Joseph and Brigham

Brigham Young and Joseph Smith

There are times, not very often though, while forming questions for my blog stories, that I can’t think of a question. This is one such time. Enjoy the story though.

This great meeting took place on August 8, 1844, forty-two days after the Martyrdom. Many people witnessed the miracle of Brigham Young’s transfiguration before the vast gathering of the Saints. George Q. Cannon wrote: “If Joseph had risen from the dead, and again spoken in their hearing, the effect could not have been more startling than it was to many present at that meeting; it was the voice of Joseph himself; and not only was it the voice of Joseph which was heard, but it seemed in the eyes of the people as though it was the very person of Joseph which stood before them.” Benjamin Ashby wrote: “I was in the congregation when the question of the succession to the leadership of the Church was before the people and I solemnly assert and testify that the last time I saw the features, the gestures, and heard the sound of the voice of Joseph Smith was when the form, voice and countenance of Brigham Young was transfigured before the congregation so that he appeared like Joseph Smith in every particular. Thus the Lord showed the people that the mantle of Joseph had been bestowed on Brigham.” Mary Garner recorded: “Mother had the baby on her knee. He was playing with a tin cup. He dropped it, attracting our attention to the floor. Mother stooped over to pick it up, when we were startled by hearing the voice of Joseph. Looking up quickly, we saw the form of the Prophet Joseph standing before us. Brother Brigham looked and talked so much like Joseph that for a moment we thought it was Joseph. There was no doubt in the hearts of the Saints from that moment on who was to be our inspired leader.” John Harper testified: “When Brother Brigham arose on the stand I received a testimony for myself. He appeared to me as if it was Brother Joseph and it was Joseph’s voice and there the mantle of Joseph fell on Brigham.” Drusilla Hendricks recorded: “Brother Brigham began to speak. I jumped up to look and see if it was not Brother Joseph, for surely it was his voice and gestures. Every Latter-day Saint could easily see upon whom the priesthood descended for Brigham Young held the keys. Sidney Rigdon lead off a few, but where are they now?”

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 419.

Yesterday’s answer:

a.      John Benbow

One of the converts in Herefordsire to the south was John Benbow, a successful farmer and immediate friend to the Church. “John Benbow had been baptized only about a month when he and his wife, Jane, came to see Wilford [Woodruff]. As they met in a little sitting room, they earnestly recounted that they had read in the New Testament how in the days of the Apostles, Church members had sold all their possessions and laid them at the Apostles’ feet, and they felt it was their duty to fulfill that law and do the same thing. It was a moment Wilford would never forget, recounting it in a speech fifty-five years later, but for then, he said, ‘I gave them to understand that God had not sent me to England to take care of his gold, his horses, his cows and his property; He had sent me there to preach the gospel.’ Though their offer was refused, the spirit of it continued to animate their lives. The Benbows would substantially finance the printing of the Book of Mormon in England, pay for at least forty of the United Brethren [their former religious society that had come into the Church] to make their journey to Zion, and later put up bail to help keep the Prophet Joseph out of Jail.”

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pg. 394-395.