THE GIFT OF TONGUES. 195
About two years later he himself was converted* by the preaching of Elder Samuel H. Smith, brother of the prophet; on the 14th of April, 1832, he was bap- tized, and on the same night ordained an elder, his father^ and all his brothers afterward becoming pros- elytes. During the same month he set forth to meet the prophet at Kirtland, where he found him and several of his brethren chopping wood. " Here," says Brigham, "my joy was full at the privilege of shak- ing the hand of the prophet of God . . . He was happy to see us and bid us welcome. In the evening a few of the brethren came in, and we conversed together upon the things of the kingdom. He called upon me to pray. In my prayer I spoke in tongues. As soon as we rose from our knees, the brethren flocked around him, and asked his opinion. . .He told them it was the pure Adamic language; . . .it is of God, and the time will come when Brother Brigham Young will preside over this church." In 1835 he was chosen, as will be remembered, one of the quorum of the twelve, and the following spring set forth on a mis- sionary tour to the eastern states. Returning early in the winter, he saved the life of the prophet, and otherwise rendered good service during the great apostasy of 1836, when the church passed through its darkest hour.^
Brigham was ever a devoted follower of the prophet, and at the risk of his own life, shielded him against the persecutions of apostates. At the close of 1837 he was driven by their machinations from Kirtland,^
church, Phineas had wrought a miracle, 'whereby a young girl on the point of death had been restored to life. ' Remy does not give his authority.
- At a branch of the church at Columbia, Penn. Txdiidge's Life of Young, 78.
^ John Young was made first patriarch of the church. He died at Quincy,
111., Oct. 12, 1839. Waiters The Mormon Prophet, 2.
- TulUdge's Life of Brigham Young, 83. In a speech delivered after he
became president, Brigham says: 'Ascertaining that a plot was laid to waylay Joseph for the purpose of taking his life, on his return from Monroe, Michi- gan, to Kirtland, I procured a horse and buggy, and took brother William Smith along to meet Joseph, whom we met returning in the stage-coach. Joseph requested William to take his sent in the stage, and he rode with me in the buggy "We arrived at Kirtland ia safety.'
^ 'On the morning of Dec. 22d I left Kirtland in consequence of the fury
