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Show HIS CHILDISH RECOLLECTION. According to the Fillmore Progress Review's report of the lato MilLrd stako quart erl- conference, President Joseph F. Smith nddressed the people, and during the courso of his sermon ho rolated an incident which occurrod while he was on his way to Utah from Nau-voo, Nau-voo, wherein "humble praj'er was answered an-swered b3r tho Lord, when the cattlo wore lost and thc3' were left alono upon the plains, among the. Indians and enemies." ene-mies." i "Joseph F. at that time was but a lad of eight years of age," s.'-s tho Latter-da3 Saints Biographical Enc3'do-pedia, Enc3'do-pedia, in spcakiug of the trip. !jo' that it is quito likely thai any incident which mny have occurred in tho journe3 would have been greatly exaggerated in his childish mind. But wli3' carry the child idea into the gr.13' da3s? Doubtless Doubt-less in tho face of the loss of their cattlo, the people prayed and they are by no means to be censured for doing so, but rather commended. Yet, it is reasonable to suppose that the cattle wore not found without tho exercise of physical effort, added lo this pnu-cr. If not, and Iho cattlo returned voluntarily, volun-tarily, then the poor things had merely found their wa3' back to camp after having innoeenflj wandered away. Because Be-cause it is nonsense to believe tho physical phys-ical impossibility of pra3cr producing cattle instantb' where nono was seen before for miles about. Common sense should suggest that this sort of teaching teach-ing might havo tho effect of momentarily momen-tarily impressing tho minds of children chil-dren nnd feeble persons; but its nttor uureason is bound to finally convinco the developing mind of its falsity, aud in the end provoke apostasy instead of confirming faith. But Joseph F. was no more in dreamland, or in the realm of don 't-care, when lie preseutcd his supposed experience, than was his predecessor. pred-ecessor. President Brigham Young, in uttering the following manufactured bit: My faltli Is, when wc have done all wc can, tb:ii the Lord Is under obligation, and will not disappoint tjie faithful; Tie will perform the rest. If no other assistance assist-ance could have been had by tho companies compa-nies this season. I think they would have hrfd hundreds and hundreds of fat buffaloes buf-faloes crowding around their camp, sp that they could not help but kill theni. Brlghnm Young In Salt Lake tabcrnaclo, November HI 18r.fi; Journal of Discourses, volume -I, page .11, If Joseph F. had been as practical in Fillmore, as Brigham was in Salt Lake, though, he would have tapered off his observations concerning the wonderfully impracticable by a qualifying statement that would possibly have taken a little of the nonsense out of it. Brigham 's faith was not half so strong as were his works, and the people knewMhis to be a fact. So, while attempt iug o food their minds with the impossible, hu knew fho dangers of over-stuffing. Therefore, ho added, cnlighlcningly, "But. under the circumstances, it was our duty to assist them, and we were, none too early in the opera t ion." , But it is a part of the present hierarchical hie-rarchical game, to gloom their doings and lenchings in mystery, and to inculcate faith iu the- unreasonable. Vlho how could the prophets make people believe that it is right to pay moiie3' without receiving anything in return not oven an accounting? |
