Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, November 15, 1857.

If this people will live up to their profession—that is, every Elder, High Priest, Teacher, Apostle, and every person in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they never will be troubled; that is, we shall never be under the necessity of shedding much of the blood of our enemies. You have heard me say often that I do not believe God designs that we should delight in shedding blood.

In a revelation which God gave to Joseph Smith, he says, “It is not pleasing in my sight for man to shed blood of beasts, or of fowls, except in times of excess of hunger and famine.” Go and read it for yourselves. If he is not well pleased with us when we shed the blood of beasts when we have no need of it, would it not be much more displeasing to him were we to shed the blood of man unnecessarily? It is not the Spirit of God that leads a man or woman to shed blood—to desire to kill and slay. When the time comes that we have need to shed blood, then it will be necessary we should do it, and it will be just as innocent as to go and kill an ox when we are hungry or in the time of famine.

Brother George A. referred to one revelation where the Lord says, “It is my business to provide for my Saints.” Some people rest assured that God is going to open the heavens and rain down manna, or send the nations of the Gentiles in here and let us take the spoil, because he has said he will provide for his Saints in the last days.

Many have not even planted a peach tree, an apple tree, a plum tree, nor a currant bush in their gardens. There are many gardens, within half-a-mile of this Tabernacle, destitute of fruit trees of any kind. And again, you may see many city lots that are not cultivated nor planted with corn, wheat, potatoes, or any other vegetable; but the people who own them expect that God is going to provide for them without their cooperation.

I will ask you a question, you that have not raised even a kernel of grain on your gardens. What is the reason of this? Is it not because you have not planted it? You have not had a peach nor an apple. Why? Because you have not planted the trees; and do you ever expect to? No, not while the earth stands, water runs, and grass grows. Such people never will be provided with these necessaries, except some other man provides them.

Here is the earth, the air, the water, and you have been exhorted to cultivate these valleys and raise grain, and provide for yourselves individually and collectively. But, say you, God said to Joseph, “It is my business to provide for my Saints in the last days.”

“Behold, it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to thine enemies; But behold, it is not said at any time that the Lord should not take when he please, and pay as seemeth him good. Wherefore, as ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord’s errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord’s business. And he hath set you to provide for his saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion. And behold, I, the Lord, declare unto you, and my words are sure and shall not fail, that they shall obtain it. But all things must come to pass in their time. Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”—Doc. & Cov., sec. xxi. par. 6.

We have been driven from our native land and birthplace, many of us, and God has brought us into these rich valleys, and says he, “Go to and cultivate, and raise grain, and provide for yourselves seven years’ provisions.” That is the way he is going to provide for you—to tell you, like a good father tells his sons, how to provide for yourselves. “Here I will provide land for you, and seed,” &c. Now, go to and cultivate the soil, increase the seed, and provide for your wants. Now, that is good logic—good reasoning: it is not vain philosophy.

In this congregation there are hundreds of men who have not a mouthful to eat, only as they get it from their neighbors from day to day, or from week to week; and if others had not gone to and raised provisions, they would have perished, every one of them, for a temporal subsistence. Is God going to rain down manna? He will not do it until we are brought into circumstances to require it. Will he remove a mountain? No—not until the house of Israel are brought into such straitened circumstances that there is no way for their escape, except God removes a mountain for their deliverance.

The Lord says, “In the last days it is my business to fight the battles of my Saints.” If it is his business, he will take his children to do it; and we are his children. You may think that comes right in contact with the revelations of Jesus Christ; but it is not so. Why does our President, our Governor, order out three thousand men to be in the mountains? To fulfil your prayers. What do you pray for? “O Lord,” say you, “I ask thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to hedge up the way of our enemies, that they may never come here.” We had to send some three thousand men to fulfil your prayers. Who is going to fight the battles of the Lord, if not his people? They have got to stand in defense of this kingdom and Church of God in the last days.

If our enemies are prevented from coming here, they are prevented because of the Saints of God. Would they have been prevented from coming here if our brethren had not gone out there and hedged up their way? God will take his few valiant servants in the last days, and with them use up the world and bring every kingdom and dominion into subjection to the kingdom of God.

Do you suppose you are going to sit here on your seats and in your habitations, and never step forth to the help of the Lord? Nearly one year ago, the last who came in with handcarts were brought in out of the mountains. Would they have been in our cities and congregation today, had we not gone out and brought them in? Through our faith and works they were saved from death; and many of them have brought forth sons and daughters unto God in the valleys of the mountains. Would they have done this if we had not stepped forth and manifested our faith by our works in delivering them from death?

I think there is a Scripture somewhere that says, “By your works you are justified;” and again, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.” It is the works that God expects. I may have faith as much as I please, and sit in my house and keep my boys at home, and exhort this people to stay at home; but will that hedge off the way of our enemies? No.

Will our enemies come here? No, except we let them. God gives us that privilege. We have the right to let them in here or keep them out; and we choose to keep them out, and we shall do it by the help of God, and we shall prevail over every nation, tongue, and people; and every president, king, governor, judge, and every Latter-day Saint that lift their hands against this Church and kingdom shall be confounded and frustrated in their attempts. What! A Saint do this? Yes, a Saint that turns back unto the Devil takes into his tabernacle the worst spirits, which make him many times worse than he was at the first.

When pigs are washed in soapsuds, they look clean, and you would think them almost nice enough to live in the house; but no sooner have you washed them than they will go into the nastiest mudhole they can find and muddy themselves all over from head to foot. Now, do they not look worse than before they were washed? It is just so with you, when you turn from your righteousness: you are worse than before you entered into the Church of Christ.

Make your preparations this present season to go to and cultivate the soil, and raise everything you can, and then we shall have plenty. We have done the best we can; and if our enemies come upon us, God will throw them into our power, and they will become subject to us. “Now,” says the Lord, “Take that spoil and consecrate it unto my people.” The Lord will provide for his Saints when necessary, and in his own way.

Are these things interesting to you, brethren? They are what you have to do, every man of you that belongs to the house of Israel. Are there goats in our midst? Bless your souls, if there were not, there would be more diseases than there now are. It is said that goats, because of their strong smell, have power over diseases. Take a little assafoetida and put it on a child’s stomach, and certain contagious diseases will not come unto it, probably because the assafoetida stinks so much worse than anything else.

I do not say there are many goats now. There is, however, one goat—I do not know whether it is in the congregation or not. His face is longer than Lorenzo Dow’s; and when you see such a man as that, you may know who I mean. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, November 8, 1857.

I have almost a good mind to talk a little—that is, if you want I should; but I certainly do not want to, without you want I should. And then again, if I felt really like it, I should talk, whether you wanted I should, or not. The reason I make that expression is because I am called to an holy calling, with our President, or brother Brigham. He is my leader, and I am his brother and servant. I am his fellowservant—that is, I am one with him; and my calling actually requires me to talk, and to teach, and to instruct, and to exhort, and to invite all men to embrace the Gospel and plan of life and salvation.

Jesus, in the 1st chap. of John, 4th verse, says, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

Also, in the 8th chap. and 12th verse, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

And in the 14th chap. and 6th verse, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Well, you have heard me express, several times, that truth is life, and life is light. Well, it is true, because Jesus says, “I am the life and the light of the world; and no man that is born upon the face of this earth can obtain eternal life except they go by me. They must come by me or through me to obtain eternal life.”

Brethren, I want you to understand, if you will treasure up principles of truth as you would treasure up gold and silver and precious stones—if you will treasure up truth, every truth that you treasure up, that truth is life, and that life is light. Do you not see that if you treasure up the principles of truth in you, and you have your treasury full of them, then, of course, your treasury is savior of all? Why? Because life is light, and light is life. Do you not see, if you have got the true principles dwelling in you, if you treasure up truth, you are bound to have life; and then, if you have life, you are bound to have light; and if those true principles dwell in you, and they abound, do you not see you cannot be unfruitful? You are bound to be fruitful in the knowledge of God and in the accomplishment of his purposes.

If you do not take a course to treasure up truth, you never will be prophets and prophetesses; for it is in treasuring up truth, and life, and light. If these principles be in you, and they abound, you will be like a well of water springing up into everlasting life. It will be everlasting, do you not see, if it springs up; and that will bring us back to the fountain of life, from whence springs life and light. Do you not see it springs from God. It emanates from him; and if it is in us and abounds, it will be in us as a well of water springing up into everlasting life, from whence it sprang.

Well, here are a few ideas before you—something I had not thought of before I got up. Well, I am called and ordained to be a teacher and to instruct; but if you do not receive my instructions and the principles of truth that emanate from me, then you are not profited; for the Lord says, “If a man offers you a gift, and you do not receive that gift with gladness and joy, then, of course, the man that offers the gift is not blessed; but if the receiver receives it with joy, then the man that gives the gift has joy in giving it.” Do you not see it? Well, upon the same principle, if God confers gifts, and blessings, and promises, and glories, and immortality, and eternal lives, and you receive them and treasure them up, then our Father and our God has joy in that man. Do you understand me? I do not know whether you get my idea or not; but, to save my head, I cannot talk any plainer. You know I am called simple. Well, I wish I was simpler and could convey things with greater simplicity than I do. Why? Because I have not a spirit within me to wish to talk one word to you except good sense, and light, and information, and instruction to the child that sits before me today. Do you not see God is not pleased with any man except those that receive the gifts, and treasure them up, and practice upon those gifts? And he gives those gifts, and confers them upon you, and will have us to practice upon them. Now, these principles to me are plain and simple.

Do you suppose that God in person called upon Joseph Smith, our Prophet? God called upon him; but God did not come himself and call, but he sent Peter to do it. Do you not see? He sent Peter and sent Moroni to Joseph, and told him that he had got the plates. Did God come himself? No: he sent Moroni and told him there was a record, and says he, “That record is matter that pertains to the Lamanites, and it tells when their fathers came out of Jerusalem, and how they came, and all about it;” and, says he, “If you will do as I tell you, I will confer a gift upon you.” Well, he conferred it upon him, because Joseph said he would do as he told him. “I want you to go to work and take the Urim and Thummim, and translate this book, and have it published, that this nation may read it.” Do you not see, by Joseph receiving the gift that was conferred upon him, you and I have that record?

Well, when this took place, Peter came along to him and gave power and authority, and, says he, “You go and baptize Oliver Cowdery, and then ordain him a Priest.” He did it, and do you not see his works were in exercise? Then Oliver, having authority, baptized Joseph and ordained him a Priest. Do you not see the works, how they manifest themselves?

Well, then Peter comes along. Why did not God come? He sent Peter, do you not see? Why did he not come along? Because he has agents to attend to his business, and he sits upon his throne and is established at headquarters, and tells this man, “Go and do this;” and it is behind the veil just as it is here. You have got to learn that.

Peter comes along with James and John and ordains Joseph to be an Apostle, and then Joseph ordains Oliver, and David Whitmer, and Martin Harris; and then they were ordered to select twelve more and ordain them. It was done. Do you not see works were manifest? They received the truth, and thus you and I are here today; and if it had not been for the practice, you and I would not have been here, would we?

Well, practice makes perfect: it makes perfect men and perfect Apostles, and Prophets, and Elders, and Teachers, and Deacons; and how can you be perfect without it? It is by our practice and living up to our profession that we increase and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

There are a great many things, probably, that are taught you from this stand—that is, from individuals. They are taught to you; and you, probably, have not got faith and confidence in them. Well, now, I do not care whether you have or not: if you will go and do as you are told, you shall have a knowledge, although you had not a particle of faith when you began. That is curious religion; but there is no knowledge on any other principle, only by obedience.

Some time ago I brought up a figure. Say I, John, Timothy, Jack, Peter—I do not care who they are—you go up above the arsenal and dig a well, and dig ten or twelve feet, and you shall find a good spring of water. “Well,” says brother John, “I have no confidence in that, that there can be water got there, neither have I any confidence in you as an Apostle.” Say I, I do not care whether you have or not: go and do as I tell you, and you shall be paid for it. You go and dig a well, and dig twelve feet, and find a good spring of water. Now, do you not get the knowledge of that water without a particle of faith or confidence? It is in the works.

Some say, “What is the use of my doing this, or that, or the other thing? I have no faith in it.” I do not care a dime for your faith. They produce the knowledge; and then, do you not see, knowledge swallows up faith before you ever had it?

Did you ever know anything to swallow a thing when it was not? Yes, the Methodist’s God has neither body, parts, nor passions; and yet they have swallowed him.

Well, now, this is a kind of curious doctrine, but it is true doctrine; for I never knew much faith in exercise in a man, except that man had good works, by going and doing as the servants of God say, to produce faith and knowledge.

Now, I will ask you a question—a scriptural question. I do not know where it is. It is in the Bible. I cannot refer to chapter and verse. I want to refer you to the case of Naaman, the Assyrian, who was smitten with leprosy. How much faith had he? He had not a particle; but his servant, who had faith, prevailed upon him to go down to Jordan. When the Prophet spoke to him and told him to go and dip himself seven times, and he should become whole, he had not a particle of confidence in it. He went down with his riches to buy health, but he could not buy it: he had to do as the Prophet told him. He went down and dipped himself seven times and was healed. Do you not believe, then, he knew things? Said he, “I know now they are the men of God. I know now that God lives, and their words are true; for I did as they told me, but I had not any confidence in them, and I was healed.”

Does not that agree with me? I merely bring that up that you may not find fault with my doctrine. Do you not see that is the principle that we must be actuated by? I care not whether you have any faith or not: you go and do as you are told to do, and that produces knowledge; and how long will it be before we shall be presented into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? It will not be but a little while. Now, there are a great many people, even to this day, with all the reformation that has been in our midst, who make a practice of telling lies. It is impossible for them to tell a story, except they put into the interstices of that story lies of their own manufacturing. Do you not see that destroys? They make a practice of it. They cannot transact business except they must lie a little. How long, do you suppose, it will take that man to get to heaven and to enter into celestial glory, where lies or anything that is impure cannot exist? It will take him as many millions of years as there will be millions of years to come.

Perhaps some people may think that if we do lie and are dishonest, and so forth and so on, when we die, the death that comes upon us and the change that comes upon us will change and take away those lies, and we shall find ourselves basking in truth. No such thing. I may tell a lie to you—I may be dishonest to my neighbors and ungodly, then I may get up and go out of doors; and I want to know what better am I when I go through that door than I was this side of it? Has it changed my nature? No—not one particle.

I will refer to brother Morley’s words. He says, “The mind makes the man.” That is true. What is the mind? It is that character that was made and fashioned after the image of God before these bodies were made—that is, our spirits. What is the mind? It is the spirit that was made before this body. Do you know it? Well, now let me tell you, it is that spirit that makes the man. I care not how humble he is—if his nose is three feet long and all his body was disfigured—I will tell you, if there is a good spirit in that man, and that spirit cultivates wholesome doctrine and lives to God, you love him. It is the spirit that is in the man that makes the man, which is the mind that you were speaking of, father Morley. You meant so, did you not, father Morley? [“Yes.”] Well, you did.

Well, our change from this state of existence does not change our character. The character must be made and formed before it goes through the veil, if he is going to continue with the servants of God, the Prophets.

Now, brethren, you have got a spirit in you, and that spirit was created and organized—was born and begotten by our Father and our God before we ever took these bodies; and these bodies were formed by him, and through him, and of him, just as much as the spirit was; for I will tell you, he commenced and brought forth spirits; and then, when he completed that work, he commenced and brought forth tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in. I came through him, both spirit and body. God made the elements that they are made of, just as much as he made anything. Tell me the first thing that is made on earth that God did not organize and place here in this world. Not a thing.

Well, it is the mind or spirit that is in the man that makes the man. Was that spirit a wicked spirit when it was organized and brought into existence? No—no more than our little children are sinners. But we have been led—that is, perverted, or rather led away from these true principles—led into evil principles by others. Well, then, of course, we are not exactly as we were when we were organized. No; we have taken other men’s books and reasonings, and fell into other principles—led away from nature—some say, “nature’s darkness.” I do not know anything about such a thing as nature’s darkness. If we were as we were in our first creation, we should be as innocent as little children, every one of us. Perhaps you do not see these things as I do; but I have not any notion of my own to communicate unto you.

You see I am the simplest fellow there is. I wish to God I was more simple than I am: I should be nearer to what I was in nature. I do not know how to use what they call big words. I never studied them. I have no taste particularly for them; and if I had, I should not know where to put them, and should be very apt to stick the head to the feet, and the feet to the head. I do not know where to apply them. Well, what are they? You may ask brother Taylor, and he will tell you they are conflabberation of all languages. Conflabberation! Well, that’s a good word, is it not? That is, they are French, English, Irish, Dutch, Hebrew, and Latin, and they are all kinds of words; and there are not many of them that have good sense. Well, they are a mixture: every language is a mixture. I have not studied them.

Do you want to blame me? Cannot you understand me in my simple way of communicating to you? After all my simplicity and simple words, and trying to simplify my words to the capacity of the people, there are lots of you who do not understand the words I use—the words I was taught from my youth in my simplicity.

Well now, brethren, I tell you I have said what I have said; and may God grant that it may inspire your hearts—that it may exalt your minds—that you may treasure up these truths, as far as they are truths; and I know nothing to the contrary but what they are truths; and if you do, or anybody else, I would be pleased to be corrected—that is, to have the real thing presented instead of them. Is it to my injury, because I did not happen to get it, and somebody steps forward and puts it there? Does it injure me? No: it communicates to me that I had not got—that is, a truth; and truth is life, and life is light. Do you not see what I get by it?

In regard to our situation and circumstances in these valleys, brethren, WAKE UP! WAKE UP, YE ELDERS OF ISRAEL, AND LIVE TO GOD and none else; and learn to do as you are told, both old and young: learn to do as you are told for the future. And when you are taking a position, if you do not know that you are right, do not take it—I mean independently. But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong. You will get water, if you dig away. That is rather presumptuous doctrine with some people; but with me it is not.

I have heard men teach in this stand that I was under no obligation to do anything, except I had a revelation. I do not believe the doctrine at all. I don’t care who preached it. I am not the leader—I am not the Prophet, nor the chief Apostle. I do not hold the keys independently. I have no keys, only what I hold in brother Brigham; and then brother Brigham has the word of God: he must do thus and so. He comes to me and says, “Brother Heber, I want you to do thus and so.” Wait till I go home, get into my private room, and ask God that I may get a revelation! Ain’t that pretty, brother Taylor? Well, I will not talk just as I think. If I did, I would knock this pulpit head over heels, when I think of such folly. Go and get a revelation, when God has spoken through my head! And then the tail goes off, and gets down on his knees to get a revelation, when the head has got one !

Now, I have heard that doctrine preached here, that they must have a revelation before they are bound to receive that word and go and practice it, just as it would have been with those men I employed to go and dig that well by the arsenal. “Wait, sir.” I will not wait a minute. Go along, or I will employ men that will do it. “I am going to get a revelation to know if there is water there.” They do not know that by believing on any man’s testimony they increase in knowledge, wisdom, and the power of God. They forget that. Do you not see that I can learn more to be led than I can to lead, if I have the right man to lead me? Brother Brigham is my leader: he is my Prophet, my Seer, and my Revelator; and whatever he says, that is for me to do; and it is not for me to question him one word, nor to question God a minute. Do you not see?

I will tell you what it is right for me to do. If there is time (and if there is not, it is not necessary), go along and bow down before the Lord God. Say I, “Father, help me to be faithful and do the words of brother Brigham, my leader, that I may see glory in it, and that I may see immortality and eternal lives in it.”

I am teaching you, Elders. Now, if I am not right, I am wrong. I leave it to you to judge whether I am right or wrong. It is curious for me to talk, but it is not for me to question his words any more than it was Naaman, the Assyrian. Said he, “What better are the waters of Jordan? Why are not the rivers of Damascus and the water round Jerusalem just as good? Why is there not as much virtue in them as there is in Jordan?” Why, there is; but the virtue is in the man of God telling him what to do. There was virtue in doing what the servant of God told him to do. If he had told him to have gone and got into a mud hole, it would have had the same effect as that water. It is in the words of the man of God, and God lets his angels go along wherever he goes, and the angel of God goes along and touches the man with the touch of his finger, and says, “Be thou made whole!” Why? “Because the servant of God says so, and I have come here to help to fulfil it.” Either side of the veil they are active to see that your words are fulfilled. If they are not, they are not with us, nor we with them.

What difference does the veil make? None at all. To us there is a veil, but to them there is no veil. They can see through the side of a house as well as through the air. I know that by experience. “Well, now,” someone says, “What good does it do for two or three thousand men to be in the mountains?” Why, I don’t know that it is any of our business. It says, “Uncle Sam cannot come. We are ready; we are on the spot.” Well, what else? It gives those men an experience that they cannot have on any other principle. They are getting an experience—for what? To cultivate them for something greater, which will come next year; and if it does not come then, it will come sometime. I do not say it will come next year. You never heard me say it would; but you and I want to live our religion and do as we are told, not questioning a word for a moment. You have got to stop that. It is enough for others to do that, without our meddling with those things. I am speaking to the Elders of Israel.

Well, these things are all right. You learn to do as you are told; and those that have not been baptized into the Church, I say, Go and be baptized, and put on Christ by baptism, that you may receive the Holy Ghost and be one with us: that is all I have got to say to you.

Bless your souls, I pray my Father to bless brother Brigham, with his Counselors, that they may be one; to bless the Twelve, that they may be one with us; to bless the Seventies, that they may be one with the Twelve, and the High Priests one with the Seventies, and the Elders one with the High Priests, and the Priests one with the Elders, &c.; that we may all be one and partake of the same Spirit, and same power, and same Holy Ghost, and same religion. That is my exhortation to you: I cannot preach any other.

If that takes place, I want to know what any power has to do with us? As we relax our power and live our religion—do you not see, as we relax, that the Devil will gain power upon us? Suppose, now, I was to take a rough-and-tumble with a man and wrestle with him: I wrestle a spell pretty valiantly, and almost gain power over my antagonist; I have almost gained power over him, and I begin to slack up to get a little breath: do you not see that that antagonist is bound to put me down if I slack up? Well, if you slack up your religion, living faithfully, praying, exhorting, and living to God, do you not see our antagonist is gaining power over us? But let me tell you, gentlemen, we will take it just as God dictates; and if he says rough-and-tumble, let us take it rough-and-tumble, and pitch them headlong where they belong.

Well, now, if you will do just as you are told, you will increase in knowledge ten thousand times faster than you will to pray six hours; and if you follow that course, you will not advance in your religion one-hundredth part so much as that man that will do just as he is told, no matter what.

If you are told to watch, watch. Can you pray when you are watching? I do: I pray all the time. Well, live your religion—that is, not your religion, but the religion of Jesus Christ, and serve your God. Cease all your contentions. Are there not contentions enough in the world? Are there not contentions enough with that army and with the devils in hell, without there being any with us? These things should subside: they should take an avalanche, like the snow. You know the snow will take a slide down the sides of the mountains. They call that an avalanche. I should call it a hell of a full of a fuss—that is, it is a convulsion. Well, excuse me for that language.

Well, there are those troops over yonder. They are not here, are they? Well, some of you thought they were coming here, and several ran away, supposing they were coming. Well, I am glad of that, and I wish every other one that feels so would put off. We will help them. Brother Brigham has fulfilled his word: he said if he could find any man or woman that wanted to go, he would send them to that happy place. Well, he has sent Mrs. Mogo. No doubt she will die a happy death.

This great Mr. Johnson, the Commander of those troops has come, I suppose. Brother Grossbeck has come in with his company from the States. God gave him wisdom, and he is here, and he escaped those troops. Mr. Johnson says he is going to obey the President’s orders, and says he will come in; but by the time he goes up and down Ham’s Fork a few times, it will take away his strength. If you do not believe it, try some other Ham’s Fork. I had as lieve sit on a bayonet as a fork. He has had a fever all the way, and will have a chill when he has lost his strength. He will have an all-killing chill. He will not come here. We have told you all the time they will not come. But he may attempt to come, and then he may not. That is just as God has a mind to.

I feel the Lord designs the thing should move along and no blood be shed, because I do not consider God is so anxious that we should be bloodthirsty men as some may be. God designs we should be pure men, holding the oracles of God in holy and pure vessels; but when it is necessary that blood should be shed, we should be as ready to do that as to eat an apple. That is my religion, and I feel that our platter is pretty near clean of some things, and we calculate to keep it clean from this time henceforth and forever, and, as the Scripture reads, “Lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” We shall do that thing, and we shall commence in the mountains. We shall clean the platter of all such scoundrels; and if men and women will not live their religion, but take a course to pervert the hearts of the righteous, we will “lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,” and we will let you know that the earth can swallow you up, as it did Korah with his host; and as brother Taylor says, you may dig your graves, and we will slay you, and you may crawl into them.

I do not mean you, if you are not here. I mean those corrupt scoundrels. Well, this is just as brother Brigham has said here hundreds of times.

If those troops could have come in here, let me tell you, all the finest and smartest devils would have entered into the smartest bodies and come here to overturn us. You will not catch a mean, low, inferior, stupid devil in a smart man. I will tell you the Devil has his smart men. Says he, “You get into a smart body.” Smart spirits do not get into inferior bodies. Would you? No. Well, then, do you suppose they would do what we would not do under the same circumstances?

Was not Lucifer a pretty smart lad? Just look at it—son of the morning—when all heaven wept when he fell. He was a smart man. It takes a smart man—that is, one who thinks he is, to act the devil. Well, I merely speak of these things.

Well, they would come from Dan to Beersheba, and from California to France—that is, wicked and abominable spirits would have come into this valley when those troops came, do you not see? The blacklegs, and highway robbers, and whoremongers, and whores would have gathered into this place, if those troops could have come into this place to have slain our leaders. Let me die an honorable man living my religion rather than to bow down to their cursed yoke again, as the Lord God liveth. They have made us stiffen our upper lip, and now we have got to keep it stiff—I mean the upper lip; and if you grow as you ought, five years will not pass away before your lips will be five times as thick as they are now. Joseph had a high lip, and he was a beautiful man—one of the most lovely men I ever saw, especially when the Spirit of God was in him; and his countenance was as white as the whitest thing you ever saw.

Let all these domestic broils and family difficulties cease, ye Elders of Israel; and if you have got things that will not sleep and will not rest, live your religion, and I would take my johnnycake and go into the mountains and spend my days defending the house of Israel, before I would stay at home and quarrel one moment. Is it not better for you? Well, now stop these little broils at home in your families: that is the end of all trouble with us; and God will bless us and will bless the earth, and the air, and the elements, and we shall be blessed with fruits and grain, and with every other thing that our hearts can desire.

Is there anything that we ever saw or thought of but what is in the elements, the air we breathe, and the earth we walk on? And blessing be to God that I live on an earth that lives. Well, that is a curious idea. I heard a Methodist preacher preach that once at Miller’s Corners, in Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York, and thought it was a curious idea. Well, it is truth.

Now, I will prove this to you, if any of you doubt it, by true philosophy—by natural philosophy. Do you believe that a dead woman can conceive from a live man and bring forth a live child? Do you believe it, any of you mothers? Do you believe it, any of you fathers? No, you know better. Well, if a woman will not produce when she is dead, then the earth cannot produce living things if it was dead.

Does the earth conceive? It does, and it brings forth. If it did not, why do you go and put your wheat into the ground? Does it not conceive it? But it does not conceive except you put it there. It conceives and brings forth, and you and I live, both for food and for clothing, silks and satins. What! Satin grow? Yes. What produces it? The silkworm produces it. Does the silkworm produce except it conceives? No, it eats of the mulberry tree. Where does the mulberry tree come from? It comes from the earth. Where did the earth come from? From its parent earths.

Well, some of you may call that foolish philosophy. But if it is, I will throw out foolish things, that you may gather up wise things. The earth is alive. If it was not, it could not produce. If you find a piece of earth that is dead, you cannot produce anything from it, except you resurrect it and restore it to life. If that is not true philosophy, it is nothing that I have produced. It is what every man knows, if he can only reflect. But I thought it was curious doctrine when that Methodist spoke of it.

How could my head produce hair, if it was dead? Neither can the earth produce grain, if it is dead. Now, brethren, do you not see the propriety of our blessing the earth—the earth that we inhabit and cultivate? If you do not see the propriety of it, for heaven’s sake do not bless the sacrament again. Do not take a bottle of oil to the prayer circle to be blessed, when you do not believe the earth can be blessed.

If you have got half-an-acre, you can bless it, and dedicate it, and consecrate it to God, and ask him to fill it with life. Well, then, if you can bless half-an-acre, why can you not bless a whole acre? And if you can bless an acre, why can you not bless all this Territory? Just reflect for a moment. If you can bless a gill of oil, then you can bless a pint. When you bless a pint, you can bless a quart, and so on until you can bless a bottle of oil as big as this valley.

Bless God! Yes, I bless my Father and my God pertaining to this earth; I bless his Son; I bless everything in heaven and on earth. Now, you may call that improper, when you do it, all of you, indirectly. Bless my Father! Suppose I had an earthly father here, and he had received the Gospel and was a Patriarch, I would bless him and put all the blessings on him that I had power and strength; that is, I would put all I had onto him; then I could get it back; then I could bless his father, and he could bless his father, and his father his father, and the blessings I would put on my father would go clear back until it came to the Father and God from whence it came, and then it comes down to us again, just as the sap and nourishment in the tree: if it does not go into the root, it never would go into the top; and every limb and branch pertaining to that tree has to give up a portion of the nourishment they receive, and then we are all impregnated with the roots.

Well, I am talking these things as plain as I can. Perhaps some of you do treasure them up. But we live on an earth that lives: if we do not, we cannot produce nor get produced from it. You never will get peaches if you do not plant and let the earth conceive; but if the earth conceives, and you nourish it, you are bound to have peaches, and apples, and currants, and plums. If you cultivate and partake of the elements that God has made, you will have houses, and barns, and granaries, and everything else. God has made it. All we have to do is to take it from the earth. But you say it is all dead, do you? Oh folly! There is nothing that is dead that lives, nor shall we ever die temporally nor spiritually; for that tabernacle that I live in is life; and when it goes back to the earth, it goes back into a living creature. For what purpose? To become analyzed, and cleansed, and purified, that I may receive it again, more glorious than this body. How can I obtain it? On no other principle only to do just as I am told. You have got to learn that lesson. I have got to learn it; and if I have got to learn it, I can prove that you have got to do as I do.

You are very exact in military tactics. Here is Squire Wells, and he is under the direction of our Governor; and then every other officer in his turn must be dictated and governed as he is dictated. Does Squire Wells run to every man? No: he gives his order to the officer next to him, and so on till it goes down to the fourth corporal. See how accurate you have to be in that discipline. Should not you be more so in the kingdom of your God? And if you do not, you are not making progress.

Why are you not wide awake? Cultivate, make, take, and increase, and bring forth those things that you need. You do not believe the gate is going to be shut down, do you? Mr. Johnson says there shall not an article or a train come in, except the Governor lets him come in. The Governor will not, except he grounds arms; and if he will ground arms, he will ground arms; and if he no ground arms, then he no ground arms, and he cannot come here. Gentlemen, your leaders all say he cannot come here. Why, if he wants to come here himself, with a few of his council—if they really want to come to see the Governor, they have the privilege; but they would have to ground arms. I am not going to take that word back. They have got to ground arms from this time henceforth. But we have shouldered arms, and it is present arms; and do you not see that the next thing is to take aim?

Joseph, when he was in Nauvoo, on the house top, drew his sword from the sheath and said it never should be sheathed again. Brother Brigham has said the same, and brother Heber will back him in it, and so will every officer in the kingdom of God. What say you, brethren, will we go it? If so, raise your right hands and say Aye.

[One loud “AYE” rang through the congregation.]

We are not going to bow down to the wicked any more. I had rather die as I am and fight my way than ever to go into their hands again. They probably, if they had only sense enough, might have caused us to bow down our heads and got the bow on Old Bright’s neck. They will not pay the debts contracted by their own officers. They send the most damnable and contemptible scoundrels that they could to rule over us, and they abused us all the time, and God wanted they should. If they had not, perhaps we should have bowed down and got the yoke on our neck. Now, perhaps, they will try to draw back and say, “Let us give them a State Government and a few hundred thousand dollars, and see if we cannot pet them.” When you see a thing of that sort, look out for the Devil: he will be behind that curtain. When I see anything of that kind, I am suspicious.

We shall prescribe a course for the United States to take after this. Well, you do not believe that, do you? Do as you are told, and see if it does not come to pass. You cannot tell whether I am a true man, unless you listen to me.

Well, these are my feelings. God bless you, brethren; God bless you, sisters; God bless this earth, and these valleys, and every honest person that comes into these valleys! If their soldiers desert and come in here, may the Lord God bless them, that they may have the Spirit of God on them while they stay here! We live to let live, and we will treat them with kindness and gentility, if they stay here and behave themselves. But they cannot whore it here; for, gentlemen, if there is anything of that kind, we will slay both men and women. We will do it, as the Lord liveth—we will slay such characters. Now, which would be the most worthy to be slain—the woman that had had her endowments and made certain covenants before God, or the man that knew nothing about it? The woman, of course. She must be guilty according to her knowledge. These little officers that were brought up as pets at West Point boasted all the way what they were going to do with our leaders: they were going to take our Governor and hang him, and take his wives and use them at their leisure; and they were going to serve Heber in the same way, and all others that lifted their tongues against our enemies. They have not yet done it, have they?

Well, these are my feelings. They are out there: they have been sitting on Ham’s Fork so long, it has begun to ulcerate, as that nasty fop, Douglas, uses the term—that little nasty snot-nose: you cannot call him anything half so mean as he is—the nastiest of all nasties that God could suffer on the earth. We have been a friend to him and everybody else, and we have not done any harm. We mind our own business. We came to this land because we were just obliged to do so; and I have been broken up and driven five times; but, as the Lord God liveth, I do not go again, nor any other man or woman that will live their religion. Let us do right, as a people, and we never will go from this place until we please and God pleases to have us.

We were brought here for a purpose to secure us, and for us to stand to our rights and privileges as citizens of the United States, and claim protection. What are they coming up here for? To kill your leaders; and when they kill us they will kill every man and woman that will sustain those men. Well, they are not here—God be praised! Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill to all good men! My soul says Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, my soul, and give glory to him, and let all Israel say Amen!

[The assembly responded, “Amen.”]

Am I not happy? These are the people of God. They shall live and they shall prosper, and everything that is attached to the righteous shall be righteous and grow righteous. Yea, I bless the earth and everything that is on this earth; but I feel, in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ and my calling, to curse that man that lifts his heel against my God and his cause and kingdom; and the curse of God shall be upon him: the angels of God shall chase him, and he shall have no peace. The President of the United States and his coadjutors that have caused this thing shall never rest again, for they shall go to hell.

Brother Morley says he has no right to teach. I am blessing them with the power that is on your head. Why do you not do it? That is the blessing of a Patriarch, to bless the house of Israel. I bless you as a people—not only this people here today, but I bless all that are in the east, west, north, or south. God bless our head and every member that is attached to it! Bless the house of Israel, with the head of the vine, and with every vine and every branch that pertains to it, with every particle of fruit, that it may be choice in the house of God in these mountains! Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 18, 1857.

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.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Sunday Afternoon, September 27, 1857.

I was going to say I was glad that I live. Bless your souls, I expect always to live. Most of the people are always talking about death. I do not know anything about it, and I never wish to know anything about what is called death, and I never shall, except I sin and turn away from this Church and away from Jesus Christ. When I turn from him, I follow a character that is called Death; but while I live my religion, I never shall die—that is, my spirit never will die.

My tabernacle that is now standing before you, that you see with your eyes, I expect will decay, just like an old house. When it is done with, it decays, and turns back to the mother earth, from whence it was taken; and it is so with my body; it is so with yours; but it is not so with my spirit, if I live my religion.

If I do not live my religion, but turn away from the principles of light and life, my spirit will die. You have heard me speak of that a great many times, and so you have brother Brigham. There are thousands upon thousands whose bodies will die by the power of the second death; and then they never will return again. Many call that annihilation.

It is just the same with that as it is with this pitcher: it was made in England; it was once in its mother element, and it was taken out of the earth, and went through a certain process. It was then modeled and fashioned into the shape in which you now see it.

Now, will the day come when this pitcher will return to its mother earth? It will; and it may be thrown into some part of the earth where it may be thousands and millions of years before that pitcher or the elements of which it is composed will be brought back again; and so it will be with thousands and millions of the people: they never will be brought back into the shape they were in once.

Some men enquire, “Why?” Simply because they have dishonored the spirit and bodies that God gave them; therefore God will make a desolation of those bodies and spirits, and he will throw them back into the earth; that is, that portion that belongs to the earth will go back there. And so it will be with our spirits: they will go back into the elements or space that they once occupied before they came here.

Now, you may believe what you have a mind to about it; it is just as easy to conceive of a dissolution as to conceive of anything else. Chemists take elements and dissolve them and separate them, and can it not be done with our bodies? I answer yes, and with our spirits too, just as easy as a chemist can take a five-dollar piece and dissolve it into an element that is like water. Can that be restored again? It can: it can be dissolved, and it can be brought back again. And upon the same principle can our bodies be dissolved and restored again.

You know I am always at work at something that I can make you understand. As to eloquence, brother Taylor told you last Sunday what it was. “What is it?” says one. Nothing but truth, and that in its simplicity. My prayers are—and if your prayers were always right, you would pray so also—that our leader, brother Brigham, would convey things in a plain and simple manner. And you should also pray that I might do it; for I know there are many things laid before this people that hundreds of them do not understand.

I have often talked to this people about their ceasing from their evil ways. You hear the same things every Sabbath. Brother Case has been teaching it, and my exhortation today is, Cease from your dissensions.

Well, there are scores of people in this congregation who do not know what that means. When brother Brigham says a thing is so and so, and I answer that I do not believe a word of it, that is justifying my conduct. Do you not see it is? You would not believe that there are people in this congregation who are so ignorant that they do not understand this; but there are. Some are so ignorant that they will make fun of this, and they are of all the most ignorant. You never saw a learned man or a learned woman, who was a gentleman or a lady, that would ever ridicule a man or woman for not being better educated.

There is a difficulty with many of the Elders who go to England, to the United States, and to the islands of the sea: they do not explain things in that simple manner which they ought to do; but they use words that are above the capacity of the people.

Go into Philadelphia, New York, Rochester, and many other great cities, and you will find the most ignorant people that are in the world. In those very cities there are thousands and hundreds of thousands that do not know as much as my old cow.

You may think that is extravagant; but there was a Baptist priest as ignorant as that—a Mr. Barrett, who kept an academy called Barrett’s Academy, in London. He did not know what baptism or repentance was, and we could not teach him, he was so ignorant and stupid.

But let one of my wives go up to a cow of mine, and say, “So,” and the cow knows what that means, and will stand still. Then my wife says to her, “Don’t you kick one bit while I am milking you. If you do, I will whip you;” and the old cow stands still till the last drop of milk is drawn.

There are a great many men and women who do not know as much as that: but you can teach cattle, for there is instinct in them; and you can teach a horse, for we have seen it done in this city. Did not God cultivate a donkey one time? He did. Yes; the Lord cultivated the ass, and he spoke and rebuked the Prophet: and cannot he do the same now? Did he not speak to a raven and tell it to carry food to Elijah?

These are a few preliminary remarks. I have said what I have said, and you may take from it what you please. We have to learn the principle of obedience and do as we are told.

As a general thing, this people will listen and do what brother Brigham and brother Heber say; but there are some who will not do what their Bishops say. Does that show obedience? You cannot obey him and then disobey his brethren that are with him. If a wife cannot be obedient to me, will she be obedient to anybody else? I don’t think she will; but I think, if you place anybody else in my situation, she will disobey him, and she will disobey every other one that she may go with, and there is no end to her disobedience.

I have got to be obedient to whom? To my leader. It does not make any odds what he says. If he says, “Brother Heber, go and build a barn thus and so,” and he gives me a sketch of that barn, and I go to work and build it, there is obedience. Well, after I built it, there is something about the barn that he does not like, or that does not suit him, and he says, “Brother Heber, I want you to go and take that away and put up such and such things;” and then he tells me to take down the barn. I go and do it. Then he tells me to build it again, and I do it. That is obedience. You see it, do you not?

I cannot honor God nor angels unless I am obedient to my leader; neither will God honor me, except I will honor the words of those men whom he sends. Do you know it? You know you have got to come to that standard, every man and every woman. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.” (John xiii. 20.)

If I could not see the spirit of obedience in you, I could not warrant you, neither could I warrant any man or woman, nor could any Prophet or Patriarch warrant you salvation. We must be passive in the hands of the authorities, as this pitcher was passive in the hands of the potter that made it.

Gentlemen, ye Elders of Israel, whether you are old men, young men, or middle-aged, you have got to learn the lesson of obedience.

Now, brethren, do you not think it is about time that we began to learn? Does middle age or does old age excuse a man? No, it does not. Well, then, what will justify a man in doing wrong? Not anything. To do as I am told is my duty. It is written in the Bible somewhere, “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams.” If I want to honor God, let me honor those whom he has sent and whom he has placed to dictate and control the affairs of his kingdom.

I frequently talk about the clay in the hands of the potter. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “I will show you a thing that I cannot tell you. Go down to the potter’s house, and I will be there, but you shall not see me; and I will make that potter mar a vessel.” Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house, and the Lord showed him the very thing he had promised; for the potter undertook to make a vessel, and the clay marred in his hands, and he cut it off the wheel and threw it into the mill; “and now,” says he, “take it out again and shape it into a ball, and turn it into a vessel of honor.” He did that very thing, though it is not written. The Scriptures say that out of the same lump he made a vessel first unto dishonor, and then unto honor.

I used to preach upon that in Nauvoo, and Joseph said it was the true interpretation. Now, Jeremiah was a man like brother Brigham, brother Heber, Amasa, and thousands of the servants of God that were valiant. There are thousands here that have never seen a potter’s house. But if I was in one, I could take a lump of clay and show you; and perhaps, being out of practice, it would mar in my hands: then I would throw it back into the mill and grind it, and afterwards I would take it up again and make a vessel unto honor. And thus the Lord said to Jeremiah, “As you see that clay mar in the hands of the potter, so shall it be with the house of Israel. They shall go and be in prison till I bring them out and make them vessels unto honor.” That is to be done in the latter days, when the Lord is to say to the dry bones, “Come forth,” and so on. Go and read the Bible, and you will learn about it. It will be just so with thousands and tens of thousands who will embrace “Mormonism:” they will go back into the mill again, through disobedience.

I do not believe, of all the Branches of this church that were raised up twenty-five years ago, that there is one man out of twenty who now stands firm and is living. Of the two thousand whom I and my brethren baptized, when we first went to old England, I do not believe there are five hundred now in this Church.

Brother Brigham and I paid from ten to fifteen thousand dollars to emigrate Saints from that country to the States. But where are they now? They have not all remained with us; and, in fact, it was not six months before many of them turned round and cursed us. They would not live their religion: they were stupid, and wanted their own way like a mule. All such characters will go overboard, and they will have to lie there till the Lord Almighty says, “Go and deliver the Gospel to them again.” I am talking what I know and what I realize.

Brethren and sisters, you have all got to be tested; but I know I cannot force things into your minds: I can only tell you things as I see them. There are a great many of this people that are exulting, and they feel as though they could whip a hundred men each: but you are not going to have very much trouble this fall.

Those troops seem to feel determined to come here. There are about 1,400 of them; and, with their officers and servants, altogether there will be upwards of 2,000. Captain Van Vliet advised them to turn in somewhere and fix up and stay for the winter; but he had no orders about the matter: therefore all he could do was to give them good counsel. But when he found they could not be pre– vailed upon to take his advice, he told them that if they attempted to come in here we should slay them. When they heard this they shouted with anger, and the next day they traveled thirty miles towards this place: they made two days’ march in one.

While brother Jones was there, they exulted over us and sang all manner of songs, telling how they were going to kill brother Brigham and all those who would uphold “Mormonism;” and they seemed to be as crazy as fools. They swore that they would use every woman in this place at their own pleasure—that they would slay old Brigham and old Heber; and they actually think that there are many—especially women—that will feel glad should they enter this valley, that they may be reprieved. Indeed they carry on in a most disgraceful and disgusting manner.

How long is it since brother Brigham proffered to release all the women in this Territory who wished to be released? At the last October Conference. That woman is to blame who wanted to be free and did not take the liberty that was given; and I say to all of mine that want to go, Go, and I will give you all the writings you want; and, besides that, I will give you the means to help you away.

These are my feelings in relation to those who want to go away. I say you shall have the privilege; for we will prepare the way so that you can go, if there are any who wish to go; and such has always been the case. But, as it happens, there are none who want to go, that we know of.

In relation to those soldiers coming here, they never can come, so long as the Lord God Almighty gives us strength to resist them. And that is not all. There is no man that can rule over this people but Brigham Young.

[The congregation shouted, “Amen.“]

And as long as we uphold him as the man holding the keys of this kingdom, he shall rule as Governor of this people. What a foolish thing it would be for us to drop brother Brigham and say that a wicked man should have that position! Oh! The hell and the sorrow that this people would see! But we never will have any other man so long as he liveth; and then it shall be his successor in office—the man whom God Almighty appoints; and no other man.

The brethren talk about our freedom. Why, we are just as free as the old veterans of the revolution were before they got their independence.

We have declared our independence. But, gentlemen and ladies, we have got to maintain that by the strength of Jehovah. And that man and that woman who cannot stand up to the test, I ask you to leave as quick as you can; for when the time of the test comes, as the Lord God Almighty lives, if you then leave us or betray us, that is the end of you.

Do not exult over our enemies; but when you have an opportunity, get down upon your knees and cry unto the Lord God till you get his Spirit, and be as clay in the hands of the potter, and learn to do as you are told. This is the thing to learn. The virtue is not altogether in taking a fiddle and playing the tune, but it is something of a job to dance to the tune.

This year’s trouble will not be much. It is not going to amount to a great deal; but it will amount to this—a collision between this people and the United States; and the gate will be shut down between us and them. This is already done to a certain extent; but many of you do not see it.

We have been telling you these things for years; but did you believe them? Yes, and so did the devils. The devils believe and tremble; but where is the practice, gentlemen? Where is your practice, ladies? Your practice has been chiefly exhibited on your heads, around your necks and shoulders, and all over you. Does this correspond with what is about to take place with us—when there is about to be a collision with us and the world—when we have got to maintain the kingdom of God? As brother Brigham says, it is the kingdom of God or nothing.

Brother Case was talking about our being an independent people; and I say we are independent—just as independent as we ever shall be, until we completely gain the victory. This we have got to do by faith and by good works. We have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as God Almighty willeth us to do; for all men are subject to him, to do his will, keep his commandments, and bring to pass his righteous purposes.

I would advise my brethren from this day to attend faithfully to their duties wherever they may be called upon to act; and I would advise my sisters to stay at home and attend to their domestic concerns, and prepare diligently for the approaching day of trial. Prepare for the worst; for you need not expect any better times than you now see.

I have told you you have seen the best times that you would see until the kingdom of God is established, for this world has to become subject to the kingdom of God and his Christ.

When the United States have done their best, then other nations will tackle us, and so things will go on, until every nation is brought into subjection to the kingdom of God. Go and read it in the Bible. I could not say anything else, if I should try.

All the difference between ancient and modern prophets is—we are fulfilling what they told, only it was not all written. The scenery is the same; and then, again, it is not. This is the fulness of all dispensations; and it so much bigger than any of the others, that all the rest are embodied in it.

Everything spoken of that has not been fulfilled will have to be fulfilled in this dispensation. The kingdom of God is set up in a degree: it is in embryo, and it will continue to receive strength. The child has proclaimed its liberty, although it has not got its full growth. The child is free; but he has got to whip out all the wicked and bring them into subjection to the kingdom of God, or to the kingdom of his Father. We are the boys that are being brought to this test. God is going to test every one of us—men, women, and children.

I will here say, in the name of Israel’s God, that I will not be trammeled in the purposes of God; neither should any other one. I have said the day of petting is past with me, and it should be past with all good men. I heard my leader say, the other day, that he could manage the affairs of this people and of the United States and of Europe with more ease to his mind than he can listen to the little, peevish, trifling complaints that women bring to him. A good deal of it is little peevishness.

What kind of matters do they trouble him with? Why, one woman runs and—“Brother Brigham, my old hen has laid an egg; and I heard that if I set it on one end it would be a hen, and if on the other it would be a rooster; and I want a rooster.” That is a simile.

I am speaking of this for you to let him alone. If you have difficulties, brethren and sisters, go to your Bishops, and let those Bishops investigate the case; and if it is worthy of his notice, let your Bishop go to brother Brigham and have his counsel upon it.

When our President says that these little things trouble him, I say they should never go to him at all. It is generally women that have to go—that class of them that seem to wish to do all the business.

You will frequently see from twenty to sixty women round that Tithing Store. If I have any business there, I go and do it, and then go about my other business. The brethren there are weary; and I want brother Hunter to have his days set to deal out to the people. You should be at home gleaning wheat or knitting. Let me advise you, sisters, to be humble and prayerful before your God. Pray for your husbands, if you have got any; and if you have not, pray for those men who lead you and bear off this kingdom.

You do not have to go out to fight; and you should think of this when you are gadding about from one place to the other—you that have so much visiting to do that you even visit on Sundays too. I want to know why such ones are not serving their God and taking care of that which is put into their hands?

Now, am I hard upon the sisters? No. The good woman sits here and says it is heaven to her to listen to such teachings. I do not wish to say anything to such persons; but it is those that are guilty that I am after.

Do I want to hurt your feelings? No; I would not for my right arm. But stop going to brother Brigham with your little family affairs. I hardly ever go to brother Brigham’s office but there are some sisters there—sometimes from ten to twenty in a day; and some few come to me, but not many.

Do I advise a woman to leave her husband? No. But, say I, Go home; make peace, and be a comfort to your husband. Do I advise a man to leave his wife? No. But I tell him to go home and nourish her, comfort her, and clothe her, and then see that she does her duty. I will admit there are some men who are hard and over– bearing; and then there are some women who cannot be controlled.

I have one or two women that I cannot control, and never did; and I would as soon try to control a rebellious mule as to control them. I have not given them a word of counsel for the last eight years but what they have murmured or rebelled against and called me a hard man. I have not told you who they are; but I know them.

Is it wrong to speak of these things? I have one or two women that I cannot control, and never did. “Do you support them?” says one. Yes, as well as the best women I have. And if you want to know why I do it, it is because I want to get along with it as well as I can in this life. But I can tell you that if the time comes when I am obliged to desert and lay waste my habitation, I will then lug them no more.

Let us do a good work and be a good people. Do I give you the credit of being the best people on the face of God’s earth? I do. There is not a better people on the face of God’s footstool; and they are generally doing just as well as they know how to do.

I see the evil that is coming next year, except God frustrates their designs—which he will do, if we are faithful. Our enemies may undertake to send from fifty to a hundred thousand troops next year; and if we are faithful, God will frustrate their designs. We can plead with the Father, and then it will depend upon our faithfulness as a people.

If there is a good woman that has not got a good man, she can be a good woman as she is; and if there is a good man that has not got a good woman, he can be a good man without one. Before I would live in a quarrel, I would take my johnnycake and go into the woods! And if I was a man that worked on the public works, and I could not live in peace, I would take my victuals with me, and I would stick to God and to his kingdom, and I would not quarrel. You know I am not a quarrelsome man. This is what I call disputation.

Let us do right, keep the commandments of God, and live in peace and quietude. Is there a man in this congregation that has any difficulty with me? No, there is not; or if there is, I do not know it. If I have any difficulty with anyone, I tell them of it; and then if I am in the fault, I repent and make satisfaction, if any is needed; and if they are in fault, I expect them to do the same. That is the Spirit of God, is it not? It is the Spirit that should exist with every man.

Mr. Buchanan and his coadjutors are striving to oppress Utah and deprive us of our constitutional rights. They have taken the Eastern mail from us, and they will endeavor to take away everything they have given us, and will make their heaviest efforts to destroy this people. But if this community will entirely cease to do any evil and will unitedly live their religion, God Almighty will so confound their enemies that they cannot bring an army into this country. He will do that, if you will do as you are told.

When I think of those things that exist among some of this people, I am grieved. “Do you not quarrel, brother Heber?” says one. No, I do not. But when a woman begins to dispute me, about nine times out of ten I get up and say, “Go it,” and then go off about my business; and if ever I am so foolish as to quarrel with a woman, I ought to be whipped; for you may always calculate that they will have the last word.

I know that there are some quarrelsome individuals, but I do not want any such spirits about me.

When I sleep, I have fifteen shooters, six shooters, and all other kind of shooters; and the devils do not come there: and if they succeed in troubling me, they have to get into some other person’s body. I have left the Devil’s kingdom and have enlisted in the kingdom of Jesus, and I never intend to turn away from it.

As for our enemies, they never can injure us; but they will make their heaviest strides against us. And it will not be long before the world will turn over the riches of the world to us, and I know it. If you will only live faithful, you will never be driven to the necessity of burning up your houses, your lumber, or your fruit trees.

Our peach and apple trees are beginning to bear fruit, and we may just as well eat the fruit from them as not. But if we do not live our religion, we may have to go into the mountains and take it Indian fashion.

The United States have robbed the Indians, and now they are trying to afflict us; and they will go to hell with all the nations that forget God.

Brethren and sisters, God bless you! May the Lord God Almighty bless you, every one; and you may consider the blessing just the same as though I had my hands upon your heads; for every one of you shall be blessed who will do right and uphold his servants.

Now, let brother Brigham alone, will you not? I do not suppose there are any who want to annoy him. But let me say to all of you, if you have any difficulties that you cannot settle, go to your Bishops; and then, if the case is worthy of further notice, your Bishops can go to brother Brigham and get the proper information and settle the difficulty accordingly. You have no idea how he is troubled; for of all the trouble and perplexing things on the earth, the little complaints and murmurings of women are the most tedious.

God Almighty bless you, brethren and sisters! And I bless you, and I bless the air, the earth, the mountains, and everything that is in these regions. I bless the elements in these mountains; and my prayer is that the fathers of these Lamanites—the old prophets and old patriarchs—will visit them by night and by day; and they will do it when the proper time comes, and they will visit this people when they are worthy and when it is necessary. God Almighty will arouse every tribe and every nation that exists in the East, West, North, and South, and they will be on hand for our relief. Now, mark it; for the day is nigh at hand, and it will be here sooner than you can lay up your corn, your barley, your wheat, and the comforts of life: yes, they will be here for our relief.

I feel that I am pleading with this people to stop all bickerings and to be Saints in very deed. We give you the name of being the best people upon the earth. Brother Brigham says that this people are doing the best they can. I will admit that. But when a man steals, that man is not living righteously. When a woman steals, I do not believe that she is doing the best she knows.

This people, as a community, with but here and there a solitary exception, are doing about as well as any other people could do upon the face of the earth. I believe and know that I do the best I can to please God and my brethren: I leave it to them if I do not. I did last week: I labored till I thought I should faint; and I would rather die than be in rebellion. Do I take a course to hurt brother Brigham, brother Spencer, brother Woodruff, brother Amasa, or any other Saint? No, I do not.

God bless you! I want my brethren to live near me, so that I can see them. God bless you, brother Phineas, and brother Case, and the old Patriarch! And God bless you, John and William, and Betsy and Sally! Is not that manifesting good feelings? That is the way to be happy. Now let us go home and take a course to be industrious and happy and to secure a livelihood.”

There is considerable sickness from colds in our city: it is a kind of epidemic. It has been in the horses’ and mules, and now it is turned upon us; and let us fast and pray that the sickness may erase, and it shall not continue upon the house of Israel; for I rebuke it in the name of Israel’s God, and you shall rebuke it, and it shall be turned away from us, and it shall go to our enemies, and they shall see sorrow. They cannot come here. But if they will be peaceable and behave themselves, they shall live, and we will have compassion upon them, though they are in our hands as much as any people ever were in the hands of another upon the face of the earth; but in the mercy of God they have been spared because they are ignorant. But would to God that they were composed of the priests of the day and the thousands that have caused Joseph and Hyrum and many others to lie down in the dust! Would not we have joy, if they were along here? [Voices: “We would.”] Yes, and so would I. But these troops are all foreigners—almost all of them: they are what we call the low Dutch, the Irish, the English, and of almost all nations. They are ignorant of the wicked course and object of this movement against us; and so are many, if not all of the officers who lead them. But they must go where they are ordered by their superiors, or resign. However, they cannot get here to work their abominations, destruction, and death. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, September 20, 1857.

There is but one course for this people to take, in order to be Saints; and that is to do right, to be just, to be true, and to be honest. I will tell you, gentlemen, it is not the character of a Saint to lie, to deceive, and to take the advantage of one another: that is not the character of a Saint. It is to receive the truth from God, from his Son Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Ghost.

Just as sure as I abide in the vine, so sure am I to partake of that Spirit that is in the Father; and it comes down through the Son, continuing down through that vine till it comes to me.

Well, I am standing very near the head of that vine; that is, the vine that is springing out of the Father, even in the latter days. Brother Brigham is the head of the vine, and I stand right by him, and every man that holds the Priesthood stands right by us, and should have the same Spirit that we have, and the same that was in Jesus Christ.

Now, if I have got the Holy Ghost in me, I am dictated by the Father, and by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost; and everything is clean and right between me and the Father. Then what is there to hinder me asking the Father, in the name of Jesus, and receiving, if all is right and there is no obstruction?

If there is an obstruction, that obstruction is not in the Father, it is not in Jesus, neither is it in the Holy Ghost; but if there is an obstruction, it is in me. I caused it, did I not? Yes, I did. But if we have the principles of this Gospel dwelling in us, that is by the Spirit of truth; and they are life.

Every word of truth you receive and treasure up in your bosoms is light and life, for light is life; and if these principles are in us, and we cultivate them, I tell you there is no spirit of death in us. But we abandon the principles of death, and there is no place in us for death; but it is light, and life, and intelligence; and if those principles continue to dwell in us, we will be like a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

How can a man lie when there is not an untruth in him? How can he take the advantage of his brother? How can he act the hypocrite? How can he be dishonest, when there are none of these things in him? How can he do any of these evil things, when there is nothing but light and truth in him?

I am aware that a great many people have not an idea that light is life, and truth is light: they do not believe it nor comprehend it; but it is so. Have I a disposition to lie to my brother? If I had said anything, and brother Brigham was to say, “Brother Heber, how is it? Is it so?” I would not dare to lie to him; for he holds the keys of life, light, and intelligence to this whole nation: he holds the keys of light and truth; and you might as well lie to God as to lie to him; for the man that would lie to him would lie to God.

Now, if any man follow the practice of lying, deceiving, or working any manner of iniquity, I do not care if he pretends to be a Saint today, his corruption will surely be made manifest; and although he may have a name to live and to dwell among this people, yet, if he continues that course, he will go to destruction, both body and spirit.

Take a person that practices evil, and you will see that person uneasy: such individuals are never easy a minute. But you take a person who has got the Spirit of God, who is humble, meek, and of a childlike spirit, that is the man. I do not care if he is in a mudhole, neither do I care if he has forty mobocrats after him, or if he is astraddle of a cannon, he is happy.

This makes me think of brother Amasa and brother McGinn: the mob took them and rode them on a cannon. Well, this is easier than it is to ride on a rail.

They asked them to preach; so brother McGinn preached to them, showing the reverence of the animal creation towards their God, and said, “The hen put down her head and took a drink of water, and then lifted up her head in thanks and adoration to her God. Well, you see, there is a good deal of thankfulness and reverence in a hen.” “Amen,” says brother Amasa: “Lord, make us all hens.” That was about the winding up of the discourse; and by preaching these things they gained the affections of those mobbers, so that they let them go.

Brethren, let us take the counsel that we received from brother Spencer; and let us be humble and be Saints; and let every man honor his calling and make it honorable; and by so doing, God will honor that man, and he will honour every man who honors that man and who honors his religion. If every man will live his religion, serve his God, and honor his Priesthood, we never will be troubled from this day henceforth and forever; no, never.

Will our enemies come among us? They won’t come this year; they may try as much as they please.

[President B. Young: “Except we let them in.”]

No, never can they come here, except we let them in.

Well, as the evil is measurably turned away this year, if the Saints will be faithful, they will be foiled next year, and then more abundantly the year after that, and so on. But they will keep sending their troops and forces from year to year and from time to time, and you need not lay down your watch. The day has come when the Devil is coming with all his combined forces: he has laid a siege against the kingdom of God, and it never will cease till this kingdom triumphs.

It is for you to be just as good judges of the truth as I am; and you will be, if the truth dwells in you.

Brethren, let me tell you that I have no spirit in me to shed blood. I never had it in me but once in my life, except I have it in me when I am angry. Once I was inspired by the Almighty with that spirit, and that was in Nauvoo; and so was brother Brigham; and I felt to say that I was sorry that peace was declared. We had just got ready when the gap was shut up.

Do I want to shed the blood of my brethren and sisters, or to see it shed? No: and neither do you, unless the Holy Ghost dictates for us to shed the blood of our enemies; then it is just as right as it is for us to partake of the sacrament. But I wish they would take the hint, and go the other way, and not attempt to come here. We do not want to hurt them; but if they come upon us, and we have to repel them by the force of arms, God Almighty will give us the power to do it: now, mark it.

You know, I said that I had wives enough to whip the United States; and why? Because they will whip themselves, and my wives would not have to resist them.

This is a good day; and what is there for us to do? It is for us to take a course to lay up our grain, our corn, our barley, and oats. A great many of you have been brought up on oatmeal porridge. I have been in the old country, and seen you live on it, and have eaten it with you; and so has brother Hyde.

There are thousands of people in England that would consider they were perfectly happy, if they could get one spoonful of oatmeal each day for life. I have heard brother Brigham state the same thing. Why, here are women, and men, too, who sing before us, with whom I have eaten oatmeal porridge; and I like it, for it is digested very quickly, and leaves people very comfortable.

And now, take a course to lay up your stores and prepare for the worst. We are blest, this year, above all the blessings that have been since the earth was organized.

Here is brother James Smithies: he is working some land on shares for me upon the Church farm. He has this year raised one-third more than any previous year, and on less ground. And this people are blest in proportion like that. Who has done it? God has done it, and has blest this people, because they have repented of and forsaken their sins, and confessed them, many of them.

Well, if we take this course, he will continue to bless us and to multiply blessings upon us; but, let me tell you, brethren and sisters, if you persist in evil, in lying, and in your deceptions, the curse of God will be upon you, and you will be cursed.

I do not allude to any, only those of that character; and if there are any of that character present, I will say to them, If you feel disposed to persist in your wickedness, you shall see sorrow, while the virtuous and the honest shall increase in blessings; their crops, their stock, and all that they have shall increase. There is no blessing that can be withheld from a righteous man or a righteous woman: the heavens cannot withhold its blessings; but all the blessings of the heavens and of the earth are theirs, because they are heirs.

We are to become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What blessings are to be withheld from Jesus Christ? There is no blessing pertaining to this earth but what belongs to Jesus: then there is no blessing that will be withheld from the faithful.

Brethren and sisters, we are heirs with him to the estate of his Father, just as much as two sons and one daughter and their faithful children are legal heirs to a father’s estate. When a father dies and makes his will, he wills that property to them that are faithful to him; and so it is with us; and it is natural.

I feel to ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to help my brethren to live their religion, honor their Priesthood and calling; and I pray you, brethren, to live your religion and serve your God, that we may see the power and the magnitude of our God in the last days. I tell you there never were any people, since the world was organized, that have seen such mighty and romantic power of God as this people will see.

Is there a collision between us and the United States? No; we have not collashed: that is the word that sounds nearest to what I mean. But now the thread is cut between them and us, and we never will gybe again; no, never, worlds without end.

[Voices: “Amen.”]

You may think that I am not correct; but I am in the habit of telling the truth when in fun as well as in earnest; and men that cannot are not worth much.

We have never been the aggressors, but they have raised the weapons of war to exterminate us as many as five times, and they have robbed us of all we had. I have but three little articles in this world that I obtained before I was a “Mormon”—an earthen vessel, a tin tea canister, and a chest that brother Brigham made for me: he made me several, but that was the first one.

I have been robbed, and plundered, and afflicted, if you call it affliction; but I do not call it affliction. I have heard many tell of what sorrowful times they have had; but they are as good times as ever I had in this life. I leave it to brother Brigham, if I have not been as happy in the mud as I have been anywhere. Some of you have seen these times in Iowa: I think some of you were there. I had happy days during those times; and I am happy and thankful that I live in the tops of these mountains, right on the backbone, where we have got on some good spurs. I tell you we boast that we are on the tops of the mountains; but let us boast in the Lord and in his strength.

We have received the Gospel of repentance—of baptism for the remission of sins; and we have received the Holy Ghost, and it has brought us here. Well, a great many tell what sorrowful times they have had. “O dear, I think I have a perfect right to lie like the Devil; for I think what I have passed through ought to atone for all I have done.” It is a poor coot, let me tell you, that will make such excuses. Let me tell you, that does not pay for one lie.

Supposing you lie, or steal, or commit adultery, and so on—what you have suffered is not going to pay for this debt. Independently of these things, what are trials for? To prove our integrity—to try us, whether we will stand to God and to his kingdom. The Bible says that we are to come up through great tribulation; that is, the hardest kind of trials. You know, the harder you put on the robes to the washboard, the better they are washed.

I want to bring up a comparison. Brother Brigham is the head of the limb: and which has the hardest work to bear—he that has to lug all that is attached to that vine, or you that are branches of that vine? Which is the hardest, and which has the most to carry—the tree, or the one apple that clings to the tree? Which has the most suffering to pass through—one individual apple, or the tree itself?

Your troubles, and trials, and perplexities are nothing more than one apple, in comparison to brother Brigham’s cares; and still I presume there are lots who think that they have more trouble than brother Brigham or brother Heber. But you do not appreciate your privileges and blessings: you are not thankful to the giver, or to the benefactor; and that makes you troublesome, and you feel as if you could not endure it: you feel that you are passing through more than all the rest of the Saints.

Do you suppose that I calculate to get any pay for what I pass through? No; but I am thankful, and praise the Lord every day of my life that I was true to Joseph, and to Hyrum, and the brethren that have gone. What would those give that were not faithful, if they had been as true as brother Brigham and brother Heber? They would give all they have got; yes, they would sit down and be skinned from head to foot, and have every nail pulled out of their toes and fingers. I am thankful that I was faithful; but I am sorry for them: but that man that has murmured, and complained, and tried to make brother Joseph a dishonest and unhallowed man, has great need to mourn for himself.

If I were in the position of some, instead of letting a week pass before I made an atonement to the satisfaction of those offended, I would go right off and do it at once. Some men come upon this stand who have acted unrighteously, and forsaken and betrayed us, and thereby brought death and destruction upon thousands of men, women, and children. They will get up and say, “I have sinned against God and in his sight; and now, brethren, I want you to restore me to perfect fellowship and friendship.”

Do you not see that they want to be restored, every limb and joint, to the perfect embraces of this people? Well, we have to take them at their word and receive them into fellowship. Do I feel to say, Yes, receive them? Yes, I do. But are they in full fellowship when they have been out of the Church ten or twenty years? How can such a man be restored to full fellowship without a time for making restitution to the complete satisfaction of all the parties aggrieved—until we can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into our joys and partake of our blessings?” This is my faith. If a person takes a course to injure me, although he might not injure, yet it is the same as though he did: the will is taken for the deed.

I look to my head and to my governor—the man who holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. I have thought, a great many times, of what the Lord has said, through his servant Joseph the Prophet, that not a hair falleth from the head of a righteous man without the notice of our heavenly Father. Do you think that God does not notice little lies and deceptions—little this, that, and the other?

Do you believe, brethren and sisters, that that man who does not appreciate the kindness of his benefactor that feeds him, and clothes him, and administers to his wants—do you suppose that he will be thankful to God for his favors? No; the men or the women who do not appreciate the kindness of their benefactor, are not thankful to God. They are under condemnation; they are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; and I know it.

Did I ever receive a kindness or a blessing from a person without being grateful for it? No, never; but, say I, “Thank you for this, because it comes when I am in need of it.” Well, supposing I mete out to a person from year to year, and he or she does not appreciate it, but says, “It is nothing more than your reasonable service, Mr. Kimball, to give me a living.” Well, we admit of that; and it is no more than reasonable that you should make some kind of acknowledgement and show kindness to me.

I would not give a dime for you, except your love is manifested by your works—by your faith and works. Love or hatred is manifested in this way. Do not I prove to that man that I return the compliment to him by my kindness? The man or woman that will not return the compliment is not of much account.

I have said for years that never—no, never again will I be subject to such cursed scoundrels as the United States Government have sent here as officers. I say, in the name of Israel’s God, I will not.

[Voices: “Amen.”]

James Buchanan now occupies the chair of state. He and his counselors, his coadjutors, his cabinet, and Congress have met and planned the destruction of this people—of brother Brigham and his associates in particular; and the priests of the day say amen to it; and they exhort the people to say amen to it; and the whole people of the United States are under condemnation. They consented to the death of Joseph, Hyrum, David, Parley, and lots of men, women, and children. The ground is planted with men, women, and children, from Nauvoo to this place; and the world have consented to it, and they say it is just.

The Government, the President, the heads of the military departments and of all the governmental affairs have consented to these things.

When we were poor, and lived on cow-hides and cattle, skunks and thistle roots, brother Brigham and his brethren paddled this way and that way, and sought out this place.

While we were in Winter Quarters, 500 men were demanded. They traveled over the Plains and gained a part of Mexico, which is this land. Then came grasshoppers and crickets, and eat up our crops; and our enemies have all the time been saying that it is just—they deserve it.

Now, brethren, if you can comprehend what I have said, they shall suffer all that we have, and it shall be doubled upon them, and then it shall be pressed down.

I know that while you and I have no feelings of anger, we are right. Jesus says, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” The Scriptures say that Jesus said this; but if he did not, it is just as true as anything that is written: it is God Almighty’s truth. Yes, they will meet it in the United States, beginning at the head.

But we are free! They have laid a snare to entrap us and to kill brother Brigham; and they want to hang him between the heavens and the earth, and every other man that will support him: but as the Lord God Almighty lives, they shall meet that also; and if I had the power, I would tell it to them so that they could hear it. Do I fear them? I do not fear anything that is upon this earth.

Do I fear my God? No; but I love him, and I fear to offend him. He is my Father, and I sprang out of his loins, just as my son William Kimball’s children sprang out of his loins; and every man and woman that has been upon this earth was once in our Father’s loins, just as much as my children ever were in mine; and Jesus was the firstborn, and we are heirs of our Father and our God, and we will gain the prize through much tribulation.

Let me tell you that ten years will not pass away before God will play with this nation as he did with Pharaoh, only worse.

I tell you these things, that you may know that wherein you measure out you have got to receive back; and where you lie, you have got to take that lie back; and where you offend your God and benefactor, as the Lord God liveth, you have to take that back, or you will get a scourging—that is, where your benefactor is a man of truth and is walking in his calling.

If I abuse brother Brigham, it is my business to make satisfaction to that man. Well, I would not offend him nor any good man in this congregation; no, I would not. If I offend him, I do it ignorantly; and if I did, I would repent of it. I did offend him once or twice in my life, and I repented in tears and in sorrow; and I wish to God there had never such things existed since I was born. Well, I was ignorant, and I was a child. Well, if I have got to make those recantations, you have, too, when you offend or do wrong to each other.

I am teaching what you call strong doctrine; but I am teaching nothing but what is true. It was true to me, and it is equally true to you. It is the duty of every Elder, Teacher, High Priest, and Deacon to begin to live a new life. Why? Can you do any better than you are doing this day? Yes.

This year I have built a barn 102 feet long. Well, then, the next year I may build two such barns. This proves that the more a man does the more he is capable of doing. But because I made ten rods of fence last week, does that prove that I can make twenty this week? If you, sisters, knit one stocking this week, must you knit two next week, and kill yourselves? Or, if you have put ten yards of cloth in your skirt this year, should you put in twenty next year? No; but put in six next year. But I want to show you the extremes.

I was speaking here, last Sunday, by the permission of brother Brigham, of brother Eddington. He is an honest man; or, if he is not, we will prove him.

[President B. Young: “You will prove him to be an honest man.”]

Well, brother Eddington seemed to fall in with the idea. We want the ladies to bring in their surplus clothes for brother Eddington to sell for wheat and other grain. I speak of the females, because they have got the most clothes in their hands. If you have got five dresses, hand two over to him, and let him buy wheat, corn, barley, pork, mutton, tallow, &c.; and then he will pay you in those articles for your coats, jackets, pantaloons, and bustles! Just put in your bustles there, and get them full of wheat instead of bran!

I have foreseen the necessities of these things.

Go and take your clothes, and do not be afraid that you will never get any more; for, let me tell you, if you will lay up these stores, you will have clothing till it shall be a drug and a trouble to you.

You do not believe that, some of you; but I tell you, if you do not believe it, and if you do not know it, it is because you are not living your religion. But the day will be, and it is right at our doors, when thousands and millions in the United States and in the old countries will come to us and render to us all the rich things that this earth affords, in exchange for food.

Brother Eddington says that where there is one person that brings clothing there are twenty that have wheat to dispose of. Go into the country north and south, and there is not one woman in ten that has got as much cloth as you have on your backs today.

There are many before me that have got an abundance of as good clothes as ever were put on, while those who live in the country have scarcely any.

Do not be afraid of brother Eddington, for he is an honorable man, and will pay you in wheat, corn, buckwheat, tallow, or anything else that he can command. Well, you take a course to sustain him and buy wheat; and if you do not want it, there are others that are ready to take it; and the day will come when you will hand over your rich clothing and jewelry for it.

Do you not know that brother Brigham told you he would not deal it free again?

[President B. Young: “We will buy them too.”]

Brother Brigham Young does not lie, nor his brother Heber.

Well, now, am I going to save men and women by lying. No; I will save myself by telling the truth; and I will take the truth all the time, and others may take lies, and see which get to heaven first. I tell you, you will find us as far apart as are heaven and hell.

“Well,” says one, “Are you going to do this?” Yes, I am going to put one suit of clothes on and sell the rest, except a change; and see if the day does not come when I will have so many clothes that my wives will not have boxes to put them in.

I realize that I am a poor man—a worm of creation; but I just know that when I dwell in the truth—in Jesus Christ—when I dwell in his light and partake of his Spirit, I am right. I would give more for one hundred men of this character than I would give for this whole people, if they were not of that character. Can they whip the world? Yes; men of that character will whip everything that can be put on that road, from this place to Dan, and from there to Beersheba. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 6, 1857.

I can say, brethren, as far as I am concerned, that I have no particular anxiety about the final issue of “Mormonism.” But if I have any trouble about the matter, it is about a great many limbs or vines connected to that vine. Probably you understand what I mean when I am talking about vines and trees. I speak about these things because I most humbly desire to touch upon simple principles—that is, the most simple figures, that the most simple person in this congregation may understand me.

I am not troubled about the learned few—those that have learned right, and are taught of the Lord: I have no trouble about their understanding; for children may understand the things that I present, and any man that is taught directly from God will understand; he will understand the most simple things, and he will understand the greatest things; for the greatest things are the simplest things. Do you not know it?

There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who may now think that they are the smartest. That may be queer to you; it may be singular to many; but I have known of a great many instances of that kind.

When we go into a fruit orchard or vineyard, we find the husbandman, as he is called, who has charge of it; and I have myself seen very inferior trees that never brought forth any fruit. A great many men would come along and say to the husbandman, “Why don’t you take up that tree? It never will be of any account.” Those men do not understand, as the husbandman does, or they never would make such a speech.

Is there a way to restore that tree, and to make it one of the most thrifty trees in all the vineyard? Yes, there is. Well, what course will you take to do that? Take the old stock away and put a thrifty graft into the root, and then it becomes one of the most thrifty trees in the vineyard, because the young stock renews the old, and the old becomes a good tree.

So it is with you, many of you: yes, thousands of you will become mighty men, inasmuch as you honor your calling and receive nourishment from the Father, or from the root; for it comes from the root, and then spreads itself all through the vine, and every vine that is attached to that partakes of the same nourishment, and to the same extent, and in the same degree as the others.

Now, can you realize that? Bless your souls! Go into the gardens. I am going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended part of the vine? Do you know that? [Voices: “Yes.“] There is one woman that knows it; but she would not if she did not work in her garden; and those that do not work there do not know anything about it. I am talking to you that go into your gardens to work.

You may take watermelons, and you will find the largest at the extreme part of the vine. Can it be possible that the most extended part of the vine can bring forth as much as the most extended limb on a tree? Yes, it can. Where does it come from? From the root, and from thence into the main limb or vine, and then into every branch and twig that is connected to that vine.

Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become great and mighty men in the kingdom of God—yes, even Prophets? Does it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it does.

Now, you may take an apple tree, a grape vine, a plum tree, and you may take a cucumber vine, and all these trees and vines are one in their organization: they are all alike, only one is called a tree, and another a vine. They are also a little different in the fruit they bear: one is a peach, or a plum, another a grape, &c.; and these fruits are different in appearance, yet they are one in relation to the principle that governs them.

One man is called upon to be a Prophet, another to be an Apostle, another to be a Seventy, another a High Priest, another a Patriarch, and so on; and don’t you see they are all, in general features, alike? There is not one of them that is not attached to a root. How could I grow, if I were not attached to a tree or to a vine? I could not produce fruit.

Well, the nearer I approach to my Father and to Jesus in my conduct, the more I become like Joseph and the servants of God; and the more I become like those characters, the more perfect a pattern I become for others; and of course my fruit will be just like the characters I pattern after; and then, of course, my fruit will be just like the characters I am connected to. Will it have the same effect upon you? Why, of course it will. Will it have the same effect upon you, ladies—you, sisters? Yes; and it will have the same effect upon your children.

I do not know whether you understand me or not, but I wish you would have your gardens trimmed and kept clean; and if you do not have any, go into the mountains and to the timber countries.

I merely touch upon these things to refresh your minds, though I did not think anything about them when I got up; but if you will go and look at them—I mean every Elder, High Priest, Apostle, and Prophet in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—you will be benefited; for you ought to be exactly like one tree. What! Bring forth the same fruit? Yes, all be one in your works for the benefit of Israel.

Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are just like it.

Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces. That is the case with many of you.

Well, then, we say that, if the root is good, the tree is good, and the limbs, because they are attached to the tree and receive nourishment from the tree.

Well, if the root is not very good, the limbs, the tree, and the apples will not be very good, because the root is not very good.

You take a man that is not very good, and that has a wife that is not very good, and they cannot produce very good fruit, because the root is not good. Do you understand that, brother Hunter? [“Yes, Sir.”] Is it as plain as cattle? You understand how to originate good stock, and so do I. You go into England and into the New England States, and every man that is raising stock is taking a course to take away the ringed, and the streaked, and the little, dried-up fixings, and to produce a more noble stock. It is upon the same principle that this people should become regenerated.

Well, supposing that a man is a long way beneath his fellows, and is a little, dried-up, knotty, inferior man; can that man be cultivated? Yes, sir, he can; he can take a course in the principles of righteousness, by treasuring up truth; and truth is light, and light is life. Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light and life; and the most inferior man or woman can be regenerated through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you springing up unto everlasting life. That is the principle.

I throw out these few ideas to cause you to reflect. They may seem eccentric, but they are true.

Sometimes I am at work at an apple tree, and sometimes at a cucumber vine; but what is the difference? They have all roots, and they have all cores, and they are all produced for a noble purpose.

The aristocracy—that is, those that are called the aristocracy, came out of the old country: they came as far as Lehi came from Jerusalem, and so on, till they came into this country; but still those that remained behind considered themselves the aristocracy. But let me tell you those men that came here were the true aristocracy; they were the original stock; they were produced by the aristocracy, and they are the original stock. Those men were choice characters, and God spoke to them, and they came over here.

That is what they call aristocracy; that is as it is; though I never studied grammar; but I have looked into the Bible and into the Book of Mormon, and I have looked into the visions of eternity, and I know that I am true, and that I am of the true vine. I am one of the sons of those old veterans, and so is brother Brigham.

Will you let me talk just as I please today, ladies and gentlemen?

[Voices: “Yes.”]

Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men. Brother Joseph actually saw those men in vision; he saw us in a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others—the whole Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph mentioned came down through that channel.

My father’s father and his brothers intermixed by marriage with the Smiths, and uncle John Smith was baptized in Nauvoo for upwards of twenty of my kindred. They mixed up in marriage, and in that way the names became changed; for they were the old veterans.

There is another thing that brother Joseph said—viz., that we were positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born since I received my endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came through that lineage.

Never mind, brethren and sisters, give me your attention a little while. The gentleman that came to the stand with brother Brigham is Thomas B. Marsh. I tell you this, that you need not be overanxious.

Joseph told us these things, and I know them to be true. I know them by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and so do a great many men. We are and we were heirs when we were called and ordained to the Apostleship: we were of that class; yes, we were the sons and daughters of those that came down through that lineage.

We will yet save the Constitution of the United States. We will do it, as the Lord liveth, and we will save this nation, everyone of them that will be saved. Brother Brigham Young and brother Joseph Smith stand at our head, and will do that thing, as the Lord liveth. Yes, we, as their children, with our children to assist us, will do it. We have got that power, and so have they, and will bear the kingdom off victoriously to every nation that is upon God’s footstool; and I know it.

Let your hearts be comforted; for just as sure as that is true, so sure will we have good peace for three years from last winter. And why? Because we will make peace, and we will sustain it and support it, and we will bear off the kingdom and establish it. We will bring forth every one of those old veterans, and we will place them upon this land that they fought for. Now, mark it; for we will do it, and all the devils in hell cannot hinder it, if this people will only live their religion and do as they are told; and you cannot do as you are told without living your religion; and if you will do that, we never shall be troubled.

I tell you, if we now live our religion every day, inasmuch as the President of the United States, or the Senators or Legislators make laws to afflict us, the thing they design to bring upon us shall come upon themselves; and the affliction, the snares, the traps, and the gins which they lay for us, they themselves shall suffer with and be caught in. These words never shall fail.

Brethren and sisters, can you do as you are told? It is the easiest thing in the world.

[President Brigham Young: “Tell them something to do.”]

We want some thirty or forty yoke of oxen to go out and meet James A. Little’s company. Do you all say yes?

[The congregation responded, “Yes.”]

Tomorrow morning, at seven o’clock, we want forty yoke of cattle to help in our trains. You, Bishops, see to that, will you?

[” Yes, Sir.”]

I tell you we have got enough for you to do: we will call on you for another hitch by-and-by. Take care of your grain, and have all the sisters help to take care of it, and do not let the children waste it; for we do not want you to have enough scattered round to fat three hogs on the crumbs and pieces of bread that are around your door yards. Will you do that?

[President Young: “I guess they will.”]

My discourse is rather eccentric. It is in detachments. [Voice: “That is the way they are building the big ship in London.”] That is right, is it not, brother Carrington?

[” Yes, Sir.”]

But let us be attached together, and then we are one; let us yield up our will, and let it run into the tree or branch to which we are connected. Yield up your wills.

I will compare you to a drop of water; inasmuch as you are not willing to yield up, you cannot be one. Now, just let us all run into one drop, and let all the branches be connected to that one tree; and then will we not increase? We will.

Now, as to those enemies down here below, they are not going to trouble us: the brethren will have to go and help them in. Some of those baggage wagons are nearly to Bridger now, and they cannot get back. Their teams are failing fast, and the supposition is, they will have to hire our teams to help them in, but the soldiers will not come. There is nobody to molest them, but their minds are not quiet: they are scared almost to death; and the nearer those baggage wagons get here, the more they are afraid.

As to the army, one-fifth of them have deserted, and the others are making preparations to do so likewise. And as to old Harney, the old squaw-killer, they have made him stop to aid the Governor of Kansas, and, it is likely, to kick up jack. But we do not care anything about it or them. Let us lay up our grain and prepare for the siege, for it will come.

We commenced last Sunday to declare that we are a free people, and we will be free from this day henceforth and forever; and we never will come under that yoke again. I tell you, as my soul lives, the bow-pin has dropped out of old Bright’s bow, and the bow has dropped out, and the yoke is now on old Buchanan’s neck.

Did you ever see a yoke of cattle, and see one get loose, and the off-ox swinging round the yoke and knocking everybody’s shins? If you have, that is just the way with old Buchanan: he cannot do anything, but he will bruise somebody’s shins, and they will be after him, and he never shall rest again—no, never, until the time comes for us to redeem him. And that is not all. All his coadjutors, his cabinet, and all his governors—yes, I will say from here, or from Dan to Jerusalem—they shall go over the dam: they never shall rest in peace till the Lord Almighty has scourged them until they are fully satisfied.

The Lord God is going to play with them, as he did with Pharaoh in Egypt; and let me tell you, there will not be much fighting for us to do, if we live our religion; but God will use them to accomplish his own works, as the monkey did the cat, when he took the cat’s paw to pull the nut out of the fire. We will make monkeys of them, and we will make them crawl on all-fours, and they never will rest.

They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates. They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well, they are not yet punished as they will be; but they are in punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God’s government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at all times to take them when they do not think of it.

The President of this nation and his brethren in office, with all the rulers and all the priests, have sanctioned the destruction of this people. Yes, the President and all his coadjutors have sanctioned our death as much as if they had taken our lives, and they are a bloodthirsty nation. They have killed our Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles, and they have slain, or caused to fall, thousands—yea, thousands of our brethren and sisters, our wives, our fathers, and our mothers; and they shall see the same fulfilled upon themselves, and it shall be measured to them double for all they have dealt out unto us.

When we consider all things, are they not to be pitied? They are. If you will live your religion, you never will have anything to do but to live your religion and lay up stores and prepare for the scenarios that are to come; for, as true as the Lord lives, the people of the nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for raiment, and for protection; and that time is right at our door.

This is one thing to rouse our feelings; for God saw that you would not listen to the words of his servants, but you listen to your own words, and you did not have confidence to lay up stores. There is not one man to a hundred that ever did it; and that is proof sufficient that you did not believe what was said. This is but a shadow of what is coming: it is in embryo. You will see such a time as you never saw. But bless you we won’t be troubled. We will live as in the presence of God and of angels. And will we ever have to go into the moun– tains? No, never. If you will live your religion, you never will.

[Voice: “That is true.”]

Do just as brother Brigham tells you; for he always tells you what is right, and he generally tells you what I say is right; and if there is anything wrong, he will correct it and give you the truth. But do I wish to teach you an error? No; I have not such a desire in my heart.

Had I a desire before I was a “Mormon” to propagate an error? No. Why, bless you, I always was a “Mormon.” My father and grandfather were “Mormons;” and it is “Mormonism” right away back.

You know brother Brigham and I know our daddies; and if no other men on the face of the earth do, you may feel perfectly satisfied that all is right with us.

Now, let us be faithful, let us be humble, let us lay aside our pride and everything that is calculated to distress us or to distress our wives; and then let wives lay aside everything that is calculated to distress their husbands.

Wives, lay aside your vanity, and go to work and make everything that we need, until the time comes when the Lord will consecrate the whole earth unto this people. But that time is not now.

I do not do as many do; for many have looked at these troops that are coming with a degree of fear. But what are they? [Voice: “Scarcely worth picking up.”]

I wish there would never a pin’s worth of their property come in here, because there are those who think more of a pound of tea than they do of their religion.

[President B. Young: “There are not many of that class.”]

But there are a few. If there were not, I should feel discouraged; I should feel to give counsel for you to go to work and accumulate as fast as you could. Bless your souls! There is nothing but what we could make here.

Need we send to the States for anything? No; we need not send even for sugar; and we can make almost everything under heaven, and all the rest is in heaven; and they can be sent down here to us; for heaven and earth are connected by this Priesthood as much as my body and spirit are connected. All these things are in heaven—sugar, flocks and herds, wool and silks, and everything else; and they are not only in the heavens, but in the earth, just as much as that pitcher was taken out of the earth. It was in the earth, and the same kinds are also in the heavens.

We can make all these things ourselves; and all we have to do is to organize the elements that God has created or that he organized; for he did not create this earth any more than the potter created this pitcher. The potter took the rough material and ground it, and put it on his wheel, and made it just into the shape you see it now.

It was so with our God. The elements were already created, and he took them and shaped them into an earth; and this is the way that all things are organized.

Can we make silk? I have told you that if you go to work and raise flax, you should have the privilege, in my lifetime, of reaping four times as much flax as you ever reaped in the States; that is, you shall have a fourfold crop.

Do I believe that such can be the case with sheep? I know it can; for we have sheared more wool from the sheep here than we ever did in the States, and have we not done the same by wheat?

I heard brother Brigham and brother Wells speaking of a person that took from an acre and thirty rods ninety-six bushels and a half of wheat, and there are others who have taken their fifty-seven bushels an acre. Why, Thomas, you never saw such things in the States! God bless you, Thomas! You shall become a sound man, and be a comfort to us in our old age.

Well, I have no feelings in me against anyone—not against brother Marsh; but I feel to bless him with the blessings of God, with the blessings of the earth, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet; for this is my calling, and I do not feel to curse. But as for our enemies, they have cursed themselves with all the curses they can bear; and the cursings that are on them they never can get off, neither can those who sustain them. The Church and kingdom to which we belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and brother Brigham Young will become President of the United States.

[Voices responded, “Amen.”]

And I tell you he will be something more; but we do not now want to give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he has got it; and I am Vice-President, and brother Wells is the Secretary of the Interior—yes, and of all the armies in the flesh.

You don’t believe that; but I can tell you it is one of the smallest things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking; but I am perfectly willing that brother Long should write every word of it; for I can see it, just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions thereof.

Let us live our religion, serve our God, be good and kind one to another, cease all those contentions in your houses, and live in peace.

Sisters, if you have got husbands, nourish them and cherish them; for they have got an almighty work to do; they have enough to do to lay up the comforts of life; and you wives are the women to nourish them that nourish you; for they feed you, and clothe you, and give you every mouthful that you eat and drink, and they have brought you to these valleys of the mountains, that you might see the sons of Jacob become a mighty host. Good heavens! You may yet see the day when the sons of Jacob will be ten times thicker than they now are; and I know it will be so.

We will build up Jackson County, and I am going to tell them of it, with your consent, brother Brigham; and if you do not find any fault with it, I do not know that anybody else has a right to.

Sisters, love your husbands, and encourage them to listen to their file leaders and to their officers pertaining to this Church; for this is their calling, and not to sit down and cry, snuffle, and find fault with their leaders and the other authorities in the Church; for there is where so many go over the dam.

Brother Thomas has learned that this won’t do. He has said he got mad with brother Joseph, and then he got mad with brother Brigham and me, because we did not get mad also, like him. The truth was, we were so busy, we had no time to get mad. It was nothing to us what brother Joseph did, and it is just so with you: it is none of your business what brother Brigham does, though you all know that he would not do anything wrong. Why, bless you, brother Brigham would die ten thousand deaths rather than walk one hair to the right or to the left from that which is right.

Well, we are not jealous of you. Do your duty, and you will make every house and every place a palace, and your homes will be as the gate of heaven, and a source of joy to your husbands. Of course you must have a heaven of that which you have made.

Why, I would go to work and make an altar and a heaven, and I never would take any other course than that which is honorable before God; and how can you live your religion without this?

You poor, miserable, disaffected beings, if there are any such here, learn to do right.

Sisters, sustain and comfort your husbands; for they have got plenty to do in these last days. After we have laid up stores and got seven years’ provisions, there will be seven years for us to be on guard, but never can our enemies touch us if we do right.

We are up in the tops of the mountains, and our Governor is here. What do you say to that? And his God is here, and his associates are listening.

Well, if it is time for the Government of the United States to cut the thread, we are perfectly competent to take care of ourselves. We would not give a dime for this people to be one more in number than they are. There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a sacrifice before God.

God bless you, and may you receive the blessings of brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve Apostles, and the blessings of the Patriarchs of the living God.

Peace be unto this people. Peace be in these valleys and upon the mountains around us! And peace be upon everything that we possess! But peace shall not rest upon those who will grumble and find fault with the servants of God. No; and he or she that will do it shall be as a barren tree.

God bless you and make your minds fruitful, and fill you with revelation, with dreams, and with the visions of eternity, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 30, 1857.

You must expect, when you see brother Heber stand before you to speak, that you will hear what is called the rough etchel to this generation. I am pretty well satisfied, brethren, that there are only four or five persons in this congregation that dislike to hear me talk; and when you take out those four or five, I know that this people would rather hear me speak than any other man who speaks from this stand, except brother Brigham. It is not that those four or five have anything particular against me, but it is because I do at many times give vent to my feelings, and, by so doing, I hit them a crack where they deserve it. Well, this is all right.

I wonder if there is a man or woman here that really wants to be a Saint—I mean those that want to live their religion—but what desire in their hearts and seek in their prayers to the Father that they may be corrected when they are wrong—that they may be admonished? Is there a person in this congregation but what has that desire and that feeling? If there is, I am greatly mistaken; for I hear them when I go into meetings and when I go into family circles; they will say, if I have a wrong thing about me, I want to be corrected. Have you not heard it so this morning? Every man that speaks before this community has those feelings. Have not I those feelings? Brethren, if I have a fault, or have anything about me which is not right, I want to get rid of that; and so do you, if you are Saints.

Well, there is not a mother in this congregation but feels in that way; else, when they see one of their children in fault, why do they correct these children? Why do you correct them, when you are not willing to be corrected yourselves? Neither a father nor a mother, from this time forth, should correct a child, except they are willing to be corrected in their faults.

Do you see it? You will see mothers who will correct their children when they get angry, and that is almost the only time they will correct a child. Am I angry today? Just look at me, and see if you think I am angry. I tell you I am just as good-natured as I can be, according to the nature of the case that I am now dwelling upon. Well, this is for you to reflect upon.

Is this a good people? You may take the Elders of Israel throughout these valleys, and those at the stations, between here and the United States, and those that we have sent to the nations of the earth, and then thousands, who never were here, and there never was a more amenable set of men upon the earth, with the experience that we have got; and there never was that day that this people were one as they are one today; no, never.

Well, I feel to praise the Elders of Israel for their faithfulness. Is there a chance for improvement, brethren, ye Elders of Israel? If you think there is a chance for improvement, notwithstanding all of my praising you, just raise your right hands. [A forest of hands was raised.] Those that think there cannot be any improvement, but that you are stereotyped, raise your hands. I cannot see any hands raised upon that side.

When I went to chop, I was always taught to pull off my coat, and spit on my hands. I pull off my coat because I am too warm. If I don’t talk here more than twenty minutes, I want my coat off.

May I tell you some of my feelings, and not have any of you angry with me? [Voices: “Yes.“] I hate to have the ladies angry with me, above all things; and I will tell you one thing, and that is, all you that are ladies will not find fault; but the woman that finds fault with me, I can analyze her, and show you she is not a lady. I am a physician. Well, you can hardly mention a thing that is good but what I am.

I want to tell some of my feelings here today, in a few words, relative to brother Brigham. I call him brother, because he says if I call him President, he shall call me President; and just as sure as he does, I am as flat as a pancake. I shall only call him President before the Saints, in his calling—I was going to say before our enemies; but, damn them, they shall never come here. Excuse me, I never use rough words, only when I come in contact with rough things; and I use smooth words when I talk upon smooth subjects, and so on, according to the nature of the case that comes before me.

You all acknowledge brother Brigham as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; then you acknowledge him as our Leader, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator; and then you acknowledge him in every capacity that pertains to his calling, both in Church and State, do you not? [Voices: “Yes.“] Well, he is our Governor. What is Governor? One who presides or governs. Well, now, we have declared, in a legislative capacity, that we will not have poor, rotten-hearted curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed to send. We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice—as many as from five to eight men for each office—men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens. We just told them right up and down, that if they sent any more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send them home; and that is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason before, did you?

Well, we did that in a legislative capacity; we did it as members of the Legislature—as your representatives; and now you have got to back us up. You sent us, just as we sent brother Bernhisel to seek for our rights and to stand in our defense at Washington.

Well, here is brother Brigham: he is the man of our own choice; he is our Governor, in the capacity of a Territory, and also as Saints of the Most High.

Well, it is reported that they have another Governor on the way now, three Judges, a District Attorney, a Marshal, a Postmaster, and Secretary, and that they are coming here with twenty-five hundred men. The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point of the bayonet.

Is not that a funny thing? You may think that I am cross, but I am laughing at their calamity, and I will “mock when their fear cometh.”

Now, gentlemen and ladies, you look at these things, and then right in this book, the Bible. It says, our nobles shall be of ourselves; that is, our Lords, our Judges, our Governors, our Marshals, and our everything shall be of ourselves. Won’t you read the 30th chapter of Jeremiah?

18. Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

20. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all them that oppress them.

21. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.

22. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

23. Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a con– tinuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

24. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

Well, the day has come when our Governor has come out of our midst, and he is in the tops of the mountains, just where the Prophets said these things should come to pass; and now the United States are reported to be trying to force a Governor upon us, when the Lord has raised one up right out of our midst.

Now, I am going to talk about these things, and I feel as though I had a perfect right to do so, because I am one of the people.

If this people should consent to dispossess brother Brigham Young as our Governor, they are just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I know it; for God would forsake them and leave them to themselves, and they would be in worse bondage than the children of Israel ever were.

Supposing this thing all blows over, and they don’t come up here, but they begin to flatter us and be friendly, what will be the result? They may flatter as long as the earth stands, but I never will be subject to one of their damned pusillanimous curses. They may court and flatter as much as they please, but I never will be subject to them again—no, never. Do you hear it? [Voices: “Yes.“] Do you think we will submit to them? No, never. They have cut the thread themselves.

You are the people who have the privilege to acknowledge brother Brigham as our Governor and continue him in his office; and you also have the privilege, through your agency, to reject him, if you please; but it will be to your condemnation if you do, because he has got the keys of the kingdom; and the very moment you reject him, you cut yourselves off from the right of the Priesthood.

I will now bring up a comparison. I live in the City of Great Salt Lake. I am a father, a husband, a benefactor to between sixty and seventy subjects: I feed them; I clothe them; and they do not have a pin, a drink of tea, nor anything but what I provide: I provide them houses to live in and beds to sleep on. But suppose that, by-and-by, some stranger comes along, and my family say to him, “We will have you to preside over us,” and they reject me, when at the same time they say, “Brother Heber is a good man,” but the other man comes with a smiling face, and my family take him and reject me—what have they done? If they reject me, they reject their head; and, by so doing, they destroy their heirship to the head or limb to which they are lawfully connected. Is not that so?

Suppose you acknowledge the man reported to be coming, what do you do? You reject your head, and if so, where is the body, and what will become of it? I will compare it to my body. Supposing the head is cast away, the body will die, won’t it? Yes; and you will die just as quick as that, if you reject brother Brigham, your head.

We are the people of Deseret. She shall be Deseret; she shall be no more Utah: we will have our own name. Do you hear it?

Brethren and sisters, these ideas are comforting to all of you: they are most gloriously comforting to me. I tell you, the feelings within me are glorious.

We are the people of Deseret, and it is for us to say whether we will have brother Brigham for our Governor, or those poor, miserable devils they are reported to be trying to bring here. You must know they are miserable devils to have to come here under arms; but they shall not rule over us nor come into this Territory. What do you say about it? Are you willing, as a people, that they should come in here? You that say they shall not, raise your right hands. [All hands raised.]

Mr. Gentile, won’t you tell of this to your co-workers for the Devil’s kingdom?

The reason that I talk as I do is because I don’t hold any office in the United States; but this people, some time ago, appointed me Chief-Justice of the State of Deseret, and brother John Taylor and Bishop N. K. Whitney as my associates. You also appointed me Lieutenant-Governor; I always told you I was going to be Lieutenant-Governor. This is a stump speech!

We are going to have our own Governor from henceforth. Brigham Young was then our Governor, Heber C. Kimball was Chief-Justice and Lieutenant-Governor. I was a big man then; I felt as big as brother Morley does in the Legislature. The fact is, he does not understand their gabble: if he does, he understands more than I do.

It is for us to say, according to our rights under the Constitution, whether we will have those cursed Gentiles to rule over us, or not.

I want you to publish this, Mr. Editor.

I am giving you a little of my feelings; for I want you to know that you are under no more obligation to receive those men than brother Brigham’s family is to receive another man and to reject him as their husband, their father, their friend, and benefactor.

I know that what I have said has informed many of your minds, and I choose to present my ideas by comparison. I have a right to say the Gentiles shall never rule over me, although this people might admit of their coming here. I have a right to say, also, that we shall never be ruled over by them from this day forth, while grass grows or water runs; never, no, never.

[Voices: “Amen.“]

Well, we have got to sustain these amens, and we have got to sustain these vows. You ladies, too, will certainly have to do your part, or back out. I told you last Sunday to arm yourselves; and if you cannot do it any other way, sell some of your fine bonnets, fine dresses, and buy yourselves a good dirk, a pistol, or some other instrument of war. Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the weapons of war; for we may be brought to the test, to see if we will stand up to the line. I never knew it to fail, when men made covenants, but they were brought to the test, to see if they would live up to them.

This people have made covenants, they have made vows, and they have been instructed by brother Brigham; and he has told them that those covenants and penalties are true and faithful; and I say they are as true as the Lord God liveth; and the day will come that you will have to fulfil those vows and covenants that you have made; and not one word shall fail.

I have told you of it, and I have backed it up when others have said it. Now, mark it; for God will drive us to it. These instructions, given to us from time to time, will have to be carried out and fulfilled; for I just know that you have got to reap that which is sown. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life everlasting; but if you sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption; and the bed that we make, we have got to lie in. Now, I will tell you another thing that bears heavily on my mind, as much so as any other thing, and that is, for this people to live their religion, and do as they are told.

I will ask you this question, gentle– men and ladies—Can you live your religion, except you do as you are told? I have said, again and again, that if we live our religion, and do as we are told, those men will never come over those mountains; for we shall slay the poor devils before they get there.

I do not know of any religion, except doing as I am told; and if you do, you have learned something that I have never learned. You have a Governor here to dictate you and to tell you what to do; and if we will live our religion, we are always safe, are we not?

There are a great many that will not live their religion, for they think they belong to the aristocracy; but understand, gentlemen and ladies, that I withdraw from that society. I told you last Sunday, that of all the corrupt beings upon the face of the earth, the present aristocracy are the worst.

I am a pretty rugged fellow, and valiant for the truth; and may the Lord make everybody like me, that we may stand against our enemies; for the corruptest devils on the earth are the present aristocracy.

Let us go to work and lay up our grain, lay up wheat, and everything that will and can be preserved; and in so doing, we will save ourselves from sorrow, pain, and anguish; and the Lord will give us a law and a word for us to abide, and he will cut off our enemies; and if every man and woman will go to work, lay up their grain, and do as they are told, the Lord will hold off our enemies from us, until we can lay up sufficient store for ourselves. This is a part of our religion—to lay up stores and provide for ourselves and for the surrounding country; for the day is near when they will come by thousands and by millions, with their fineries, to get a little bread. That time is right by our door.

Brother Stewart says he has dis– covered that this work is five years ahead of what he had supposed. Let me tell you that this people are more than ten years ahead of what they supposed. They were all asleep; but the Lord has waked them up, to prepare them for a time of trial and famine. If you do not see it, and feel it, and taste it, and smell it, it will be because God will have mercy upon you; and he will, if you will do as you are told from this time forth.

Do I feel comfortable? Gentlemen and ladies, I never saw the day that I felt any better. I become weary with toil, but I feel well in regard to this work. But there is a spirit of calmness, of peace, that I am jealous of.

I never have seen the day for twenty-five years, but before there was a storm there was always a calm. In Kirtland, before the trouble commenced, there was this calm. Joseph and Hyrum were men that would stand the test, but finally they had to flee from Kirtland to Missouri. Well, previous to that, we had received our endowments, and a more calm, heavenly, and prosperous time I never saw.

Was it so in Missouri? Yes, it was: after they became settled, they became composed; and the year of the trouble we never had such crops in the world as we had then.

Was it not so in Nauvoo? Yes; and the spirit of composure rested upon the people; and it is more or less so now; and such crops as we have this year never were produced.

What does this mean? And the spirit of composure seems to be upon the people more than ever. And what does this mean? I am rather inclined to be jealous of it. Say I, wake up, ye Saints of Zion, while it is called today, lest trouble and sorrow come upon you, as a thief in the night.

Suppose it is not coming, will it hurt you to lay up the products of the earth for seven years? Will it hurt you, if you have your guns, swords, and spears in good condition, according to the law of the United States? Some of the States give a man his clearance at forty years of age; others, at forty-five: they call men to train when they are eighteen years of age; but we call upon all from six to six hundred years old: we do not except any; and I want the world to know that we are ready for anything that comes along. If it is good, we are ready for that; and if it is evil, we are ready to stand against it.

We are calculating to sow our wheat early this fall, in case of emergency. I throw out these things for you to think upon; and if they are not right, they will not hurt anybody.

But wake up, ye Saints of the Most High, and prepare for any emergency that the Lord our God may have pleasure in bringing forth. We never shall leave these valleys—till we get ready; no, never; no, never. We will live here till we go back to Jackson County, Missouri. I prophesy that, in the name of Israel’s God.

[The congregation shouted “Amen,” and President B. Young said, “It is true.“]

If our enemies force us to destroy our orchards and our property, to destroy and lay waste our houses, fields, and everything else, we shall never build and plant again, till we do it in Jackson County. But our enemies are not here yet, and we have not yet thrown down our houses. Let me tell you, if God designs that Israel should now become free, they will come and strike the blow; and if he does not, they will not come. That is as true as that book (pointing to the Bible).

Go to work, and lay up your grain, and do not lay it out for fine clothes, nor any other kind of fine thing, but make homespun trousers and petticoats. What would please me more than for my family, instead of wanting me to go to the store for petticoats and short gowns, to see them go to work and make some good homespun? What would be prettier than some of the English striped linsey, and a bonnet made of our own straw? Those are the women I would choose for wives. If you want virtue, go into the farming country, for there it is homespun. Farming districts contain the essence and the virtue of old England.

I do not know that you know what homespun is; but it is that which is spun at home; and it is for your welfare, both men, women, and children, to make your own clothing. It is also for your salvation to equip yourselves according to law.

Now, I will tell you, I have about a hundred shots on hand all the time—three or four fifteen-shooters, and three or four revolvers, right in the room where I sleep; and the Devil does not like to sleep there, for he is afraid they will go off half-cocked.

If you will lay a bowie knife or a loaded revolver under your pillow every night, you will not have many unpleasant dreams, nor be troubled with the nightmare; for there is nothing that the Devil is so much afraid of as a weapon of death.

You may take this as some of Heber’s wild visions, if you please. I have acknowledged myself as one of the people; and now I say, we will take our own name, and we will not be false-named any more. We are the Kingdom of God; we are the STATE OF DESERET; and we will have you, brother Brigham, as our Governor just so long as you live. We will not have any other Governor.

I mean just what I say, and this people say they will not have any other Governor, and especially anyone that has to come here under arms; for we consider that any man is a poor, damned curse that has to come here under arms to rule over us. These are my feelings; and if anybody votes against it, they are not of us: but there are but four or five but what vote for us; and they are apostates, and will go overboard. There is not a child but what goes with us in these things.

When we reject brother Brigham Young, we reject the head; but we will not do it, for the body shall dwell together, and we are members of that body, and he shall be our Governor just as long as God Almighty will have him to be. Those who are in favor of it, raise your hands.

[The vote was unanimous.]

You may try it just as long as you like, and it will be just so every time, except those four or five, and they never will vote. Can I point them out? Yes, I can. I have had my eye on them ever since they came into the congregation.

Let us do our duty, be humble, prayerful, honest, virtuous, and punctual in all our engagements. Let us have no lying, no deception; but let us be honest, and let the laboring men that labor on the public works be honest, and let them be punctual to their work.

Why do I speak to the public hands? Because they are on the most important work there is in the world. And how would a man feel to go into that house (pointing to the endowment house), that had stolen the nails out of the carpenter’s shop or out of the machine shop, or the boards out of the lumber yard?

Let us be faithful, and the Lord will be on our side, and I doubt whether we shall be under the necessity of shedding much blood ourselves; but let us be ready, guns cocked; none of your half-cocked.

This is my exhortation to Israel; and may the Lord God bless the righteous, the humble, those that tell the truth, and those that are honest and punctual.

Can I bless any that are not hum– ble and amenable to their superiors? Can I bless those that are always finding fault? I wish to God I could; but blessings would not stick to them; but if you will do as you are told, you shall be blessed in everything that you put your hands to, from this time forth and forever. You shall have health and strength, and you shall multiply and increase in everything you undertake to do: and that is not all: you will have faith, that, when a man or woman that is sick sends for you to bless them, you will say, “Be thou made whole;” and that will be the case from this time henceforth and forever.

There is one man whom we saw up north when we went to eat watermelons, who had thought of having an artesian well bored. He said, “If I knew that we were going to stop here three years, I would have one very soon.” Says I to that gentleman—You put out peach trees, apple trees, apricots, and currants; and if we have to go into the mountains, we shall cut off the trees, and the roots will be there still; but we shall not go into the mountains.

We were told that we were going into the woods before we came here; and then, when we got here, there were no woods. But you need not be afraid; you go and graft and inoculate your trees, and build houses, that you may know how to build when you get to Jackson County.

All that we built in Kirtland, in Far West, in Missouri, in Nauvoo, and in Winter Quarters—for every one of those places, gentlemen, we are to have our pay. Who are to pay us? Those that took our property away from us, we will make servants of them: the day will come that we will have them for our vinedressers, and we will set them to digging holes to put the rest of the damned scoundrels in who have rebelled against God and His servants. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday morning, August 23, 1857.

I feel very much pleased at the arrival of our brethren that take missions. I know how to sympathize with them. There are a great many young Elders that are taking missions now. Twenty years ago, I was laboring in England; I baptized brother G. D. Watt, twenty years ago last month (July), in 1837. That was the first foreign mission that was taken by the Elders of this Church.

At that time it was almost impossible to realize what we now see and understand. I went over to England at the time the Church was broken up in Kirtland. There were very few persons then who could stand by “Mormonism” faithfully and uphold our Prophet Joseph Smith: where one would stand valiantly and uphold him, there were twenty who did not.

That day was a day wherein the Saints were tested; their integrity was proved; they were put to the test whether they would stand by “Mormonism” and by the Prophet, or not.

Many people now pretend that they stand by what they call ancient “Mormonism,” or “Mormonism” in their own way, but in brother Brigham they do not believe particularly.

No man can believe in “Mormonism,” except he believes in the man that leads the Church of God—in the man that holds the keys of life and salvation pertaining to this people.

How is it possible for a limb to be attached to a tree, and at the same time manifest its disapprobation of the tree? That limb will die and wither away, except it manifests its approbation, faith, and favor to the tree to which it is connected.

So it is impossible that a man or a woman who disbelieves that brother Brigham is a Prophet—that he is God’s representative and holds the keys of his kingdom pertaining to this people, can retain the Holy Ghost and partake of the life and sap of the true vine. Such persons have no faith of the genuine bearing kind, and consequently there are no works to correspond.

Will good works produce faith? Yes; there is very little faith without works; and then again, there never was but very little works without faith.

How can my body exist when my spirit leaves it? It cannot. Can my spirit exist without this tabernacle? It can; but the body cannot exist without the spirit, because the spirit that dwells in my body is the life of my body, and there is no life without it.

Some say the earth exists without spirit; I do not believe any such thing; it has a spirit as much as anybody has a spirit. How can anything live, except it has a living spirit? How can the earth produce vegetation, fruits, trees, and every kind of production, if there is no life in it? It could not, any more than a woman could produce children when she is dead: she must be alive to produce life, to manifest it, and show it to the world. It is so with “Mormonism.” We must manifest our faith by our works.

I speak these things because they come to my mind. When I arise to speak, I have never a premeditated subject; I let God, by the Holy Ghost, dictate me and control me, just as a musician would his violin. It is the player on the instrument that plays the tune; the instrument does not dictate the player. So I should be in the hands of God, to be dictated by him; for we are told that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, will teach us all things past, present, and to come.

The Holy Ghost knows the minds of this people, and what is necessary to deal out to every man and every woman in due season—their portion. If I am not dictated by the Holy Ghost, I cannot communicate to you that which is necessary.

Supposing you are all pure, except a very few—say there are twenty or thirty men in the assembly that are impure, and then there are a dozen or fifty women that do not keep the commandments of God—when I am speaking to the disobedient, the Spirit in me alludes to those persons only.

Why do men or women condemn me when the Word of God is sharp, and say I am harsh and hard? It is because they are not right; and that is the way I prove them. You never would complain of the sharpness of the word of God, if you were not under transgression.

You say I allude to you: so I do; or, it is the Spirit of God alludes to you through me. You are the persons who are under censure—you are the birds that flutter, because it hits you. Why should a person find fault who is not under condemnation? That proves they are.

How shall we manifest our faith by our works? I will speak of that a little further; and I cannot speak the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, without I censure many of you. I will ask those who have been here for four, seven, and eight years past, and from the day that we came into these valleys, if they have proved by their works their faith in the words of the Prophet Brigham?

Here are brother Amasa Lyman, brother Woodruff, and other brethren, who recollect Brigham testifying most strenuously in the Bowery—then occupied by the pioneers, when we first entered the Valley—of the propriety of this people laying up grain and other stores for seven years—because, said he, “The time has come when the words of the Prophets should be fulfilled, that the earth should rest every seventh year.”

He said it was our duty to lay up grain for seven years, because he foresaw what would be; he foresaw what we came here for—viz., to be the saviors of men. I have spoken also of these things constantly. How oft have you heard these things proclaimed for four years past? And, after all we have said, who is there that has laid up grain to last them one year, much less two, previous to the late scarcity we have passed through?

Those that did lay up a little had to feed that out, or be called scoundrels constantly. Some of the people considered a man a scoundrel that would not hand out the last kernel he had, or the last load of wood he had at his door.

Brother Brigham, myself, and Jedediah have blazed away on this matter for the last four years; and how many have manifested their faith by their works? Have one of you got wheat laid up to last you seven years? No; not one of you have got enough laid up to last three years.

Uncle Sam—I won’t call him uncle—he is a likely man, but his children have degenerated most awfully; and one of his sons who sits in the chair of state, Mr. Buchanan, is most awfully adulterated and sunk in degradation, that he would permit an army of 2,500 or 3,000 men to come here to enforce officers upon us contrary to the Constitution, and to enforce a Governor upon us, when we have got one of our own choosing.

The Prophet said that our Governor should rise up among ourselves. That you will find in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah—“And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.”

Now that day has come, as true as you live; our nobles will proceed from ourselves, and our Governor, and our judges, and all of our officials shall come out of ourselves, from this day forth. [Voices: “Amen.“]

Now mark it, gentlemen and ladies; the day has come for this people to take care of themselves. The President of the United States has taken a course—that is, the Lord has let him do it, knowing that no man can do anything against the truth, but for it; He has organized His work in that way. The Lord has permitted him to pursue a course that has brought you to your senses, to know whether or not it is necessary that you should lay up wheat, because you did not believe what brother Brigham said; and if you had believed what he said, you would believe what brothers Heber, Jedediah, and Daniel said, and the Twelve.

You have never believed me, nor brother Brigham, nor one of the Prophets, ancient or modern. You say you did believe it, but you did not think it was so near to us. You should always be the judges, should you not?

Have I any fears about them coming here? No. If the day has come for there to be a collision between us and the United States and the world, they will come, you may depend upon it, because God will stir them up; but if the time has not come, they do not come here; so you may set your hearts at rest.

You now see there is a time coming for every man to go to with his might, and lay up his wheat and his oats, his barley, his peas, and his beans, and dry your fruit, and lay it up; and then, when you have done it this year, do it next year, and then prize it as the most precious thing upon the earth.

The Bible says a man will give all he has got for his life. If you had a million of dollars in gold or in silver, you would give the whole of it for food to save your life. Well, then, why do you not take a course to lay up that very thing that will save your lives and the lives of others, as Joseph did the lives of the people of Egypt and his father’s house?

Joseph warned the people of a famine that was coming on the land, and laid up corn; so Brigham and Heber have taught you that we are going to see a day similar to that, but more terrible—more awful.

How strange it is, brethren, that you are so dilatory in those things that pertain to your salvation and the salvation of millions besides us? Am I taking that course? I am. And before I built my storehouse, I saw these things, and I went to work and set an example that was worthy of imitation, although it was small; and the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society gave me a diploma, but did not give me any money, although I had done the best, in their thoughts, of the kind. And I am going to continue.

I have got somewhere between eleven and twelve hundred bushels of old wheat now in my storehouse, and it will stay there until Brigham says, “I want it.” And I have room for another twelve hundred—yes, for twelve times twelve; and when that is filled, I will fill another one, and so I will keep it going. The Lord will put means in my hands that I will continue to do so, and he will bless every man and woman that will take that course and continue it; they will increase in their stores, while those who take the opposite course will decrease and they will wither away.

Do you not see that the man who will store up knowledge, virtue, wisdom, and understanding, will increase in those principles? It will be just so with the fruits of the earth.

I shall continue to teach you these things and arouse your minds.

I have referred to you ladies. I told you, a week or two ago, to take some of your fine clothes and buy wheat. Let me bring up a circumstance of a certain woman that came to me and wanted an everyday dress. She said she had seven dresses too good for everyday. I said, “Why do you not make an everyday dress of some of them; for one of them will outwear three dresses made of twenty-five cent calico?”

I would advise you to take every– thing that is unnecessary, and buy wheat and barley, and such things as you need with it, and lay up your stores for the time that is to come, that you can feed your own kindred and friends, who will actually come to you. Lots of my kindred will come to me, and brother Brigham’s will come to him, as Joseph’s father, and mother, and brethren came to him in Egypt. As that is true, this is, as the Lord liveth.

The Lord says that saviors shall come upon Mount Zion in the latter days. Mount Zion is here in the tops of the mountains; and has not our Governor come out of us? He has come out of this Church—out of a branch of the house of Israel; yes, our Governor and our Lieutenant-Governor, and our Judges and Marshals, &c.

Now, sisters, I am going to bring before you a circumstance of one man: he is our barber down here—brother Squires. Although he is shaving to good advantage, if he had subjects enough, he could make ten dollars a day—that is, if he could get enough for it. He went down here close to a piece of land I am keeping, and he worked four or five days; he took his wife and two children with him, and he averaged two-and-a-half bushels every day at gleaning the heads of wheat that were scattered.

Now, supposing those that have got no wheat would take the same course. Is the wheat there? I presume there could be fifty bushels gleaned from ten acres with all the ease in the world. Go to brother Brigham’s ten acres, and fifty bushels could be gleaned there; a man would make his bushel a day. I am telling you how to get your wheat.

Would it not be better for you to leave your mechanic shops, every one of you, and spend a week in the wheatfield, and see what you could do? Will we discharge you? Yes; go in peace, and God Almighty bless you, and make you glean double all the time. Do we want that wheat saved? We do.

Hundreds of this people have not raised a kernel, and brother Squires can go with his wife and two children and glean two-and-a-half bushels a day. It is a pretty good example, ladies. How much better are you than they—that is, if they do right and keep the commandments of God? I want to know why one person is better than another, without they surpass another by their good works?

Says one, “I used to belong to the aristocracy in the States, and I belonged to that class in the old country.” But, gentlemen and ladies, I belong to the aristocracy, and that is all the difference there is between you and me.

Supposing you have been brought up in “high life,” what made you well off? Because, in the providence of God, you had a rich father or a rich uncle, and they made you comfortable; but I had the misfortune to be a poor boy, and had to go from house to house to beg my bread.

I want to know if I am any the worse for that? Joseph of old was a shepherd, and was considered one of the most inferior boys in his father’s house; but God made him a king and a Prophet, and a savior of his father’s house and millions of the human family; and so He will you, and so He will me, so sure as I am faithful, honor my calling, and be obedient to my superiors, and honor the Priesthood, and God will honor me; but He will not honor me except I honor myself.

If I had time, I would go into the wheatfield myself, and esteem it a privilege, in preference of doing what I have to do here.

Need you take the straw and stubble and bring it to your homes? No. Be like the honey bee; she carries away the honey and leaves the rest; she goes and gathers the bee bread, and leaves the flowers behind her, and of this she makes pots or bins to store away the honey: that is all the bee bread is for. We use it for many purposes. Brother Squires, instead of taking the straw, broke off the heads of wheat, and put them in a bag; he took the wheat and left the straw.

Are these things interesting to you? There is not one of you has got an article of clothing on your back, but what has been obtained through the industry of men and women.

We talk about smart women: we have the smartest women on the earth, and the smartest men and smartest boys; and we have also got some of the meanest men and women there is on God Almighty’s footstool; they are the taglocks, and will be sheared off.

The farmer never takes a sheep into the water to wash him until the taglocks are first cut off, because they have taglocks so quickly again, they besmear the wool. They did that where I lived; still there were a great many things done where I lived that was not done where you lived.

I merely speak of brother Squires to show you what advantages there are to be gained by gleaning. Then I will go to the field where men and women have been and gathered up a few scattering straws, and make a better sweep of it than they, and then another will follow me up, and gather a good pile. What is the cause of this? They cannot see much—only now and then a few stalks.

I will be bound to say, in this county of Salt Lake, that if people will go to work, they may gather four thousand bushels of wheat from the gleaning; and I am not straining it one particle; and it is the best of the wheat that falls to the ground.

Just so with the Saints: the best Saints lay at the feet of Jesus, serving him and doing the will of God. These things are not only for you who are present today, but they will go to every city and place throughout the mountains, to arouse the people, and they will think more of them than you do that are continually under the droppings of the sanctuary.

The world and many of the Saints abroad and at home are asleep, and that day will overtake them as a thief in the night, and it will come upon them like a whirlwind; and so it will you, if you do not wake up and listen to our words.

How many times I have heard it—“We believe what brother Brigham says, and we believe this, and we believe that; but here is brother Heber—he is a kind of wild, kind of enthusiastic; he is full of visions and wild notions.” Tell me one notion I have had that is not correct. Say you, “Some things you have prophesied have come to pass, but we do not know whether the rest will or not.”

I do not profess to be a Prophet. I never called myself so; but I actually believe I am, because people are all the time telling me that I am. I do not boast of that. I say that every man and woman who will live their religion, be humble, and be dictated by the Holy Ghost, the spirit of prophecy will be upon them.

Some of you, ladies, that go abroad from house to house, blessing the sick, having your little circles of women come together, why are you troubling yourselves to bless and lay your hands on women, and prophesy on them, if you do not believe the principle? You make yourselves fools to say that that same power should not be on the man that has got the Priesthood, and with sisters that have not got any, only what they hold in connection with their husbands.

We can tell what will come to pass; and one of you can talk in tongues and pour out your souls to God, and then one interpret; that is the course you take, and it is all right: go ahead, and God bless you and multiply blessings on you; but do not go round tattling about your husbands and talking against the Priesthood you are connected to. I do not say many of you do it; but you that do it are poor, miserable skunks.

Brethren and sisters, let us go to work now, every man and woman, where you have it in your power, and lay up our grain—lay up our oats, barley, and everything else that will keep, and go to work and raise flax, and make clothing.

Now, you said you did not believe a word I said here a few Sundays ago, that if we would go to work and raise flax, and cultivate it, and pray for it, and keep the commandments of God, it should have a coat on it fourfold more. I said that, ladies and gentlemen. You go to, and do as I told you, and see if it does not come to pass.

Did not the Lord rain down the honeydew upon the trees and upon the vegetation in Utah? Yes. I can go down on Cottonwood here, and show it to you, lots of it. If he can do that here, what will he not do, if we keep the commandments of God? And, gentlemen and ladies, if you will do just as you are told, without any deviation, you need never trouble yourselves about mobs—never, no, never.

The Lord said to Joseph, If you will do my will, and listen to my counsel and the counsel of my servants, it is my business in the last days to fight your battles and provide for my Saints.

I have no more fears, nor never shall have, if you will do just as you are told, everyone of you, and stop your contentions, your lying, your deceptions, and your dishonesty; and let every man do right—let him do justice, and we will never be troubled with troops, and we will have one, two, three just as good years of peace as we ever had since we were born, beginning now; and I know it. Gentlemen, it depends on your doing right.

Could the Lord stir you up, through the testimony of brother Brigham or his brethren, to believe it was necessary to lay up your stores, until the Devil kicked up a fuss to show you that death and destruction would come on this people? That is true. Do not tell me that you listen to his counsel, when you do not practice his words.

And, ladies, do not tell me that you take his counsel, when I do not see you here with bonnets manufactured out of the elements of this valley. It is a lie before God when you say you listen to his counsel, and come here before him and sit under his eyes in open disobedience to it.

Where did you get your bonnets? Were they made here? No; they were made in the States; they came by succoring those poor curses who would send us all to destruction, by nourishing these Gentile merchants here. The best of them would sell this whole people for ten dollars, and permit my life and Brigham’s life to be taken in a minute. I know this.

What do they care for us? There is not one of them that is in any degree friendly towards us, and feels to believe and sustain “Mormonism.” There is not one of them but what would be perfectly willing that the troops should come here and massacre this whole people, for the sake of a few dollars.

Have we any confidence in them? Yes, as far as deal is concerned; but when it comes to “Mormonism,” I have not a particle. I never saw that man that had not an inclination in his heart to embrace “Mormonism” that I ever had one particle of confidence in.

Many of you have sustained Judge Douglas as being a true friend to this people; and he is just as big a damned rascal as ever walked, and always has been. He has taken a course to get into the chair of State, and that is what he is after: he will try to accomplish that, if he goes to hell the next day; but he will not go into the chair of State; he will go to hell.

Now, do not be scared; I am going to talk what I feel, and I ask no odds of anybody, except my leader: I will be subject to him. I will be amenable to any branch belonging to the true vine of Jesus Christ, and I will nourish it, and cherish it; but those poor curses, I have not one particle of confidence in them.

I never knew an instance in the days of Joseph, when he confided in those poor devils, but what they turned traitor to him, and were the very men that took his life, aided by the apostates that left this Church; and I know it, and so do you.

How many times have I been through the mill? Lots of times; and I expect to go through it again, and then through the bolt, and the screen, &c.

Joseph never trusted in one of them but what they betrayed him; and I wish to God I had taken some of their lives when I had a chance: they were blacklegs, whoremongers, murderers, liars, sorcerers, and rascals; and you may take many of the leading men of the United States Government, and they are not one whit better.

These merchants here have collected their millions of dollars from us. Are they your friends, ladies? There are not many of them, if they dared do it, but what would seduce you in a minute, if you would yield to them.

In Kirtland, when we were broken up, which was a serious time, and in Far West, in Missouri, and Illinois, the priests of the day, the bigger portion of them, and those they call the best men, were combined against us.

But let me tell you that the best men in the United States are not among the rulers; they do not scramble and gamble for office. They have got the meanest curses for politicians, and the poorest curses for priests.

What did they say in Missouri, in Kirtland, in Illinois—the Methodist priest, the Baptist priest, the lawyer, the judge, and the governor, with all their religion? They positively considered it no crime to seduce a “Mormon” sister, nor do they now; and that is what they are after.

Sisters, let us take a course that you may not be brought into these straits—that you may not have to take your children, and your budgets under your arms, and flee to the mountains. But if you do not listen to counsel, and begin today, you will have to do that; but if you obey counsel, you never will have to go into these mountains—no, never, while the earth stands.

We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and the hens will crow, and the chickens will crow, and they will all crow long and loud, and you will not be able to tell the difference between a hen and a rooster, nor between a rooster and a hen, for they will all crow the same tune. We will stand on our own dunghill and crow, and say what we please from this day, and they never will prevail against us—no, never; and I will prophesy it in the name of Israel’s God. [Voices: “Amen.“]

Do as you are told, and Brigham Young never will leave the Governorship of this Territory from this time henceforth and forever—no, never; and there shall no wicked judge with his whore ever sit in our courts again; for all who are against Israel are an abomination to me and to our God.

When you look upon it, you shall know that Heber told the truth, as wild as he is; but there is no wildness in this boy.

Will we go into these mountains? Will these troops come here? No, no, no, not yet. We do not want them to come till we are brought to the test and have not anything to help ourselves with: then we want them to come and bring the honey and the good things; then we will show them how it is done. We do not want armies of men to go out of here; we have got boys here, ten thousand of them, enough to take everything they have got.

The Lord said there should be no time in the last days; the time is only measured to the ungodly, but to the Saints there shall be no more time; it is all time. Go ahead, and we do not care if you let your beard grow sixteen feet long.

You need not ever trouble yourselves, gentlemen and ladies, about the army coming here to this land, whether you have your endowments or not: those that have not got their endowments are just as safe as those who have, and they will live just as long. Do not trouble yourselves at all; let these things sleep and you be awake, and watch, and pray, and be humble, and serve your God, and go and glean wheat.

Bless your soul! If the daughters of Israel go and glean wheat, they may be like the woman anciently, increase all around: she had been a barren woman formerly, but gleaning wheat put her in the notion of getting——I can’t say it.

The Spirit that is on me this morning is the Spirit of the Lord; it is the Holy Ghost, although some of you may not think that the Holy Ghost is ever cheerful. Well, let me tell you, the Holy Ghost is a man; he is one of the sons of our Father and our God; and he is that man that stood next to Jesus Christ, just as I stand by brother Brigham. If brother Brigham goes ahead, and I stand by him, and Daniel stands by me, and the Twelve by us, we never shall be separated—never, no, never.

Men that are engaged in this work and kingdom, if they are one, they will be tied together, that they never will be separated, no more than two drops of water.

There is a great curiosity here. Some say they are of Judah, some say they are of Jacob, some of John, and some of Peter. When we are restored back to our Father, we shall find that every one of us is in the tree of life: and what is the difference, as long as we are all in one tree.

You say there are twelve limbs in the tree of life, and we have all got to be connected to those twelve limbs or branches. Go and read the Bible, and see what is said about the tree of life, and those that partake of the fruit of it. It is all on natural principles. We are all one family: God the Father is the tree of life; he is the root of it, and we spring out of it, or else we spring into it by grafting, by inoculating, and by doing the things of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, there have several left since we proclaimed last Sunday: they have put right out; some went that very day. Am I not glad? If they had been here, and waited till today, and heard what I have said, they would not have gone. We wanted them to go; so they could not hear what has been said today. They think troops are coming here, and that we are going to fight. What the devil can we fight, when there is nothing to fight?

I want you to go and get your butcher knives, your bowie knives, and jack-knives, and sharpen them. There is nothing to fight, and there will not be this year; we shall have a year of peace. They may try to come here, and then they will not come here. If they do not undertake to come here, then there will not be any trouble; but they never will force a Governor on us again—no, never—nor their poor, rotten-hearted judges and marshals, &c., if you will do right.

If these words fail, it is on your backs. I am pretty careful there, and not careful either. I am going to let it out, and let God speak and tell you words of consolation, if you will receive them.

Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, Brigham’s words, and Heber’s words, and Jedediah’s words, and Daniel’s words have been to many of you like the sound of a bell: it is a pretty sound in your ears, but as soon as the sound is gone, it has lost its charms.

You have come here and heard the sound, and you know no more about the sound when you have gone away, than though you had never heard it, as good as the people are.

If you would have listened, there would have been this day millions and millions of bushels of wheat in store. Instead of that, we have not any, with a very few exceptions, except that which has come in this year.

We are more choice of it than we would be of gold or of silver. I would part with money quickly for it. I mean to part with every rag of clothes that I have to spare for wheat; and if you have got it, I will sell everything I have got, except a change, and you shall have it forthwith. I will set you an example.

Will the United States send troops here? Yes. And when they have done, the other inhabitants of the earth will send them. But, remember, the Prophets have said that the riches of the Gentile world shall be consecrated to God and to his people. I think we will have a little of it along occasionally.

Do not be sad; our God rules in the heavens and in the earth beneath, and he has almighty power.

Will you go to work now, and lay up your grain? There are a great many boxes making at the Public Works that will hold from fifteen to twenty bushels each; but the boxes cost more than the wheat. That I do not like; still we are willing to make them for you. Some of our Bishops have been to me, and wanted to know if the design is to cache the wheat now. No, sir, not till we get it; I am not going to cache anything I have not got.

Go and build your storehouses, and get your wheat together, and when the time to cache the wheat comes, we will cache it.

Bless your souls, Uncle Sam is not coming here yet awhile; we shall not let them. And when they do come, we shall take their cabbage, stock, and all.

I have told you the truth, every word I have spoken. You think our Father and our God is not a lively, sociable, and cheerful man. He is one of the most lively men that ever lived; and when we have that sociability and cheerfulness, it is the Spirit of the Lord.

God delights in a glad heart and cheerful countenance. Some people carry faces as long as my leg, and that is about three feet long; and they are just the biggest hypocrites we have got in this city.

Confidence in them? Yes, I have confidence to believe they are the meanest hypocrites that ever walked. You may go to their houses, or wherever they are, and speak about Brigham, Heber, and Daniel, and they are ready to give them a dab and hoe them down. How do you suppose I feel about them? Such persons feel about me as they do about my brethren, all the time. I will not speak a blessing for them, for they are damned.

What! Speak against the man who holds the keys of life and salvation for you, and the Priesthood of God that has been handed down directly from him? You poor, miserable creatures—you are not fit to live. There are not many such characters; but they are those poor, miserable, sanctimonious ones you find around.

“Oh, Brigham, don’t! Don’t, Heber! Don’t, for God’s sake! All the world will be on us!” Damn the world. Now, that is just as they feel. I wish there was a magazine in you, and we could touch you off. You are not fit to live in hell, nor anywhere else; and you ought to be touched off before you get anywhere.

Now, I do not mean any of you good folks.

Brethren, be honest; and when you are to work for the Public Works, work; and when you are to work for me, work; when you are to work for brother Hyde, work, and earn your wages, and not carry it all off when you go home at night, in your bags, as some do at the Public Works. You have quit it now yourselves; but some of you have set your children at it. Stop it! You have no business to touch a nail, nor a pin, nor a block two inches long, for they are not your property. What is it but stealing?

When people come to visit the works, you sit down and spend your time with an acquaintance. That time is not yours. If I was brother Mabin, I would not let a man go about those works without he had permission, and then not to hinder the men from their labors.

I have no fault to find with good men.

You men that come from England, were you idle there? You never were permitted to be idle in your own land. They have to go to work at such a time, and work until the time to stop, and go to dinner, and so on. This is the way the people work in the old country, except those who belong to the aristocracy. There are not many of them here.

I belong to the humble and meek, and they will inherit the earth. I am an heir to it with them. God help me to be faithful, good, kind, and benevolent; that is my prayer.

Let us remember that we will not be rewarded for that we do not do; but you will be rewarded for that you do, and nothing more.

There are a great many things I might talk about. God bless you, brethren and sisters. I bless the pure and good; and I bless that man and woman that will go to and do as they are told; and you shall be blessed, with your children after you, forever; and those that do not do it shall go the other way. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 16, 1857.

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.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857.

I have appreciated brother Elias Smith’s remarks. He has stated things as they are, according to my knowledge. I have been acquainted with him some twenty-three or twenty-four years. He is our Judge in this county, and I can say to his praise that he is one of the best Judges we have in the Territory; and my prayer and wish to God is that we may not have a swore Judge from this time henceforth and forever, and that we may never have any Judges in this Territory but men of our own choice, and that we may never have any person to preside over us in the capacity of a Governor of this Territory but the man of our own choice. [Voices: “Amen.”] And I can say further, we never will. [Voices: “Amen.”] I have my reasons for this.

This people here are the people of God. Here, in the Territory of Deseret, is the kingdom of God, and here are all the officers pertaining to that kingdom; and here is an organization that is organized after the order of God, and it is organized after the order of the Church of the Firstborn.

Let me explain what the Church of the Firstborn is. It is the first Church that ever was raised up upon this earth; that is, the first born Church. That is what I mean; and when God our Father organized that Church, He organized it just as His Father organized the Church on the earth where He dwelt; and that same order is organized here in the City of Great Salt Lake; and it is that order that Joseph Smith the Prophet of God organized in the beginning in Kirtland, Ohio. Brother Brigham Young, myself, and others were present when that was done; and when those officers received their endowments, they were together in one place. They were organized, and received their endowments and blessings, and those keys were placed upon them, and that kingdom will stand forever.

Now mark it—that kingdom will never be overthrown; although they may kill, that is, if they can, brother Brigham and me, and brother Daniel H. Wells, and they may kill the Apostles, if they can, and so they may keep on from this time to all eternity, and they never can obliterate this work. I know it. They may kill, and destroy, and waste a great many limbs that are upon this Church; but let me tell you, they never can kill the tree nor destroy the root from whence we have sprung; for our Father and our God is that root, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the tree or vine, and we spring out of that vine; and if we keep His commandments and receive the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, it is that nourishment that comes down directly from the Father, from Jesus Christ, the true vine.

And as President Buchanan, the President of the United States of America, holds the keys of the government of this whole nation, so Brigham Young holds the keys pertaining to this Church and people.

Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here without President Buchanan’s permission? No, not for a moment: he has permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one thousand miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken up five times; and he and his coadjutors have acknowledged it and have said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and here we are, after sending forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and our Elders.

Brethren, I will tell you one thing, and you may be sure of it, as the Lord God lives, and as my soul lives, that nations that raise the weapons of war against this people shall perish by those weapons. [Voices: “Amen.”] Every nation, every tongue, and every people shall perish, and every man and woman that gives consent to it. [Voices: “Amen.”] You may “Amen” to the whole of it, for it is true. Go and read the Book of Mor– mon, the Prophets, and the revelations given to Joseph the Prophet; and you will learn that God has said that every nation and every people on this earth that will not serve Him shall be destroyed.

This is the kingdom of God. When they fight us, they fight God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and they fight all the Prophets that have been from the creation down to the present time. Why? Because Joseph was the last Prophet; God spoke to him, placed the keys upon him, by Peter, James, and John. Do you suppose they did it without having authority from Jesus? No; Jesus told them when to do it, and told them who the man was; and Joseph, the Prophet of the living God, placed those keys on brother Brigham.

The Father told Jesus when to go and again commit these keys to men on the earth; Jesus told the Twelve when to do it; Joseph told Brigham when to do it. Now, look at it naturally, and you will see that every man and woman that raise their hands against this people will be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Set your heart at rest, then: you need not be troubled, nor frightened at all; for as the Lord liveth, and we live, we will prosper, and we will come off victorious. [Voices: “Amen.”] You know we have to stick in an if—if you live your religion, and will do as you are told, and become like the clay in the hands of the potter.

Who are you to be subject to? You say you are willing to be subject to God—to Jesus Christ. You are willing, if Peter came along, to listen to him. Well, Peter is here, John is here, Elias is here, Elijah is here, Jesus is here, and the Father is here. What! In person? If not in person, their authority is here, with all the power that ever was or ever will be to seal men and women up to everlasting life—seal them on earth and in heaven, by the power of Elijah, which is upon brother Brigham; and it is on every man he authorizes.

Joseph had those keys and powers directly from those men, and we received them from Joseph; so you see we are legal heirs to the kingdom of heaven. You have got to be subject to these powers that be; for there is no power only that which is ordained of God. You have to listen to that.

Can we be Saints by having our own will, our own way? Brother Elias has been talking about that this morning, how he has felt that will that was in him. Gentlemen, he has not been easy to handle and place upon the wheel; if he had been, he would have been filled with almighty power, even the power that was upon Joseph and Brigham, and upon every other good man in this Church; but he is going to walk up henceforth; he ain’t going to stand back any more. He is akin to brother Joseph, and Joseph is ashamed of his own kindred that will not step forth and be valiant, and God is ashamed of them.

Be passive in the hands of God, in the hands of His servants, as clay in the hands of the potter. How is that? How can the servants of God mold you, fashion you, and prepare you to become molded and fashioned after the likeness of God, unless you are passive?

If you go into the adobe yard, you may see men engaged in the business of adobe making, and you can see them molding adobes out of the elements. Suppose that clay would not be passive, but would have its own will, and not be subject to the molder of the adobes, he could not mold them, because the adobe would not let him mold it.

When I carried on the pottery business, I used to take a good deal of pains to get good clay, and hauled it a long distance, and then I always immersed it before I put it into the mill to grind it. Why? To make it passive; and I mold, grind, and grind it again, until it becomes passive; then I took it out of the mill, and carried it into the shop, where it was kneaded as you would a cake, and then put on to the wheel and turned into a vessel unto honor. Did I ever design to turn a vessel unto dishonor? No. If I did, I did not get any reward for it: I only got reward for those I molded and fashioned according to the dictation of my master; and I presented them to him that he might receive them, as Jesus says—“Father, I have lost none of those thou gavest me, except the son of perdition.”

Go into the blacksmith’s shop, on this block, and you will find brother Jonathan Pugmire, the foreman. I go to him and say, “Brother Jonathan, make me an axe.” He goes to work with a piece of iron that, the moment he tries to shape it, flies into a thousand pieces. “I can do nothing with that,” says he; “I must get a piece of iron that will be passive, and then I will make you an axe that will be as keen as a razor.” He gets another piece, and that begins to fly. It is not the fault of the blacksmith. “But,” says the iron, “don’t you handle me in this manner.” He throws that aside: that has got to go back to the furnace again, to be melted and made into a loop, and that turned out into iron again, because it was not passive; and then it becomes passive by getting the snappish stuff out of it: it runs out with the dross. The dross, you know, is very brittle and snappish.

When you find a man or woman snappish and fretful, and not willing to be subject, you may know there is a good deal of dross in that character, because dross is brittle. That dross has got to come out.

Talking about trials, brother Elias says he did not come here with the pioneers. It was pretty hard and laborious, I admit; but it was one of the pleasantest journeys I ever performed. Still there was a great deal of care and anxiety, especially on brother Brigham and those that helped him. Did we persevere? We did. We came here to the Valleys of the Mountains, and you have followed us.

Let me tell you, gentlemen, you have got to learn to be passive and be like clay in the hands of the potter, or be like a tallowed rag or wick before a hot fire: it becomes limber and passive, and you can tie it into a thousand knots, and it will not break.

Are you of that nature that you will not break and fly as though there were a hundred convulsions in you? You have got to come to that standard, as true as you ever become the true subjects and heirs of the kingdom of God. And let brother Brigham take a hundred men of that character, and I would give more for them than ten thousand people who are stiff in their own way; and he would take that hundred men and go into the mountains and whip out the world.

We read that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. We read that in the Bible. You have always heard it from the days of your youth to the present time. Do you appreciate it?

We will refer to Gideon, the Prophet of God, when his host was so numerous that he went and made a selection of three hundred men to put all his enemies to flight. That is in the Bible. For heaven’s sake, believe that, if you won’t believe me.

There was Daniel, a servant of God, one who kept His commandments; he was valiant, and his friends said to him, “Daniel, put down the window, or they will see you praying.” “I will pray with it open,” he replied; and he opened his window and prayed, and told them all that he asked no odds of them. “I will pray to my Father and God, who can preserve me in a den of lions, or in boiling hot oil, or in anything else, and He will sustain me while He will send you to hell, you poor devils.” He had such confidence in his God.

Should not you have as much confidence in God as brother Brigham, Heber, or the Twelve Apostles have?—as much confidence in this vine as any branch that pertains to it? You should.

To gratify some who cry, “Oh, don’t say anything, brother Heber—don’t say anything, brother Brigham, to bring down the United States upon us,” we have at times omitted printing some of the remarks that might offend the weak-stomached world, and we have made buttermilk and catnip tea to accommodate the tastes of our enemies; but the poor devils are not pleased after all. Would they come any quicker if we told them that they were poor, miserable, priest-ridden curses, who want a President in the chair that dare not speak for fear those hellhounds be on him?

God knew that Zachary Taylor would strike against us, and He sent him to hell. President Fillmore was the next man who came on the platform, and he did us good. God bless him! Then came President Pierce, and he did not strive to injure us. We hoped that the next after him would do us justice; but he has issued orders to send troops to kill brother Brigham and me, and to take the young women to the States.

The woman will be damned that will go: she shall dry up in the fountain of life, and be as though she never was. But there ain’t any agoing—[Voices: “There are none that want to go!”]—unless they are whores. If the soldiers come here, those creatures will have the privilege of showing themselves and of becoming debauched.

I tell you there is not a purer set of women on God’s earth than there is here; and they shall live and bear the souls of men, and bear tabernacles for those righteous spirits that are kept back for the last time, for the winding-up scenery.

Will the President that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse him; and He will also curse his successor, if he takes the same stand; and he will curse all those that are his coadjutors, and all who sustain him. What for? For coming here to destroy the kingdom of God, and the Prophets, and Apostles, and inspired men and women; and God Almighty will curse them, and I curse them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to my calling; and if there is any virtue in my calling, they shall be cursed, every man that lifts his heel against us from this day forth. [Voices: “Amen.”]

Am I afraid? No; but I am afraid to do wrong. I feel joy in my heart to be valiant and tell you the truth; and I pray that God my Father and his Son Jesus Christ may bring the evil upon them that they desire for this people.

Our enemies are crying out that we are confused, that we have rebelled, and that the Devil is to pay. I pray that God Almighty may bring that thing upon them that they have imagined upon us. But we are at peace and in harmony; we are worshipping and serving God. Will they overcome us? Never; no, never; no, never, while the earth stands, if we will stand up and be valiant.

I know that you never heard brother Brigham rebuke me for being valiant before this people. He says, “Let her go, Heber; let her slide.” You never saw any other spirit in him in your life; and every other good man there is will say so and has said so; and they are the elect of God, and they will be saved.

But be wise, be wise, be still, as I told a man this morning. Said I, You are always talking, you talk to everybody, and think everybody our friends; but they are not. I have lots and scores of friends here, and so has brother Brigham, who, by their ignorance would destroy us from the earth.

You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to hold your tongues, and keep what you get, and increase upon it. If you do not keep the word of life you receive—that which proceeds from God, your minds never will expand, and you will always be barren, like unto a barren woman.

Now, receive the seed, as Jesus says; and if that seed takes root, it will grow, and swell, and sprout, and bring forth. What will it bring forth? Something like the character that produced the seed. If you plant corn in the field, and that corn is rooted out of the ground, it perishes, and don’t produce anything. Receive the word and treasure it up in your hearts, and then you shall continue to receive the word of life, here a little and there a little; and you shall grow, and increase, and multiply, and no good thing shall be withheld from you.

Learn, above all things, brethren and sisters, to have a passive spirit, and be subject where you should be subject. I hear a great many say, “I am willing to be subject to brother Brigham, but I don’t want to be subject to this one and to that one.” Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, if you won’t be subject to my words, and listen to them, and receive them, you will not be subject to and receive brother Brigham’s words. How can it be possible for you to receive his words and reject mine?

Now, we will say brother Brigham is the head of this vine that has sprung out in the latter days—that is, the head of the vine that is upon the earth, that you naturally see; but Joseph was the head of the vine when he was here, and he is now, only you cannot see him: then I am connected to that vine, as one of brother Brigham’s Counselors; and then the Twelve, the Seventies, High Priests, and other officers. Now, just look at it. Why should you not listen to one man as much as to another connected to that vine; in case he produces the fruit of that vine? And they should know whether that branch is connected to the vine: they should know whether the fruit is the same as that produced by the head of the vine.

When I speak the truth, is it not the same as though brother Brigham spoke it? When I tell it as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ, what is the difference? I can go into my garden and show you apple trees there with perhaps a hundred limbs which have apples on them. You may taste an apple from the first or head limb, then of the second, and the third, and the hundredth; and the fruit tastes just alike, because it all came from one tree, and the tree came from the root, and it is all one thing.

This is the principle; we should be connected one with the other, every Quorum in its place, and keep organized, and keep in our places, according to the order of the Church of the Firstborn.

Are we going to be preserved? Bless your souls! I have no more fears, if this people will live their religion, and learn to be passive like clay in the hands of the potter, than as though I was in heaven; for if I was there and rebelled, as Lucifer did, I should expect to be chastised and cast out with all those connected with me.

A great many suppose that when they get there they will be perfectly safe. You will, if you keep the com– mandments of God; but if you cannot learn to keep the commandments of God in Great Salt Lake City, how can you learn to keep them when you have to flee to the mountains? And if you cannot keep them here, how do you expect to keep them in Jackson County?—for we are as sure to go back there as we exist.

This Church and kingdom will reign triumphant; and when the United States take a course to bring us into collision, they will strive to take away everything from us that they have given us. What of it? We will make them the aggressors: they shall be the first men that shall rebel against God and against this people; and if we are not the aggressors, and we stand on the defensive, and they come upon us, and they fall into our hands, the Lord says, if they repent and we forgive them, our blessings shall be doubled unto us; so also for the second time: but if he comes upon you the third time, thine enemy is in thine hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good: but if he repent, and you forgive him the third time, then I will reward unto you a hundredfold. But don’t you forgive, unless brother Brigham does. If he says, Give them justice and righteousness, then it will be right.

Now, you need not sit here as judges, and judge brother Brigham. Good heaven! How does anyone without any priesthood look when judging him and his brethren? He is capable of judging all things pertaining to this kingdom; for he has the keys of light and revelation, and God is with him. I cannot comprehend him, only in proportion to the measure of the Spirit bestowed upon me. Can brother Wells comprehend me? No, he cannot, nor never can, only as he has the same measure of the Spirit; and no man can comprehend his file leader, except he has the same measure of the Spirit.

But let me walk in my place, and the sap that is in brother Brigham is in me; and the sap that is in me is in him: but can I measure any further than my capacity? No. Then what do you judge me for? God will lead brother Brigham; don’t you be scared. He will give him revelation upon revelation; and when he says, Do this or that, God will sanction it, and he will bless all men and women that walk up to it, and curse every one that backs out.

Suppose I am partaking of the same spirit and nourishment that brother Brigham partakes of, and he is resting himself while brother Heber speaks, don’t you see he speaks the mind of brother Brigham? You may see it has been so all the time, and it will be so forever.

You have come to me, and I have given you counsel, and then you have gone to brother Brigham, and he has given you the same counsel; and when you have asked counsel of him, and then come to me, you say, “That is just as brother Brigham said to me.” Do you suppose I could give any counsel contrary to his mind?

Well, then, let that Spirit and power be in our families, and I want to know what difference there will be? Brother Hyde, don’t you never give counsel from this time henceforth but what would be the counsel of brother Brigham. Just so with the Seventies.

There is brother Pratt, in England, and the brethren that preside there: let those men do as the Spirit of God dictates them, without being carried off by some other spirit, and they will never go astray—no, never, although they are nine thousand miles from here. By taking this course, would you ever see a wife trying to pervert the way of her husband? I am talking about good men and good women. Would she do it? No: she would be one with him, even as I am one with brother Brigham.

Listen to the counsel of God and those men that are placed here; and if you will do that, I can promise you, in the name of Israel’s God, and by virtue of my calling, that you never shall be swerved aside, and our enemies shall be overcome every time before they cross that Big Mountain, if we have to do it ourselves.

If I did not say that, you would be calculating that we were going to make a perfect servant and drudge of our God, just as a great many of you wish to make of us. If you want a pound of coffee, or tea, or a pair of shoes, it is, “Come, brother Heber, go quick, and get me what I want; if you don’t, I will go and tell brother Brigham.” Go, and be damned.

I wish that all such characters were in hell, where they belong. [Voice: “They are there.”] I know it; and it is that which makes them wiggle so—the poor, miserable devils. They would make our Father and God a drudge—make him do the dirty work, kill those poor devils, and every poor, rotten-hearted curse in our midst. With them it is, “O Lord, kill them, kill them, damn them, kill them, Lord.” It is just like that, and their course has just as much nonsense in it. We intend to kill the poor curses ourselves, before they get to the Big Mountain. And we are going to dig a cache, or take some natural one, and put all the whining men and women into it, and let them whine. We want to be released from such poor hellions, and we will be; we won’t have a murmurer or complainer in the House of Israel. If we go out to war, let them stay here, and let the Devil handle them.

How long is it, brother Brigham, since we first went to Kirtland? [Brother Brigham: Twenty-four years, this fall.] In September, 1833, we went to Kirtland and gathered with Joseph and the Saints. We had to go and buy guns, and stand in his defense, in that early day; and we did it for months and months, to keep the hellions from him in Kirtland, twenty-four years ago; and so it continued from that day to the day of his death; and it is just so now. They are trying to take the lives of brother Brigham and your leaders. It is their design, and the design of the President of the United States, with his cabinet, and of Congress; and all the priests there are in the world back them up. That is the truth.

Get the Spirit of the Lord, and stop your whining, every one of you. “Oh,” says one, “I will leave you, if you don’t wait on me as you have hitherto, and get me all the things I ask for.” I wish you would: you could not please me better. Does that show such whiners have got integrity in them? A man or woman that has got integrity should have it, if there is nothing but a potato to eat. And if you have not a stocking to your feet, nor a gown, nor a petticoat, nor a short gown, you should be as true as the sun to the servants of the living God; and if you are not so under such circumstances, you would not be if you were loaded down with treasures.

It is true, I will tell you, the day of your being petted is past; and you have got to come to the crisis when the gate will be shut down between us and the United States, and that very soon, ladies and gentlemen; and if you don’t get your test, you may say I am false. [President Young, in a crying tone, said, “There are no more ribbons coming here: what shall I do?”]

O dear, I want to know if we ain’t going to have any more ribbons? A great many of your hearts are on nothing else but ribbons, and fine dresses, and bustles, and fineries: you don’t think of anything else. What is your religion good for, or your integrity? Did brother Brigham and Heber turn away from Joseph, because the Kirtland Bank broke, and the stores all run out, until there was nothing but an old dried-up johnnycake?

Did we forsake him? No, never; and we never had anything except we worked for it and go it by the hardest licks; and our wives would think that they were very extravagant to get a piece of calico of six yards for a dress pattern; and they thought that there were too many puckers then: and now you have got to have six or eight breadths puckered up. Why don’t you take some of those breadths out and make aprons, and not call on your husbands for new calico, &c., every week.

No man on the earth loves women better than I do. I love a good woman, one that has a good spirit; I love that woman that will strive to make me happy, and I love that son that seeks to please his father and mother; for he will make a good husband. I love that daughter that seeks to please her father and mother, because she will make a good wife.

You cannot help yourselves; the gate will be shut down directly, ladies. I am talking to you because it is customary in the States to address the ladies first; so, if you get it first, you must not be jealous of me. I respect our ladies; and there should not be a lady in the house of Israel but what should be like an angel to administer to her husband, and to pray for him, and to nourish him by night and by day, and watch his house and his pillow, and see that he is preserved in the last days.

We have got to go to work and manufacture our own clothing, our shoes, our stockings, our bonnets, our dresses, and everything we need.

I will refer you to brother Brigham’s words. How many times has he said to you, Ladies, make your own bonnets at home, out of the elements that grow in the valley of Great Salt Lake and in the regions round about. Why do you not do it? Tell about listening to brother Brigham! You look today as though you were listening to his counsel.

Many of the sisters presume to judge us. Say they, There is brother Kimball; his women have all got store bonnets, and ribbons, and laces, and this, that, and the other thing, brooches, jewelry, and feather beds sowed under their arms. Ain’t we just as good as they? Yes, if you do as well as they do.

I won’t say anything about anybody else’s family, only my own. Are you listening to brother Brigham’s counsel? Some of you say, I am willing to listen to him. Well, listen to him, and listen to him forever. I am under the necessity of laying out of my substance, and every dime I have got, and that I can get, that I would lay up for a little sugar, a little of this, and a little of that, that we actually need, a little butter and lard, that we grow in our midst; but instead of that, I have to pay every dime I can get for morocco shoes, for my women to wear to meeting; and they will wear out a pair while once going to meeting. [Voice: “Don’t you wish they earned them themselves?”] Yes, I pray that you may have to earn them with your own fingers, or go without them. I pray that prayer, and I know it will come to pass.

I am defending brother Brigham here, and that by the Holy Ghost and the dictation of the counsel he received from the Father, and the Son, and the old Patriarchs, and Prophets. You may go home, and say, Brother Kimball is hard. Go and say it as quick as you please. I ask no odds of any such people. I am independent of you; I know his feelings, I will preach his word, and the word of God that came through him; and that is all that will save you.

Do you want such things to cease? I just know it ain’t right. We ought to make our own leather, and we can make as good as can be made in the States: but no, we must have some States leather. We can make as good things here as can be made by any other people; but you want foreign fixings.

We have our Spanish fixings—a pair of spurs that will weigh seven pounds, ringing and gingling as though all hell was coming. Why don’t you put them away? I want you to make an ox goad with a spike in the end of it, and ram that into your horse, and get this instead of spurs, and destroy a horse at once. I cannot keep a decent horse, neither can brother Brigham, or any other man; for the boys will kill them. Let them rest: they are as good as we are in their sphere of action; they honor their calling, and we do not, when we abuse them: they have the same life in them that you have, and we should not hurt them. It hurts them to whip them, as bad as it does you; and when they are drawing as though their daylights would fly out of them, you must whip, whip, whip. Is there religion in that? No; it is an abuse of God’s creation that he has created for us.

I do not think that many ever suppose that animals are going to be resurrected. When God touched Elijah’s eyes, and he looked on the mountain, he saw chariots and horses, and men by thousands and millions. Where did they come from? There is nothing on this earth but what came from heaven, and it grew and was created before it grew on this earth: the Bible says so.

We grow peaches here, and they are created, and we send them to Sanpete. Don’t they grow before they are sent? Yes, and everything that is upon this earth grew before it came here; it was transported from heaven to earth.

Let as us be merciful to the brute creation.

God bless you, brethren and sisters, and multiply you. Peace be with you, and upon this people, and upon your children, and upon every being on the Lord’s footstool that wishes peace to Israel. [Voices: “Amen.”]

The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. [Voice: “They will destroy themselves.”] They will destroy themselves, as the Lord liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. [Voices: “Amen.”]The Lord God will bring mildew on the nation that has afflicted us; for that nation shall take it first, and thence it shall go forth to every nation, kingdom, government, and state, and upon every town that shall lift their heels against God and this people. Amen.