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
On July the 13th Elder Woodruff attended the conference {364} in Provo
with Presidents Young, Kimball, and Grant. During the conference, they
had a visit from an Indian chief whose English name was High Forehead.
He and others of his tribe addressed the congregation, expressing their
confidence in President Young and the people over whom he presided.
There was in those days a class of people in Provo whose conduct was
not entirely satisfactory. It was a gathering place for many uncouth
miners, whose habits of drinking and gambling did not give Provo a very
good name. Speaking of the town, Apostle Woodruff says in his journal:
"There was a strange spirit in Provo and many had not the spirit of
God." Many of the early inhabitants of the town will find in that
remark something of the spirit of charity.
On Elder Woodruff's return to Salt Lake City he speaks of the
excellent times they had in the Polysophical Society as well as in the
Universal Scientific Society. These social gatherings for intellectual
improvement afforded the progressive men of those days some opportunity
to satisfy their desires for education. Elder Woodruff rarely failed in
his journal to give an account of the doings of those societies, and
to express the great delight he had had over the information imparted
by the lectures. In his journal he says: "On September 13th we met in
the Social Hall under the organization of a Pomological Society. The
house was well filled and the subject discussed was the organization
of a Horticultural Society. A committee was appointed to draft the
constitution and by-laws to govern said society. I was chosen chairman
of this committee, and subsequently president of the society which did
much to promote the culture and growth of fruit in the Territory."
The spirit of Wilford Woodruff was pre-eminently missionary in every
aspect of his life. If he raised fruit, it was in fulfillment of a
mission to promote an industry. When he sat in the legislative halls,
he regarded his work as a grand mission for the establishment and
spread of the principles of civil government. It all made him an
enthusiastic worker. If he farmed, he did it as much to teach others
how to farm as to obtain a livelihood from it. With him, all life and
labor was a mission. It was all in the spirit of a teacher and he was
conscientious in the extreme about what and how he would teach. In
attending a {365} quarterly conference at Farmington in October, 1855,
he writes in his journal: "After retiring to bed I prayed to the Lord
to show me what we should teach the people, and this I received as an
answer. 'Let my servants obtain the Holy Ghost and keep My spirit with
them and that will instruct them what to teach the people continually.
Instruct the people to keep My spirit with them and they will be
enabled to understand the word of the Lord when it is taught unto
them.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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