The fourth verse of the hymn refers to the martyrdom of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum Smith, which, in view of the fact that these lines were being sung as a requiem over the remains of their fellow martyr, was doubly pathetic.
"Our Patriarch and Prophet, too,
Were massacred, they bled;
To seal their testimony
They were numbered with the dead.
Oh, tell me, are they sleeping?
Methinks I hear them say,
Death's icy chains are bursting—
'Tis the resurrection day!"
Bishop Millen Atwood offered the opening prayer; after which the choir sang,
"Thou dost not weep to weep alone,
The broad bereavement seems to fall
Unheeded and unfelt by none,
He was beloved—beloved by all."
Apostle Lorenzo Snow was the first speaker. He read his text from Paul's second letter to Timothy:
"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
The speaker then said:
"Paul, whose remarks I have just read in your hearing, was an apostle of the Lord, our Savior. The man whose remains now lie before us was also an apostle of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. And as Paul made this statement in regard to himself, so also could be made a statement similar by President Taylor, whose remains lie before us this afternoon.
"Paul, during his life, struggled and contended for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints—those principles which pertain to the exaltation and salvation of the human family; and he was willing to make any sacrifice and go through every scene of difficulty and trouble in order to accomplish this object, that his testimony in regard to the Son of God and those principles that he had espoused might be carried forth to the nations of the earth—to the whole human family. He suffered imprisonment; he suffered the lash of his persecutors; he suffered every indignity, and finally died a martyr to those principles he so laboriously and so effectually carried forth among the human family.
"So also we can say of President Taylor. Those principles made known to him by the revelations of the Son of God as being of a divine nature—principles that pertain to the interest and salvation and exaltation of the human family—he carried forth to the various nations of the earth: and he heeded not the difficulties that ensued, or that were in his path of progress. He has shown to the world, he has shown to the Latter-day Saints, he has shown to the angels and to the Lord our God, his willingness, his determination, his resolution to do all in his power to carry out and accomplish the work of the Most High God. This he has done, and there lie his remains. He has left this world of sorrow, of trials, of afflictions of every nature that the Saints have to endure. He has gone to a better world. And it may be said of him truthfully, as was announced to John the Revelator when upon the Isle of Patmos, who was commanded to write what he heard by a voice from the eternal worlds: