A Tribute to James J. Adams

By Elenor G. Bruhn

The portals of heaven have opened again,
To let Brother James J. Adams in,
A stalwart student and God fearing too
A wise upright father ever were you,

A man who lived faithful to what he thought right
Serving his God with all his might,
An example was he, no matter what came,
He loved God and glorified ever his name.

His life was the gospel he would preach,
His life was the lessons he would teach
In every day walk the gospel he taught
In words, in manner, in deed and in thought.

A pioneer boy in our Parowan town
He lived in the days when the wall went around
He pastured the cattle in our very first field
Helped plow the ground to make its first yield.

He lived in the days when the Indians wild
Brought sorrow and fear to man, women and child
When wool was washed and spun to yarn
And children were taught to knit and to darn

When Saints lived for God and not for gold
Their lives are all stories; the best ever told
He grew to a man, in time he was wed
To a noble woman, Caroline Redd.
Yes, a noble woman, a God fearing saint
Evil and sin her life did not taint
Eight precious babies came to their home
Her mission was ended, she left them alone,

Alone did I say-no the father was spared
To pilot through childhood and have them prepared
For their mission, to live right, and teach them God’s will
That noble lives on earth they might fill.

He’s gone to join her, the wife and the mother
Happy they’ll be to meet one another
He said, of the years that he spent with his wife
“They were fifteen years of Paradise”

Now on to perfection the good couple go
We can’t even dream of the joy they will know
There wasn’t a thing they left undone
To prepare for the future, the life that’s to come.
And you dear children who are left to mourn
Thank God, to such parents you were born
Forget not the lessons they taught while here
Try to grow like them, each day and each year.

Prepare for the time when we’ll all meet again
Where we shall never know sorrow or pain
Today we feel sad-let’s not hope for the morrow
When we shall have joy and feel no more sorrow.