We have heard, I will say, most excellent doctrine from brother
Lorenzo Young. What can be better? It is truth, and truth is light,
and light is life.
Inasmuch as we receive the truth, we receive light; and if we receive
light, we receive life. If that principle is in us, and it
abounds—that is, in the practice of good works, it will be in us as a
well of water springing up into everlasting life. Why? Because that
little light—that little life that dwells in us, has got to run back
into the fountain of life, just the same as a stream of water runs
into its fountain, the sea. If these principles dwell in us and
abound, they go back into the fountain of everlasting lives, and lead
us into the reservoir of all truth. Why is it the reservoir of all
truth? Because all truth emanates from that fountain, and everything
that emanates from it has to be restored back thereto. There must be
a restoration of all things which have been spoken by the
mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began.
Is there also a fountain of lies? Yes; inasmuch as we receive a lie,
we are impregnated with the influence of it. Although we have received
it from another person, inasmuch as we received it for a truth and
cultivate it, we nourish the principles of lies within us; and all
lies, all dishonesty, everything that is unwholesome, and that has not
emanated from God, the fountain of all good, have emanated from the
fountain of lies or error.
Then, upon the same principle, all lies have got to be restored to
their fountain from whence they came; and those who become amalgamated
must be restored to the same fountain where all liars go. So
everything has got to be restored to the fountain from whence it came.
If this is not so, I am grandly mistaken.
Will God restore and bring back his children? Yes. If every son and
daughter of Adam are not brought back into His presence, or into the
fountain from whence they sprang, it will be because they have
perverted themselves and have become inoculated with the principles
of evil until they are depraved. God will restore the righteous to His
presence by righteousness, and the unrighteous to the fountain of
unrighteousness with the principle of evil they have imbibed.
I am a full-blooded Restorationist you will perceive. I know, as well
as I know anything, that everything must be restored to its own place,
and this upon natural principles.
I did not think of these ideas before I rose to speak; but, as quick
as I got up here, they came to me the same as though I had always been
acquainted with them.
When we want the Spirit of Christ, what course shall we take to get
it? There is but one way. Brother Brigham is our leader, our Prophet,
Seer, and Revelator, to organize and set in order this Church and
kingdom; and my calling is to be one with him, to assist him and act
with him, and have the same spirit in me that is in him. That is my
calling, whether I live up to it or not to the fullest extent. I
should be one with him in all things, and should partake of the same
power—the same spirit of revelation; and if I partake of these
elements with him, then I am one with him; and if I do not come up to
these privileges and duties, I am so far a hindrance to him, and draw
him back instead of helping him forward.
Talk about blocking wheels, I tell you, gentlemen, you have no power
or business to do that in the last days. The car is started, and will
never stop to need blocking: you cannot block it.
[Voice: "They cannot run fast enough to block it." ]
No; those who are not in that car are unable to keep up with it or to
block it behind or before.
I have got on the car; I am in the kingdom of God in the last days,
which will continue and bring in the winding up scene of all things.
Do you suppose it goes bumping along like an old, worn out,
overloaded conveyance, and every three or four feet somebody come
along and put a block behind the wheel to keep it from rolling back?
Get out with your nonsense. Brother Brigham, our leader, and myself,
with every true Saint of God, have got on a car that moves swiftly
along, and will never stop to need a block behind or before; and those
that have not the spirit and power of this kingdom can never trammel
it in its course—not one hair's breadth.
I have heard the Elders talk about blocking the wheel, as though they
were giving great assistance; but, let me tell you, such a man would
be in a poor business: it will be with him a good deal, as it was with
those anciently who undertook to steady the ark of the Lord:
they were broken to pieces.
Now, there are a great many people going from here. Are they going to
hinder this work? No; they have gone as missionaries to advance it
tenfold faster, I will say, than if they had not gone. They cannot do
anything against the truth, but for it. What they may do will make it
more permanent, if their doings and sayings affect it at all.
Now, I pray; and you pray, many of you, and are humble: you pray for
brother Brigham; you pray that the Holy Ghost may rest upon him; and
then you pray that brothers Heber and Daniel may be one with him as he
is one with Joseph, and as Joseph is one with Peter, Peter with Jesus,
and Jesus with his Father.
Now, what course should I pursue? I should evade everything that would
prevent me from stepping forward and being one with brother Brigham.
Now, which would be the most profitable, and advance the cause of
God the most, if a person should step in and undertake to break
asunder that union that exists in the First Presidency of this Church,
for me to allow it, or to step forward and slay him or her? It would
be better for me to slay them and let the union continue; for it is
better for one person to suffer than a whole nation to perish.
I pray that I may have the Spirit of my Father and my God, and the
Spirit of Jesus, my elder brother, who is like unto his Father; and I
pray that I may partake of the Spirit of the Holy Ghost, which is in
the same family and lineage. Well, then, Father, let that Spirit and
that power that was in Peter, and in James, and John, rest upon
Brigham, and Heber, and Daniel; and then, Father, let the same power
rest upon the Twelve Apostles that rested on the Twelve anciently; and
let the same power and blessings rest upon the Seventies that were on
the Seventies anciently; and let the same power rest upon the
Patriarchs and Prophets that rested upon those orders anciently; and
let the Bishopric and lesser Priesthood be blessed with the power of
the calling and priesthood which rested upon those officers in former
days.
Let this people pray for the same Spirit of the Father that rested
upon the Patriarchs and Prophets, Jesus and his Apostles, upon Joseph
and Brigham, and his brethren; for you never can become one unless you
obtain that Spirit of oneness.
You have heard brother Brigham preach it here time and time again, and
other men, that a scattering spirit was not the Spirit of God; and I
know it is not. A spirit in a man's family that don't gather with him
and act with him—is that the same kind of a spirit he possesses? No;
it is the spirit of evil, and one that will lead a man or woman to
death and destruction; and they cannot prosper who encourage it.
What course shall we take? The course we are taught and directed from
time to time, by the revelations we have received that pertain to us,
and by the teachings of the servants of God; and that will make us
one.
Perhaps there may be some here who believe in Joseph Smith as a
Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and not in Brigham; but if you believe
Joseph, it is all I ask of you. Don't that book say there shall be a
famine and sickness, death and destruction among the nations? And
don't it say it shall begin here, or at the house of God, first? Say
you, "That was in Kirtland." Well, Kirtland is here. Another says,
"That was in Nauvoo." I want to know if the Nauvoo Legion is not here,
with all its officers? The kingdom is here, the empire of God is here,
and everything pertaining to this kingdom.
The Lord may say to brother Brigham, I want you to go to San
Bernardino and take this people. I want to know if Kirtland, Nauvoo,
Great Salt Lake City, &c., are not there? If our Governor sits at one
corner, or on one side, or under the table, that is the head.
It is so; Kirtland is here, Nauvoo and Winter Quarters are here, and
the Nauvoo Legion is here: it certainly is, and they are going to
train tomorrow, with all our officers. Brother Daniel is our
Lieutenants-General, and brother Brigham is Governor still, and I am
Lieutenant-Governor, and I am Daniel's Lieutenant-General. We have all
got generalship about us, don't you see? And if we live faithfully, we
shall have worlds without end; and we never shall cease our operations
in this earth, nor in heaven; and if we do not whip out hell before we
get through, it is because there is none. Find me a place where hell
is, and we will root it out. Is hell always going to be on this earth?
No; we'll tumble it overboard, or else it shall go on another earth,
or we will throw it out of the back window.
In a pottery establishment, their broken jugs, churns, teapots, all
the ware that has been glazed, and burnished, and made fit for
burning, but have cracked in the burning, and broke to pieces, they
throw through the back windows: they do not go into the mill again,
but are thrown upon a heap to return again to their native element, or
to be used for such purposes as they may serve, and they do not
decompose very quick. The potter takes such broken ware and crushes it
under a large stone wheel, mixes the coarse powder with a little clay,
and makes it into what they call sagers, which are in the shape of a
half-a-bushel with a bottom. These serve for a protection to the finer
articles of ware in the operation of burning; these sagers are filled
with fine ware, and piled one on the top of another in the furnace.
Why do they make the sagers of that material? Because, if they should
make them of close, raw clay, they would crack; the fire would get
through them and defile the ware inside. They take these broken
dishonored vessels for this purpose, because they are porous and good
for nothing else; they are made as vessels of wrath fitted for
destruction.
God makes use of them as sagers to defend the better material in the
time of burning and trial by fire. God used Pharaoh upon the same
principle: he was a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction. Did God
fit him for destruction? No; no more than I would make a vessel to be
destroyed. I never made one on that principle; but when I made
vessels, it was to honor.
Did I go to England and preach the Gospel, win souls, and bring them
here, to deny the faith, and go to hell? No. We go to win souls that
we may save them and have joy with them in the day of eternity. I did
not go to England for your money, or your goods, or fine things: if I
went there for that purpose, I was disappointed. [Voice, "I guess you
were." ] I guess I was, and brother Brigham was, when I had to borrow
money to pay our passage across the sea. I never went there for that,
but some have. But what of that?
There are a great many people in the world that God ordained to give
them their endowment, and they become vessels of wrath, fitted for
destruction. Have we not labored years here, and toiled to give you
our blessings, and endowments, and anointings, and then sealed you up,
and this, and that, and the other? Do you see them turn away? Did we
make them so? We gave them all their blessings as much as we have
given you yours; and they have be come vessels of wrath, they
are fitting for destruction, and they will go and do the work of God,
and He will bring about His purposes by them, and they will be
destroyed, they will be used for sagers for a while, and answer as a
shield—a protector to the house of Israel.
Now you say I believe in the principle of election. I do; I believe
everything that is right. Everybody is elected that will be elected,
and then honor their calling and priesthood, and obtain the blessings
and promises; and if they be faithful to the end of their days, they
will be saved—everyone of them. That is as far as I believe in
election; and there are some elected to be damned. Why? Because they
have taken a course to be damned, and they go to that fountain where
they belong, and from whence they have drawn the evil principles that
have changed them into vessels of wrath. That restores everything to
its place.
Why must they go to that place—to the fountain of destruction? Because
they have received those elements; and they have to go to that
fountain to carry them back, or they carry you back with them because
they predominate in you. That is my way of restoration.
If I gather good, virtuous, holy, pure, and undefiled principles, and
have always been true and faithful to my brethren and to my God, these
principles predominate in me and bring me to the fountain from whence
they emanated.
Now, how can you help yourselves? You cannot. If I keep the
commandments of God, I cannot be turned away from the true path, and
so continue to the day of my death. I shall go into the celestial
kingdom of our God, while those who take the opposite course will be
damned and go to hell, where they belong.
If you want the spirit of the Pro phets—the spirit that brother Brigham
has got, which is the spirit of Joseph (and Joseph had the spirit of
Peter, from whence he received the Priesthood), you must live your
religion. Do you not see it is a line running, drawn from the Father
to the Son, and from the Son to the Apostles, then to Joseph, then to
brother Brigham, and then to those that are connected with him in
their callings?
As I told brother Franklin the other day, I hit him a crack on the
stand. Some have an idea that I have no business to speak. If I have
not, I will tell you I have a right to give you a crack over the head,
and then the head will talk to you. Since I hit brother Franklin over
the head, then the head began to talk with him; and, says he, I will
never hit you a crack with my right arm if you do right. I have a
right to correct you, because I have the spirit of brother Brigham, or
else I should never have done it.
You will admit I am his right arm. Is it the head that strikes? No;
says he, You fellow, you give him a crack, and perhaps that will bring
him to his senses; then I will talk to him. And what hurt did it do?
It did hundreds of men good that were as faulty in some things as he
was in that: it waked them up.
I will profit by the lash you got on your back, brother Franklin; and
I will be cautious to do right. I did not get it on mine. Do I think
any less of him? Not one particle. I love him better, because he
received it and bowed under it as humble as a little child. Whom do I
think less of? Those persons who will not receive a chastisement when
they are guilty, but will justify themselves in their sins. I do not
receive the spirit that is in them, because it is a spirit of evil.
Did I ever? No.
I can remember an instance or two where I did wrong; but did I humble myself? Yes, like a little child; and it seemed as though I
never could get over it. Said I, "I am sorry brother Brigham; won't you
forget it and let it pass?" I could have wept my eyes out, and melted
into tears my whole body. Did brother Brigham despise me for it? No,
he loved me better. I do not want to give him occasion to chastise me;
but if I do, what course shall I take? Shall I get up here to justify
myself? No; the Lord God Almighty help me from ever doing such a thing
as that. When I am guilty, I am guilty. Supposing I don't know it—if
he says it, that is enough.
There is nothing that will lead to damnation and destruction quicker
than self-justification when you are guilty of sin. As brother Orson
said last Sunday, it is the first step to apostasy. Those men or women
who will justify themselves in sin, and persist in that course, will
deny this Gospel, and will go overboard. Were they one with Israel?
No. Were they one with God's anointed? No. Were they one with their
husbands? No. Were they one with the principle to which they were
connected in the Gospel? No.
These are my views; they are the views of my brethren, and the views
of Jesus; for he says, except we are one, we are not his. We should be
one, like a large tree.
Some say they have tasted of the fruit of the tree of life. I have
been talking about it: that tree is light, and light is life; the
fruit is the element of the tree of life; and, except every man and
woman on the earth become grafted into it, and into Christ, they will
be lost.
You read about the tree of life: it says there are twelve manner of
fruit on it. Some will say it means the twelve tribes of Israel. Admit
this; they are grafted in; and then we will admit that we are their
children, and that we belong to one of those tribes. If we are not
grafted into the limbs of this tree according to our place, we shall
be lost.
I do not care which way you take it, it is just as long one way as the
other. We belong to some of those families you must admit; and I
suppose all belong to the house of Israel; some of the blood of
Ephraim, and some of Joseph, some of one, and some of another. Because
we belong to the house of Israel, is it going to save us? No. Because
we have been cut off in our fathers; and we have got to be grafted in;
for God said he did not acknowledge any covenants when this Church
commenced; all old covenants were done away. Enter into the strait
gate, therefore; and don't you counsel me. Don't counsel brother
Brigham. You can come to him for counsel; so can I; but I do not
undertake to chastise him, nor to justify myself; but, say I, "Brother
Brigham, I pray of thee, I entreat of thee, I beseech of thee to do
this or that." Brother Daniel cannot chastise me without I am out of my
place, any more than I can brother Brigham.
I entreat of my father to give me a piece of bread and butter, for I
am hungry; that is the course for me to take; that is the course for
the Twelve, the Seventies, High Priests, Bishops, Elders, &c., to
take; and that is the course, ladies, for you to take with your
husbands, and the course your children ought to take towards their
parents,
Would not that make us one? There is no other principle that will make
us one, only to be amenable to where we belong; and every person who
refuses to be will go to destruction—I do not care whether they are
men or women—and you cannot help yourselves. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball