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Show Page 213 Brigham was determined not to give Orson Pratt, nor any of the coven of fledgling philosophers in the Deseret Theological Institute, much leeway in solving the mysteries of godliness. That was his domain, and he guarded his canonical power strictly. The Institute's inaugural meeting, featuring a benediction by Orson Pratt, a "catch," or song, by Orson Junior, and a discourse on useful knowledge by Ezra T. Benson, seemed innocuous enough. The Pratts and their friends were taking a delighted interest in the new forum - young Orson, now eighteen, found there an ideal audience for his art. A musical tyro, he tried out a composition on the Institute Choir entitled "Although the fig tree shall not blossom." The school listened to professor as well as prophet; George D. Watt acquainted them with the principles of phonography and the foundations for the new "Deseret Alphabet," a script developed by Parley Pratt and himself to assist the large numbers of foreigners in Utah to learn the English language phonetically. But Brigham Young, perhaps ominously, brought an abrupt end to the Institute meetings Q when summer came, "until the evenings become more lengthy-"' The Institute never met again. Brigham was careful to maintain cordial relations with Orson, however, and grasped at every opportunity to build him up in the eyes of the Saints - as long as no sanction of his doctrinal speculations could be implied. In a hot July conference, Orson roused the Saints with a sermon on the "Kingdom of God," and the perfect right of the Church to establish its own ecclesiastical polity within the United States, protected by the Constitution which Orson faintly praises as "well suited" to the "present condition" of the American people. Brigham stood immediately and announced, "I would (not) disagree in the least with...brother Pratt" on the subject of the kingdom of God.9 His hearers well understood the significance of |
