Heber C. Kimball

“ But allow me to say, that your salvation and exaltation depend upon what you consider indelicate for a man to speak in a public congregation.
Brethren, there is not anything I fear, sisters, there is not anything I fear, in this world, but that we shall prosper, and dwell upon the earth, and continue in the Valleys of the mountains, and never be removed, that is, if we will be faithful, and do as well as we know how, and follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit of God, and of him and his brethren who preside over us. If we do this, we never shall be overcome. ”

“ There is nearly one-half of this congregation who disable themselves, and are obliged to go to bed to rest their food, on the Sabbath afternoon. I am not speaking of this thing as though it is practised here any more than it is in the whole world. You do not train your bodies, and cultivate your minds, in eating and drinking, in partaking of the fruits of the earth; your lives are wasted away, not in a useful manner, but in a very useless manner. You throw away your lives. ”

“ Because Justice sits at the door, and will not admit a single soul until he has paid the uttermost farthing. Do you think we can pass you in there clandestinely? If you do, you will find justice sitting at the door, and she will require justice at your hand, and mercy will claim all that is due to her, but mercy will not rob justice, not one whit, neither will justice rob mercy; they are united together, just as much as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ever were. As brother Brigham said here, if you sin against God, you have got to satisfy Him ”

“ I will tell you what will be good for us, and it will bestow upon us all the luxuries of this life, of heaven and earth. You are talking about heaven and about earth, and about hell, &c.; but let me tell you, you are in hell now, and you have got to qualify yourselves here in hell to become subjects for heaven; and even when you have got into heaven, you will find it right here where you are on this earth. When we escape from this earth, we suppose we are going to heaven? Do you suppose you are going to the earth that Adam came from? ”

“ It is not very cold; through your faces appear rather blooming; your eyes are bright and your spirits look cheerful. I do not think you are cold; you never saw a man or a woman have the blues yet, but they looked black, and their flesh looked blue, like the green-fly. ”

“ The majority of you enjoy greater blessings this day than you ever did in your lives. I have travelled over a great portion of the earth in days that are past. I have seen the sorrows of the world. I have seen this people, or many of them, very poor, and penniless. ”

“ If I take food in the afterpart of the day, it is disagreeable for me to speak in the afternoon; it is hard and laborious. When you go from this place and return to your homes, you eat so much, that when you return here again, those that do, you are as void of receiving intelligence and the Spirit of the Lord God as a stone. ”

“ I have said it many times, that I had no doubt that every man and every woman would, perhaps, get all the experience they wanted. And as for this people, I do not say to what they can be brought; but sometimes I have thought, or had my doubts, whether or no the majority of them will take a course to keep peace in our midst, and secure to us continually the comfort and consolation we now enjoy. ”

“ Do you consider it sensible, that we go to work, and rear a temple to the name of the Lord, and have the roof on it next fall? Say? None of your half winks to me again; is it not reasonable to say, it cannot be done unless you do it?
It is necessary to unite and cultivate the hearts of this people together, more than any thing else. The subject of building a temple alone. will not do it, or your means; but to bring this to a focus, your hearts must be where your treasure is. If you place your treasure in the temple, your hearts must be there, they are wherever you place your treasure. ”

“ I ask, then, if it is your spirits that must be brought into subjection? It is; and if you do not do that in these bodies, you will have to go into another estate to do it. You have got to train yourselves according to the law of God, or you will never obtain your resurrected bodies. Mark it! You do not think of these things, you only think of to-day. If you can pass along today, it is all right, thinking that brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Willard, and the Twelve, with brother Joseph at our head, will lead you all into the celestial world. We cannot do it. ”

“ Now suppose we apply this principle to the house of every man in Israel, who is a father of a family, and they all agree they will make heaven at home, and after that they all conclude to come together and make a general heaven. But the first place to begin to make a heaven, is to make it at home, and then we will club together, and conclude to have it all over. ”

“ These things have been talked about many times, and I might split my lungs, and my brethren might do the same, unto some people in the world; for the more you talk to them, the more light that is revealed to them, the less they seem to appreciate it. ”

“ If you do not cultivate yourselves, and cultivate your spirits in this state of existence, it is just as true as there is a God that liveth, you will have to go into another state of existence, and bring your spirits into subjection there. ”

“ Shall we go to work, and build a temple, and a wall around it? Now, gentlemen, if we do it at all, we have got to commence the work. and continue to progress in it until we have completed it. You must put your means and labor in it. How many hands do we see here on the public works weekly? Why there is scarcely a man to be seen, except regularly employed hands. ”

“ You know what my belief is, and I am satisfied it is the belief of every person here. Many are willing to eat and drink, wear clothing, and lie down to sleep, and they think they are going to be ushered into the Kingdom of God by that portion of men and women that are faithful. ”

“ Those who have passed through these things have appreciated them, and they are actually in possession of more knowledge and experience than those who have not passed through them. Still, we find, in the course of our experience, that many think they have more experience, and know more and comprehend more, than their neighbors. ”

“ If they do seem to appreciate it, they do not obey it, they do not walk in the path marked out; but they will receive instructions from day to day, and enter into the most solemn obligations, before God and angels, that they will observe them, but before they get home they forget them. ”

“ There are many here that did live there and they have now their abundance, and they eat so much here that they are almost disabled, their minds are not so active, and this is the cause many times they are not to be found in this hall—they eat so much, they are under the necessity of going to bed, not to rest themselves, but to rest the food they have taken. ”