Brigham Young, ca. 1864, Charles R. Savage.

[1] Brigham Young was a prophet with few peers and a man of unusual accomplishments. I do not believe we have yet plumbed the depth of his character and contribution. What has impressed me most about President Brigham Young, however, is his exceptional faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is about that faith that I wish to address my remarks.

Brigham Young was the quintessential man of action. With seemingly inexhaustible energy and creativity, he was always about one enterprise or another. As I have studied his life, it seems to me that it is his faith in God—an implicit trust in divine providence—that permitted him to act where others waver or never go beyond the contemplation of action. If he knew or felt something to be right, Brigham Young had no hesitation in pursuing it, even where he could not see his way through to the end or did not at the moment possess the means to finish. He was convinced that the Lord would provide whatever Brigham legitimately could not. One sees this even early in his Church experience. In his article, “Brigham Young: Student of the Prophet,” Ronald W. Walker related this incident occurring in Kirtland:

At first the Young family lived on life’s margins. On one occasion in Kirtland Brigham Young was invited by the Prophet [Joseph Smith] to attend certain sessions of instruction. The daytime sessions would prevent him from working and getting food for his family. Without a “mouthful of anything” in his home and fearing empty stomachs for his children, he nevertheless did what he was asked. When he left the school that evening, so great was the anxiety for his family that he remembered “drops of sweat stood on me” despite a stiff north wind and blowing snow. How was he to feed his family? His question was answered when a friend unexpectedly offered to loan him $25. Believing the money was a reward for obeying, Brigham flew home “like a dove” to provide for his children.[2]

Similar faith concerning God’s provision for the welfare of his family permitted Brigham, in good conscience, to leave them in rather desperate circumstances for missionary service in New England and, later, Great Britain. Of the mission to New England, Leonard Arrington wrote:

Joseph Smith suggested that Brigham Young and Joseph Young undertake a mission to New England to preach to their family and friends. Although in debt, Brigham did not hesitate. “It has never entered into my heart,” he declared when later remembering this time, “from the first day I was called to preach the Gospel to this day, when the Lord said, ‘Go and leave your family,’ to offer the least objection.”

This did not necessarily mean that leaving Mary Ann and the children was easy, nor that his attitude toward their welfare was cavalier. He made arrangements for them as best he could. But he did trust the church (and, more than that, God) to provide for them in his absence, writing Mary Ann: “What shal I say to you to comfort you . . . from danger and bare you upon the arms of faith. Tell the children that I remember them in my prares. I pray the Lord to give you strength and wisdom in all things.”

Brigham probably knew by then that she was again pregnant, though he could not yet have guessed that she would produce twins.[3]

Circumstances surrounding his departure for the mission to England in 1839 were even more poignant and distressing:

Elders [Brigham] Young and [Heber C.] Kimball were the third and fourth apostles to strike out for New York City [on their way to England]. On September 14 Brigham crossed the river from Montrose to Commerce, leaving his little family so ill that none could go to the well for a pail of water, and so destitute that they had no change of clothes. He, too, was sick, and immediately went to bed at the home of Heber C. Kimball. On September 17 his wife, Mary Ann, arrived to nurse and comfort him, and the next day the two apostles, both deathly ill and practically penniless, left Commerce in a wagon.[4] [p.3]

Brigham’s sister Fanny begged him to delay his departure. He resisted:

“Sister Fanny, I never felt better in my life.” She was a very eccentric woman and, looking at me, with tears in her eyes, she said, “You lie.” I said nothing, but I was determined to go to England or to die trying. My firm resolve was that I would do what I was required to do in the Gospel of life and salvation, or I would die trying to do it.

Heber’s wife, Vilate, and two of their three children were in bed with the ague and, he said, “It seemed to me as though my very innermost parts would melt within me at the thought of leaving my family in such a condition.” On impulse he told the teamster to stop and, turning to Brigham, proposed that they give a cheer to those they were leaving behind. The two apostles stood up in the wagon and swung their hats over their heads three times, crying, “Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for Israel!” The shout brought Vilate from her bed, and the two wives stood in the doorway bravely crying back to their husbands, “Good bye; God bless you!” The men returned the heartfelt prayer and continued on. By the second day they had gone only as far as Quincy, where, too feeble to continue, they stayed with helpful Saints for five more days.[5]

It has always seemed a tender thing to me when, in 1841, after numerous such sacrifices, the Lord relieved faithful Brigham and his family of further separations. In Doctrine and Covenants, section 126, we read:

Dear and well-beloved brother, Brigham Young, verily thus saith the Lord unto you: My servant Brigham, it is no more required at your hand to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me.

I have seen your labor and toil in journeyings for my name.

I therefore command you to send my word abroad, and take especial care of your family from this time, henceforth and forever. Amen (D&C 126:1–3).

Some would accuse Brigham Young of being foolhardy or of recklessly placing himself or his family in danger. Such an accusation might well be leveled by the unbelieving with respect to the great trek west. Brigham Young himself had never set foot in the place, yet he was leading hundreds and thousands into a thoroughly isolated wilderness. However, he was acting not in reckless disregard for his and others’ welfare but rather with full confidence that the Lord would not let the undertaking fail. Later, Brigham Young commented about this matter, asking the question, “Is there any harm in having faith?”

We had to have faith to come here. When we met Mr. Bridger on the Big Sandy River, said he, “Mr. Young, I would give a thousand dollars if I knew an ear of corn could be ripened in the Great Basin.” Said I, “Wait eighteen months and I will show you many of them.” Did I say this from knowledge? No, it was my faith; but we had not the least encouragement—from natural reasoning and all that we could learn of this country—of its sterility, its cold and frost, to believe that we could ever raise anything. But we travelled on, breaking the road through the mountains and building bridges until we arrived here, and then we did everything we could to sustain ourselves. We had faith that we could raise grain; was there any harm in this? Not at all. If we had not had faith, what would have become of us? We would have gone down in unbelief, have closed up every resource for our sustenance and should never have raised anything. I ask the whole world, is there any harm in having faith in God?[6]

My wife, Kathy, is of the opinion (and I tend to agree with her) that Jim Bridger was right in his doubts about the ability of anyone to grow corn or other crops in the Salt Lake Valley as conditions then existed. Her conclusion is that the Lord modified the climate and soil conditions then existing in the Great Basin area—to permit a people to survive there. In any case, Brigham Young had the faith that if that were necessary, changes would occur and that, because it was the place the Lord had ordained for them, “the right place,” the Saints would not only survive but also prosper. He boldly proclaimed:

Here is the place God has appointed for His people. We have been kicked out of the frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the floor, and here we are and here we will stay. God has shown me that this is the spot to locate His people, and here is where they will prosper; He will temper the elements for the good of His Saints; He will rebuke the frost and the sterility of the soil, and the land shall become fruitful. Brethren, go to, now, and plant out your fruit seeds.[7]

Thus, Brigham Young’s faith permitted him to go to the extreme and to pursue his course, not seeing the end from the beginning, confident that the end would be right. A simple illustration of this philosophy of faith is found in a brief entry in the Brigham Young Office Journal for 18 January 1862:

J[oh]n Smith Patriarch came in. The Conversation was about faith. Pres. [Young] said I have spent the last dollar continually and then I can ask the Lord for more, [otherwise] the Lord might say, if you have no more confidence in me than that you can Keep your dollar and starve with it in your pocket.[8] [p.5]

His faith also led Brigham Young to make whatever sacrifices were required and to be very exacting in his response to the Lord’s commandments. For example, the revelation now recorded as section 118 of the Doctrine and Covenants, given in July 1838 and envisioning the mission of the Twelve to Great Britain the following year, includes this direction:

And next spring let them depart to go over the great waters, and there promulgate my gospel, the fulness thereof, and bear record of my name.

Let them take leave of my saints in the city of Far West, on the twenty-sixth day of April next, on the building-spot of my house, saith the Lord (D&C 118:4–5).

When the time came to depart on this mission, the Saints had been driven from Far West and the state of Missouri altogether and were attempting to establish themselves in Illinois. Brigham Young recorded:

Many of the Authorities considered, in our present persecuted and scattered condition, the Lord would not require the Twelve to fulfil his words to the letter, and, under our present circumstances, he would take the will for the deed; but I felt differently and so did those of the Quorum who were with me. I asked them, individually, what their feelings were upon the subject. They all expressed their desires to fulfil the revelation. I told them the Lord God had spoken, and it was our duty to obey and leave the event in his hands and he would protect us.[9]

In the early hours of the appointed day, knowing that the Missouri mobs had vowed that this was one prophecy of Joseph Smith that would not be fulfilled, the Twelve gathered at the Far West temple site, held a meeting, and then departed eastward again.

Brigham Young’s understanding of faith led him to expect success, even in the face of apparent failure. He believed that acting diligently in harmony with God’s will would always produce a beneficial result, whether or not an economically successful one. The Perpetual Emigrating Fund, for example, established to finance the immigration of converts to the Great Basin, was by strict financial measures a failure; yet it achieved a salutary and even divine purpose. Faith-based action would be met with divine intervention to produce an effective result.

Economic success . . . was not [Brigham Young’s] primary concern. Ultimately he was less concerned with raising crops and money than he was with helping his people to become a holy nation. He knew from experience that they would grow from working hard and accepting responsibility. “This is a good place to make Saints,” he told a congregation of members in Salt Lake City in 1856.[10]

In Brigham Young’s viewpoint of faith, however, God supplied only what one could not—not what one would not. A person was entitled to have faith once he or she had done all that was within his or her power. On one occasion, in his colorful way, Brigham said:

My faith does not lead me to think the Lord will provide us with roast pigs, bread already buttered, &c. He will give us the ability to raise the grain, to obtain the fruits of the earth, to make habitations, to procure a few boards to make a box, and when harvest comes, giving us the grain, it is for us to preserve it.

To explain how much confidence we should have in God, were I using a term to suit myself, I should say implicit confidence. I have faith in my God, and that faith corresponds with the works I produce. I have no confidence in faith without works.[11]

Although he saw a degree of faith or belief as the precursor to any action, Brigham Young believed that faith was nurtured and grew in proportion to one’s willingness to work. Action rooted in faith produced even greater faith. He said:

If we have good works and plenty of them, I have not the least doubt but what we shall reap a bountiful harvest this year, and have a surplus of grain after supplying all who will come here this season. But suppose that we should have no surplus, would not good works in abundance produce the faith that is necessary for the Lord to do the rest, when we have done what we can? Good works will produce good faith, and good faith will produce good works. . . .

In all the labor of the Saints, when faith springs up in the heart, good works will follow, and good works will increase that pure faith within them.[12]

President Young’s approach was consistent with the doctrine taught in James: “Was not Abraham our father justifed by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how works wrought with his faith, and by works was faith made perfect” (JST, James 2:20–21). Or, in other words, faith leads to works, which further perfect that faith. By way of counsel, Brigham added:

Let us pay attention to our duties. Attend to your crops, and let the gardens be attended to; and if your corn is eaten off to-day, plant again to-morrow; if your wheat is cut down by the grasshoppers, sow a little more and drag it in. Last season when the grasshoppers came on my crops, I said, “Nibble away, I may as well feed you as to have my neighbors do it; I have sown plenty, and you have not raised any yourselves.” And when harvest came you would not have known that there had been a grasshopper there; the yield was as good as I expected at the planting and sowing.[13]

Brigham Young applied this principle to the Willie handcart company’s experience:

If brother Willie’s company had not been assisted by the people in these valleys, and he and his company had lived to the best light they had in their possession, had done everything they could have done to cross the Plains, and done justice as they did, asking no questions and having no doubting; or in other words, if, after their President or Presidents told them to go on the Plains, they had gone in full faith, had pursued their journey according to their ability, and done all they could, and we could not have rendered them any assistance, it would have been just as easy for the Lord to send herds of fat buffaloes to lay down within twenty yards of their camp, as it was to send flocks of quails or to rain down manna from heaven to Israel of old.

My faith is, when we have done all we can, then the Lord is under obligation, and will not disappoint the faithful; He will perform the rest. If no other assistance could have been had by the companies this season, I think they would have had hundreds and hundreds of fat buffaloes crowding around their camp, so that they could not help but kill them. But, under the circumstances, it was our duty to assist them, and we were none too early in the operation.

It was not a rash statement for me to make at our last Conference, when I told you that I would dismiss the Conference, if the people would not turn out, and that I, with my brethren, would go to the assistance of the companies. We knew that our brethren and sisters were on the Plains and in need of assistance, and we had the power and ability to help them, therefore it became our duty to do so.

The Lord was not brought under obligation in the matter, so He had put the means in our possession to render them the assistance they needed. But if there had been no other way, the Lord would have helped them, if He had had to send His angels to drive up buffaloes day after day, and week after week. I have full confidence that the Lord would have done His part; my only lack of confidence is, that those who profess to be Saints will not do right and perform their duty.[14]

On another occasion, he further described this interrelationship of works and faith:

If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and to ask my Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, to sanctify that application to the healing of my body; to another this may appear inconsistent. . . .

But supposing we were traveling in the mountains, and all we had or could get, in the shape of nourishment, was a little venison, and one or two were taken sick, without anything in the world in the shape of healing medicine within our reach, what should we do? According to my faith, ask the Lord Almighty to send an angel to heal the sick. This is our privilege, when so situated that we cannot get anything to help ourselves. Then the Lord and his servants can do all. But it is my duty to do, when I have it in my power. . . . Suppose that we had done our best and had not raised one bushel of grain this year, I have confidence enough in my God to believe that we could stay here, and not starve to death. If all our cattle had died through the severity of the past winter, if the insects had cut off all our crops, if we still proved faithful to our God and to our religion, I have confidence to believe that the Lord would send manna and flocks of quails to us. But He will not do this, if we murmur and are neglectful and disunited.

Not having breadstuff nor manna, if we are cut off from those resources, from our provisions, the Lord can fill these mountains and valleys with antelope, mountain sheep, elk, deer, and other animals; He can cause the buffalo to take a stampede on the east side of the Rocky mountains, and fill these mountains and valleys with beef; I have just that confidence in my God. I have confidence enough to believe that if we had not raised our own provisions this year, and had proved true and faithful to our God and to our religion, that the Lord would have given us a little bread, even though he should have to put it in the minds of the people in the States to go to California and Oregon, and to load their wagons with sugar, flour, and everything needed, more than they could consume, and cause them to leave their superabundance here, as some did a great quantity of clothing, dried fruit, tools, and various other useful articles, in 1849, the first season that large emigrating companies passed through this valley to California. I could then buy a vest for twenty-five cents, that would now sell here for two or three dollars; and coats could be bought for a dollar each, such as are now selling for fifteen dollars.

This is my confidence in my God. I am no more concerned about this people’s suffering unto death, than I am concerned about the sun’s falling out of its orbit and ceasing to shine on this earth again. I know that we should have that confidence in God; this has been my experience, I have been led into this confidence by the miraculous providences of God. My implicit confidence in God causes me to husband every iota of property He gives me; I will take the best care of my farm, I will prepare my ground as well as I can, and put in the best seed I have got, and trust in God for the result, for it is the Lord that gives the increase.[15]

In summary, both Brigham Young’s words and actions bore testimony that if he applied all the resources at his command and asked God in the name of Christ to bless or sanctify the application of those resources, he could then rely implicitly on God for anything yet lacking. This was the key to the success of the great exodus to the West, to the establishment of the Church and settlements throughout that vast area, and to all else the Saints were to achieve in their divinely appointed mission.

All of this, however, was based on the premise that the goal or course being undertaken was in harmony with the will of God. Brigham Young did not believe that God was obligated to help anyone in the achievement of a purpose in violation or unsupportive of what God ordained. Ronald K. Esplin, in his article, “Fire in His Bones,” notes this pattern in Brigham Young’s own experience: First, Brigham determined and became settled on what was the will of God; thereafter, he could go forward applying all his talents and resources with the faith that God would grant success. As Ronald Esplin stated:

Following Joseph Smith’s death, Brigham Young was absolutely clear about priorities: first, the Saints must finish the Nauvoo Temple and receive the endowment there. Then they must seek a new home, the prophesied place of refuge in the West. For President Young, these goals required resolute attention. Indeed, so contagious was his enthusiasm that the pace of construction on the Nauvoo Temple increased dramatically under leadership of the Twelve.

Ironically, such rapid progress inflamed enemies who, fearing that it might be impossible to drive the Mormons from Nauvoo after they finished their beloved temple, vowed to drive them out first. Faced with the probability of violence, in January 1845 Brigham Young momentarily hesitated; should they finish the temple even if it meant bloodshed? His diary records the answer: “I inquired of the Lord whether we should stay here and finish the temple. The answer was we should.”

Confirmed in his course, President Young pressed forward with iron resolve. In May, the capstone was laid and the Twelve announced that endowments would begin in December, a timetable they kept. Brigham talked tough throughout this period, partly to intimidate enemies and prevent bloodshed. “We would rather suffer wrong than do wrong” was his motto, and his faith that the Lord had dictated the direction and would oversee the outcome allowed him to act boldly.[16]

The same approach was applied to the exodus, as explained by Esplin:

A major concern for Brigham was finding the right place. After frequent fasting and daily prayer in his room in the temple, he saw in vision the right spot and felt he could recognize it. His mind at ease, he was now ready. One month later, Brigham Young and the first company of Saints crossed the Mississippi River, though it was still winter. Once on his way, President Young seemed drawn westward as if by an unseen hand. “Do not think . . . I hate to leave my house and home,” he wrote his brother Joseph from the Iowa prairies. “No, far from that. . . . It looks pleasant ahead,” he wrote, “but dark to look back” toward Nauvoo.

President Young faced the challenge with such unwavering confidence because he knew the plan was not his own. As he told the Saints nearly ten years later, “I did not devise the great scheme of the Lord’s opening the way to send this people to these mountains.” Who did? “It was the power of God that wrought out salvation for this people,” he insisted.[17]

As Brigham Young succinctly stated it on one occasion, “My religion is to know the will of God and do it.”[18]

Brigham Young further taught that great faith does not come from a merely passive acceptance of the will of God but requires wholehearted adoption of the will of God as one’s own. God’s interest must be made our interest. He said:

All ought to seek to know the mind and will of the Lord, and when they know it, they will be taught that the interest of this people is the interest of the Lord, and that all we do is for His glory. This is not all, it is likewise for our own benefit, and when we learn the principles of the Gospel perfectly, we shall learn that our interest is one, that we have no correct individual interest separate from this kingdom; if we have true interest at all, it is in the kingdom of God. If we truly possess and enjoy anything, it is in this kingdom; if we build it up, we shall be built up; if we neglect so to do, we shall fail to sustain ourselves.

If we draw off in our feelings and have a divided interest from the kingdom of God, we shall fail in obtaining the object of our Priesthood. Nothing will stand on this earth, in the final issue, but the kingdom of God, and that which is in it; everything else will pass away—will be destroyed. Then if we in all our works seek to identify our feelings, our interests, our whole efforts in one to sustain and build up the kingdom of God on the earth, we are sure to build ourselves up.[19]

He added: “Your interest must be concentrated in the head on the earth, and all of our interest must centre in the Godhead in eternity, and there is no durable interest in any other channel.”[20]

Brigham Young recognized that it is not always easy to get oneself aligned with the will of God so as to produce this more perfect faith. But he spoke encouragingly in this regard:

After all that has been said and done, after He has led this people so long, do you not perceive that there is a lack of confidence in our God? Can you perceive it in yourselves? You may ask, “Brother Brigham, do you perceive it in yourself?” I do, I can see that I yet lack confidence, to some extent, in Him whom I trust. Why? Because I have not the power, in consequence of that which the fall has brought upon me. I have just told you that I have no lack of confidence in the Lord’s sustaining this people; I never had one shadow of doubt on that point.

But through the power of fallen nature, something rises up within me, at times, that measurably draws a dividing line between my interest and the interest of my Father in heaven—something that makes my interest and the interest of my Father in heaven not precisely one.

I know that we should feel and understand, as far as possible, as far as fallen nature will let us, as far as we can get faith and knowledge to understand ourselves, that the interest of that God whom we serve is our interest, and that we have no other, neither in time nor in eternity.[21]

Occasionally, Brigham Young spoke of a key to faith that few seem to appreciate fully—true faith is faith in Jesus Christ and comes from Him, a gift of the Spirit. In the end, Brigham Young’s faith was not based simply on experience or the evidence of God’s hand in blessing the faithful but on the revelation of Jesus Christ. President Young explained:

What the Lord has done for this people would convince any man in the world, upon rational principles, that it is not the wisdom of man, nor his power or might, nor the power or might of this people unitedly, that has accomplished what has been done, but that it has been brought to pass by an invisible power. Still a person, unless he has the light of the Spirit within him, will attribute the work of the Lord to the wisdom of man, or necromancy, or the power of the devil. . . . [p.12]

We must have the testimony of the Lord Jesus to enable us to discern between truth and error, light and darkness, him who is of God, and him who is not of God, and to know how to place everything where it belongs. That is the only way to be a scientific Christian; there is no other method or process which will actually school a person so that he can become a Saint of God, and prepare him for a celestial glory; he must have within him the testimony of the spirit of the Gospel. . . .

I make these remarks that you may understand that my faith is not placed upon the Lord’s working upon the islands of the sea, upon His bringing the people here, upon His causing a drouth in the eastern lands, and wars, bloodshed, and destruction among the people; nor upon the favors He bestows upon this people, or upon that people, neither upon whether we are blessed or not blessed, but my faith is placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and my knowledge I have received from him.[22]

Brigham Young’s life is an admirable pattern of faith that each of us can and should emulate. As he counseled, our study should be to know the will of God and to align our desires and interests with it. Then we must do all within our power to achieve those divine ends in matters great and small, in day-to-day living, and in the grander design of our mission upon the earth. After our having done this, our faith will be as Brigham’s—implicit and complete. There will be no fear of advancing into the unknown. We will go forward with the utmost of assurance. As Joseph Smith expressed it: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” (D&C 123:17).

All of this, of course, must be founded on that spirit that leads to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the truest sense, there is no faith without Him and no other source of faith than He. One who pursues the testimony and knowledge of Jesus, as did Brigham Young, and one who acts according to the example of Brigham Young will have the faith of Brigham Young and the experience of Brigham Young, which is that having diligently done what you can in each circumstance and challenge of life, you can rely on God to provide, and your success is assured.

Notes

[1] This article is adapted from a presentation given by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “The Faith of a Prophet,” 15 June 2001, the first in a series of lectures concerning “Brigham Young: Prophet, Colonizer, Patriarch—The 200th Anniversary of His Birth,” Brigham Young University, sponsored by the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, Religious Education, and Division of Continuing Education.

[2] Remarks, 8 April 1850, General Church Minutes, LDS Church Archives; Ronald W. Walker, “Brigham Young: Student of the Prophet,” Ensign 28, no. 2 (February 1998): 52–53.

[3] Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 54.

[4] James B. Allen, Ronald K. Esplin, and David J. Whittaker, Men with a Mission, 1837–1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992), 70.

[5] Ibid., 71.

[6] Journal of Discourses (Liverpool: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–86), 13:173.

[7] Life of a Pioneer, Autobiography of James S. Brown (Salt Lake City: Cannon and Sons, 1900), 8.

[8] Brigham Young Office Journal, 18 January 1862.

[9] Elden Jay Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801–1844 (Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1968), 35.

[10] Deseret News (Weekly), 10 September 1856, 5; Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997), 9.

[11] Journal of Discourses, 4:24; 10:293.

[12] Ibid., 3:154–55.

[13] Ibid., 3:159.

[14] Ibid., 4:91.

[15] Ibid., 4:24–26.

[16] Ronald K. Esplin, “Fire in His Bones,” Ensign 23, no. 3 (March 1993): 45–46.

[17] Journal of Discourses, 4:41; Esplin, “Fire in His Bones,” 46–47.

[18] Ibid., 14:118.

[19] Ibid., 3:154.

[20] Ibid., 4:28.

[21] Ibid., 4:26–27.

[22] Ibid., 3:155; emphasis added.