We sat around his couch on the veranda, and for two hours he talked to
us as clearly and as forcibly as ever. He spoke of the Church and of its
mission in the world, with all the hope of a religious altruist. From
the humblest beginnings, it had grown to the greatest power. From the
depths of persecution, it had risen to win favor from the wisest among
men. It had abolished poverty for hundreds of thousands, by its sound
communal system. In its religious solidarity, it had become a guardian
and administrator of equal justice within all the sphere of its
influence. It was full of the most splendid possibilities of good for
mankind.

With his eyes fixed on the sea--facing eternity as calmly as he faced
that great symbol of eternity--he voiced the sincerity of his life
and the hope that had animated his statesmanship. In an exaltation of
spirituality that made the moment one of the sublime experiences of my
life, he adjured us all to hold true to our covenants. I do not write of
his personal words of love and admonition to the members of his family.
I wish to express only the aspects that may be of public interest,
in his last aspirations--for these were the aspirations of the Mormon
leaders of the older generation, whom he represented--and they are the
aspirations of all the wise among the Mormons today, whatever may be the
folly and the treachery of their Prophets.

Ten hours later, he was dead.

I cannot pretend that I had any true apprehension, then, of what his
loss meant to the community. I had no clearer vision of events than
others. I felt that I had no longer any tie to connect me closely with
the government of the Church, and I was willing to stand aside from its
affairs, believing that the momentum of progress imparted to it would
carry it forward. The nation had cleared the path for it. Its faith, put
into practice as a social gospel, had been freed of the offensive
things that had antagonized the world. My father's last messages of hope
remained with me as a cheering prophecy.

At his funeral in the great tabernacle, President Snow put forward
a favorite son, Leroy, to read an official statement in which the
President took occasion to deny that my father had dictated the recent
policies of the Church: those policies, he said, had been solely the
President's. (He is welcome to the credit of them!) Joseph F. Smith
showed more generosity of emotion, now that his path of succession
was clear of the superior