--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Gates, Susa Young collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 32 number: 8 published: 1929-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Susa Young Gates, “Brigham Young’s Testimony,” *Improvement Era* 32, no. 8 (June 1929): 637–638." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3208unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3208unse start_page: 637 end_page: 638 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1929-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3208unse publication_year: 1929 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1929, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Brigham Young’s Testimony Brigham Young's Testimony By His Daughter Susa Young Gates AS Joseph Smith was a humble follower of the Savior, so like- wise was Brigham Young. He added to that passionate de- votion to the Master a fervent loyalty to the mission and message of the new witness for Christ, the Prophet Joseph Smith. Brigham was 31 years old when converted to "Mormonism." He had long been a student of the scriptures and ancient prophecies. From the hour he struck hands with Joseph, he was his friend and supporter. Church history demonstrates that loyalty. No greater proof of the majesty of the Prophet's character and the lofty stand- ard of his message ever came to me in the days of my youth than the love and profound respect felt by my father for him. Father did not appear prominently in Church events and his- tory until after the martyrdom. My study of those early scenes, the corroborating testimony of such men as Presidents Wilford Wood- ruff and George Q. Cannon, together with that of my dear Aunt Emily Partridge Smith-Young, have convinced me of his devotion. Subsequent historians have featured him in those early days, because of his later life's history. He was intensely loyal then to his adored leader, whose own close associates weakened at times, and some of them apostatized. But Brigham Young never wavered. He stood at the gateway of deceit and betrayal, by some of the Church leaders, and denounced them bitterly. He even horse-whipped one apostate who was crying in the Kirtland streets. "Joseph is a fallen prophet." All this I did not know in my youth. I only saw my own father as supreme leader that he was, "pioneer, statesman, prophet," as his memorial tablet recently prepared declares. My father was not only loved and honored by the people; he was adored by his own large family. They might, at times, disagree with each other — we are all human — but none of them, neither wife nor child, ever disagreed with him as far as I ever heard. And that not because of fear. Oh, no, never fear! But because we loved him so well, and he loved us so devotedly. When I was in my early twenties and struggling to get a testi- mony of the truth, I went to my father with my problem. He did not argue with me: he did not quote scripture. He said simply: "There is only one way, daughter, that you can get a testimony, and that is the way your mother got hers and the way I got mine. Go down on your knees in humble prayer, and God will answer your petition." 638 IMPROVEMENT ERA J>™. '9Z9 I spoke about his greatness and his wondrous life, and expressed my gratitude that I had been permitted to come to earth as his and my mother's child. He — Oh, he was my wonderful ideal, and he had so powerful a testimony. I longed to have one like his. "My daughter, what am I?" he said humbly. "If it hadn't been for the message of Joseph Smith, I would today be a carpenter in a country village." And then he added solemnly: "Sooner than do anything to lose my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, I would be cut into inch pieces every night of my life and put together again to take up the labors of the day." His last words on earth as he was falling asleep in the arms of death were: "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph!" His face was transfigured with the joy of that heavenly reunion. Can I doubt his testimony? Why? "Why," asked my daughter, "do people like Pearl and her husband pass through such poverty? They have struggled with sickness, have lost their children by death, and now she herself is a paralytic. They have been such true Latter-day Saints all their lives. Other Saints, equally faithful and devoted, have all manner of afflictions thrust upon them. Why should these things be?" "I cannot answer your questions," I replied, "except to remind you that if all the good people were happy, healthy and wealthy, there would be no bad people. It wouldn't pay. Then where would our agency come in?" — Susa Young Gates. Your Mission (Originally written to Elder Weston N. Norgren, laboring in England)- To take a soul from out the world of strife, That does not sense the purpose of life, And lead it to religion's truth and light, Is greater than the deeds of worldly might. That soul in turn shall teach the human need, And spread the influence of your kindly deed, And thus your work shall life and leaven be To many souls in time — eternity. — C. N. Lund.