| 185 true, or the hope held out to modern Israel is fallacious, and the fates must be propitious to all them that have so hoped, for despair and ruin must ensue. Whence this safety is to come is one of the questions to now be solved. That it is to be found in the continuation of that which has loaded the name of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and all professing a belief in the doctrines enunciated by them, with infamy and obloquy, is not, cannot be accepted; hence it must be looked for in that which gave the church its energy and its advancement, its life, animation, and its glory, the principles of gospel truth, as stated in the Book of Mormon, "and this is my gospel: whoso repenteth and is baptized shall be saved." Other and accessory salvations and exaltations, of more modern origin and sacredness must be abandoned, the past condoned and the future made glorious by obedience and a unity born with and accompanying only that gospel.
We do not rejoice that President Young is dead. We seem to foresee some of the things the Saints of God, those who are anticipating a glorious rest from all the terrors of strife and oppression, must do in order to be in a condition to enjoy what they are longing for, when it comes. There must be a rehabilitating in garments of righteousness that drop incense of peace. This can not be done while evil is not practically put away.
There must be many in the church in Utah who see, if they do not willfully close their eyes, that the principles taught by the elders of the Reorganized Church are the same as those taught by the first elders, and which gave them power with God. The fact is being constantly pressed upon their notice that the Reorganization is steadily gaining the vantage ground once so signally held by the "old church," as it is sometimes called; and they must needs perceive the reasons for it. What the result will be is not yet told.
Elder Thomas Dobson was in Utah at the time of President Young's death, and attended the funeral service. Of what he observed on the occasion he writes as follows:
I attended the funeral of President B. Young in the Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. The assemblage present was estimated by some to be twenty thousand, but there were probably fifteen thousand, yet a close observer could discover that it was more to have it to say that they were there, than from sincere sorrow. My wife and I were at Kaysville at the time of his death, and went on the special train to the city on Sunday morning. A stranger would have thought, from the manner of a majority on the train, that it was a pleasure party going to the city, while the faces of a few only had the expression of thoughtful and sober minds, as if in earnest sympathy.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 23. p. 299
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