A more sensitive man than brother Joseph Smith never lived, and that
sensitiveness was in proportion to the light he had. So it is with
brother Brigham, and so it is with brother Heber, and so it is with
brother Daniel, and it will increase upon him as he presses his way
forward, and works in the harness, and becomes used to it; and he will
be just as good a team-horse as the Lord ever used, and I know it.
I will speak of brother Joseph Young, I often speak of him; he is one
of the most sensitive men that ever walked on the earth, and that is
in proportion to the light he has, and if the Lord had not laid His
hands on him and said, "My servant Joseph, be thou sick and go to thy
bed and rest," he would have been in his grave long ago. His late
sickness saved his life. That may be a curiosity to you, but the best
days I ever had with re gard to the happiness of my spirit, have been
when I was prostrate on my bed, and in reality could not help myself.
People will say, "O how I pity such and such brethren and sisters,
because they are unwell." If persons would appreciate their blessings
when they are on beds of sickness, and say, "Father, thy will be done,
and not mine," there would be no room for that pity. When necessary in
God's providences towards me, I would as soon lay on a bed of sickness
as to do anything else, for we have got to learn that lesson. I have
to struggle, and brother Brigham has to struggle to exist here on the
earth.
I will say, not that I speak of these things to boast, that if this
people, both men and women, would pray, and that devoutly before God
in their secret places, one quarter as much as brother Brigham, and
I, and brother Joseph Young do, you would see dif ferent days
from what you see today. When Jesus came to his people on this
continent, and appeared in their midst, they could not at first
realize and appreciate him. They saw him and felt the wounds in his
side, in his hands, and in his feet, and he talked with them and
instructed them, and chose and instructed twelve disciples. And after
healing their sick and blessing their children, he administered bread
and wine to the people, and taught them to "watch and pray always." He
could not heal their sick, until through prayer they had become
humble, and got the power of God on them. And when he had done this he
said, bring all your children, and he blessed them one by one, and the
power of God rested on them, and angels descended from heaven and
encircled them round about, and ministered to them before the eyes of
the people.
What do you suppose we are going to do with you? Are you ever going to
be prepared to see God, Jesus Christ, His angels, or comprehend His
servants, unless you take a faithful and prayerful course? Did you
actually know Joseph Smith? No. Do you know brother Brigham? No. Do
you know brother Heber? No, you do not. Do you know the Twelve? You do
not, if you did, you would begin to know God, and learn that those men
who are chosen to direct and counsel you are near kindred to God and
to Jesus Christ, for the keys, power, and authority of the kingdom of
God are in that lineage. I speak of these things with a view to arouse
your feelings and your faithfulness towards God the Father, and His
Son Jesus Christ, that you may pray and be humble, and penitent.
When Jesus Christ came to this earth, he came to fulfil the law, and
he taught the people to seek to the Father with a broken heart and
contrite spirit, and then whatever they asked He would give. If you so
come unto Him, repenting and being sorry for your sins, then He will
hear you and forgive you, and He will forgive this whole people. Why?
Because brother Brigham never would have said to you that God would
forgive you if you would repent, unless he had received some
intimation of that kind from the Father and the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. But brother Brigham told you the truth, and the Lord will
forgive you, if you stop sinning now, and begin anew today to work
righteousness with full purpose of heart. Then through continued
faithfulness that Spirit, light, and glory will rest upon you, that
brother Joseph has been talking about this morning.
I am speaking of these things to comfort you, for they comfort me. I
am talking to you of nothing more than what I know, feel, and have
experienced. What brother Joseph Young has said, is good. I feel very
well in my body and in my spirit, that is, I feel well in regard to
the things of God. I feel well, because there are some trying to live
their religion, and worship their God in spirit and in truth. When
they hear the servants of God declare the truth here, they understand
it, and the seed springs up, and brings forth fruit to the glory of
God, and that fruit will remain. But there are others who hear the
word and do not conceive; they sit and hear the voice of God speaking
through His servants, and like the sound thereof, but the moment they
leave this place they forget it.
Some say that they have not faith, that they cannot believe. What is
faith? It is confidence. What is confidence? It is faith. Some people
are striving and striving to get faith, when saving faith is simply
confidence in God, flowing from walking in obedience to His
commandments. When you have confidence in yourself, in any
man, woman, or child, you have faith; and when you have not
confidence, you have not faith. I believe they are co-partners, and
the principle of faith and confidence is synonymous to me.
If you have not faith to deed your property over to the Trustee-in-Trust,
it is because you have not confidence in the Trustee-in-Trust.
If you had confidence in him, you would have faith in him. You may pay
your tithing—you may tithe your sage, mint, and catnip, and this and
that, and the other, and after all you may be leaving the more weighty
matters undone. It is not best to become stereotyped in paying tithing
and stop at that; but if you are going to become stereotyped, I wish
you to stereotype the whole edition, and let it remain so, and then go
on and make another. I do not object to your stereotyping one letter
at a time, if you will go on through the whole edition.
In regard to deeding over your property, no one compels you to do it.
I do not compel you to do it, the Trustee-in-Trust does not, God does
not; but He says that if you will do this, that and the other thing
which He has counseled for our good, do so, and prove Him. He goes to
work and proves us, as we go to work and prove one another under
various circumstances. The Lord says, cast in your tithes, and then
your offerings. Tithing is one thing, and offerings are another. And
when that is done, consecrate your property to the Church, and make
strong the hands of our President, and he will handle and distribute
it to the best advantage. We are to be tried in all things, like unto
Abraham, and God even told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. He went
and built the altar, got the wood and the knife, and was ready to do
the work; but instead of offering up his son, the Lord said to him,
take this ram and offer him up, and put your son to usury, and be
shall become a multitude of nations—his offspring shall be as numerous
as the sands on the seashore, and as the stars in the firmament. It
will be just so with the property deeded over to the Trustee-in-Trust;
every man becomes a steward, and puts out his property to usury. The
principle of the consecration is to hold property secure and in the
channel of blessings and increase.
Our property should not be dearer to us than salvation, and should
freely be put to the best use for building up the kingdom of God. To
illustrate my ideas, I will use a comparison. Here is my little
finger, does not the blood go into that finger as freely and as fully,
in proportion as it goes into my leg, or into my arm? Does it always
stay there? Does that little finger become selfish—superstitious with
the principle of idolatry—and never restore that blood to the
fountain? No, for if it did, the fountain would be weakened, and the
finger would wither, because of an interrupted communication. How can
this Church exist upon any other principle than that of free
interchange according to the dictation of the head? My finger restores
back the blood to the fountain, where it again becomes impregnated
with the principles of life, and then when it goes back again is not
that finger impregnated with the power of my vitality—of my
attributes? If that is a fact, when we take the same course with the
things of God and turn in our property, it will become empowered with
the attributes of God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and
of all those who act with them in the eternal worlds, and from them to
us, and from us back to the throne of God. And except we become
impregnated with saving principles as they exist with God, with Jesus
Christ, with angels, with Peter and with Joseph, you may bid
farewell to salvation, every soul of you.
I wish that this whole people would so get religion that brother
Brigham and myself, and other good men could always freely and fully
teach you all things pertaining to salvation, and show you your
condition, even as the Lord views it. Here is the kingdom of God, here
are the Prophet and the Apostles, the Patriarch, and all the leading
men of Israel, and where is there a man in Europe, or in any other
country, who sprung from this Church, but what sprung from the
authority, the life, vitals, and power of this Church and kingdom? If
he has not got his power unto salvation in this Church, he has not any
power towards an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our God. And
those who have power from the true source have not predominance over
those who hold the keys in advance of them, for the kingdom of God is
a kingdom of order. How can you become impregnated with the spirit and
power of God, except you become impregnated through us? There is no
true path, except to do as you are told by those whom the Lord has
called and chosen, and placed to direct you.
I do not care so much whether you have faith or not, for if you have
confidence in yourselves, I would risk the confidence you should have
in us. And if you have lost confidence in yourselves, you will not
have much confidence in your brethren; and in that case I want to know
what confidence you can have in your God? The Lord often takes a
course to try the confidence of His people, for He planted a branch of
the olive tree in the poorest spot in all the land of His vineyard,
and He caused it to yield much fruit that was good. That was
considered a marvelous work, and one of His servants said, "How
camest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For
behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And
the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; but go to and
do all things as I command you."
Now suppose I should say, here, John, William, and Richard, I want you
to go up near the arsenal and dig a well, and when you have dug ten
feet you will find water. They would be very apt to say, "We have not
a particle of confidence in that operation." I would reply, I do not
care about that; it is the well I want, and that will afford water.
They go to work without one particle of confidence in what I say, and
dig to the depth of ten feet, and come to good water. By so doing,
have they not obtained knowledge without confidence? Yes, by their
works. And Jesus says, by your works shall you be judged, and by your
works shall you be justified. John, Bill, and Dick, dig the well, and
I have accomplished my design with them, though they had not a
particle of confidence in me, nor in God. And when they have found
water, they say, "That gives me confidence in you, brother Heber, and
in your God." The result of their works gives them confidence. It may
stimulate some of you to go to work upon that principle, viz., to do
as you are told, without knowing whether you will get water or not.
Well, go to work and dig the Big Cottonwood canal on the same
principle. Begin tomorrow morning, and do not cease until that canal
is done, and I will warrant the water to come, and when it comes, that
will increase your confidence. Brethren, will you all with your
Bishops lay aside everything that is not of greater importance, and go
to work on that canal until it is finished? If you will work, instead
of merely saying you will, and go to with all your hearts, it will be
but a short time before you see the rock being boated on it
for our Temple; and it need not be only a few years before the Temple
is built, wherein you will receive your endowments and blessings. And
God our Father will protect us and give us good peace, until we have
accomplished that work and many other things. He will strengthen our
feet and fill our granaries.
Will you go to work at once on the canal, letting your Bishops lead
out and you follow? If you will, raise your right hands. [All hands
were raised.] If you live up to the covenant now made, you will soon
accomplish the work; and it will be but a few days before the ground
will be in readiness for ploughing and seeding, and God will bless the
earth and strengthen it to yield an abundance, through your going and
doing that little work, and letting the water into that canal, so that
we can boat rock from the quarry unto this place. Let us go to and do,
instead of merely saying. That is drawing our feelings into the one
reservoir.
Upon the same principle, let every man render over his property with
an eternal deed that cannot be broken; throw it all into the big
reservoir. Suppose that one puts in one drop, another two, another
ten, and another a hundred, do you not see, when you throw in your
property—your substance—into one reservoir, that it makes us all one,
and that you cannot become one without this principle? You may work to
all eternity, and never connect the branch with the vine, upon any
other principle than that of putting your property and temporal
blessings with your spiritual interests, whereby they will both become
one. If you do not do that, I do not mean in one thing only, but in
everything that God requires of you by His servants, if you do not
bring your substance forward and lay it down at the Apostle's feet, you
will be stripped. Brother Brigham is the chief Apostle of Jesus, and
he is our President, our Prophet, and our leader, and we the Twelve
are his brethren, and you have got to lay down your substance at their
feet, as the Saints did in the days of the ancient Apostles of Jesus.
Look at Ananias and Sapphira. I have heard you read their history a
great many times, and talk about it. They came with a part of their
substance, and lied about it. You may do as you have a mind to. In one
sense, we do not care whether you lie, or tell the truth. If you tell
the truth and do right, who is blessed? Is it anyone but yourselves?
It is not brother Brigham, nor brother Heber, only in connection with
you, inasmuch as you take a course to do right; for being members of
the same body to which we are connected, it influences the whole body,
and the whole body is blessed at the same time. It does not
particularly make any difference with us, as individuals.
You have got to render an account of everything you have, for we are
all stewards. You Bishops, Seventies, High Priests, Elders, Priests,
Teachers, Deacons, and members, where did you get the Priesthood and
authority you hold? It came from this very authority, the First
Presidency that sits here in this stand. There was an authority before
us, and we got our authority from that, and you got it from us, and
this authority is with the First Presidency. Now do not go off and say
that you are independent of that authority. Where did you get your
wives? Who gave them to you? By what authority were they given to you?
Where did you get anything?
If you do not take the course you have been told to take, and as I am
trying to tell you, viz., to render all you have on this earth, every
man in this Church and kingdom will be as bare when he leaves this
earth as he will find himself when he gets out of it for he
cannot even take his shroud with him nor a pair of stockings. I do not
care if he has forty wives and a thousand children, every soul of them
will be taken from him. Your wives are given to you as a stewardship
to improve upon in building up and establishing the kingdom of God,
and your children are given to you as a stewardship. Where did their
spirits came from? Did they come from you? No; they came from God.
Who is the Father of those spirits? God, and He will require them of
you, and those spirits have also got to give an account to their
Father from whom they came; they have got to render up an account.
Thus you see, that you have to render an account of your wives and
children, of your substance, and everything that pertains to this
earth, and you cannot avoid it, without suffering a loss.
I want to get you to live your religion, and worship our God. I am not
troubled about our not prospering; I trouble myself about living my
religion and being faithful to the things of God, and that leads me to
confidence, if not in myself, in my leader. It is not so much a matter
about my trying to obtain confidence in myself, or in you. We are to
be connected like a vine, and then when we receive any good thing we
will become impregnated with God, with Jesus Christ, with the Holy
Ghost, and with angels, and it is the only way in which we can become
one.
I feel as brother Joseph Young feels. God bless him, and may he live a
hundred years, if he wants to. I pray that God may renew him in body
and blood, and bless him with every good thing that he desires; also
brother Brigham, and brother Daniel, and brother Heber, and every
other good man. That is my prayer and my feeling. And may the Lord
bless every good woman with the same blessings.
Brethren, tumble in your interest into this great reservoir, and we
will drink up the earth. And if you do not do it, as the Lord lives,
the First Presidency of this Church and the Twelve will drink you up.
If you trifle with me, when I tell you the truth, you will trifle with
brother Brigham; and if you trifle with him, you will also trifle with
angels and with God, and thus you will trifle yourselves down to hell.
You cannot with impunity trifle with God, for the day is too far
advanced for that. Do not trouble yourselves about your sins if you
have repented of them; and if you have not, it is time you did.
I will say to the Bishops in general, take those who are humble, those
who have repented and made restitution, and baptize them for the
remission of their sins, and then lay hands upon them, that they may
receive the Holy Ghost, and they will receive it, if you take counsel
and do right. And you will feel as you never felt before since you
were born, and the works of God will continue, if you will do right,
for the time has come.
God bless you, peace be with you forever. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball