Brigham Young Rebuked by Joseph Smith

This account of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young was researched by BYU professor Truman Madsen:
The Prophet [Joseph Smith], loving, playful, and cheerful though he was, did not balk when he was inspired to rebuke or to admonish with sharpness. After the rebuke, he would show forth an increase of love to the one rebuked, in accordance with Doctrine and Covenants 121:43. But he could be towering when he rebuked and it could penetrate to the very vitals.

Illustrative of this is a story still carried in the family lore of Brigham Young's descendants but, so far as I know, never recorded. It says that in a meeting the Prophet rebuked Brigham Young from his head to his feet for something he had done, or something he was supposed to have done but hadn't -- the detail is unclear. And it may well have been that the Prophet was deliberately putting Brigham Young to a test. When he had finished the rebuke, everyone in the room waited for the response. Brigham Young rose to his feet. He was a strong man. He could have responded: "Now, look, haven't you read that you're not supposed to rebuke in public, but only in private!" Or, "Brother Joseph, doesn't it say something in the revelations about persuasion, and long-suffering, and gentleness and meekness?" Or, "You're dead wrong. It's not so." But he said none of the above. In a voice everyone could tell was sincere, he said simply, "Joseph, what do you want me to do?" And the story says that the Prophet burst into tears, came down from the stand, threw his arms around Brigham, and said, in effect, "Brother Brigham, you passed." 

What we learn from this story is about having humility.