I feel continually in my heart desirous to do good. Our religion is a
practical religion. We administer the sacrament, for instance, in
remembrance of Jesus Christ, which ordinance he has established to
imitate the things he has suffered. We break bread as an imitation of
his body, which has been broken; and we pour out wine (which should be
of our own make) and drink of it in imitation of his blood, which was
poured out that our sins might be remitted. Our sins are forgiven, on
condition that we observe these ordinances before all people, before
the Father, before the Son, before the Holy Ghost and before all the
holy angels that God sends to take charge of us. To repent is to
forsake our sins and sin no more. When we thus repent, it is a
repentance that needeth not to be repented of. True repentance
requires restitution to the injured, and such satisfaction as the
wrong demands. For by this you may know that a man truly repents of
his sins, and that the Father has forgiven them in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ. There are people out of the Church and in it, who are
stubborn and will not make satisfaction to those they have injured,
disobeyed or neglected, and will welter under it for weeks and months
before they will make an humble acknowledgement to give satisfaction
to the injured party. Remission of sins is given by going down into
the water with an authorized servant of God, who, after saying,
"Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in water for
the remission of your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost," immerses him in the water. After this
ordinance has been administered, remission of sins is as sure as that
repentance and restitution have been truly made. This is the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth and practiceth it; which will be in them and round
about them, until they are full of the living oracles and attributes
of the Father and the Son. Paul says that baptism is not the washing
away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
before God.
How can a man's conscience be good, if, after the truth is made known
to him, he shall willfully neglect to comply with it? Then, after
baptism, the servant of God, having authority given to him through the
holy Priesthood, lays his hand on the baptized persons for the gift of
the Holy Ghost. When an authorized servant of God lays his hands on a
person, he receives the gift and power of the Holy Ghost as surely as
though God had administered the ordinance himself. This authority the
Father has given us, and we should honor it. It is impossible to honor
God and his authority except we honor his ordinances; neither
can you honor him, and, at the same time, dishonor his delegates and
authorities he has sent.
In all these ordinances of the Gospel, we imitate Christ—we go forth
in his authority, and administer as he administered. He received his
authority from his Father and gave it to his Apostles, they gave it to
Joseph Smith, Joseph gave it to us and we place it upon you Elders of
Israel. The authority is one—the same as the roots and branches of a
tree are one; and the power of the Holy Ghost will dwell with you the
same as it does with us, showing us things to come and bringing things
to our remembrance that we may have a foreknowledge of future things,
and all this in proportion to our faith, confidence, and integrity in
God and in his authority.
Baptism is an imitation—the candidate is buried in water in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, in likeness of the
death of Christ, and then he is raised up out of the water in likeness
of his resurrection. The Holy Ghost descended on the Savior in the
form of a dove after he was baptized; in imitation of this, we receive
the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Even in the endowments,
there is not a solitary thing but what is an imitation of the Son or
the Father in some way or other; and all this is done to keep us in
remembrance of him. When we sit down to eat food, we ask God to bless
it and sanctify it to our benefit, that we may partake of it in
remembrance of his kindness, generosity and blessings unto us. We ask
the Father to bless our wheat, to bless all the seeds we sow in the
ground, to bless the earth and to give us power and wisdom to nurse
and take care of the tender plants, which are an imitation of his
bountiful goodness to us. Our religion is not artificial—it is a
reality; it is natural. It teaches us how to keep ourselves pure, that
we may not become tainted with the world, the flesh and the Devil, but
hold ourselves sacred and pure as the children of God.
Let my brethren who are going on foreign missions remember these
things, holding them in view; all of which are comprehended in the
imitation of Christ and the sufferings he passed through; and I will
promise them, in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ that is
in me and my brethren, they shall be blessed as they never were
blessed; they shall win souls unto Christ, and when they come home
they shall bring some of them with them. I do not know how I could get
along upon any other principle, as a preacher of righteousness among
nations, than by the dictation of the Holy Ghost and doing as we have
been told, which is to teach nothing but repentance to this generation
and baptism for the remission of sins, administering the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper to believers, that they may have Jesus in
remembrance. It is the business of the Elders of this Church, when
they go abroad, to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
carrying the salt with them, or the power and the authority of the
holy Priesthood; let them go with their hearts full of the power of
God and their mouths full of the good words of life, suffering
themselves to be used by the Almighty as a musician would use an
instrument of music, letting God speak through them as the trumpeter
would speak through a trumpet.
Let the sheep lick a little salt through your fingers; do not give
them a handful at once, or it may blind them, but give them a mere
trifle, and that will make them hungry for more. If you wish, in the
soonest and most effectual manner, to destroy a flock of sheep,
overfeed them. Under such a circumstance, you may call "Nan, nan,
nan," until you are tired, and they will not take any heed to the
voice of the shepherd, for they are surfeited with too much food. Let
the Elders gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel, bring them
home, and put them into the fold; then go to the Good Shepherd and ask
him if you may have one, and if you receive one upon the principles of
honor and righteousness you will be blessed in the gift.
Preach the Gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost, and it will melt the
people into humility, and God will be with you to bless your labors to
that degree that they have never been blessed. You receive light and
knowledge here, and your minds begin to expand; yet some imagine that
they had more religion when they were first baptized than now. This,
however, is not so; your experience now is much greater than then,
according to your age in the Church and your integrity and submission
to the will of God and his authority. Your information is increasing,
and your power to ask of God, in the name of Jesus, and receive, is
greater now than when you first received the Gospel: "Ask, and you
shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you." Learning is good, but learning does not give the power of
God to man. An unlearned man with the power of God upon him, can build
up churches and gather the sheep of Israel into the fold; and it has
been the case that learned men—men who trusted in their learning and
not in the power of the Holy Ghost—have stepped forward and taken
charge of the sheep that the unlearned man had gathered, trying to
supersede him in their affections by preaching some great and learned
sermon, seeking to destroy the influence of the true shepherd. Such
men were not after the sheep, but the fleece; and they have gone over
the dam. Instead of commencing at the root, where that poor, unlearned
man commenced, they go to the top of the tree he has planted, and jump
from limb to limb, knocking off the precious fruit. I have had an
experience in the vineyard labor, having traveled and preached near
twenty years of my life not only in America but in England, and I know
the nature of men and things pretty well. When I was on my mission
abroad I lived humbly before God. I did not know much—I know but
little now—but I knew that God worked and spake mightily through weak
instruments. A poor speaker may suppose his language is nothing, that
it is very small, yet God can make it pierce, like a javelin to the
hearts of Saints and sinners, and the honest will conceive the truth
and bring forth fruit, while others will hear and will not receive the
truth—they will see but do not perceive.
The same cause will produce the same effect now as thirty years ago.
God is the same, the Gospel is the same, baptism is the same,
repentance is the same; none of these principles have changed in the
least. Then why should we leave the doctrine of Christ to go on to
perfection? For no man can become perfect in God without a constant
faith in, and observance of, those first principles of the doctrine of
Christ, any more than we can progress in learning and leave out of the
question the alphabet of our language and the first rudiments of
education. After people are baptized and confirmed into the Church,
the first ordinance that is attended to is the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, that they may think of Jesus and what he suffered to bring to
pass the remission of sin; that they may think of his Father and our
Father and God, who has organized this earth and placed
everything in it that is in it. And when he came into the world we
came with him; the earth is his and the fulness thereof, and he has
handed over to his Son the work of redeeming it, of making it perfect,
when he will deliver it up to the Father. Not a single soul of us will
be lost if we will do as well as we know how, keeping these things in
view and practicing them. When we practice them we honor them; and we
honor the Father by honoring his words and the words of his Son Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Ghost takes up his abode with us to comfort and
cheer our hearts. There are thousands of good and wholesome principles
that people do not see, because they have no spirit of comprehension
nor understanding of the works of God. The South and the North are at
war with each other—are slaying each other—and if they were not doing
that they would be trying to slay us; this they do already in their
hearts, and the sin is the same upon the nation as though they did it
in reality. I am a martyr in the sight of God, and so is brother
Brigham and other men of God whose lives they have hunted. God will
chastise them and all those who had a hand in seeking our destruction.
There is great blessing to be placed upon faithful men in the latter
days—they are to be sealed up unto eternal life, and against all sins
and blasphemies, except the shedding of innocent blood, or consenting
thereunto, which is the same in the eyes of God. The wicked are
slaying the wicked, and the North calculates to use up the South in a
few days; in this they will be mistaken. They will whip each other,
first one and then the other. Let the Saints acknowledge the hand of
God in it all. War and bloodshed will follow the Gospel of the Son of
God, until it has spread over every nation, tongue and people who
reject the Gospel after it is proffered to them, and have spilled
innocent blood or consented to it. If you see these principles as I
do, you will see them clearly, though, in my weakness, I may not have
been able to make them plain to your understandings.
Ye Elders of Israel, never try to circumscribe each other, but build
each other up. God does not look with the same eyes that we do. He
looks at the hearts and intentions of men, and he will honor those he
can work with. When I worked at my business, and the clay was
rebellious and stiff, I would throw a little water upon it, and soften
and mollify it, and then put it into the mill where it is ground up.
When it is passive, it is again brought upon the wheel after it has
been well cleared of all foreign matter, and it is turned into
pitchers, into jugs, into churns, milkpans, bowls and cups, and every
kind of vessel to adorn the kitchen and the palace, and to make the
Church and kingdom of God interesting, and more magnificent than all
the glory of the kingdom of the world. All these vessels are made at
the dictation of the master potter.
When the brethren arrive at their fields of labor, brothers Brigham,
Heber, and Daniel, and the Twelve Apostles will not be there to dictate
you. When I was sent to England twenty-five years ago, I felt myself
one of the very weakest of God's servants. I asked Joseph what I
should say when I got there; he told me to go to the Lord and he would
guide me, and speak through me by the same Spirit that dictated him.
He also told brother Brigham when he got there he would know all about
it. My experience is, the more I preach upon the first principles of
the Gospel, the more I discovered limbs and branches of the subject I
had never seen, leading to the foun tain of life. The Holy Ghost
led me all the time, and God spake through me when I would let him. I
have related a little of my experience for the benefit of my brethren
who are going out on missions. When you get to England, the Saints
will rejoice to see you, expecting you will tell them all about it.
Here is brother John Smith, the Patriarch, at the head of the Church,
he knows everything they will say, and he will tell us all about wives
we had in heaven or earth or in hell. Now, brethren, go in the name of
Jesus Christ and preach the first principles of the Gospel, and tell
the brethren and sisters to gather to the fold of Christ, where all
things shall be told them. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball