Heber C. Kimball

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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, for ever; and those that do not do it shall go the other way. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They think troops are coming here, and that we are going to fight. What the devil can we right, 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. ”

“ 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 labours. ”

“ I have got somewhere between eleven and twelve hundred bushels of old wheat now in my store-house, 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I would advise you to take everything 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 store-house, I saw these things, and I went to work and set an example that was worthy of imitation, although it was small ”

“ These things are not only for you who are present to-day, 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. ”

“ 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 ”