Heber C. Kimball

“ Still if God will forgive you, I will, of all the sins you have committed, if you have not shed innocent blood, or sinned against the Holy Ghost. I will forgive you of all sins that God will forgive you of. God be merciful to you, and God bless the poor and honest, and those who are filled with integrity and virtue, God bless you for ever, and you shall be blessed, whether the rest do right or not. ”

“ John Hyde may spout as much as he has a mind to, and all such characters may spout and try to make out that Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Jedediah M. Grant, and Daniel H. Wells are guilty of the things they are; but we are as clean as a piece of white paper. No women from heaven, earth, or hell can present themselves with a truthful allegation that we have ever led them astray. We have lawful wives, and the most of them honour their callings, and God will bless them, and they will be raised to immortality and eternal lives. ”

“ Now, my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except you do this, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things. And I command you to take it upon you to counsel your elder brothers in your undertakings; for behold, thou art in thy youth and ye stand in need to be nourished by your brothers. ”

“ But that is done away in my family, and there is none of it in brother Brigham's, nor in brother Wells', nor in any family where they have common sense.
If every member of my body performs its office and does its duty, according to the order and government of God, then I want to know of one member is any better than another? Is any one of my fingers any better than another, if each one fulfils its calling? ”

“ And give heed to their counsel; suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing; suffer not the devil to lead away your heart again after those wicked harlots. Behold, O my son, how great iniquity ye brought upon the Zoramites: for when they saw your conduct, they would not believe in my words. And now the Spirit of the Lord doth say unto me, command thy children to do good, lest they lead away the hearts of many people to destruction; therefore I command you, my son, in the fear of God, that ye refrain from your iniquities ”

“ God bless you, if you will only live your religion, and let brother Brigham, brother Heber, and brother Daniel live theirs; for he is our brother now and always was. If you will rise up and let us rise a little higher, you will see no particular difference in us, but the difference will be in you. Rise up, and do not hold us down.
As we are members of one body, except we cut you off from us we never can rise, unless you rise. If you will cleanse the platter, and throw out the dead men's bones that corrupt it, and all wicked things, you will rise ”

“ Live your religion. Bishops go to now and take the course I have suggested; take a course not to expose and ruin men, but let their private sins be privately acknowledged to the Bishop, and he has authority to report them to head quarters: then there can be a way of disposal—why? because God our Father has made a way. ”

“ Yes, I can speak in a good, beautiful language to this people at any time. Why? Because God gave me the gift, and He does not give gifts to men and then take them away again, so long as those men are doing their duty. ”

“ Behold, we have not come out to battle against you, that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. But this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion. ”

“ I know that our faithful Priests and Bishops understand me, but there are some, perhaps, who do not, because I have spoken by comparison rather than to expose the meanness of the corrupt. I am ashamed to speak of the sins that some are guilty of. I have not said anything about the world, and do you suppose that I am going to speak about the world, so long as there are evils in our midst equally as bad as they commit?
There are a great many old men who have the Priesthood upon them, who have been in the Church from the beginning, and yet they are spiritually dead. ”

“ The more of the Spirit of God a man has, the more composed he is. You will not hear him rage and tear, saying." Oh, the Holy Ghost is in me; I shall die; hell and the devil is to pay." [The speaker mimicked the manner of wild enthusiasts.] I am trying to show you the folly, wild spirit, and devil that gets into some men, and they try to make the people believe that it is the Holy Ghost, when it is not any such thing. You never see brother Brigham operated upon in that way; you never see brother Heber so affected. ”

“ There is one way in which the Presidency of this Church can rise, but it would be greatly to the injury of the body, and I will tell you how. If you will go to work and reject them, you will see them rise quickly, but you will also see this body go down to death and hell, while the Priesthood of this Church would go to heaven. You can liberate them in this way, but not in any other except through obedience, unless that Presidency rises up and cuts you off. They can do that, for they have as much power to cut you off as you have to reject them. ”

“ I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way, and come not again to war against us. ”

“ Don't you think it is a better course to take the gentlemen privately and talk over matters, and then take the ladies privately and instruct them, and not open the budget of the filth of their husbands before the wives, nor that of the wives before their husbands? Such filthy characters seem to be the most sanctimonious, the most holy and gracious. I wish you could know one thing, that is, that we know you and can see right through you. I wish all those kind of men and women would get away to the back side of the congregation, and not stick themselves right under my nose. ”

“ I will tell you what kind of characters will have those kinds of revelations; they will be men who have committed whoredom in our midst, and women who have played the whore. Good, virtuous men and women are not actuated by those spirits, because they ask the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to give them His Spirit, and not those wild, enthusiastic spirits manifested by some. How was it with those men in Kirtland? Almost every one of them denied the faith and went over the board, and afterwards we found out that they were adulterous persons. ”

“ If one of these fingers sticks itself where it should not be, it brings dishonour on the whole body; and there are certain men and women who have dishonoured themselves and this whole community. John Hyde, probably, was living in adultery before he went from here, or if not, he was after he went from here, and he lost the Spirit of the Lord God. Any man that will do such wickedness, cannot keep the Spirit of God.
Do right, and let the Bishops and Missionaries understand their duty, and they may be the means of palliating your sins and making you comfortable for life. ”

“ When brother Brigham gives a Bishop a key pertaining to a Ward, that Bishop has power to open and shut, to teach, prophesy, and administer the word of life, according to his holy calling in his department. Every man has his department as it is set off to him, and if he lives his religion he has the power of God, the power of Brigham, the power of Heber and of Daniel, yea, all the power we have in that department, when he goes and acts in our authority. ”

“ May they not have peace at home or abroad, out of doors or in the house, up stairs nor down in the cellar, and I say it in the name of Almighty God and by virtue of the Priesthood, may the curse of Almighty God be on such men and women, and they shall welter in sorrow. ”

“ There is more danger of people's getting wild fire than there is of their getting the true fire of God. There is danger of going too far, and of pressing this people too far. There is a medium in all things. ”

“ If our Father and our God was to come here, or Jesus, or Peter, or Joseph, or brother Brigham, or any other man, he could not speak to this people and advance light to them, only in proportion to the light that is in this people and their willingness and readiness to receive more. ”

“ If you will take this course, brother Brigham and Heber will live, yea, they will live and let live scores and scores of years.
Brethren and sisters, do not be the aggressors, always act on the defensive. I never will touch any of you, I never will offend or scold at you, nor injure you in any way, if you will not harm me but live your religion. I never will strike one of you, without you first strike me; but when you strike me, I shall be justifiable in striking you. I want you to remember what you read in the Book of Mormon, where Alma tells his son not to be the aggressor ”

“ When persons get the religion of Christ, and enjoy the Holy Ghost, they will never see any of that wildness which I have spoken of, unless, in the progress of this work, our President should be moved upon to bring it into action. When he unlocks and opens the door for that Spirit to come upon this people, then it is right and never will be wrong. Brother Brigham is my brother ”

“ Men, who have been warned and forewarned, but who will associate with the wicked and take a course to commit whoredom, and will strive to lead our daughters and our wives into the society of poor, wicked curses, with a view to gratify their cursed passions; we will take them and slay them before this people. I am talking of those that will persist in this course of iniquity, and not about those who will repent and forsake their sins. Are there men in our midst who will court other men's wives? ”

“ What are such men worthy of? They are worthy of death, and they will get it. That time is near by, and God has spoken from the heavens, and when certain things are about right, we shall make a public example of those characters. ”

“ A motion has been put, and unanimously carried, that John Hyde be cut off root and branch, that is, himself and all the roots and branches that are within him; this has no allusion to his family. He has taken a course by which he has lost his family and forfeited his Priesthood; he has forfeited his membership. The limb is cut off, but the Priesthood takes the fruit that was attached to the limb and saves it, if it will be saved. Do you understand me? His wife is not cut off from this Church, but she is free from him; she is just as free from him as though she never had belonged to him. ”

“ I have not said that you do so, but I am talking to you for all the rest of the Bishops, knowing that you are a man of good order, and one who loves to carry out things as you are dictated by the heads of Israel. I know that is your character, and God Almighty bless you for ever, and every such man. There are lots of such men, and I wish to God there were a thousand where there is but one. ”

“ There are a great many people in this congregation and in this Valley who could justly and beneficially partake of the sacrament, but they are prohibited for the present in consequence of the wickedness of some who would also partake and thus eat and drink to their condemnation.
You talk about such persons being asleep; you call it sleep; well it is, comparatively speaking, the sleep of death that is on a great many individuals, and they do not realize it, and you cannot make them realize it. They think they are awake to their duties ”

“ You should pour in a little wine and oil, and the good things of the kingdom of God, and that will temper the iron so that it will yield to the hammer.
I mean this for the Bishops, the Missionaries, the Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Evangelists; pour in a little oil and wine and soften the material, and not be putting on with three or four sledges and a small hammer in the bargain. It will not answer for the big hammers to go on beating, after the little hammer has sounded stop, you big fellows.
When I strike with a big sledge hammer, it performs much more than the little hammer. ”

“ When you go into your gardens and look at your peach trees, do you not see many great and important limbs, also many branches to those limbs? Now if a main branch is partly dead or lifeless where it joins the trunk, the sap has to go through there to support the limb, and of course affects its nourishment, for the sap becomes partially dormant, and when it goes into the rest of the members, they are dormant ”

“ I do think it is outrageous to unwisely expose so much filth as some of our Elders and Missionaries do. If a man is asleep and has besmeared himself, do not expose him, unless the necessity of the case requires it. I feel a good, wholesome spirit and a fatherly spirit to you, brethren ”