History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

202 BRIGHAM YOUNG SUCCEEDS JOSEPH.
Thus Brigham Young succeeded Joseph Smith.
The work of the latter was done. It was a singular
work, to which he was singularly adapted; the work yet
to be done is no less remarkable, and a no less remarkable
agent is raised up at the right moment. Matters
assume now a more material turn, and a more
material nature is required to master them—if coarsergrained,
more practical, rougher, more dogmatical,
dealing less in revelations from heaven and more in
self-protection and self-advancement here on earth,
so much the better for the saints. "Strike, but hear
me!" Joseph with Themistocles used to cry; "I will
strike, and you shall hear me," Brigham would say.
No wonder the American Israel received Brigham
as the gift of God, the Lion of the Lord, 20 though
the explanation of the new ruler himself would have
been nearer that of the modern evolutionist, who
would account for Brigham's success as the survival
of the fittest. It was fortunate for the saints at this
juncture that their leader should be less prophet than
priest and king, less idealist than business manager,
political economist, and philosopher. Brigham holds
communion with spiritual powers but distantly, perhaps
distrustfully; at all events, he commands the
spirits rather than let them command him ; and the
older he grows the less he has to do with them; and
the less he has to do with heavenly affairs, the more
his mind dwells on earthly matters. His prophecies are
eminently practical; his people must have piety that
will pay. And later, and all through his life, his position
is a strange one. If the people about Nauvoo are
troublesome, God orders him west; and then he tells
and afterward built up churches at Mantua and Mentor in that state. In
1830 he joined the Mormon church, being converted by the preaching of Parley.
Further particulars will be found in Times and Seasons, iv. 177-8, 193-4,
200-10; Cobb's Mormon Problem, MS., 12; Tucker's Mormonism, 123-7; Pittsburgh
Gaz., in S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 4, 1876. Returning to Pittsburgh after
his excommunication, Sidney led a life of utter obscurity, and finally died
at Friendship, Alleghany County, N. Y., July 14, 1876. Lipjnncott's Mag.,
Aug. 1880.
20 See note 41, p. 192, this vol.