I presume the brethren and sisters are not tired. [Voices: "No." ] You
have heard what has been said today by brother Brigham; and I want
you to understand most definitely that what he has said expresses my
present feelings, and also the feelings that I have had for some time.
I am aware that my words have not gone into every heart, You have
supposed that I was hard and rough in my remarks; but if I had
listened strictly to the Spirit of God, I should have been a great
deal rougher, and so would brother Brigham.
Well, what he has said today is God's truth. The time has past for us
to be abused and persecuted as we have been. We have been driven from
place to place, and hunted by our enemies long enough. We have been
broken up five times by our enemies.
7 "And again, verily I say unto you, if after thine enemy has come
upon thee the first time, he repent and come unto thee praying thy
forgiveness, thou shalt forgive him, and shall hold it no more as a
testimony against thine enemy—And so on unto the second and third
time; and as oft as thine enemy repenteth of the trespass wherewith he
has trespassed against thee, thou shalt forgive him, until seventy
times seven. And if he trespass against thee and repent not the first
time, nevertheless thou shalt forgive him. And if he trespass against
thee the second time, and repent not, nevertheless thou shalt
forgive him. And if he trespass against thee the third time, and
repent not, thou shalt also forgive him. But if he trespass against thee
the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him, but shall bring these
testimonies before the Lord; and they shall not be blotted out until
he repent and reward thee four-fold in all things wherewith he has
trespassed against thee. And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with
all thine heart; and if he do not this, I, the Lord, will avenge thee of
thine enemy an hundred-fold; And upon his children, and upon his
children's children of all them that hate me, unto the third and
fourth generation. But if the children shall repent, or the children's
children, and turn to the Lord their God, with all their hearts and
with all their might, mind, and strength, and restore four-fold for all
their trespasses wherewith they have trespassed, or wherewith
their fathers have trespassed, or their fathers' fathers, then thine
indignation shall be turned away; And vengeance shall no more come
upon them, saith the Lord thy God, and their trespasses shall never be
brought any more as a testimony before the Lord against them.
Amen." —[Book of Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxvi.]
I said last winter that I never would sit in another Legislative
Assembly under Uncle Sam again, except they behaved themselves; and I
say it now. It has been my feelings, for years and years, that the
time would come when we would not endure the abuses of bloodthirsty
enemies any longer; and I would ten thousand times rather go and live
in the mountains than to live here under oppression and unjust
government, such as United States' officials have sought to mete out
to us, the Saints of the Most High God.
I do not feel vain, but I feel to say, brethren and sisters, lay aside
your vanity and your feelings to exult: there will be a time when you
can exult and do it in righteousness and in mercy. There will also be
a day when you will be brought to the test—when your very hearts and
your inmost souls will melt within you because of the scenes that many
of you will witness. Yes, you will be brought to that test, when you
will feel as if everything within you would dissolve. Then will be
the time you will be tried whether you will stand the test or fall
away.
I have not a doubt but there will be hundreds who will leave us and go
away to our enemies. I wish they would go this fall: it might relieve
us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His
servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be
damned, and that too according to their covenants.
Brother Brigham would rather go to battle against the whole world with
three hundred men filled with the Holy Ghost, than to have the whole
of you, except you are united with us; and I am sure I would.
The day is to come when one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten
thousand to flight. When that day comes, the Lord will make the
enemies of His people flee as if there were thousands after them, when
there is only one; and that is the way that God will deal with our
enemies. The day of God Almighty is at hand, when He will show forth
His power, and when He will deliver His people from all their enemies.
Some who have been apostates for years past are beginning to come back
to us; and, inasmuch as they did not stand and be valiant for the
truth, we are now going to place them in the front ranks, and put them
to the test.
I stand in the name and in the strength of Israel's God, by the side
of my brother Brigham; for there is my place; and your place is to stand where you belong.
Let me say to all of you, Learn to be true and faithful; and, instead
of laying out your means for fine bonnets and fine shoes, and for
coffee and tea, my advice to you is, if you can get five or ten dollars,
go and buy a good blanket, a gun, or a sword. And we want you, ladies,
to provide yourselves with weapons, and with all that is necessary,
and be ready to defend yourselves; for you won't always have your
husbands to defend you.
I have often told you that you would look upon this day, and say it
was the best day you had ever seen.
I have received a good many letters from the several Bishops in the
country wards, stating that they have understood that we are working
by night and by day, giving endowments to those who are going out to
help the handcarts in. I want to tell you we are doing no such thing:
we are working one day in a week to keep the devil from getting
asleep.
I will say for the benefit of those who are going out on the Plains,
and who have not had their endowments, if they will live their
religion they shall be protected as much so as these who have had
them. When we went up to Missouri, 205 men, we had not had our
endowments; but we went to redeem Zion according to the word of the
Lord; and that was a preparatory work. And I will say to you that, if
you will live you religion while you are gone, when you come back you
shall have your endowments, and God shall bless you, while the man or
the woman who has received their endowments and does not magnify their
calling, will not be benefited at all by them, and they will only
tend to their condemnation.
The Lord bless every righteous Saint from this time henceforth and
forever. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball