Day in the Life

Feb 23, 1848

Journal Entry

February 23, 1848 ~ Wednesday

23rd A single key with teeth to the right I called upon Br Richards in the morning soon Pres-
ident Young came in we went into the office & attended
to some Business. Br Brown came in & requested one of us
to go & preach the funeral sermon of his daughter who was
dead. Presidents Brigham & Joseph Young & myself went
to his house, we found not ownly his daughter dead
but a number sick in the House. The meeting opened by
singing & prayer By Joseph Young, After which President
B. Young Arose Addressed the meeting & said that he had A few rem-
arks to make & desired that he might have the Holy spirit while He
spoke. Said it was better to go [to] the House of mourning than to the House
of feasting for that was the end of the living & would force
upon our minds the truth of the desolution which we must all pass through

we mourn for the loss of our friends when they die but if
they die in the Lord they are better off than the living for they
have gained one victory which the living have not they are
beyound the reach of pain, sorrow, wicked men, devils, and
devlish spirits which we are not, for we are daily in the
midst of all the suffering that mortal man is heir to &
when will this suffering end, when we die & not before,
unless we should live untill Satan is bound but all must
pass through death. Yet I would be glad to live to assist in
binding Satan As to the Saints we are being worn out
according to the workd of the Lord we have been driven &
persecuted in such a manner that there are but few constit-
utions among us except such as are broaken to peaces &
ready to fall into the grave & we are burying up the Saints
vary fast whareever we go over four Hundred are laid
in the grave in this place & many in all places whare we
have stoped, but all of this pain, sorrow, death & affliction
will work to gether for the good of the Saints for these
things must needs Be in order to work out the purposes of
the Almighty & give the Saints there exhaltation and Glory in
the eternal world. the sectarian wourld with the knowledge
they have would if it was in their power sweep the fall
of man
, death, pain, sorrow & Afflictions with all their
attendant evils into oblivion & caused man to have lived
eternally as he was before the fall that he might never
have seen death, But such a course would in the end have
been the greatest curse that could have been heaped upon man
for by so doing it would entirely have frustrated the design
of the Almighty in the creation of man & blocked up the way
for his exhaltation glory & greatness & the Lord understood
the subject so well before either the world or man was formed
that A Saviour was provided in the Lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world to redeem man from Eternal dead
so that by man paying the deabt of the fall by passing through
the temporal death, they recieve the power & glory of the
resurrection by Jesus Christ which gives them an Immortal
body which will recieve A far greater glory and power than
the mortal body ever could have obtained unto had it not
have been for the fall. And I suppose If I had power IWith
the limited Knowledge I have I should sweep from the midst
of this people sickness, pain, sorrow, poverty & persecution & mobings
I dont suppose I should ever have suffered this people to have
been driven at all by a mob but as the Lord knows so much
more than we do He has suffered it so to be & it is for a wise
purpose in God, it is for our good & will finally prove for
our exhaltation & glory in the eternal world, & gives us experi
ence in this life which we otherwise should not have had. "Adam
fell that men might be, men are that they may have Joy, but if
they knew no Joy they would have no sorrow, And if they did not
know misery they would not know happiness" [2 Nephi 2:23-25] for man must
experience one in order to comprehend & know the other Jesus
had to descend below all things in order to ascend above all things,
I am fully convinced that all our sorrows & troubles will work
out for us a far more exceding & eternal wait of glory, Hence we
ought nought to murmer or complain at our fate It is true
we mourn at the loss of friends but not as those without hope

for blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth saith
the spirit for they rest from their labours (& if their friends are
faithful) their works will follow them, but what is the time of
our suffering in this life in comparison with Eternity After we have
spent millions of Ages in eternity & we look back upon our time here
& it will ownly look like the twinkling of an eye in comparison
And so it will be in the waiting for the resurrection of our bodies
it will be for A moment as it were before we shall stand in our
immortal bodies but no person can have power to raise the dead
except he holds the Keys of the resurrection & no man can hold
the keys of the resurrection or be ordained unto that power
untill he has died & been raised from the dead himself no
more than than A man has power to Baptize A man legally
& lay hands upon him for the Holy Ghost & ordain him to the
office of an Elder who has not been baptized or ordained
himself. Michael the Ark Angel (Adam) Holds the Keys of the
resurrection And After A man is raised from the dead has
an immortal body & recieves An ordination to hold the keys of
the resurrection from under the Hands of Michael or those
Having authority He then has power to raise the dead & not
before. Jesus was the first fruits of the resurrection "He had
power to lay down his life & power to take it again," [John 10:18] when He
had lain in the grave three days An Angel, some person who
was Appointed to this work appeared rolled back the stone & called
Jesus forth. We have power here through the Priesthood to lay
hands
upon the sick & they recover, to cast out devils open the eyes
of the blind & unstop the ears of the deef according to the faith of the chil-
dren of men. It is just as easy to raise the dead for one who is ordained
unto this power as it is for us to administer in the ordinances of the
House of the Lord here. Some times we lay hands upon the sick &
they are healed instantly other times with all the faith & medicine they
are a long time getting well, & others die. The spirit of devils who
are deprived of Having tabernacles are constantly making war with
men who have tabernacles & they strive to take up their abode in
the tabernacles of men because they have none of their own, & whare
they can get a chance they will many of them croud into one man
& try to reign there & some times they will kill the body & then
the spirit of the man & devils all have to leave it some times in
sickness & weakness the spirit of deavels get possession of the
body whare the spirit of man is pure & overcomes it but the
moment the spirit leaves the Body it is beyound the power &
reach of the devils, some children are killed in this way for
the devil is making war with every thing that has A tabernacle
esspecially the Saints, & the devil rules a great deal in the hearts
of the children of men, And if He cannot go in any other way
He will go into A Barrel of whiskey & run down their throats
And when the saints get into the valley away from the valley
gentiles the deavel will get into the Half mormons Hickery
mormons & will plead with them to get into them but when
we consider how little time we have to spend in this life im
comparison to eternity we ou[gh]t not to consider it a hard matter
to be faithful to God & keep his commandments for when we
obtain celestial glory we shall have to exclaim that it is through
the grace of God after all, for the glory far exceeds our sufferings
in this life.

Manny Many other remarks were made by
President Young And meeting was dismissed by W Woodruff

People

Browse people Wilford Woodruff mentioned on this day in his journal. Click on the person's name to view a short bio and other pages they are mentioned on or click on "View in Family Search" to view their FamilySearch profile.

288 mentions
Scriptural Figure
Young, Brigham
1 Jun 1801 - 29 Aug 1877
3407 mentions
Apostle, Family
Young, Joseph
7 Apr 1797 - 16 Jul 1881
30 mentions
Scriptural Figure
Richards, Willard
24 Jun 1804 - 11 Mar 1854
538 mentions
Apostle

Places

Browse places mentioned in Wilford Woodruff's journal entry on this day. Click on the place names to view other pages where they are mentioned.

Quotes

View selected quotes from this page in Wilford Woodruff's journal.

we mourn for the loss of our friends when they die but if they die in the Lord they are better off than the living for they have gained one victory which the living have not they are beyound the reach of pain, sorrow, wicked men, devils, and devlish spirits which we are not, for we are daily in the midst of all the suffering that mortal man is heir to & when will this suffering end, when we die & not before, unless we should live untill Satan is bound but all must pass through death. Yet I would be glad to live to assist in binding Satan
~ Brigham Young
Adam fell that men might be, men are that they may have Joy, but if they knew no Joy they would have no sorrow, and if they did not know misery they would not know happiness" for man must experience one in order to comprehend & know the other Jesus had to descend below all things in order to ascend above all things, I am fully convinced that all our sorrows & troubles will work out for us a far more exeeding & eternal wait of glory, hence we ought nought to murmer or complain at our fate. It is true we mourn at the loss of friends but not as those with out hope
~ Brigham Young
what is the time of our suffering in this life in comparison with Eternity After we have spent millions of ages in Eternity & we look back upon our time here & it will ownly look like the twinkling of an eye in comparison and so it will be in the waiting for the resurrection of our bodies it will be for a moment
~ Brigham Young
We have power here through the Priesthood to lay hands upon the sick & they recover, to cast out devils open the eyes of the blind & unstop the ears of the deef according to the faith of the chil- dren of men. It is just as easy to raise the dead for one who is ordained unto this power as it is for us to administer in the ordinances of the House of the Lord here. Some times we lay hands upon the sick & they are healed instantly other times with all the faith & medicine they are a long time getting well, & others die.
~ Brigham Young
when we consider how little time we have to spend in this life in comparison to Eternity we ou[gh]t not to consider it a hard matter to be faithful to God & keep his commandments for when we obtain Celestial glory we shall have to exclaim that it is through the grace of God after all, for the glory far exceeds our sufferings in this life.
~ Brigham Young

Events

View selected events in the two months surrounding this date in Wilford Woodruff's life. Click on the dates to jump to that day in Wilford Woodruff's journal.

Feb 23, 1848