I have a great many things on my mind constantly, by night and by day,
in regard to this people, ourselves I mean, here in these valleys of
the mountains.
I was lately looking in the Book of Mormon, and I thought that a
portion of the Book of Helaman, from nearly the 420th page (second
European edition) to the end of the 4th chapter, would apply very well
to this people, and if they would appreciate it rightly, it would be
what I should call a very great sermon. [It was read to the
congregation in the afternoon, by brother Leo Hawkins.]
It treats upon the conduct of the people when they were blest. They
were led into a land away from their enemies, and the Lord blest them
exceedingly; yet the only way that He could keep them within due and
proper bounds, so that they would live their religion, so that they
would be humble before their Maker and their God, was to let
afflictions come upon them.
The Lord, through the Prophet, relates that He had withheld their
enemies from them by softening their hearts from day to day, so that
they would not go up to war against the people of God; and that He had
multiplied blessings upon them, insomuch that they became exceedingly
rich in fine clothing, jewelry, raiment, and everything that heart
could wish.
God poured out His blessings upon them, and as quick as they began to
prosper, and to increase in property, they were raised up in the pride
of their hearts, forgot their God, their prayers, and the
covenants they had made with and before their God. And when we read
the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we are led to contrast the
proceedings of the former-day Saints on this continent with the
travels and course of this people; and to reflect that many of us have
been rooted up and driven some five or six times, and that last of all
we are driven here into the Valleys of the Mountains, a thousand miles
from everybody, where God has let us come to worship Him, to carry
out His designs, to establish His ordinances, and to qualify a people
that they may obtain a celestial glory.
Are not this people running into pride? Are they not filled with
discord, contention, broils, and animosity? Have they not forgotten
their God and their covenants? Do they hold their covenants sacred,
those they made when they received their endowments, when they
covenanted not to speak evil of one another, nor of the Lord's
anointed, nor of those that lead them? Did they not make all these
covenants? Have they not broken them, or many of them?
Do you suppose that God would have spoken to you through brother
Brigham as He did last Sunday, if all was right, if you were all
living your religion? No, it would have been another tune that would
have been sung or played, and it would have given you credit. But that
sermon was good to me; and God knows that I never heard a better one
since I was born, considering the occasion and the circumstances in
which this people stand before their God.
This will not apply to all, but it will apply pretty generally, more
or less. We have got to take a different course, and it must needs be
that this people repent of their sins and do their first works over,
or God will remove their candlestick out of its place.
When our President, our Leader, our Prophet, speaks unto us from week
to week, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, do his teachings reach our
hearts? Do the people hear? Do the people understand? If they do, they
are not all careful to practice.
I have told you, a great many times, that the word of our Leader and
Prophet is the word of God to this people, and you play with those
words, and you neglect them. You neglect the voice and word of God,
and it will fall upon you in a way that you never expected, and you do
not expect it now. But there is yet a chance for us to redeem
ourselves; and there is a great deal more necessity for us to redeem
ourselves, than there is for us to redeem the dead, for the dead they
are dead, and you cannot help it; but we are living and can help
ourselves, and I suppose God helps those who help themselves.
Let us rise up as a people and turn unto the Lord our God with full
purpose of heart, and, peradventure, our sins may be remitted and
forgiven, and blotted out. This is what the Lord has placed men to
lead you for. You cannot see God, you cannot behold Him and hold
converse with Him, as one man does with another; but He has given us a
man that we can talk to and thereby know His will, just as well as if
God Himself were present.
Am I afraid to risk my salvation in the hands of the man that is
appointed to lead me, and to lead this people? No, no more than I am
to trust myself in the hands of the Almighty. He will lead me right,
if I do as He says in every particular, in every circumstance, in
poverty, in riches, in sickness, and in death. That is the course for
me take; and if that is the course for me to take, it is the course
for brother Grant to take, and for the Twelve Apostles, for the
Seventies, for the High Priests, for the Elders, and for every person
in the Church and Kingdom of God. We should be like the clay in
the hands of the potter. Bless your souls, that is just as true a
figure as can be presented before a people, if they ever saw a potter
work; but if they never saw one work, they do not know what course he
takes, any more than a person knows about a mill that never saw one.
Well, this is the course for us to take, to be like clay in the hands
of the potter. Who is the potter? God our Father is the great potter,
the head potter, and brother Brigham is one of His servants, to
preside over this pottery here in the flesh; and his word is the word
of God to this people, and to those that he has called to assist him
in this great work.
These are my feelings, and a part of what I was meditating and
reflecting upon, as also upon how much we are blest. I know that there
are several going away, and that they say that this is a hard country.
Let the people that have come from Denmark turn round and go back to
where they came from, and then they will say that this land is a
perfect Eden, and this place a perfect palace, when compared to the
land they lived in before they came here. They come here as hearty and
as robust as our mountain sheep, or elk, or the buffalo, and why is it
so? Because they have always worked from the days of their youth; they
are the chaps. We want those men that have been raised in the
mountains, and that have learned to be obedient from the days of their
youth. They are the Saints that the men of God want. I love to see
them come here under their own flag, the Danish flag, for the standard
is raised, and they may come with their own banners, and bow to king
Immanuel.
What is required of us, now that we have run into a snare? We should
be willing to come out of the forbidden path, and turn unto the Lord
with full purpose of heart. Here are hundreds of people that desire
their endowments, as soon as they can get them. I would not give them
their endowments to almost the last we took through, until they
repented and were baptized. We have taken hundreds through, when they
ought to have previously done their first works over.
I offer these few remarks that you may reflect upon them, and know
when you are guilty. When a man has done wrong he knows it; and when
he is breaking his covenants he knows it, and those persons are under
condemnation, and it need be that they repent. I am willing to repent
of my sins. I repent every day of my life, and I humble myself before
my God and acknowledge my sins, both in private and in public. And I
take a course to be industrious and I do as I am told, and I do not
care what that is, for I know it will be right. If I were told to
build a house that would include this whole city, I would go at it. It
might make me groan a little, but I would go at it, don't you believe
I would? I tell you I would, though it broke my neck, or cut my throat
and chopped me into mince meat. I will stand by the kingdom, and by
the Prophets and Apostles, and by all that stand up for the kingdom of
our God. I am their friend, and hands off from those men, if you do
not want to take Jesse. These are my feelings, and may God bless you,
and may peace be multiplied unto you. Amen.
[The following is that part of the Book of Mormon alluded to by
President Kimball.]
"And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the
hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his
great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their
trust in him. Yea, and we may see at the very time when He doth
prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their
flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner
of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and
delivering them out of the hands of their enemies: softening the
hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against
them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness
of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts,
and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the
Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceeding
great prosperity. And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten
his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with
death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of
pestilence, they will not remember him. O how foolish, and how vain,
and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow
to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto
the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain
things of the world! Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how
quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how
slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his
counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom's paths! Behold, they do not
desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and
reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy
towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not
that he should be their guide. O how great is the nothingness of the
children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.
For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the
dividing asunder, at the command of our great and ever lasting God.
Yea, behold at his voice doth the hills and the mountains tremble and
quake. And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become
smooth, yea, even like unto a valley. Yea, by the power of his voice
doth the whole earth shake; Yea, by the power of his voice, do the
foundations rock, even to the very center. Yea, and if he say unto the
earth—Move—it is moved. Yea, if he say unto the earth—Thou shalt go
back, that it lengthen out the day for many hours—it is done; And
thus, according to his word the earth goeth back, and it appeareth
unto man that the sun standeth still; yea, and behold, this is so; for
surely it is the earth that moveth and not the sun. And behold, also,
if he say unto the waters of the great deep—Be thou dried up—it is
done. Behold, if he say unto this mountain—Be thou raised up, and
come over and fall upon that city, that it be buried up—behold it is
done. And behold, if a man hide up a treasure in the earth, and the
Lord shall say—Let it be accursed, because of the iniquity of him who
hath hid it up—behold, it shall be accursed. And if the Lord shall
say—Be thou accursed, that no man shall find thee from this time
henceforth and forever—behold, no man getteth it henceforth and
forever. And behold, if the Lord shall say unto a man—Because of thine
iniquities, thou shalt be accursed forever—it shall be done. And if
the Lord shall say—Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off
from my presence—he will cause that it shall be so. And wo unto him
to whom he shall say this, for it shall be unto him that will do
iniquity, and he cannot be saved; therefore, for this cause, that men
might be saved, hath repentance been declared. Therefore, blessed are
they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their
God; for these are they that shall be saved. And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and
good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace,
according to their works. And I would that all men might be saved. But
we read that in that great and last day there are some who shall be
cast out, yea, who shall be cast off from the presence of the Lord;
Yea, who shall be consigned to a state of endless misery, fulfilling
the words which say: They that have done good, shall have everlasting
life; and they that have done evil, shall have everlasting damnation.
And thus it is. Amen."
- Heber C. Kimball