We have had some most excellent instructions from brother Wells; and
inasmuch as this people take heed and then practice them, we, of all
people now upon the face of this earth, or that ever were upon the
earth, are the greatest and most blessed, or shall be. As he said, it
is for each of us to live our religion individually. I cannot live
your religion; I cannot perform your services; I cannot pray—that is,
I cannot perform your prayers. I can pray for you, but I cannot
perform your duties: it is impossible for me to do that. It is just as
impossible for me to do that as to go to your separate houses—say some
three or four thousand houses, and get your breakfasts for you, and
attend to other domestic duties that you should perform each one for
yourselves, individually and collectively. Do you not see that that
would cause me to be much more active than any man could be in the
flesh?
I merely bring this up as an illustration. I cannot live your religion
anymore than I can go to your houses and get your breakfasts and then
eat them for you. One of those things is just as nonsensical to me as
the other. I merely bring that up as a comparison, and not for the
purpose of creating laughter or levity. The reason I am led to refer
to some of the most simple ideas is, that I may be able to come at the
capacity of the most simple person, and then I am sure that all above
that can understand.
We are here in the mountains a thousand miles from the Christian
world—that is, the portion of the Christian world that we have come
from, even the United States. I suppose there are as many as one or
two hundred, and perhaps three hundred different Christian
denominations; and every one of them differs, and every one of them is
at variance one with the other; and every one of them, although they
are at variance with one another, were all agreed in killing or in
consenting to the death of Joseph Smith, either directly or
indirectly.
I do not suppose there are any of the clergy of the present day,
though there may be a few score, but what rejoiced the moment they
heard that Joseph Smith's blood was shed. "Thank God," said they,
"that we are liberated from that impostor, Joe Smith, who has caused
us so much trouble and alarm." Thank God, I say, that we are
delivered from that Christian nation. Deliver me from their
Christianity and from them.
It is the priests of the day who incite the people to anger against
us, and the men that stand in authority are tied up in their feelings
on account of the priests of the day; and of all the ungodly beings
that God ever made, the priests of the present day are the
most ungodly, and I know it; and they are the mainspring of all the
mischief pertaining to this earth, as they are under the influence of
the Devil; and, secondly, the editors, lawyers, and doctors, as they
are under the influence of the priests. Thank the Lord God that we are
a thousand miles from any of them and all of them. They cannot get
here with steamboats, nor with ships, nor with railroads, nor with
lightning rods: but we have a lightning rod or electric power that
gives us intelligence. Our President knows their acts, and he can
foresee future things, and he knows their evil designs; and he will
have greater foreknowledge from this time forth, if this people will
concentrate their faith and exertions; and if they do not, he will;
and he will forestall and thwart them, and they can never trouble us
to any great effect. Why? Because we are calculating to do right.
Am I not thankful that we are here in the tops of the mountains, a
thousand miles from everybody, right in the center of America, in the
chambers of the Lord? And God has led us here. They have killed
Joseph, Hyrum, David, and Parley, four of the Prophets and Apostles;
and they have killed and destroyed thousands of men, women, and
children; and they have rejoiced at it—they have exulted at it—the
priests in the pulpit and the whole nation. Well, who cares? I will
tell you one thing, brethren: If this people will live and do as they
are told, I do not care what course they take—I do not care how many
ditches they dig, nor how many snares they lay—as the Lord God
liveth, our enemies shall fall into the snares they prepare for us.
[The congregation responded—"Amen."]
And it shall be visible to this people—as visible to them as it is
that the sun ever sets out of our sight or ever rises again, or that
water runs or grass grows; and they shall be a standing miracle before
this people, from this time forth.
Now, I will prove these things upon natural principles. This kingdom,
this Church, this people are his servants. Our Governor is God's
servant, and he will stand, and we never shall be ruled over by any of
them again—never, no never, while we live faithful and keep the
commandments of God and do as we are told, every man, woman, and
child.
Arise and shine, for the light and glory of God is on you, if you will
accept of it. It is upon us, and it is with us, and it is around us,
and it is about us. What shall we do? Sit down now and begin to cry,
this man saying—"I have got no hat, no cap, no pantaloons, no shirt,
nor garments?" Sit down and cry about it, will you? Sit down and cry
about it, sister, because you have not a dress nor bonnet, and many
other things? Sit down and cry about it!
If you had taken a judicious course with your cotton yarn, and,
instead of making rag carpets, had made some shirts and garments, it
would have been to your interest; and if, instead of putting your wool
into carpets, you had put it into dresses and blankets, it would have
been to your interest. You have used much of your yarn in making
carpets, and I would not give shucks for the whole of them.
I can tell you how to make a skirt or a quilt. You know you all have
to have a bed quilt, puckered up into a quilt. Take your rags—the
little square pieces, oblong pieces, and all other kinds of shapes,
and sew them together until you get enough to make both sides, the
same as you would a quilt, and then take the cotton that was in the
old one and put it into the new one, instead of throwing it away. Would it not look well? I will tell you it would look like
Joseph's coat.
You need not laugh about it: it was no dishonor to him. They put it
on him, thinking, probably, that it was a disgrace to him; but it was
not: it was only fulfilling the word which was predicted of him. Would
it be a disgrace to you? No. That woman who will take that course
honors herself, her husband, and this people, and sets an example
that is worthy of imitation.
Take those pieces and keep at work until you make a full garment of
them, and then let us go to work as a people, as far as we have it in
our power, and raise sheep, instead of killing and destroying them.
Raise flax. I have not heard much of this flax raising. There has been
a great deal of flax raised to procure seed to make linseed oil, but
there has been none made; and there is, if it has not been disposed
of, some three or four hundred bushels of flax seed in the Tithing
Store. I have never heard of much being raised for any other purpose
but for the seed. Perhaps some persons have dressed a little, but I
have not heard much about it.
Brother Lorin Farr came up to see me a few evenings ago, and he said
he had raised a crop of flax. It was not thought to be much; but he
went to work with his men and gathered it and rotted it, and he has
dressed it, and has got over one hundred pounds of beautiful flax, as
good flax as he ever saw in the States, and good lint on it, better
than he ever knew there.
How much will that hundred pounds of flax make when dressed? It will
make about 125 yards of good cloth. A pound will make more than a
yard.
After the flax is dressed and swingled, a woman takes it and hetchels
it, and takes out the coarsest of the tow; then she hetchels it again,
and gets another quality, not quite so coarse; then she hetchels it
the third time, and that is fine. She will take that and make fine,
beautiful linen, nice enough for any man to wear for the bosom of his
shirt; and the rest she makes into tablecloths, towels, shirts, and
good dresses, handsome enough for any lady.
When I married my wife, she was a spinner of both wool and flax, and
wore woolen dresses for winter and linen for summer, and never put on
a calico dress except to go to meeting, nor fine shoes. She would wear
her coarse shoes until she got to the meetinghouse, and then she
would change her shoes.
You may laugh at it, but I have seen it hundreds of times with as good
women as you have got and as good women as ever lived. That is novel
to a great many people, but I have seen these things.
I am telling some of these simple things, if you have a mind to call
them so; or you may call them simple things that are seen in the
latter days, that no person knows anything about—mysteries. That is a
mystery that I have seen with my own eyes, and so have many who are in
this congregation.
Women would come from Victor, a distance of three miles, to the town
of Mendon, New York, where I lived; and I have seen them walk
barefooted, until they came near where I lived, and then they would
put on their white stockings and shoes to go into meeting; and when
they came out of meeting and had passed off a little out of sight,
they would pull off their shoes and stockings and go home barefooted,
for the purpose of saving their fine shoes and the stockings which
they had spun and knit out of flax. I am telling what I have seen and
what I know.
A good many women are now in this Church who were brought up in that
manner, and never were allowed to go to extravagance as people
do now in many things.
Take a course to accumulate; return back, in regard to these matters,
as it was in the beginning of our lives, to make our own clothing, our
own shoes, and our own leather, and raise our own peaches and apples,
cattle and horses, and everything else.
Now, do I not take a course to do this? I have not raised any flax
yet, but I am going to try it the coming year, if I can find a man who
understands it. Perhaps my gardener knows how to break flax; and I
have three wives who know how to spin it, and they can teach the rest.
I am going to have a home manufacturing school in my family, and I am
going to take those who understand this branch of business to teach
the rest; and if there is one that is a dressmaker I will have her
teach the rest to make their own dresses, knit their own stockings,
and make their own caps and bonnets, and make the clothes for their
own children, and let the beauty thereof be the workmanship of their
own hand, according to the design God gave us; and if we take that
course as a people, we are blessed above all other people upon the
earth, and we shall eventually be a free people, an independent
people.
I will tell you the day of our separation has come, and we are a free
and an independent people, isolated a thousand miles from the
Christian nation; and thanks be to our God forever. And we are the
people of God, and this is the dwelling of King Emanuel, in these
mountains, and he will gather all nations unto us—those that will be
gathered; and those who will not, he will compel them.
The day has come when the people have got to bow the knee to God and
pay tribute to him, every man and woman on this earth.
In regard to these matters, we should commence at home in our own
families, by our own firesides. Let the improvement commence there,
and then increase. It will not be long before we shall all be
amalgamated into one spirit. These are my feelings.
Brother Hunter, our presiding Bishop, has to deal with these
matters—home manufactures; for, in reality, it pertains to the calling
of Bishops to deal in temporal affairs, to enable us to become an
independent nation.
I am satisfied that we shall have a good season for crops the coming
year, if we are faithful. But it will depend on our goodness,
faithfulness, and oneness. I have told you a great many times that our
faithfulness and goodness and oneness would have an effect upon the
crops. It will have an effect upon our stock, and upon the earth, the
air, the mountains, the valleys; and that is not all: it will extend
to the uttermost parts of the earth. There is not a branch that
belongs to this kingdom but will feel the power. I know that by
experience, by knowledge, and by intelligence.
You cannot now find an Elder among the nations, even one who is in the
uttermost parts of the earth, if he could speak, but what would say,
"Brother Brigham, do you want me to come home?" He has not received
the word directly from him, and will stick and hang until he gets the
word; but he feels as though he wanted to come home. They feel it to
the ends of the earth.
How does the earth feel, when righteous men and women are walking upon
it, ploughing it, hoeing it, watering it, blessing it! I will tell you
the earth feels it, and every part of the earth that is attached to
it. It has power in it. Let us go to work and be an independent
people.
Am I glad that that mountain is between us and the merchants? Yes, I
am glad of it; for as long as we can get those stores to come
in here, we shall buy those rotten goods.
I will tell you some facts. If these things that I have told you are
facts, I will tell some more. I have, in this valley, bought
individuals of my own family a dress every month in the year, and at
the last winding-up scene they told me they had not a dress that was
fit to wear. They would not last hardly as long as you were making
them, the things we buy in the stores are so rotten. They have rotted
on the shelves, and they have bought them for about one-quarter their
worth, and put a price on them that should have been if they had been
good articles. I know it by my own experience.
How long will a good linen dress last you? Did any of you ever wear
one? We never saw anything else, much, worn in the country, in the
summer season, in a farming country. I never had a broadcloth garment,
that I recollect, till after I became a member of this Church. I wore
woolen homemade in the winter, of our own make, that my mother and
sister spun; and in the summer I wore tow pantaloons and a tow frock.
I remember very well when I had the first fine shirt. I went and
bought six yards to make me two shirts, just previous to my getting me
a wife, and my sister Abigail made it up. Take a good linen dress, and
it will last a good and a careful woman two years, if not three; and
then you may take a good woolen dress and put it upon a good woman,
an honest woman, a clean woman, and a careful woman, and it will last
her five years—I mean in the season of it. I presume there are
hundreds of women here that would rise up and say, "That's a fact."
Well, as brother Lorenzo was speaking last Sunday (I put it into his
mouth when he was talking about brother Brigham's family and mine), I
do not believe there are many families in these valleys that are more
industrious at home than our families are. Take them in general, I do
not believe there are any families in these mountains that make as
many yards of homespun as they do. Our women have got, almost
universally, two good woolen dresses apiece. I know that those two
woolen dresses will wear out thirty calico dresses such as we buy
here.
Just see what brother Brigham's family has done. I am going to talk
about our families. They have got good dresses which we have purchased
for them. Is it right for them to wear them? Yes; they are just as
worthy to wear them as any other women in this town. I say, Wear them
out. Wear your bonnets and everything else, and make them last just as
long as you can, and take good care of your domestic things, flannel,
and everything else.
In our city there are a great many poor women—I am aware of that; and
they will be eternally poor, for they waste everything they can get
hold of; and they are nasty and filthy, for I see them dragging their
dresses behind them; and though they are so poor that they cannot get
up in the morning and wash their faces and hands before breakfast, yet
they have got about eighteen or twenty inches of their dresses
dragging in the mud. Now, you look, when you go out of this meeting,
and see if you do not see several of them.
I am now talking about home manufactures. But if that is home
manufacturing, I do not want that part. I am going to get rid of that.
I cannot believe in it. I was speaking to a lady, the other day, about
long dresses; and said she, "That's the fashion Queen Victoria
established."
Said I, What has Queen Victoria to do over here? She had better get
religion before she comes to set an example for our ladies, dragging
their dresses in the mud. Well, they said she established it
because she had such a big, squatty foot. You make a great deal worse
squat than she does, dragging your clothes through the mud. Brother
Lorenzo spoke of it, and I told him it belonged to the Bishop. It was
his duty to lecture on this point.
My advice to you is, when you go home, tuck up that dress or cut it
off.
I remarked to brother Lorenzo, a few days ago, when it was
tremendously muddy, and a woman was walking through the mud, with her
dress whopping over, and then stretching out, and then whopping over
on the other side. You follow that woman home, and you will find that
she has muddied her foot clear up to her legs. I am talking about the
ridiculousness of such things; and if I can get you so ashamed that
you will not come to meeting again with such long dresses, I shall be
glad.
I can recollect, when I was a young man, I used to go with the ladies;
and when they came to a mudhole, they would catch up their dresses
and trip over. I like to see it. Say I, That is a decent woman; she is
nice and clean.
Let us go to work and do as we are told. I will do it, as the Lord
helps me. I shall go to with my might and begin to accumulate my own
living, by the help of the Lord God and my brethren. And will this
whole people do likewise, raise their own grain, their potatoes, and
build good houses, and make themselves comfortable?
We shall live in peace, if we will only do right and take this course.
And if we do not take it and have to go into the mountains, we have
got to make our own clothing. I can take a little wheel on my back and
a bundle of flax under my arms, and we can drive our sheep into the
mountains, and my women can get into a tent and go to spinning. How
nice that would look—sitting in the door of the tent, spinning. It
would look a great deal better than it does to see them taking a
course to bring distress upon this people, depending on the world for
their rotten stuffs.
God bless you, brethren. God bless you, sisters, and make you happy
and comfortable in your habitations, and your habitations all little
heavens, and be in heaven at home and abroad; and let everyone be
diligent in doing good. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball