit
more than even partial justice.
By patient toll and persistent effort, the
amateur might succeed with tongue or
pen, in delineating some of the beauties of
| blade, leaf and flower. In like manner the
unskilled hand may depict form and color
of shrub or tree, initiate graceful curya-
lures of majestic rivers, and even catch the
semblance of natures smile kissing dew
drops on hill and meadow; but dull indeed
must be the sensibilities of him who ap-
proaches without reverence, and without
awe, the towering mountain-rock- ribbed
and strong, torn into volcanic seams, hoary
with age and wrinkled yet softened and
bedutihed by tints and shadows lingering
| around canon and Cliff, or giorlhed with
the rays of the morning sun playing on ice
bound heights, and snow-clad peaks, all
throb0ing with inward power by mortal
man, Unreasonable.
Standing at the base of Popo eatapetl one
gazes
then, as the idea of the magnificent pile
dawns upon the mind and conception of its
! breadth and height determine its magni-
tude, admiration supplants rapture, and
admiration in turn yields to an OverpoWer-
J ing sense of awe, the soul finds expression;
and while no audible word is spoken u
voiceless something distinct Utters How
great is God, now marvellous His works!
As POpOcatapetl TO surrounding noun
tains SO Brigham Young TO most men
known to Lne.
When gazing upon that king Of mountains
with its throbbing heart Of ire, was i'm
pressed precisely as when looking on the
form and feature of that king of men with
| his mighty scope of intellectual power. In
each instance common Thoughts yielded,
without personal yolition. 10 those of
more exalted nature, and in silent awe the
! hearts best impulses reach beyond the
mountain to the maker of the mountain;
| beyond the man, TO the creator of the man.
God is the author OF truth; and truth,
eternal was the guide of Brigham Young.
Brigham Young did not create MOrm0nism;
but Mormonism formed the character OF
Brigham Young. A mole hill fills not the
| space occupied by a mountain, neither the
mind of an ordinary man the space filed
by the mighty, almost boundleSs intellect
and spiritual force Of that great colonizer,
statesman, refOrmer and prophet leader.
May we not-youth of Zion-On this day,
hold in sacred memory his goodness, his
greatness without injury to the living, or
harm to the dead. Do we not recognize in
the life and character of such men the
divine workmanship of an almighty and
supreme creator, expressing Himself even
in the eternal fitness and harmony Of
things!
He Of whom we speak was great IN great
things, and always greatest when great
| matters pressed for solution and dangerous
| emergencies confused and bafled weaker
men. When questions fragrant with great
events pressed hard, he was able to build
upon the firm foundation Of wisdom and
Justice, forecaSt0the future, meet the de-
mands of the present and then in a breath
show his confidence in God, his freedom
| from care by Caressing the lips of innocent
| childhood and tenderly winning the love of
babes The scope of his mind seemed lin
| itlesS. His powers appeared upon all oc-
casions equal to the comprehension and
| foundation Of generalities of the greatest
magnitude and of
GRAsPIyG THE SMALLEST DETAILS.
He coul / speak the language of the stars,
discourse eloquently respecting the organ
| ization of worlds and then in simple terms
direct how to plOw and plant, reap and sow.
His spiritual and temporal faculties
were 80 perfectly and tremendously organ
lied that no one could tell when the one
left of and the others began. He above all
men have known put life under the very
ribs of death by eXpOunding in word and
act religion as live thing, helpful here
and full Of salvation in the great hereafter
The gospel OF Christ as eXpounded and
practiced by him became vitaliZed force
full Of marvellous beauty, sympathy and
poWer-a perfect law of liberty. compre-
| hending life and light, justice and judg-
| ment.
Under the inspiration of God ais mind
was capable Of the loftiest conceptions re
vealed to man, and in his wisdom the
simplest principles of domestic economy
were made TO shine as gems of the first
water. In that early day, when dark clouds
gathered and danger threatened; when
weak minds wavered and discOrd allied
with division, it was Brigham Young who
wrought order out of chaos, and traitors
plotting for usurpatiOn and innocent blood
hid their heads when the Lion hearted
rebuked in the name of the Lord and fore
told the fate ofincompetent apostates. Then
| if not before God placed on Brigham Young
| the seal of sucCesSorShip. The mantle of
the youthful prophet fell not on unworthy
shoulders when it rested upon him who
was willing to give his own 10 save the life
! of Joseph. The external evidence of the
divine mission and heavenly calling Of the
great modern boy prophet are numerous,
| but none to my mind are more striking
| than is found in the recorded and sorrow
| full fact that he was able to announce the
VIII tTOI IN UllE NUlL VI JSIlSlidtLl Jung,
Heber c.. Kimball, john Taylor and vii
ford Woodruff to a foreign mission at the
very time when he knew that assassins
were nightly plotting to take his life.
| Nothing IN the annals of history IS to my
mind more sadly pathetic than was
THE PARTING OF JOSEPH
from those truest friends in the hour of
deadly peril-saye ouly that scene-that
awful scene in the garden where Jesus, the
spotless Son of God, sweat blood while
| heavy-eyed sIumber bound in senseless
sleep every human heart capable OF sym
pathetic emotion OF pity for His deathly
agony.
To understand what the prophet suffered
when sending away the few men in whom,
| ia those dark days of trouble and sorrow,
he could implicitly rely, we need only re
member how his sensitive nature called
| him back from life to death, when false
| friends accused the shepard of deserving
| his flock. How sadly pathetic, how re-
proachful sounds after the lapse of years
words wrung from wounded heart-"!t
my life is of no value to my friends it
should not be of valueto me-"
| have wandered from Brigham to Joseph.
| Well. God made them one-brOthers before
they came here-brothers here, brothers
hereafter. In life their love of and devo-
ton to each other was touchingly tender
and beautiful In life Joseph the Prophet
was true to Brigham, his foreknown sue
cessor. In life Brigham was equally true
| to Joseph And who can say that one
word of reproach ever fell from his lips
after Joseph sealed his testimony with his
blood?
Brigham Young was human and no doubt
had human imperfections; possibly they
might have been shown to the living, but [
do not think that he was ever jealous Of the
dead. The sun has spots-I am not able to