The Brigham Young Center

338 - 339

Great Salt Lake City, Utah Ter.,
November 7th, 1864.

Dear Madam,

Your favor of August 7th, which has been much delayed by the interruption the Mails -- has been received.

The better course for you to pursue, if you are satisfied that the Latter day Saints are the people of God, and their doctrines the Gospel of salvation is to the same as soon as you can meet with an Elder of our Church to administer the ordinances of baptism and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. When you have taken these steps, believing in Jesus and earnestly and thoroughly repenting of all your sins, you will then have the Spirit to enlighten your mind and to lead you into all Truth, and will be in a better position to comprehend the principle or doctrine that you have written about, and others connected with the kingdom of heaven, than you are at present. This is the course we, as a people, have taken. We did not (neither could we) understand every principle of Truth before our baptism and humbling ourselves in obedience to the requirements of Heaven; but the Lord has fulfilled his promise, and he has given us line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little until we are able to comprehend many principles and doctrines pertaining unto salvation which we were formerly ignorant of. Isaiah says that "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my (the Lord's) ways higher than your ways, and my thought than your thoughts." We cannot expect to know the thoughts and ways of the Lord, and to bridge over the space there is between the knowledge which we possess and which He desires to reveal unto us, at once. He gives the Spirit of revelation unto those who obey his commandments, and, by this Spirit, we are le[missing] from the comprehension of one truth to the comprehension of another until we sh[missing] approximate to the likeness of our Father and God and to the intelligence and knowledge which exist in exhaustless abundance in his presence.

Praying the Lord to enlighten your mind, and to assist you in your endeavors to comprehend and obey the Truth

I remain, Yours Truly,

Brigham Young

Lucinda Ward,
Lowell, Mass.

P. S. You can open a correspondence with one of our Elders in New York, if you wish. His name is Wm. H, Miles, and his address Box 3957 Post Office, New York City