You have all heard what has been said, and the design thereof has been
to show you your situation.
There is not much profit in all the teachings that are given from this
stand to a person who simply hears the sound and does not partake of
the spirit and intent of that instruction; but the profit is to the
man who heareth the word and observeth and receiveth the Spirit and
power of God.
I bear my testimony to what has been said today, for it is good; and
everyone that heareth and observeth what has been said by brother
Brigham, brother Woodruff, and brother Snow shall be blest; for it is
life to all who receive it, because truth is life.
If we treasure up those principles, and they adhere to us—that is, to
the fountain of life that is within us, how can there be otherwise
than a growing and increasing in the knowledge of God? It is upon the
same principle that wheat increases, and upon the same principle that
every kind of vegetation increases. How does wheat increase? It is
because the element or germ of life is in the wheat. If the germ was
not in each kernel, of course it would not increase.
If there is a fountain and the root of truth within us, then other
principles of truth will adhere to them and connect themselves to that
fountain that is within us. What will be the result in such a case?
The fruits of righteousness will appear. A man has got to have the
saving principles of life within him continually. If they do not dwell
in him, he is not in a saveable condition, for there is no way to save
a man only to plant within him the principles of life; for in the
absence of those principles, he is like salt that has lost its saving
power, and thenceforth is good for nothing.
You know that salt will not save meat when it has lost its saving
principles, and it is just so with us: when a man sins to that degree
that he rejects the truth and the principles of righteousness, he is
thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot
of men.
So it will be eventually in the United States. After the truth is all
gathered out, you will find that the rest will be destroyed. I do not
mean that the land will be destroyed, but I refer to the wicked
inhabitants, and the earth will be emptied, according to the words of
the Prophet. Why will this be so? Because there are no saving
principles there: the saving principles are with this Church, and
there is no salvation in the absence of those principles.
I dwell upon these things because I wish every man to listen to them,
and I want them to watch and nourish every word, and to cherish them
as you would a crop of wheat. Let nothing come in between you
and the word of God, and then you will do well and prosper.
I have got just such a wild notion in me, if you please to consider it
so, that I believe we can raise everything that is raised in every
other part of the earth. Why do I believe it? I believe it because I
have got the Priesthood: it has been given to me and to you, and we
are made saviors of men upon Mount Zion.
Well, then, if we have got the seed and principles of life within us,
upon the same principle that the earth imparts nourishment to
vegetation, we can impart life to others; and if we can save a man,
upon the same principle we can save a woman and everything that is
upon the earth. What do you go to work here for? I go to work to
produce vegetables, grain, and all things that I and my family need,
and I dictate my children, and show them a course for them to pursue.
We have dedicated this sacrament to the Father and to the Son, that
the saving principles of life may be in it, and that, in partaking of
it, we may become sanctified. We bless the water as well as the bread,
and ask God to sanctify it and fill it with life and the principles of
salvation. Do you not think that God can bless this land, so that we
can raise anything here, as easily as he can bless the bread and
water? Yes, he can. What makes me believe these things? It is because
the people generally do not believe them; and they show by their works
they do not. But I endeavor to prove by my works that I am a believer
in these very doctrines which I am teaching to you.
The individuals who believed that it was not possible to raise fruit
here have no currant bushes, no apple trees, no apricot trees, no
peach trees, no plum trees; in fact, they have not got any fruit trees
at all, from the fact that they did not believe that fruit could be
raised; and their works have shown their faith. They have got most
excellent faith, in their way, but it does not produce any fruit.
Those same individuals now believe that we can raise fruit up here in
brother Brigham's garden, and brother Heber's, and brother
Carrington's, and those men that live up here on the poorest land
there is in the valleys; and we certainly do produce some of the best
fruit that is produced in these mountains. I never saw better peaches
in my life, nor any larger ones, nor any that were more full of juice.
Do you think I have got any dried peaches? Yes, I have got enough to
last me two years, and I presume that brother Brigham has, and a great
many others. How were they produced? They were produced by our
actually going to work and raising the trees and nourishing and
cherishing them.
I will ask some of you mothers a question, and you that deal in
poultry. You know we have hens, and they lay eggs, and we have geese,
and turkeys, and all other kinds of fowls; but they might lay eggs
from now till doomsday, and if they did not keep those eggs warm, and
nourish them, they never would produce a chicken; no, never. Do not
you all understand that?
If you say you cannot raise fruit on that low land, I wish to say to
you that I know better. All the reason why they have not raised fruit
in the lower parts of the city is because they have not planted the
trees! Upon the same principle, the people of San Pete said they could
not raise fruit. It was because they never set out an apple tree, and
for several years they never planted a cucumber, a watermelon, nor a
squash, and of course they never raised one. I presume brother Snow
will bear testimony to this. Some said they had faith; but their faith never produced watermelons, squashes, cucumbers, nor
anything else. Now, works will produce faith, and works will produce
good trees and good fruit.
We dedicate and consecrate the wine or water that we partake of in the
sacrament, and we also dedicate the bread to the Lord; and it should
be just so with everything: it should all be dedicated to the Lord;
and upon all that we do and put our hands unto, we should ask his
blessings. We should never meddle with anything on this earth that we
cannot lay our hands upon and bless and dedicate and consecrate to the
Lord, that it may be for the accomplishment of what it is designed,
and produce the very effects that we desire.
I could talk about a great many simple things of this kind, but you
laugh. When I talk about such things as cucumbers and watermelons,
many laugh, and I hate to be laughed at when I am telling the honest
truth and speaking of the simple things of the kingdom of God.
Bless you, this world was made out of small things. I was small,
indeed, when I was in the loins of my father Adam; I must have been
very small, and so must you, for you were all there: but here I am, a
grown man, and, perhaps, nearly as large as Father Adam was. Perhaps I
am not so large: I may have become degenerated; but be that as it may,
I know that I am here.
Brethren, go and dedicate your gardens, and when you get a tree that
you want to set out, dedicate the ground, the root, and the elements
that you are going to place around it, and ask God to fill it with
warmth and with power to vegetate. Dedicate the seed that you are
going to put into the earth, and then dedicate the earth, and nourish
it when it springs forth, especially in a cold soil; and do not say
that it cannot be quickened, for I say it can. There can be substances
such as bones, ashes, lime, old hats, and old boots and shoes, and
everything that you can get into it will tend to quicken it; and why
will this be the case? Because you have asked God to bless it, and
because you have put works with your faith. By pursuing this course,
you can produce apples and peaches on the low as well as on the high
lands. Do I believe that the character and course of this people will
cause the earth to produce things that require a warm climate? Yes—the
earth will be like the people who inhabit it; and it is the duty of us
all to go to work and practice accordingly.
Can you produce flax in this country? Can you produce it, unless you
go to work and put in the seed? Can you produce wheat, unless you
plough the land, put in the seed, and then irrigate it? Do I believe
that this land will produce cotton? Yes, just as well as the land down
in the southern country: God can change the climate for the benefit
and salvation of his Saints.
There never was an ear of corn raised here till we came, and nobody
would believe that we could raise any. Bridger offered brother Brigham
a thousand dollars for an ear of corn raised in the valley. The
mountaineers had not confidence enough in God to put the seed into the
earth; but we have almost produced anything that we have tried, and
there has been cotton raised up north in this valley. Bless you, it is
colder up north than it is here. Can we raise madder here? Yes, every
one can raise it in their gardens, and it can be raised as easily as
your beds of flowers. I cannot remember the names of them; but it can
be raised upon the same principle that your flowers are raised; and so
can silk, only the tree is first raised, and the worm eats the leaves
of the tree, and then produces the silk. I am going to talk about home manufacture, and I cannot get my
mind upon anything else. You may take a hundred men who have got a
hundred wives only, and let me tell you that not fifty years would
roll around before they would revolutionize the whole world, if they
were men of the right stripe. Why would they do this? Because they
would be filled with the power of God, and the very earth that they
walk upon would be quickened by them, and the mountains, the sage
plains, and the pools of water would feel their power. If it were
necessary, those men would control them just as much as Moses did when
he struck the rock with the rod that God gave to him, and through the
gift and power of God that was in Moses the rock was rent, and the
water gushed forth.
Why was this miracle performed? Because it was necessary for the
salvation of the children of Israel. Is it necessary that miracles
should be performed now? Yes, it is necessary that the Lord should
hear us and help us; and he will hear us and bless us, if we are
humble and faithful; and he will bless the earth and all that dwell
thereon; he will bless our herds, our flocks, our wives, and our
children; and they will increase in proportion to our righteousness.
These are my feelings in relation to these matters.
Brethren and sisters, let us go to work, everyone of us, and
cultivate the earth; for it will not hurt any member of a family to
assist in these things: it will not hurt the sisters to assist in
making gardens; no, it will not hurt your delicate hands any more than
it did in England. I know, and can now see hundreds that worked in the
fields with their nice, delicate hands, and their striped petticoats,
and it did not take above three yards to make one of those petticoats.
I have seen you with your nice shoes and your bed gowns, or some would
call them sacks, and your nice aprons tied around, and the apron would
cause every pucker just as well as if they had been made in the dress.
This is home manufacture! It is a common occurrence, just as much so
as it is for one day to follow another. Why cannot you pursue that
course, just as you did in England, in Illinois, in Missouri, or in
the Southern States, or in Massachusetts and in Vermont? Did the
ladies work there? Yes, they did; they used to sow the onion seed, and
then weed the onions, and attend to them, and bring them to maturity;
and why is it not as well to do that now as to have to go into it five
years hence, as brother Snow has been speaking of?
When the United States muster their forces, and the Devil combines his
forces against us, then God will combine his forces against them. But
we do not want women to go out and fight, but we want them to stay
here and raise everything for our comfort and consolation. We can
pursue a course that will make this whole land bring forth. You can
have fruit on the low land as well as on the high; you can have fruit
at San Pete as well as here. Why, brother Snow will acknowledge that
they raise as good pumpkins there as we do here; but they never did
till they had faith to plant the seed. Are they going to raise fruit
there? Yes, they are; and if the ground is cold, they must stimulate
it, but not with whiskey, for that will cost too much.
I intend to take a course to worship God acceptably, and I never saw
greater necessity than there is at the present time for us to live our
religion and be one; and this is not anything new with me, for I have
seen it all the time. Then let us go to with our might and do all
things that are required at our hands. Let us make all the cloth we
can, and raise all the flax we can; and when we have raised it, let us make that into cloth, and then we shall be able to make
every woman shine with homemade clothes, when they come into this
congregation with their beautiful wool and linen dresses on, and their
bonnets made out of straw that has grown on their own land. I have
been thinking about this matter two or three days, for I have some
straw on hand, and I have been thinking of advising my women to braid
up the straw and have my boys' hats made before the hot weather comes.
I would rather see them do that ten thousand times than to see them go
to parties, and then half the boys get drunk. That is not home
manufacture, but that is death and destruction to this people.
Now, sisters, go to work and braid your straw, and have it ready when
the summer comes. This whole people might have their heads covered
with their own home-manufactured goods, and then they would not have
to go to those stores and buy hats that are not worth a dime apiece.
Suppose the boys were out two years, would not the sisters have to do
some of these things then? Is it not better to have things of our own
make than to give the merchant a dollar or two for them, and then not
have them half so good?
Sisters, gather up the rags—those little fine pieces that you have
throwing about, and sew them together, and make nice petticoats and
aprons for the little girls, coverlets, &c., and then teach them to do
it for themselves, that they may hereafter make good wives. I can tell
you there are not one-half of the women that are fit for wives when
they are married. They have not been instructed in home manufacture,
and some of them have scarcely learned to wash the dishes properly or
to take care of things about the house; and the young men are just as
bad.
I am not talking to you, young women—I am talking to those that are
married; for they ought to be instructors of those that are young. How
long would it take a little girl to sit down and make herself a nice
petticoat and to pick up some nice pieces to make herself an apron of?
But you women who have not got anything to wear did not think of
these things. You are now ready to say, "We have not got anything to
wear; we have not got any patches, and therefore cannot make any
patchwork." Well, then, tear up your dresses and make some, for that
is what a great many of you do. My desire is to stir up your minds to
reflection in my simple way, that you may go and attend to some of
these matters.
I do not care about the army over at Bridger, and in fact I have
scarcely thought of them—at least not for a week past. Will they
trouble us? No, they will not, not so as to root us up from this time
henceforth and forever, provided we do right. When you are doing
those things that I have been speaking of, you are keeping the
commandments of brother Heber, the Twelve, and your Bishops. My mind
is upon these things; I am led to them, and I will talk about them.
In our first start here, it was almost impossible to get any man to
start a tannery, and now we have a great many. I have this from our
shoemakers; and I feel to thank God that the gate is shut down, that a
deal of the leather that is made here is the best, and that we cannot
get their miserable stuff here any more. The Lord will now bless our
labor; he will bless the fruits of the earth, he will bless our
tanneries, he will bless our sheep, our flocks, and everything we
undertake to handle and manage; and that is not all, for we will bless
those things too, and we will dedicate and consecrate them to God, and
we will ask God to fill the earth with the resurrecting power; for life is the resurrecting power, whether it is little or much,
and it is that power which brings forth vegetation: it is the same
power which brings forth food and raiment; and by the same power we
shall be brought forth in the morning of the resurrection, only there
will be more of it in exercise.
We should dedicate all those things to the Lord, with our bodies, our
houses, our furniture, the earth that we cultivate, and the seed that
we put into the earth; and we should bless the shovel, the hoe, the
spade, the sheep, the horses, the cattle, the cows, and all that we
possess; and then will not God multiply them unto us? Yes, he will,
and we shall get heavier fleeces of wool and more of them. What! Can
he bless the fleece? Yes, he can, as easily as he blesses the sheep.
I recollect being in England, in the town of Chadburn, Lancashire; and
while there I felt as if my whole system was alive; I felt quickened
by some unseen power. Brother Hyde was with me, and he knows that it
is true; and I felt to pull off my shoes. We pulled off our hats, for
we felt such a sacred and holy feeling. I told brother Joseph about it
when I came home; and said he, "Brother Heber, that place was
dedicated by one of the old Prophets, and it will always be filled
with the spirit of life." Does not that prove that we can bless the
earth? Yes, it does, and we can; and you may call me crazy if you
like; and I will say, Bang away, but that does not make me crazy. You
may call me visionary, if you please; and I wish to God you were all
visionary as those holy men were who dedicated those places in the
days of Jesus and the Apostles. They are holy places, and they will be
held sacred even as Jackson County; and there is not a man living
there but at this day has the spirit of fear upon him and expects that
he will have to march some day; and, to this day, no man has ventured
to cultivate or build upon the Temple Block. Joseph the Prophet
dedicated that land, and they feel the effects of that dedication; and
the blessing will remain there, and all hell cannot get it off; and I
shall yet see the day that I will go back there, with brother Brigham
and with thousands and millions of others, and we will go precisely
according to the dedication of the Prophet of the living God. Talk to
me about my having any dubiety on my mind about these things being
fulfilled! I am just as confident of it as I am that I am called to be
a savior of men, and no power can hinder it.
If we do not receive these things, it is because we do not live for
them. I want to do everything by the power of God and the inspiration
of his Spirit. When I get a new wife, I always dedicate her to God,
and this is the way I have done for years. I also make a practice of
dedicating my children to the Lord, that they may grow up in his
wisdom and increase in his power.
These are little things; but you need not laugh about them, and nobody
but fools would laugh; for these things are our very existence.
I want to know of every man and woman, if you were going to place a
sacred thing anywhere, and you were to put it in an unholy vessel,
whether that vessel would not make it impure? Yes; and it will become
unholy because of that cursed thing. If it is the most holy thing in
existence, it will become corrupted by coming in contact with unholy
things.
I am preaching these things to my brethren and sisters, that they may
know, if they have not dedicated and consecrated their children to
the Lord, that it has to be done. But you may inquire, "How shall we
do it?" You will have to do it as brother Brigham and others
have done when in Nauvoo. We had to take our children and wash and
anoint them, and place the birthright and father's blessing upon them
in the house of God, and then have them sealed to us; and you will
have to do just so.
If you do not take the right course to raise up a holy seed unto the
Lord, but jangle and contend one with another, your children will not
have so good a chance to get the blessings of celestial glory; but, in
proportion as you bring yourselves into subjection, your children will
receive the blessings of heaven.
Just as soon as spring opens, I am going to work to put into the earth
every kind of seed, and I want my wives to take an interest in these
things, in raising the flax and making the cloth. They take a mighty
interest in wearing the cloth when it is made; and if they will do
these things, the day will come that we will be as rich as we can
desire in all things that this earth produces. Our Governor will be
rich, and there is not a man on God Almighty's earth that will begin
to compare with him: he will swallow them all up in riches and
blessings.
I am opposed to your nasty fashions and everything you wear for the
sake of fashion. Did you ever see me with hermaphrodite pantaloons on?
[Voice: "Fornication pantaloons." ] Our boys are weakening their backs
and their kidneys by girting themselves up as they do; they are
destroying the strength of their loins and taking a course to injure
their posterity.
Now, just look at me. I have no hips projecting out; they are straight
down with my sides. I am serious myself, although I can smile and
laugh when I am serious; but these ridiculous fashions I despise, and
God knows I despise anything that will tend to destroy the lives of my
sisters. What is your existence worth to you? It is worth everything
to your posterity; and you ought to consider their interest as well as
your own.
There is not a woman in this congregation but would be as straight as
I am, if she did not destroy her shape.
Bless your souls, I am talking about home manufacture. I was speaking
about it last Sunday, and I would not have said a word about it now,
but there were a good many who felt disposed to ridicule brother
Lorenzo D. Young's remarks; therefore I have spoken as I have. I want
to know if some of them were not tried by what he said; for some of
them were talking about cutting enough off their dresses to make
frocks for babies and sending it to him. I wish they would send it to
me—I would show them what I would do with it.
Some of you are taking a course like that of the Gentile world—namely,
to weaken and destroy the human family, and they are going down to
death as fast as they can. Shall we follow in their tracks? Some of
them have come up into the tops of the mountains for the purpose of
introducing their corrupt and damnable practices and customs.
You may take all such dresses and new fashions, and inquire into their
origin, and you will find, as a general thing, they are produced by
the whores of the great cities of the world—London, New York, and from
Paris, and from all the Gentile cities. Now this is true, gentlemen,
and brother Brigham, brother Taylor, and a great many others can bear
witness of it.
There is a new fashion that our boys have got hold of, and Spanish
bits and bridles, and then with their hermaphrodite pantaloons they
look ridiculous. I will speak of my own boys, for they are like the
rest, and have to take things rough-and-tumble as they come in
this mountain life—to go into the woods, take hold of a lion's beard,
and tell him to stand still: their backs are like the women's; they
are cut nearly in two with these cursed fashions, so that they have
but little strength left in them.
I understand those officers out yonder have got a good many women with
them, and I do not believe there are twenty in the whole camp but what
are whores, and they designed to come here to set you a pattern and to
moralize this community. I say, Will they not feel pretty straight by
next spring? I think they will feel considerably cooled off by next
spring, and I have an idea that by that time they will feel disposed
to quit their prostitution; and if they do not go away, we will make
them march pretty quick. Those soldiers cannot rule ever us, nor their
civil officers either, for they are the meanest of the corruption of
the world. It makes me angry, but I will not sin about it; but I feel
displeased at such things.
We shall prosper from this time forth. Now you may mark it, and you
will see that those who will do right will prosper. I will tell you,
if we cannot take a course to put iniquity out of our midst, and if
men will take a course to demoralize themselves, we will draw the
line and divide the evil from the good, and we will have those who
corrupt themselves stay at home and let the pure in heart go out to
war. And this is not all: I am opposed to any man's going into these
mountains to stand between us and our enemies that will get drunk. We
do not want any man there but what we can lay our hands upon and
dedicate to the Lord; and we do not want any there but who will do
that which is right in the sight of God and man; but we want men that
will pray and keep their covenants sacred. In short, we want men that
are ac ceptable in the sight of God: they are the men we want.
We want the home manufacturing men; and away with your trash and
nonsense, for I am sick of it. I do not say but I have some traditions
about me, for I know that I have; but I wish they were off far away.
My desire is that I may do everything that is right from this time
forth and forever; and I feel, as I heard brother Brigham say, a few
days ago, that I am as independent of those little, nasty, wicked
spirits as God is upon his throne, when I am right myself; and so is
every other man.
It is true that we are the best people there are on the earth. But
still there are a great many things I do not like to see; and one
is—when men get up a party, I do not like to see drinking whiskey the
very first thing that is introduced, and especially to go so far as to
pollute themselves. Some of you might say, "Brother Kimball, your boys
have been doing the same thing." If they have, I do not fellowship
them in that; but I disfellowship them for so doing, and so does
brother Brigham and every other good man. I do not care whether it is
a son or a wife that does wrong—I will not fellowship them in that
wrong, for I am not partial. I care just as much about the English as
the Irish or the Americans, and I guess I manifest it pretty well.
If you cannot obey those you have seen, how can you obey those you
never saw? You never will see those whom brother Brigham and his
brethren represent, unless you first obey those that you see every
day. We are God's representatives; and if you want to know whether you
will ever go into the presence of God, I can tell you that you never
will, unless you learn to obey your brethren. Then live to sustain the
authorities of this kingdom by your works, and we shall live scores of
years.
Brother Brigham never will die by the hand of an enemy,
neither will I, nor any of you, if you will do your duty. Brother
Brigham is just as secure as the roots of a tree, if every limb
performs its duty. I tell you it is hard to tell things just as a man
has them in his mind. For my own part, I have not got the language.
Now, if you are determined to destroy yourselves, I am perfectly
willing, providing you do not destroy the fruit of your loins; but
many of you are taking a course to destroy that by your ridiculous
fashions.
Now, suppose that any of you were to take a tree and tie the limbs in
a strait place, so that they were obliged to remain in it, will that
tree be as thrifty as those that are loose? No, it will not; and if
you do not believe it, go into my garden, and you will there see trees
with the limbs crossing each other at various angles; and the
consequence is that they are gnarly or diminutive in size, and very
inferior in appearance, and perhaps they will never produce any fruit.
Do not desire your children or your children's children to stop their
growth, and do not you take a course to render them impotent and
imbecile. I am talking to you, ladies; and then, again, I am talking
to you, gentlemen, that wear those hermaphrodite pantaloons.
May the Lord God bless this people, and bless his servant that leads
them; and I bless everything that sticks to him; and the blessings of
salvation shall be with you; for I promise you these things in the
name of Israel's God. Amen.
- Heber C. Kimball