I have not the least disposition to talk to you if you do not wish me
to, and if you say you do not want me, I will say good morning and go
home. It is no pleasure to talk to a people who will not receive what
you say. You know me, and then again you do not know me. You do not
know who Heber C. Kimball is, or you would do better. You do not know
yourselves, do you? Then how can you expect to know me? A man came to
me this morning desiring to have some talk with me. I asked him if he
was an honest, upright, truthful man? He replied that he thought he
had no right to answer that question; but finally, he said he was an
honest man. After he said that, it was revealed to me what sort of a
man he was, but not before. I wish the people here today to behave
themselves, as this is the Sabbath. Do you know what is the gospel?
The gospel is the power of God unto all that obey, not unto all that
believe, for the devils believe. Suppose now, for instance, I had here
three rules, one a twelve inch, one a six inch and one a three inch.
Would the three inch rule measure as far as the twelve inch? No; nor
can the three inch or the six inch man measure as far as the twelve
inch man, yet both may be good men and just as good as the man that
can circumscribe thirteen inches. Therefore, if a man in this respect
should be a little behind, we should not whip him up as we would a
horse, but we should be lenient towards him.
What brother Stevenson has said this morning is all good, and you
would know it if you read the Bible and the Book of Mormon. There is
not one quarter of you that read those books as much as I do; if you
did, you would know they coincide the one with the other. This book,
the Book of Mormon, is a pure record, and I know it, although it
treats of wars and contentions. I have lived nearly all my life where
it came forth and I understand all about it.
I have been to the altar where Adam offered sacrifices and blessed his
sons and then left them and went to heaven. Now I want you to read the
Bible and the Book of Mormon, for we have to build a city, we who are
righteous and keep the celestial law, we have to build a city that
will compare with the one that has gone to heaven. Consider these
things and then see how you are progressing.
You sit in judgment on your neighbors, when you are guilty of more tricks than they are, and when there is more evil in you than in
them. Jesus said, "thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor," and the
commandments say, "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor," and the commandments are binding upon us. Jesus said also,
"thou shalt not commit adultery." Now some persons look upon adultery
as an awful thing, which it is; but they pay no attention to the other
command, which is equally binding, forbidding them to speak evil of
their neighbor. It is said thou shalt not speak against the anointed;
yet you do speak against them, and justify yourselves in doing evil.
It is difficult for many here even to hold my name sacred; and when I
have heard of what some men here would do, I have asked myself what
manner of men they were. In doing the things that I have been speaking
of you commit sin and violate your covenants. Do you doubt that I am
one of the Lord's anointed? Do you not know that I am? This then will
affect you unless you make restitution. Shall I tell you how? I wish I
could refer you to the revelation. I have had men lie to me, and I
have known this by the spirit of revelation, yet I could not prove it.
Now these are not men of God. Some of you would like me to present the
truth clothed in a fine dress and with hoops rather than that I should
present it stark naked; but I speak this for your good, and why then
do you wish to run away from or injure your friends?
The Twelve Apostles, when first anointed, went into almost every part
of the States, from Ohio to Nova Scotia, and organized Conferences and
called on the whole Church to make donation of their means to purchase
that land that God said had to be purchased either with money or with
blood; and the whole Church, save the leaders, came under condemnation
because they did not comply with the revelation. The revelation that
gave us the authority and which says, "Let my servants go, &c.," is
in this Book of Covenants. At another time Zion's Camp was called,
before I became an Apostle, and Joseph gathered up the Lord's
warriors, His young men, the male members of the Church, and it took
nearly every male member from Nova Scotia to Missouri to reinstate the
Lord's people in the land of Zion. Those young men did their duty, and
the Lord accepted their offering. They were the actors then, and are
the leading men of the School of the Prophets today. Will this School
of the Prophets stop? No, it was commenced in the days of Joseph, and
it will not stop. Unless, however, there is a reformation right here,
there is not one in twenty that will go and possess that land. Are you
practical spinners? Can you adorn yourselves with the work of your own
hands? Can you beautify and adorn the earth? I tell you that in
general you are not going there unless a reformation takes place. Some
of you will not be honest, some of you will not pray unless you are
where someone can see you; and if some of you were going to my mill
here, and should fine a chain, you would look around to see if any
person saw you, and if not, you would hide the chain at once; and such
men call themselves Saints. I am telling you the truth, and I tell you
that if you will put on Christ and live in Him you will see a great
deal better than I can with my glasses. You cannot lead a person
astray unless that person is willing to be led astray; a man could not
be persuaded to lie unless he was inclined to lie; and if we
tell a lie to deceive, we have to pay that debt before that sin is
atoned for. It is said, "Thine own words will condemn thee;" and it
will be so when we go to judgment, and we cannot help it. I am an
apostle, and Brigham Young is an apostle, and the voice of the Spirit
called Brigham Young and myself in Kirtland, and Joseph Smith was told
to place the priesthood upon us, and have we ever flinched? No. Now,
when you are brought to judgment and you know that Jesus is there,
that Joseph is there, that Brigham is there, that Willard and myself
are there, and you are asked what have you been guilty of, you will
have to give in your own testimony, and you cannot get around it. The
axe is laid at the root of the tree, and the acts of men and women
will condemn them. There are hundreds and thousands of men in this
Church today who have a plurality of wives which will be taken from
them and they cannot help themselves, because they do not keep the
celestial law.
The office of an apostle is to tell the truth, to tell what he knows.
Has the Lord spoken to me? He has. I have heard His voice and so have
you; and when you hear my voice, and it is dictated by the Holy Ghost,
you hear the voice of God through me, but you do not believe it. Great
is the condemnation that will come because of lying. Now, let me say
to you, be honest, and you, sisters, stop you slanders, and if you
wish your characters exalted, exalt that of your neighbor. It is time
for us to arise and wake up. I am telling you these things for your
good, but you do not know it. There are many here today who, unless
they repent, will never see my face again after my eyes are closed in
death. I tell you that the man who justifies another in the shedding
of blood is a murderer, and the man who justifies another in
tantalizing his fellow creature or in speaking against another is as
bad as the man who does these things. I have not one word of
reflection to make against you, yet you are living at a poor dying
rate. Do you doubt it? I want you to be faithful, and I do not want a
man or a woman of you to be lost.
I wish now to talk to the little boys, my young brethren, and I want
them all to hear me. What I have been saying today, my little boys,
will apply to you as much as it will to your fathers. I wish you to be
obedient to your fathers and to you mothers; but if your mothers tell
you not to do that which your fathers tell you to do, you go right
away and do as your father has told you, for he is the head. And,
brethren, come to meeting instead of running about on the Sabbath day,
and cease to tell lies. Let us, brethren, try and bind up everything
and take hold together. I feel as the Savior did, I do not wish to
leave you alone, I wish you to improve. I think as much of the people
in this ward as I do of the people in any other ward in the Territory.
I prayed last night and this morning that your minds might be prepared
to receive my words. What would you give for a plow that had no point
to it, or for a pair of glasses that you could not see through? And
again, what account would you be if no dependence could be placed in
you?
I will now refer you to a little of my history. I was born in Vermont,
and brought up very poor, and when nine years old I laid in my bed and
in a vision saw those things that I have since passed through. Soon
after I was baptized, brother Orson Pratt came to my house. I
was standing in the door yard when he came, and at the time I felt
much of the holy Spirit upon me. I was then a potter at my wheel.
While brother Pratt was talking with me a voice spake to him and said
"Orson, my son, that man will one day become one of my apostles." I
did not know this till afterwards. A voice also spoke to me and told
me my lineage, and I told my wife Vilate that she was of the same
lineage, and she believed it. I told her also that we would never be
separated. I could tell you a thousand things that happened in that
early day. I have been, as I have already told you, to where Adam
offered sacrifices and blessed his sons, and I felt as though there
were hundreds of angels there, and there were angels there like unto
the three Nephites. I have also been over the hill Cumorah, and I
understand all about it. I remember the time when I was baptized into
the church, and how after I was baptized, Alpheus Gifford said he felt
impressed to ordain me an elder. I was on my knees and jumped up and
told him to hold on that I was not a learned man, and I thought that
my ordination would injure the work. But presently the Holy Ghost came
upon me till I thought that I should be burnt up. I could speak in
tongues and prophesy, and I understood the scriptures. And now let me
tell you that I was never made to die, that is spiritually; but that I
am an inhabitant of this earth and will never destroy my right to it.
It is my Father's and I know it, and His angels administer to men.
This you can read in the Book of Mormon. Cleave now to the truth, and
remember that a limb separated from a tree is not much, and so we are
not much when separated from the truth. Therefore honor God and honor
those you know; for if you do not honor those you know you will not
honor God. If my children will not subject themselves to me they will
not subject themselves to God; and so with our wives, they cannot
honor God unless they honor us.
Jesus said, "suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is
the Kingdom of Heaven." They are heirs to the kingdom of heaven, and
when they die they go to heaven. They are with Jesus. Our children are
heirs to our rights and privileges, and when an earth is organized
for us we will take our children there as God our Father brought His
children here when He came.
Let us be faithful and humble and keep the commandments; and if we
will eat meat, let us eat that which is mild. I am inclined to think
that pig meat is not good, and that fine flour is not good, and the
finer the flour we eat the shorter will be our lives. It would be
better for us to eat coarse bread, such as the Graham bread. I now
feel to say peace be with you, peace rest upon you and I say my peace
shall rest upon you. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball