You have heard what brother Brigham has said to you today, and his
words are as true as any that were ever spoken by Moses, by the
Prophet Joseph Smith, or by any other man that ever lived or is now
living upon the face of the earth.
Were this people living their religion as faithfully as they ought to,
when a person rose up to teach you the principles of life and
salvation, his mind would be free, his tongue would be loosed, and you
would be able to draw from him those instructions best adapted to your
feelings and circumstances. But at times it is almost impossible for a
man to speak to this people. It seemed to brother Grant and me, in the
Social Hall the other night, as though every person in that
congregation had their hearts shut against our words; and in our
congregations here I occasionally notice more or less of the same
feeling. This may be measurably due to a murmuring spirit, which I am
rather inclined to believe some of you have, and I will tell you
wherein. Some find fault with and blame brother Brigham and his
Council, because of the sufferings they have heard that our brethren
are enduring on the Plains. A few of them have died, and you hear some
exclaim, "What an awful thing it is! Why is it that the First
Presidency are so unwise in their calculations? But it falls on their
shoulders." Well, the late arrival of those on the Plains cannot be
helped now, but let me tell you, most emphatically, that if all who
were entrusted with the care and management of this year's immigration
had done as they were counseled and dictated by the First Presidency
of this Church, the sufferings and hardships now endured by the
companies on their way here would have been avoided. Why? Because they
would have left the Missouri River in season, and not have been
hindered until into September.
There is a spirit of murmuring among the people, and the fault is laid
upon brother Brigham. For this reason the heavens are closed against
you, for he holds the keys of life and salvation upon the earth; and
you may strive as much as you please, but not one of you will ever go
through the strait gate into the kingdom of God, except those that go
through by that man and his brethren, for they will be the persons
whose inspection you must pass. I tell you this plain truth, and you
may do what you think best with it.
Three handcart companies have arrived in safety and in good season,
and with much less sickness and death than commonly occur in wagon
companies. Does it make a man sick to labor and be diligent? Let me
sit down and be inactive in mind and body, let me cease building and
making improvements, or doing something useful, and I should
not live six months, nor would brother Brigham, because we have become
so inured to occupation.
If the immigration could have been carried on as dictated by brother
Brigham, there would have been no trouble. The devil has tried to
hedge up the way, so that we should not bring about the wise plans
devised by our President, and has tried to make those plans look as
disagreeable and as miserable as possible. Our brethren and sisters on
the Plains are in my mind all the time, and brother Brigham has given,
to those who wish it, the privilege of going back to help bring them
in. If I do not go myself I will send a team, though I have already
sent back nearly all my teams, and so has brother Brigham. Those who
have gone back never will be sorry for or regret having done so. If
brothers Joseph A. Young, my son William H., George D. Grant, and my
son David P. had not gone to the assistance of those now on the
Plains, I should always have regretted it. If they die during the
trip, they will die while endeavoring to save their brethren; and who
has greater love than he that lays down his life for his
friends? Manifest your love by your works. Jesus said, "If you love
me, keep my commandments;" by this you shall know that you love him.
If you love brothers Brigham, Heber, Jedediah, and the Twelve, please
to keep our commandments that are given to you from day to day, and
you will be blest and exalted. I do not want a woman to tell me that
she loves me, when she does not keep my commandments, for her
statement would be vague and foolish.
Were I in the situation of some of you, I would not sleep another
night before starting to the assistance of the people that are now
struggling through the snow. I would not wait until tomorrow, I would
start today, and I would toil until I reached those brethren, and
they were in this valley. When the brethren who went back first met
them, they felt as though they were truly saviors to them; and when
they came into their midst, they would not permit them to go ten rods
from them, for while one of them was present they felt as though they
were safe, as though they would be preserved from misery, from
starvation, and death. And yet, perhaps, some of these very persons we
are striving to save may turn against the Church, and become our most
bitter enemies.
Those that have died, I presume were some of the best men and women in
the company, and the most faithful. Why did not the Lord take the
ungodly? It may be that He thought He would let the devil handle them
a little, and kill a few of them, and the devil is so much of a
financier that he will not kill his own subjects. Well, if he has
slain the Saints with God's permission, and they were a good people
coming to Zion to serve God and seek for eternal glory, they have gone
home happy, and we will see them again. And they will thank God that
they stepped out of the world when they did, for if they had come here
they would have seen the wickedness of some of this people, and
perhaps they would have become unrighteous too.
As brother Brigham has said, I would rather be helping in those on the
Plains than to be here, if circumstances and duty would permit. We
offered our offering and started to go, but the Lord ordered it
otherwise and we came home. But we have done a better work than if we
had gone, for the brethren would have said, "Brother Brigham is there
with his Council, and we will sit down here and roast our shins, say
our prayers and lull ourselves to sleep." There would have been
no general stir in behalf of our brethren on the Plains; but scores
and hundreds have now gone to meet them, and they have had good
weather so far, have they not?
I cannot account for the barrier that is between you and the Lord in
any other way, only that there is quite a sympathy at work against
brother Brigham and his Council. But there is not a thing which he has
dic tated but what has come out right, and will now, and will work
together for good to those that love God and keep His commandments. We
have to acknowledge the hand of God in all things; and that man or
woman that feels to murmur and complain is in the gall of bitterness
and the bonds of iniquity, and does not know it. May God have mercy on
you. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball