Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily JournalsWoodruff, Wilford
Religion
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals
Woodruff, Wilford
Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898
The country to which the Saints had come was a wilderness, and the
surroundings of the people were such that it was not always easy to
keep men and women under proper restraint, especially young men who
in a wild country naturally were prone to be uncouth and sometimes
profane in their language. The Puritan spirit of the early pioneers
was so intense that an effort was made {344} to check evils in their
incipiency and to wage a crusade against them as fast as they made
their appearance. Profanity was one of the evils that could not be
endured. The Authorities on the 12th of January, in a congregation
of the Saints, called attention to the use of such language, and the
whole congregation voted to "put down swearing" throughout the City
and the Territory. Into the reform movement, Elder Woodruff threw all
his energies and preached with all the ardor of his soul against the
improper use of words that profaned the name of Deity.
The time had come to erect another temple for the holy ordinances that
are peculiar and confined to that sacred structure. The work should
be begun as far as possible with the absence of every semblance of
evil; and on January 19, President Young announced to the congregation
assembled that the time had arrived for the erection of a temple.
Truman O. Angel was appointed architect, and during the day plans
for the new Temple were submitted for inspection in the Seventies'
Hall. That building now stands on State street in a good state of
preservation.
On the 28th, news of the appointment of President Young to be the first
governor of Utah reached the people. This appointment gave universal
satisfaction. When the news came, President Young was about fifteen
miles north of the city. The leaders and a band went out to meet him;
and upon his arrival in the city, he was welcomed by a salute of ten
guns.
About this time, on February 2nd, a pretender arose who styled himself
Elijah, and a Mr. Bateman spoke for about 9 minutes in his behalf. The
new Elijah, however, received no encouragement.
It was about the same time also that there began those regular weekly
meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles which have continued to
the present time. The object was to keep the Twelve in harmony with
one another, that each might know what the other was doing, that there
might be uniformity, and that they might be actuated by a spirit of
unity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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