BRIGHAM YOUNG RECEIVES THE GOSPEL—HIS MEMORABLE MEETING WITH THE PROPHET—HIS CONSTANT DEVOTION—"THAT MAN WILL YET PRESIDE OVER THE CHURCH"—A REVELATION ON PRIESTHOOD—JOSEPH VISITS THE EASTERN STATES—HIS NUMEROUS LABORS—PROPHECY CONCERNING THE CIVIL WAR—ITS SUBSEQUENT FULFILLMENT.  
While the Prophet was on his way to Missouri in the month of April, 1832, an event occurred afar off in Mendon, Monroe County, New York, which was the forerunner of mighty help to Joseph and strength to the Church. It was the baptism of Brigham Young on the 14th day of April, 1832, by Elder Eleazer Miller. This destined successor of the Prophet had heard and accepted the truth. His sincerity and force of character were visible at his conversion, and after his confirmation at the water's edge as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, he was ordained on the same day to the Melchisedec Priesthood.
 
In the month of June when Joseph returned to Kirtland from Missouri he met and gave the hand of fellowship to Brigham Young, who had journeyed to Kirtland to hear the voice of the Prophet of God. A most memorable meeting was this of these two men whose names and fame were to become so indissolubly united! Of all the men of their generation they were to be the most loved and hated, their words and deeds were to be heralded to every corner of the earth, and, beyond those of all their contemporaries, were to make the deepest impress upon the world. If the fact be not fully recognized and acknowledged to-day, the hour is not far distant when it will be, that JOSEPH SMITH and BRIGHAM YOUNG were the two greatest men of their time. Providence had assigned each his labor, and each faithfully performed the allotted task. Joseph, under the direction of the Almighty, marked out the design and laid the foundation deep and strong; and Brigham, inspired from the same source, builded upon it carefully and judiciously. The labor of one was designed to be the fitting complement to the other.
 
At this first visit the Prophet Joseph heard, for the first time, the gift of speaking in tongues. Brigham had received this gift, and at a meeting in the evening the Spirit rested upon him and he spoke in tongues. The Prophet received the gift of interpretation, and he said it was the language spoken by our Father Adam. The Spirit also rested upon him and he spoke in tongues. After this, the gifts of speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues were received and enjoyed by many of the Saints at Kirtland and elsewhere.
 
From that day Joseph and Brigham were friends, attached to each other by a tie stronger and closer than that of earthly kinship. From that time on for twelve years Brigham gave earnest help to Joseph and demonstrated by his consideration and devotion that he knew the authority under which the younger man was acting. There was a time to come when Oliver Cowdery—the fellow apostle of Joseph, who, with him, had received the Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, and the Melchisedec Priesthood under the hands of the apostles Peter, James and John, heavenly messengers sent expressly to confer these two Priesthoods upon them—would waver in his fidelity to the truth and would oppose Joseph and leave the Church. Not many years from the time of which we write Sidney Rigdon, the trusted counselor, the eloquent spokesman of the Prophet, who with him had beheld in vision the glories of the eternal world and borne solemn testimony that he had seen the Savior and knew that He lived, would turn his back upon and be ready to desert Joseph and to conspire against the Church. But not so with Brigham Young; but not so with the Prophet's brother Hyrum, and many others less eminent than these two. Hyrum Smith was the embodiment of unswerving fidelity and fraternal love. Ever by his brother's side to aid and comfort him, life had no charms for him when danger threatened the Lord's anointed. He had a mother to whom he always rendered dutiful and loving obedience; he had a wife and children upon whom he lavished a wealth of affection; he had brothers and sisters to whom he was kind, considerate and helpful; but for his brother Joseph he had a love which over-mastered all these affections; it surpassed the love of woman. When death stood in the pathway and menaced with its fearful terrors Joseph and those who stood by him, the Prophet besought Hyrum to stand aside and not accompany him. But, however obedient he might be to the slightest wish of his brother in other directions, upon this point he was immovable. If Joseph died, they would die together. As in his life, so in his death, Hyrum Smith exhibited the perfection of human love.
 
With similar fidelity and unshaken integrity Brigham Young, from the time of this meeting in Kirtland, cordially sustained the Prophet Joseph in all his ministrations up to the day of his martyrdom. Many times during the ensuing twelve years, and especially during the great defection and apostasy at Kirtland, he had occasion, because of his devotion to Joseph, to exhibit the decision of character and moral courage for which he was so distinguished in after life. When hesitation and doubt were far too common, and many leading men faltered and fell away, Brigham stood in the midst of the storm of opposition like a tower of strength. The remark which he made concerning some of his brother apostles at Nauvoo, after the death of the Prophet Joseph, when he said "their hands had never trembled and their knees had never shook in maintaining and defending the principles of righteousness" applied with peculiar significance to himself and his own past connection with the work of God. But it was not in Joseph's lifetime alone that Brigham manifested his admiration for and devotion to his great friend. During the long period—thirty-three years—which he outlived the Prophet (when a common man under his circumstances might have been tempted to criticise the acts or peculiarities of his predecessor, or to contrast his own management of affairs with that of Joseph's) no one ever heard a word drop from his lips that was not worthy of the two men. His own success and great and world-wide prominence never diminished nor obscured the deep-rooted love and loyalty he felt towards the man whom God had chosen to hold the keys of this last dispensation and to be his file-leader in the Priesthood.
 
It appears that the Prophet must have had something shown to him on this occasion concerning the future of Brigham Young; for Heber C. Kimball and Joseph Young, who both accompanied Brigham to Kirtland, each testified in his lifetime that the Prophet Joseph said to those who stood around him, "that man," pointing to Brigham Young who was a little distance off, "will yet preside over this Church." Levi W. Hancock, also, frequently testified that he heard the Prophet make this same statement concerning Brigham.
 
In July Joseph was gratified to receive the first number of The Evening and Morning Star from Independence. Light was ............