Show biography of brigham young and history of the mormon church by M R WERNER reprinted by permission from the ladies home journal continued from last week in his early years brigham young showed that independence of 0 the thought morals and customs of his environment which was so characteristic te of ct him in ia later life when he was a young man his father urged him to sign a temperance pledge no sir said I 1 it if I 1 sign the temperance pledge I 1 feel that I 1 am bound and I 1 wish to do just right without being bound to do it I 1 want my liberty and I 1 have conceived from my youth up that I 1 could have ray my liberty and and independence just as much in doing right as I 1 could in doing wrong am I 1 not a tree free man have not I 1 the power to choose 1 Is not of my volition as tree free as the air I 1 bretice brea hae certainly it is just as much in doing right as aa in doing wrong consequently I 1 wish to act upon my own owin volition ana do what I 1 ought to do I 1 have lived a temperate life I 1 feel as though I 1 could tun run through a troop land leap over a wall at the time he delivered this sermon berlon brigham young was seventy years old his first marriage BI when he was twenty three years old brigham young married for the first time the girl was miriam works the daughter of 0 asa and jerusha works of aurelius Au rellus cayuga county nty new york where brigham had wandered in the coarse co arse of 0 his traveling occupations for eighteen years during his youth and his manhood he lived in aurelius where in the typical yankee manner he followed the manifold occupations of 0 joiner house painter and glazier before this the had done odd jobs son ion farms and had set type on bal balls arithmetic but alter after his marriage he settled down to the perm permanent ament business of painter glazier and carpenter and he said in after years that he had done many a hard doys work tor for six bits a day in the spring of 1829 ho he removed to mendon monroa monree county now new york where Ms his father lived and it was there a year later that brigham young first saw a copy ot of the book of mormon during his youth and adolescence brigham young showed less interest in religion than most ot of hta his neighbors friends and family with that independence of custom which he maintained vigorously throughout life he refused to be stampeded into faith aith although he was geographically located in its very maelstrom elstrom mendon new york was about fifteen miles southeast of rochester and the entire surrounding country was one of the most fertile fields f tor or the revival preachers of that period in the united states the rest of Brig brighams hams family had bad been influenced sufficiently by their environ ment to become earnest methodists but he during his youth heldi held himself aloof from all religious sects because he could not find one that thai satisfied his own ideas of god and his heaven or one that seemed sufficiently reasonable or attractive to change those ideas he bel believed levea fervently in a god in a heaven and in a hell but he refused steadfastly to accept anyone alses interpretation of them his father was waa devout aud and he urged brigham too accept the family creed john young had named one of his sons lorenzo dow young after the famous evangelist of the time and two of Brigna ms other brothers took an intense interest in religion brigham young once said that his brother joseph was solemn and praying all tho the time ana that he had not seen joseph smil le tor for a period of tour four years or laugh for two years his brother phine phineas had become an active methodist preaching and seeing visions and he once practiced healing by laying hand on a young woman when he was young brigham Brig liam went to hear bear lorenzo dow who had a great reputation as a hortatory preacher throughout the backwoods and the cities of this country and whose tame fame had even lo AO parts of england many years later brigham young told i his own congregation about this experience in his youth ile he was esteemed a very great man by the religious folks I 1 although young in yeatis years and lacking experience had bad thought a great many times that I 1 would like to hear man who could tell me something when he opened the bible about the son of god the will of god what the ancients did and received saw and heard and knew iper er to god and heaven so I 1 went to hear lorenzo dow ile ho stood up same of the time het he was in this position and in that position and talked two or three hours and when lie he got through I 1 asked myself what have you learned from lorenzo dow and my answer was nothing nothing but morals he could tell the people they should not work on the sabbath day they should not lie swear steal commit adultery and so on but when he came to teaching the tha things ot of god he was wag as dark as midnight and S BO 0 I 1 lived until finally I 1 made a profession of religion I 1 thought to myself I 1 would try to break off 0 my sins and lead a better life and be as moral as I 1 possibly could for I 1 was pretty sure I 1 should not stay here always where I 1 was going to I 1 did not know but I 1 would like to be as good as I 1 know how while here rather than run the risk ot of being full of evil from journal of discourses vol XIV p I 1 meanwhile in his twenty second year brigham young joined the tha methodists however he was not net so active in their work as his brothers and his lather father were before joining the methodists he had at various times attended meeting in mendon of the episcopalians Episcopal ians pres byte rians new lights baptists baptista freewill baptists wesleyans wesleyann Wesle reformed methodists and quakers and was more or less acquainted with almost every other ism how brigham young got the DOOR book he was he said looking tor for something more than just 1 I felt in those days after I 1 had made a profession ot religion that it if 1 I could see the face of a prophet such as had lived on the earth in former times a man that had revelations to whom the heavens were opened who knew god and ills hia character I 1 would freely circumscribe the earth on my hands and knees I 1 thought that there was no hardship but what I 1 would undergo it I 1 could see one person that knew what god Is and where he is what his character and what eternity was this raould appear to be a large order but the opportunity of fulfilling it in sonne measure was soon after offered to brigham young when samuel H smith a brother of the prophet joseph s ep h smith jr arrived in brig hams neighborhood selling the book of mormon bermon samuel smith was the book agent tor for his religious brother and in the course of his difficult task of distributing a new bible he tried to sell a copy of it to the rev john P green of livonia Livori lW new york the reverend mr oreen green told him to come back in a few weeks after he and mrs green had had a chance to inspect the new bible and when smith returned mrs green told him that her husband had decided not to buy it was impressed upon uan my mind samuel smith said 11 some me years later to leave the book with her he made mrs green a p present e of the book of 0 A mormon as asking king only that she and her husband would ask god ter for a sign that it was waa the truth they did ea and soon on afterward were baptized mrs green was a sister ot of brigham young she showed the new bible to her brother phineas mho took it home to study and soon afterward att erward phineas began to preach the new religion he showed the book to his brother brigham who said later that he first saw it two or three weeks after it was published in 1830 brigham pondered over the book of mormon tor for two years he ha adopted toward this dispensation the same skeptical attitude he had bad used toward all the other sects the more tie lie wrestled with it the truer it seemed and so he says he found it impossible imMs sible to discern its errors 1 I found it was from eternity passed through time and into eternity again when I 1 discovered this I 1 said it Is worthy of the notice of man then I 1 applied my heart to wisdom and sought diligently tor for understanding and eventually he be came to this emphatic conclusion 1 I know knew it was true as well as I 1 knew that I 1 could see with my eyes or feeley feel by the touch of my fingers or be ba sensible of the demonstration of any sense had not this been tho the case I 1 never would have embraced it to this day to be continued |