I can say, brethren, as far as I am concerned, that I have no
particular anxiety about the final issue of "Mormonism." But if I have
any trouble about the matter, it is about a great many limbs or vines
connected to that vine. Probably you understand what I mean when I am
talking about vines and trees. I speak about these things because I
most humbly desire to touch upon simple principles—that is, the most
simple figures, that the most simple person in this congregation may
understand me.
I am not troubled about the learned few—those that have learned right,
and are taught of the Lord: I have no trouble about their
understanding; for children may understand the things that I present,
and any man that is taught directly from God will understand; he will
understand the most simple things, and he will understand the greatest
things; for the greatest things are the simplest things. Do you not
know it?
There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the
Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of
much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who
may now think that they are the smartest. That may be queer to you; it
may be singular to many; but I have known of a great many instances of
that kind.
When we go into a fruit orchard or vineyard, we find the husbandman,
as he is called, who has charge of it; and I have myself seen very
inferior trees that never brought forth any fruit. A great many men
would come along and say to the husbandman, "Why don't you take up
that tree? It never will be of any account." Those men do not
understand, as the husbandman does, or they never would make such a
speech.
Is there a way to restore that tree, and to make it one of the most
thrifty trees in all the vineyard? Yes, there is. Well, what course
will you take to do that? Take the old stock away and put a thrifty
graft into the root, and then it becomes one of the most thrifty trees
in the vineyard, because the young stock renews the old, and the old
becomes a good tree.
So it is with you, many of you: yes, thousands of you will become
mighty men, inasmuch as you honor your calling and receive
nourishment from the Father, or from the root; for it comes from the
root, and then spreads itself all through the vine, and every vine
that is attached to that partakes of the same nourishment, and to the
same extent, and in the same degree as the others.
Now, can you realize that? Bless your souls! Go into the gardens. I am
going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a
great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and
take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of
the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended
part of the vine? Do you know that? [Voices: "Yes."] There is one
woman that knows it; but she would not if she did not work in her
garden; and those that do not work there do not know anything about
it. I am talking to you that go into your gardens to work.
You may take watermelons, and you will find the largest at the
extreme part of the vine. Can it be possible that the most extended
part of the vine can bring forth as much as the most extended limb on
a tree? Yes, it can. Where does it come from? From the root, and from
thence into the main limb or vine, and then into every branch and twig
that is connected to that vine.
Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become
great and mighty men in the kingdom of God—yes, even Prophets? Does
it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as
those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it
does.
Now, you may take an apple tree, a grape vine, a plum tree, and you
may take a cucumber vine, and all these trees and vines are one in
their organization: they are all alike, only one is called a tree, and
another a vine. They are also a little different in the fruit they
bear: one is a peach, or a plum, another a grape, &c.; and these
fruits are different in appearance, yet they are one in relation to
the principle that governs them.
One man is called upon to be a Prophet, another to be an Apostle,
another to be a Seventy, another a High Priest, another a Patriarch,
and so on; and don't you see they are all, in general features, alike?
There is not one of them that is not attached to a root. How could I
grow, if I were not attached to a tree or to a vine? I could not
produce fruit.
Well, the nearer I approach to my Father and to Jesus in my conduct,
the more I become like Joseph and the servants of God; and the more I
become like those characters, the more perfect a pattern I become for
others; and of course my fruit will be just like the characters I
pattern after; and then, of course, my fruit will be just like the
characters I am connected to. Will it have the same effect upon you?
Why, of course it will. Will it have the same effect upon you,
ladies—you, sisters? Yes; and it will have the same effect upon your
children.
I do not know whether you understand me or not, but I wish you would
have your gardens trimmed and kept clean; and if you do not have any,
go into the mountains and to the timber countries.
I merely touch upon these things to refresh your minds, though I did
not think anything about them when I got up; but if you will go and
look at them—I mean every Elder, High Priest, Apostle, and Prophet in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—you will be
benefited; for you ought to be exactly like one tree. What! Bring
forth the same fruit? Yes, all be one in your works for the benefit of
Israel.
Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has
probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full
that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed
down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not
one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good
fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are
just like it.
Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have
spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth
externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of
goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces.
That is the case with many of you.
Well, then, we say that, if the root is good, the tree is good, and
the limbs, because they are attached to the tree and receive
nourishment from the tree.
Well, if the root is not very good, the limbs, the tree, and the
apples will not be very good, because the root is not very good.
You take a man that is not very good, and that has a wife that is not
very good, and they cannot produce very good fruit, because the root
is not good. Do you understand that, brother Hunter? ["Yes, Sir." ] Is
it as plain as cattle? You understand how to originate good stock, and
so do I. You go into England and into the New England States, and
every man that is raising stock is taking a course to take away the
ringed, and the streaked, and the little, dried-up fixings, and to
produce a more noble stock. It is upon the same principle that this
people should become regenerated.
Well, supposing that a man is a long way beneath his fellows, and is a
little, dried-up, knotty, inferior man; can that man be cultivated?
Yes, sir, he can; he can take a course in the principles of
righteousness, by treasuring up truth; and truth is light, and light
is life. Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light
and life; and the most inferior man or woman can be regenerated
through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you
springing up unto everlasting life. That is the principle.
I throw out these few ideas to cause you to reflect. They may seem
eccentric, but they are true.
Sometimes I am at work at an apple tree, and sometimes at a cucumber
vine; but what is the difference? They have all roots, and they have
all cores, and they are all produced for a noble purpose.
The aristocracy—that is, those that are called the aristocracy, came
out of the old country: they came as far as Lehi came from Jerusalem,
and so on, till they came into this country; but still those that
remained behind considered themselves the aristocracy. But let me tell
you those men that came here were the true aristocracy; they were the
original stock; they were produced by the aristocracy, and they are
the original stock. Those men were choice characters, and God spoke to
them, and they came over here.
That is what they call aristocracy; that is as it is; though I never
studied grammar; but I have looked into the Bible and into the Book of
Mormon, and I have looked into the visions of eternity, and I know
that I am true, and that I am of the true vine. I am one of the sons
of those old veterans, and so is brother Brigham.
Will you let me talk just as I please today, ladies and gentlemen?
[Voices: "Yes." ]
Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph
Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men.
Brother Joseph actually saw those men in vision; he saw us in
a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage
and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one
stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down
through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others—the whole
Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph
mentioned came down through that channel.
My father's father and his brothers intermixed by marriage with the
Smiths, and uncle John Smith was baptized in Nauvoo for upwards of
twenty of my kindred. They mixed up in marriage, and in that way the
names became changed; for they were the old veterans.
There is another thing that brother Joseph said—viz., that we were
positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his
vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born
since I received my endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that
Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came
through that lineage.
Never mind, brethren and sisters, give me your attention a little
while. The gentleman that came to the stand with brother Brigham is
Thomas B. Marsh. I tell you this, that you need not be overanxious.
Joseph told us these things, and I know them to be true. I know them
by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and so do a great many men. We are
and we were heirs when we were called and ordained to the Apostleship:
we were of that class; yes, we were the sons and daughters of those
that came down through that lineage.
We will yet save the Constitution of the United States. We will do it,
as the Lord liveth, and we will save this nation, everyone of them
that will be saved. Brother Brigham Young and brother Joseph Smith
stand at our head, and will do that thing, as the Lord liveth. Yes,
we, as their children, with our children to assist us, will do it. We
have got that power, and so have they, and will bear the kingdom off
victoriously to every nation that is upon God's footstool; and I know
it.
Let your hearts be comforted; for just as sure as that is true, so
sure will we have good peace for three years from last winter. And
why? Because we will make peace, and we will sustain it and support
it, and we will bear off the kingdom and establish it. We will bring
forth every one of those old veterans, and we will place them upon
this land that they fought for. Now, mark it; for we will do it, and
all the devils in hell cannot hinder it, if this people will only live
their religion and do as they are told; and you cannot do as you are
told without living your religion; and if you will do that, we never
shall be troubled.
I tell you, if we now live our religion every day, inasmuch as the
President of the United States, or the Senators or Legislators make
laws to afflict us, the thing they design to bring upon us shall come
upon themselves; and the affliction, the snares, the traps, and the
gins which they lay for us, they themselves shall suffer with and be
caught in. These words never shall fail.
Brethren and sisters, can you do as you are told? It is the easiest
thing in the world.
[President Brigham Young: "Tell them something to do." ]
We want some thirty or forty yoke of oxen to go out and meet James A.
Little's company. Do you all say yes?
[The congregation responded, "Yes." ]
Tomorrow morning, at seven o'clock, we want forty yoke of cattle to
help in our trains. You, Bishops, see to that, will you?
[" Yes, Sir." ]
I tell you we have got enough for you to do: we will call on you for
another hitch by-and-by. Take care of your grain, and have all the
sisters help to take care of it, and do not let the children waste it;
for we do not want you to have enough scattered round to fat three
hogs on the crumbs and pieces of bread that are around your door
yards. Will you do that?
[President Young: "I guess they will." ]
My discourse is rather eccentric. It is in detachments. [Voice: "That
is the way they are building the big ship in London." ] That is right,
is it not, brother Carrington?
[" Yes, Sir." ]
But let us be attached together, and then we are one; let us yield up
our will, and let it run into the tree or branch to which we are
connected. Yield up your wills.
I will compare you to a drop of water; inasmuch as you are not willing
to yield up, you cannot be one. Now, just let us all run into one
drop, and let all the branches be connected to that one tree; and then
will we not increase? We will.
Now, as to those enemies down here below, they are not going to
trouble us: the brethren will have to go and help them in. Some of
those baggage wagons are nearly to Bridger now, and they cannot get
back. Their teams are failing fast, and the supposition is, they will
have to hire our teams to help them in, but the soldiers will not
come. There is nobody to molest them, but their minds are not quiet:
they are scared almost to death; and the nearer those baggage wagons
get here, the more they are afraid.
As to the army, one-fifth of them have deserted, and the others are
making preparations to do so likewise. And as to old Harney, the old
squaw-killer, they have made him stop to aid the Governor of Kansas,
and, it is likely, to kick up jack. But we do not care anything about
it or them. Let us lay up our grain and prepare for the siege, for it
will come.
We commenced last Sunday to declare that we are a free people, and we
will be free from this day henceforth and forever; and we never will
come under that yoke again. I tell you, as my soul lives, the bow-pin
has dropped out of old Bright's bow, and the bow has dropped out, and
the yoke is now on old Buchanan's neck.
Did you ever see a yoke of cattle, and see one get loose, and the
off-ox swinging round the yoke and knocking everybody's shins? If you
have, that is just the way with old Buchanan: he cannot do anything,
but he will bruise somebody's shins, and they will be after him, and
he never shall rest again—no, never, until the time comes for us to
redeem him. And that is not all. All his coadjutors, his cabinet, and
all his governors—yes, I will say from here, or from Dan to
Jerusalem—they shall go over the dam: they never shall rest in peace
till the Lord Almighty has scourged them until they are fully
satisfied.
The Lord God is going to play with them, as he did with Pharaoh in
Egypt; and let me tell you, there will not be much fighting for us to
do, if we live our religion; but God will use them to accomplish his
own works, as the monkey did the cat, when he took the cat's paw to
pull the nut out of the fire. We will make monkeys of them, and we
will make them crawl on all-fours, and they never will rest.
They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates.
They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have
they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many
as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well,
they are not yet punished as they will be; but they are in
punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God's
government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his
kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at
all times to take them when they do not think of it.
The President of this nation and his brethren in office, with all the
rulers and all the priests, have sanctioned the destruction of this
people. Yes, the President and all his coadjutors have sanctioned our
death as much as if they had taken our lives, and they are a
bloodthirsty nation. They have killed our Prophets, Patriarchs, and
Apostles, and they have slain, or caused to fall, thousands—yea,
thousands of our brethren and sisters, our wives, our fathers, and our
mothers; and they shall see the same fulfilled upon themselves, and it
shall be measured to them double for all they have dealt out unto us.
When we consider all things, are they not to be pitied? They are. If
you will live your religion, you never will have anything to do but to
live your religion and lay up stores and prepare for the scenarios
that are to come; for, as true as the Lord lives, the people of the
nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for
raiment, and for protection; and that time is right at our door.
This is one thing to rouse our feelings; for God saw that you would
not listen to the words of his servants, but you listen to your own
words, and you did not have confidence to lay up stores. There is not
one man to a hundred that ever did it; and that is proof sufficient
that you did not believe what was said. This is but a shadow of what
is coming: it is in embryo. You will see such a time as you never saw.
But bless you we won't be troubled. We will live as in the presence of
God and of angels. And will we ever have to go into the moun tains? No,
never. If you will live your religion, you never will.
[Voice: "That is true." ]
Do just as brother Brigham tells you; for he always tells you what is
right, and he generally tells you what I say is right; and if there is
anything wrong, he will correct it and give you the truth. But do I
wish to teach you an error? No; I have not such a desire in my heart.
Had I a desire before I was a "Mormon" to propagate an error? No. Why,
bless you, I always was a "Mormon." My father and grandfather were
"Mormons;" and it is "Mormonism" right away back.
You know brother Brigham and I know our daddies; and if no other men
on the face of the earth do, you may feel perfectly satisfied that all
is right with us.
Now, let us be faithful, let us be humble, let us lay aside our pride
and everything that is calculated to distress us or to distress our
wives; and then let wives lay aside everything that is calculated to
distress their husbands.
Wives, lay aside your vanity, and go to work and make everything that
we need, until the time comes when the Lord will consecrate the whole
earth unto this people. But that time is not now.
I do not do as many do; for many have looked at these troops that are
coming with a degree of fear. But what are they? [Voice: "Scarcely
worth picking up." ]
I wish there would never a pin's worth of their property come in here,
because there are those who think more of a pound of tea than they do
of their religion.
[President B. Young: "There are not many of that class." ]
But there are a few. If there were not, I should feel discouraged; I
should feel to give counsel for you to go to work and accumulate as
fast as you could. Bless your souls! There is nothing but what
we could make here.
Need we send to the States for anything? No; we need not send even for
sugar; and we can make almost everything under heaven, and all the
rest is in heaven; and they can be sent down here to us; for heaven
and earth are connected by this Priesthood as much as my body and
spirit are connected. All these things are in heaven—sugar, flocks and
herds, wool and silks, and everything else; and they are not only in
the heavens, but in the earth, just as much as that pitcher was taken
out of the earth. It was in the earth, and the same kinds are also in
the heavens.
We can make all these things ourselves; and all we have to do is to
organize the elements that God has created or that he organized; for
he did not create this earth any more than the potter created this
pitcher. The potter took the rough material and ground it, and put it
on his wheel, and made it just into the shape you see it now.
It was so with our God. The elements were already created, and he took
them and shaped them into an earth; and this is the way that all
things are organized.
Can we make silk? I have told you that if you go to work and raise
flax, you should have the privilege, in my lifetime, of reaping four
times as much flax as you ever reaped in the States; that is, you
shall have a fourfold crop.
Do I believe that such can be the case with sheep? I know it can; for
we have sheared more wool from the sheep here than we ever did in the
States, and have we not done the same by wheat?
I heard brother Brigham and brother Wells speaking of a person that
took from an acre and thirty rods ninety-six bushels and a half of
wheat, and there are others who have taken their fifty-seven bushels
an acre. Why, Thomas, you never saw such things in the States! God
bless you, Thomas! You shall become a sound man, and be a comfort to
us in our old age.
Well, I have no feelings in me against anyone—not against brother
Marsh; but I feel to bless him with the blessings of God, with the
blessings of the earth, from the crown of your head to the soles of
your feet; for this is my calling, and I do not feel to curse. But as
for our enemies, they have cursed themselves with all the curses they
can bear; and the cursings that are on them they never can get off,
neither can those who sustain them. The Church and kingdom to which we
belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and brother
Brigham Young will become President of the United States.
[Voices responded, "Amen." ]
And I tell you he will be something more; but we do not now want to
give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater
station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he
has got it; and I am Vice-President, and brother Wells is the
Secretary of the Interior—yes, and of all the armies in the flesh.
You don't believe that; but I can tell you it is one of the smallest
things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking; but I am
perfectly willing that brother Long should write every word of it; for
I can see it, just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions
thereof.
Let us live our religion, serve our God, be good and kind one to
another, cease all those contentions in your houses, and live in
peace.
Sisters, if you have got husbands, nourish them and cherish them; for
they have got an almighty work to do; they have enough to do to lay up
the comforts of life; and you wives are the women to nourish them that nourish you; for they feed you, and clothe you, and give you
every mouthful that you eat and drink, and they have brought you to
these valleys of the mountains, that you might see the sons of Jacob
become a mighty host. Good heavens! You may yet see the day when the
sons of Jacob will be ten times thicker than they now are; and I know
it will be so.
We will build up Jackson County, and I am going to tell them of it,
with your consent, brother Brigham; and if you do not find any fault
with it, I do not know that anybody else has a right to.
Sisters, love your husbands, and encourage them to listen to their
file leaders and to their officers pertaining to this Church; for this
is their calling, and not to sit down and cry, snuffle, and find fault
with their leaders and the other authorities in the Church; for there
is where so many go over the dam.
Brother Thomas has learned that this won't do. He has said he got mad
with brother Joseph, and then he got mad with brother Brigham and me,
because we did not get mad also, like him. The truth was, we were so
busy, we had no time to get mad. It was nothing to us what brother
Joseph did, and it is just so with you: it is none of your business
what brother Brigham does, though you all know that he would not do
anything wrong. Why, bless you, brother Brigham would die ten thousand
deaths rather than walk one hair to the right or to the left from that
which is right.
Well, we are not jealous of you. Do your duty, and you will make every
house and every place a palace, and your homes will be as the gate of
heaven, and a source of joy to your husbands. Of course you must have
a heaven of that which you have made.
Why, I would go to work and make an altar and a heaven, and I never
would take any other course than that which is honorable before God;
and how can you live your religion without this?
You poor, miserable, disaffected beings, if there are any such here,
learn to do right.
Sisters, sustain and comfort your husbands; for they have got plenty
to do in these last days. After we have laid up stores and got seven
years' provisions, there will be seven years for us to be on guard,
but never can our enemies touch us if we do right.
We are up in the tops of the mountains, and our Governor is here. What
do you say to that? And his God is here, and his associates are
listening.
Well, if it is time for the Government of the United States to cut the
thread, we are perfectly competent to take care of ourselves. We would
not give a dime for this people to be one more in number than they
are. There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his
power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his
host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something
similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because
this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a
sacrifice before God.
God bless you, and may you receive the blessings of brother Brigham,
brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve Apostles, and the blessings
of the Patriarchs of the living God.
Peace be unto this people. Peace be in these valleys and upon the
mountains around us! And peace be upon everything that we possess! But
peace shall not rest upon those who will grumble and find fault with
the servants of God. No; and he or she that will do it shall be as a
barren tree.
God bless you and make your minds fruitful, and fill you with
revelation, with dreams, and with the visions of eternity, which is my
prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball