Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young

Overview

This volume gathers core sermons, addresses, and letters of Brigham Young, the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arranged to illuminate his spiritual counsel and administrative teachings. Selections emphasize doctrinal exposition and practical instruction delivered across the formative decades of the nineteenth-century church. Short introductory notes place excerpts in context, while editorial arrangement groups material so readers can follow recurring subjects such as priesthood authority, family life, and communal stewardship.

Major Themes

Brigham Young's teachings repeatedly affirm the nature and necessity of prophetic leadership and priesthood authority, stressing obedience to revealed direction as essential for individual salvation and communal order. The Plan of Salvation, the eternal nature of families, and the centrality of temple ordinances emerge as theological anchors; Young frames these doctrines as both salvific truths and motivators for righteous living. Practical morality, faith, repentance, charity, and industry, receives frequent attention, with counsel aimed at converting belief into disciplined action.

Community, Economy, and the Gathering

A strong strand of instruction deals with the temporal as well as the spiritual: the gathering of the Saints, the establishment of Zion, and economic cooperation are presented as integral to covenant life. Young's remarks on the law of consecration, stewardship, and self-reliance reflect the challenges of frontier settlement and the desire to build a holy society. He balances calls for mutual aid and communal planning with exhortations to personal responsibility, thrift, and productive labor.

Historical and Biographical Context

The teachings convey the voice of a frontier leader shaping a rapidly growing religious movement amid social conflict and migration. Many excerpts originate from conference sermons, pastoral counsel, and public addresses given while directing settlement and institutional development. References to migration, settlement policy, and social practice reveal how doctrinal instruction was applied to immediate problems of survival, governance, and identity in a 19th-century American West shaped by rapid change.

Style and Sources

Young's rhetorical style is plainspoken, emphatic, and often homiletic, mixing scriptural exposition with direct admonition and anecdote. His language ranges from pastoral tenderness to stern rebuke, reflecting the responsibilities of prophetic office and the exigencies of his era. The selection draws on primary sources, sermons, conference reports, and epistles, edited for clarity and topical coherence, and the accompanying notes offer historical markers and brief explanations without extensive scholarly debate.

Use and Influence

This compilation functions both as devotional material and as a pedagogical resource for church classes and personal study, providing accessible passages that encapsulate foundational teachings attributed to Young. For many readers it clarifies early articulations of doctrine that continue to shape contemporary belief and practice, while also serving as a reference for leaders seeking precedents in governance and pastoral care. The volume's emphasis on application encourages readers to integrate doctrinal principles into daily conduct and communal life.

Significance

Taken together, these selections portray a leader who fused theological conviction with pragmatic direction, urging a people toward spiritual maturity, social cohesion, and institutional endurance. The teachings illuminate how doctrine and daily living were interwoven in the church's early development, offering both historical insight and ongoing counsel for those who study them.