A Candid Sermon on Courage and Faithfulness

Arising to speak to you at this time puts me in mind of a story I read not long ago. It was during the late war, when some soldiers were around a camp fire, trying to keep themselves from freezing to death, a preacher came along to hold services. He looked around among the soldiers, and said, "I will take for my text Chilblains." So he instructed the soldiers what to do, which was to put soft soap in their shoes, place them on their feet and wait till their feet were healed, and then he would talk to them about the Lord the next time he came. You can't talk to people when they are uneasy, not if you are like I am. You can't preach to people when they want to go home. Now if any of you want to go, please go, and the rest of us will stay till we get through. ¶

I am not going to announce any blood and thunder doctrine to you today. I have not been radical for four long months, not since I had appendicitis. I came very nearly being operated upon. I thought I was going to die for a few hours. People said to me, "Why, brother Kimball, you needn't be afraid, you'll get justice." "Well," I said, "that is what I am afraid of." Well now, the Latter-day Saints need not get frightened; they will get justice. You have been fed on rich diet during this conference, and now I will give you a little coarse food to help you out. ¶

I am not exercised about the triumph of this work. I am not lying awake nights any more, wondering how the Lord is going to do it. Notwithstanding the fact that I am laboring in the Church, I don't know what the Lord wants in all things, if I did I would be willing to try and carry it out. The Lord's ways are not as man's ways, and He does things so differently from the way we want to do them that many of us are oftentimes surprised, and it requires constant faith to stay in this Church. I believe it is the hardest church to stay in that there is on earth, because you have always got to keep exercising faith. I remember hearing of a man that apostatized from the Church, and he was asked what was the matter. He said, "Well' I have got tired of exercising faith." That is true. Some people that called themselves Latter-day Saints would have destroyed this Church long ago if they had had the power, but they couldn't do it. I will tell you something, brethren: Don't get too much exercised about the outside people. I feel a good deal, I think, like my father did one time when he was praying. You know he was rather peculiar, and prayed in his own way. He was praying about some one, and he stopped in his prayer and laughed very heartily, and then said, "O Lord, forgive me, it makes me laugh to pray about some men." Now it makes me laugh sometimes when I think about the puny efforts of men to destroy this work, how feeble they are, and how utterly they do fail. They can't hurt the work; it is absolutely impossible. I thank the Lord I have a testimony that this is the Joseph Smith Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love the authorities of the Church; I tell you, though, the poorest way in the world to show that you love them is to be always talking about it. I will tell you how to prove you love the authorities of the Church; help them by working for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Work like Elder Ben E. Rich and others, who have been in the missionary field for seven years without any possible hope of remuneration as far as earthly things are concerned. All they get is blessings. That is the way to manifest love for this work. The Lord told my father, when He sent him off to preach the Gospel: "Trouble not thyself about thy family, for they are in my hands, and I will see that they have fathers and mothers, brethren and sisters and friends, and they shall not want for food or raiment, if you will preach my Gospel." Now if any of you love this work devotedly, go out in the world and preach it, there are many millions of people that have never heard the Gospel. ¶

I don't think we need spend very much time troubling over our enemies, and I don't believe in sticking pins in them. Take no more notice of them than you would of a fice dog. One time, in the south, it was my companion's turn to ask for entertainment, and he stood on a platform nearly as high as my head, and knocked on the door; just then one of those little fice dogs bounded out the doorway, ran right between my companion's legs and landed on top of my head. That is the only time I ever was frightened by a fice dog, and I never have been frightened since. ¶

I say, we need not be anxious about the triumph of this work; we need not be so exercised about it that we will lay awake nights. But I tell you, every man and woman in this church should be exercised and anxious about the salvation of the souls of the children of men, and about the preaching of this Gospel. Loot at our Savior, thing of the anxiety He had for the souls of men. Just think of the sleepless nights He must have spent. I can not be converted to the idea that the Savior sweat great drops of blood because they were going to crucify Him. But, He so loved the souls of the children of men. and His sorrow was so great for them that He sweat great drops of blood. Now you need to get a little bit anxious, and go home and get a little healthful exercise, and not sleep too much; lie awake a little and think about this work. Now, I am not exercised about the sectarian ministers. I wish they would take a little fatherly advice from me, but they won't do it. But I wish they would take my advice, and stop making false charges against the Church authorities. Why don't they adopt the plan of the "Mormon" Church. Our Elders in California, in the Southern States, in the Eastern States, and all over the world, follow the instructions of the Prophet Joseph, a command in fact, that they should not tear down other churches. I confess I deserved a good licking quite a number of times in the south, it is so easy to tear down, and it is so difficult to build up. See what it has cost this Church; see the number of lives that have been lost in preaching the Gospel. See the hundreds of Elders that have been broken down in their constitutions, absolutely and utterly, in the Southern States. O. how I pity some of those Elders in the South, their blood is poisoned by malaria that nothing but the power of God will ever heal them. Why. you don't realize what it costs to build up this Church. ¶

I am proud of this work. I am proud of the authorities, and God being my helper. I will show my integrity to them, by following their instructions, and when they want me to go to work, to work I'll go. ¶

Now, brethren, the Lord bless you. You shouldn't get yourselves tied up by debt. Of these Seventies 8,000 men, I am sorry there is not more than one out of a hundred that is prepared to go on a mission, because of debt, or infirmities. When a man claims that he would lay down his life for this work, that he would place all that he has and all that the Lord has given him on the altar, and you invite him to go on a mission, you sometimes find him full of sorrow, and trouble and in debt. It is the most inconsistent thing in the world. ¶

Now, brethren, the Seventies are not all that way; among them are a lot of aged men, too old to go on missions, it is not wise they should. These old men ought to be ordained High Priests, and allowed to labor at home. And then there are a lot of physically disabled Seventies, good faithful men; but they are not suited for missionary work, they also ought to be ordained High Priests. And I pray God that we may in time have an army of Seventies like the soldiers of the government of the United States, young, able-bodied, qualified to go to the south and to the north and all over the world. We ought to have an army of men prepared to go out and preach the Gospel, so that these brethren, presidents of missions, can have efficient and capable men to assist them. ¶

I believe there was a time in the history of this church when it was necessary to send all kinds of men! God magnified them, and made them marvelous; but I tell you He does not look upon ignorance now with any degree of allowance. There is no need of our Pristhood being ignorant; there is no need of our Priesthood going out as ''the fishermen went out. They ought to go out well equipped and fitted for the work of the Lord as special witnesses of Christ. I know what the Lord wants in this respect, just as well as if He gave me a direct revelation. When missionaries are wanted they should be found in the Seventies quorums instead of any other. The Lord bless you. Amen. ¶