Brigham Young, Chapter Four, Item #1

We believe in God, one Mediator and one Holy Ghost [see Articles of Faith 1:1]. We cannot believe for a moment that God is destitute of body, parts, passions, or attributes. Attributes can be made manifest only through an organized personage. All attributes are couched in and are the results of organized existence (DBY, 23).

Provenance:

DBY, 23 reads:
We believe in one God, one Mediator and one Holy Ghost. We cannot believe for a moment that God is destitute of body, parts, passions, or attributes. Attributes can be made manifest only through an organized personage. All attributes are couched in and are the results of organized existence. 10:192.
DBY, 23 is taken from the Journal of Discourses, May 31, 1863.

Relevant scriptures:

Articles of Faith 1:1 reads:
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
1 Timothy 2:5 reads:
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Brian Madsen's occasionally opinionated observations:

disclaimer

Brigham's first sentence is no surprise. His second sentence should be no surprise to anyone who has experienced the temple endowment. But the remainder of this quotation is not necessarily self-evident. What exactly does Brigham mean by "attributes", and why does it seem self-evident to him to equate them with "organized existence"?

This statement by Brigham Young becomes more clear when we put it in historical context. Although not well-known today, Brigham Young and Orson Pratt disagreed, in print and in public, over certain doctrines, beginning in 1853 and reaching a climax in 1860. Among them:

Orson Pratt believed that Adam was created mortal from the dust of this earth; Brigham believed that he was begotten by his Father, and that he came to earth "with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him", becoming mortal after arriving here.
Orson Pratt believed that God was not progressing in knowledge, because He is omniscient; Brigham believed that progression is eternal, and that God is continually progressing in knowledge.
Orson Pratt recognized that certain scriptural verses, and the teachings of Joseph Smith, speak of a "plurality of Gods", but that certain other scriptural verses say that there is only "one God". Pratt reconciled this by teaching that "one" God refers to the "attributes" of godliness, and stated that when we worship God, it is because He possesses these attributes. For example, Pratt wrote:
[T]he Unity, Eternity, and Omnipresence of God, consisted in the oneness, eternity, and Omnipresence of the attributes, such as 'the fulness of Truth,' light, love, wisdom, & knowledge, dwelling in countless numbers of tabernacles in numberless worlds; and that the oneness of these attributes is what is called in both ancient & modern revelations, the One God besides whom there is non [sic] other God neither before Him neither shall there be any after Him. [emphasis in original.]
Brigham was quick to denounce this idea of Pratt's, insisting that it is God we worship, and not His attributes.

Gary James Bergera has written a fascinating discussion of these disagreements in an article entitled "The Orson Pratt-Brigham Young Controversies: Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853-1868", in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Volume 13, Number 2, Summer 1980, pages 7-49.

Brian C. Madsen