I feel first-rate. I can say one thing for a surety, and that is, that
God is on our side, and that he does hear prayers. He hears mine; that
is, I suppose I pray for the thing that others pray for, and it comes
to pass; and I think he hears my prayers, and it is just as well as
any other way, if it is answered.
I just as well know that what brother Brigham has said to you today
is ours and will be ours forever, just as well as you know that I am
in this stand today before you.
I will tell you how I pray. I ask my Father and my God, in the name of
his Son Jesus Christ, Father, will you speak to brother Brigham—will you speak to our leader—will you speak to my President—will
you dictate him just as you would dictate matters if you were here in
the flesh? That is my prayer, and that should be the prayer of this
whole people; and I just know, from this time henceforth, if he lives
a hundred years, he never will be led to do a thing except the very
thing God would do himself, if he was here. I just know it, brethren.
You all understand, naturally, that the food that you partake of goes
into the head first, and then passes through to the extremity of every
limb to every fiber and to every member of that body, does it not?
Well, then, do you not see that everything must first be received by
the head, and that there is where God will communicate? And when he
communicates to the head, if you are all members of that body and
connected with that head, like the limbs of a tree, how can you help
partaking of that same Spirit, the same knowledge with the head? You
cannot help it. He cannot be a person of much sense that cannot
believe this.
These are my feelings. I want to point your minds to it; and when our
President—our leader wants a man to do anything, God will go with that
man, even as he is with brother Daniel H. Wells; he will attend to the
business that pertains to the mountains, and he is almighty in the
place in which he is authorized and appointed to act, and so is every
other man. If he will go there and honor that calling, God will honor
him, and he will honor every man who will honor him. God never will
honor you except you honor the Priesthood and pay due respect to it
and to every commanding officer in the Church and the kingdom of God.
If this people will do as they are told from this day, I will eat
peaches, apples, plums, and the products of these valleys in Great
Salt Lake City till we go to Jackson County, and I know it. [President
Young, "I believe it." ] Brethren, I am telling the truth, and I am
telling it as it is in the bosom of our God and of our leaders. It is
the first time we ever eat peaches—that is, of our own raising, since
we came into this Church; and it is the first time we ever eat apples;
and it is the first time we ever were a free people.
Now we are living under the blessings the Prophets foretold. They said
the time would come when we would sit under our own vine and fig
trees, and our own peach trees and apple trees, and would eat; and
that we should build, and another should not inhabit.
Brethren, our enemies never will inhabit these valleys if we do just
as we are told from this time forth; and we will inhabit these valleys
and will have power and victory over our enemies from this time
henceforth and forever. Good heavens! I cannot live your religion: I
can only live for myself. Every man, every woman, and every child must
live the religion of Jesus Christ, and the religion you are taught by
your leaders, according as you are dictated. Do you not see it? You
have got to do it.
Can I live the religion for my wife and my children? I cannot. But if
they will take my counsel, I will lead them just as brother Brigham
leads me, and as God leads him; and we will go right into heaven, just
like taking the head of a vine and drawing it right into our Father's
kingdom: every branch goes with it that sticks to the vine, with the
fruit thereof that cleaves to the branches.
Do I feel well? I never felt better in my life. I felt pretty well in
Nauvoo, at the time brother Brigham was speaking of; though I did
regret—perhaps I did wrong—but I did regret that peace was proclaimed
so quick; for I tell you there were about one or two score of
men I wanted to see under the sod; then I was willing to make peace:
but I had to, as it was. We have made peace a great many times, and
the United States have taken a course to make us do as they wished us;
but let me tell you that day is past and gone, and we will now
proclaim the course they will have to take; and they will have to make
peace with us, and we never shall make peace with them again. Brother
Brigham will designate the course they have got to take; and if they
come here, they have got to give up their arms: they cannot come in
here with a gun on their shoulders, or a pistol in their belts.
War has commenced, and the Devil will never cease his operations upon
us; but if we live the religion of Jesus Christ, we are just as free
today as we ever shall be; and when it comes tomorrow, we are free
tomorrow; and we are free this year, and will be free next year, and
will be just as free twenty years from now as we are now, only a
little more so: we increase and advance as we live.
Well, we shall prosper, and we shall not burn up our houses; we shall
not cut down our orchards, nor throw down our walls, nor our barns;
and I am not going to stop building, because I just want to secure my
fruit; I want to secure it and take good care of it.
Am I discouraged? If this people do right, you will live forever and
prosper and aggrandize these valleys. Well, now, will you stop
increasing? When you stop increasing, that is the end of you; when you
stop multiplying, that is the end of you; when you stop improving,
that is the end of your improvements. Many persons, if they had a
peach pit or an apple seed, would not put them in now. I am going to
put in more now than I ever did, and raise them; and I will give them
to those that will take them and be choice of them and live their
religion. Those that will live the religion of Christ will have
orchards.
Well, these are my feelings. God is with us and with brother Brigham,
and he will lead him right from this time henceforth and forever.
God bless you! God bless the boys in the mountains, for they shall
live to let live; and the angel of life will be with them and with all
those that do the will of God and the will of those that lead. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball