Brigham Young Speaks in Tongues - Joseph Smith Prophesies His Future Calling

In September 1832, shortly after the death of his wife Miriam, Brigham Young traveled to Kirtland, Ohio, to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith for the first time. He found Joseph in the woods, chopping and hauling wood with two or three of his brothers. "Here my joy was full at the privilege of shaking the hand of the Prophet of God," Young later wrote, "and received the sure testimony, by the Spirit of prophecy, that he was all that any man could believe him to be, as a true Prophet."

That evening, in Joseph's home with a few brethren gathered to converse about the kingdom, the Prophet called upon Brigham Young to pray. Young recorded: "He called upon me to pray; in my prayer I spoke in tongues. As soon as we arose from our knees the brethren flocked around him, and asked his opinion concerning the gift of tongues that was upon me. He told them it was the pure Adamic language. Some said to him they expected he would condemn the gift brother Brigham had, but he said, 'No, it is of God, and the time will come when brother Brigham Young will preside over this Church.'" Young noted that the latter part of the conversation took place in his absence — he learned of the Prophet's words afterward.

The prophecy was remarkable on its face. Brigham Young had been baptized only months earlier, was a widower caring for two small daughters, and was a comparatively obscure new member of the Church. Twelve years later, after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Brigham Young — by then President of the Quorum of the Twelve — was sustained to lead the Church, and in December 1847 he became its second President, the presiding officer Joseph Smith had privately foretold. For Latter-day Saints, the episode stands as a double witness: the gift of tongues exercised in Kirtland was declared by the Prophet to be "the pure Adamic language," and the quiet prophecy spoken over a brand-new convert was fulfilled to the letter.

A second retelling of that first meeting comes from the diary of Charles L. Walker: as Brigham Young came into view — while yet some distance away — the Prophet stopped his chopping on a beech log, straightened up, studied him for a moment, and remarked: "There comes the greatest man who ever lived to teach the identity of God to the world, and he will yet lead this people."

According to the Prophet's own account recorded in the History of the Church (1:296-7), the visitors spent about five days in Kirtland. During one of their interviews, Brigham Young and John P. Greene spoke in tongues, which was the first time Joseph Smith had heard the gift among the brethren; others also spoke, and the Prophet noted that he received the gift himself.