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I turn now to an excerpt from President Brigham Young’s secretary’s journal for a choice insight brought to my attention by Professor Ronald Esplin. When asked in conversation, “Why are men left alone and often sad? Why is not God always at man’s side promoting universal happiness at least for His Saints? Why does not God do everything for man?” President Young responded that man’s divine destiny requires individual experience and practice in learning “to act as an independent being”—to see what we will do, whether we will be “for God or not”—and in developing our own capacity and in using our own resources. Such experiences will teach us to be “righteous in the dark—to be a friend of God.” (Brigham Young Office Journal, 28 Jan. 1857.) This is a sobering and revealing insight about God’s plans for us here, and it underlines with urgency the need for the attribute of meekness, especially when one feels forsaken and forgotten and alone “amid th’ encircling gloom.” (John Henry Newman, “Lead, Kindly Light”; see Hymns, no. 112.)— Unknown
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