I Was Not Able to Be at Conference Yesterday

Of the First Council of Seventy ¶

I was not able to be at conference yesterday, but, as I lay on the lounge and listened to the radio, I am glad to say to the people, I heard every word that was said, even at that long distance. I listened with great interest and partook of the spirit of the conference. As far as I am concerned, my brethren and sisters, I feel that it is victory or death. I haven't a vision of any kind whatsoever. I have no ambition to achieve honors, and I have only one viewpoint, and that is salvation. I desire most fervently to walk in the footsteps of my father and to emulate, as far as I am capable, his example, and to be one among the number who are loyal and true and faithful to the Church. ¶

I listened with much pleasure and a great degree of happiness to the reports of the presidents of Missions as to what is accomplished in the world through the preaching of the gospel. I do not know that I ever felt quite so intently as I do now, notwithstanding my own missionary work and the hundreds of elders I have assisted in setting apart, the importance of this labor, because of its influence upon our youngest son, who is now in France. ¶

You know I am rather peculiar in my thoughts and imaginations. I get to thinking along certain lines. I pick up ideas here and there. It is not original. I haven't been able to get hold of anything original for a long time. ¶

All the passion I have had for the past forty years I have put into this work, with all the mistakes and blunders, and my spirit has worn out my body. As I grow older, I become more silent, with a desire to be alone. To me, one glimpse of immortality would mean that death would lose all cause of fear and would hasten my desire to go home. As someone has said: "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life." ¶

What is the good of all this education and science if it cannot tell us that there is a survival after death? What is the good of it all if it cannot answer a simple question like that? Science seems not to know what lies beyond the "No man's land," so we must turn our faces and our desires to God for an answer. It has been remarked very often that when we meet a really big man, we almost invariably find a simple man, devoid of pride and arrogance. One reason lies in the fact that every man holding a big position knows in his own soul, if he be honest, that there are forces entirely outside of himself that have led him onward to do big things. The man of the world calls it luck, just a series of accidents, but Latter-day Saints feel that great men and good women succeed because the front door of their intelligence is always open to inspiration and because of their dogged determination and effort to carry out what God has inspired them to do. What a man is worth in this world depends on the kind of life he leaves behind him as he passes. His riches consist, not of what he brought with him, but of what he left behind him as he bestowed his goods and influence to uplift and help the poor. ¶

Heber C. Kimball had the superb gift of living in the hearts of the people. He taught me by his good behavior that while equality is often impossible, brotherhood and friendship is the great possible thing. I cannot but feel that all that is beautiful and virtuous, all that is great and noble, will be for my father. God and Christ, and the Prophet Joseph and his brethren, in time, will assemble, and he will be among that number. His personality was as simple as a child's and he had the priceless gift of a forgiving and loving heart for the people, for his wives and for his children. ¶

The fact that Heber C. Kimball was my father need not, I think, with fair-minded people who are considerate, convict me of immodesty in telling his story. It is .not as if I were claiming anything for myself. I had nothing to do with his creation, but I speak of a real man, the personification of a great prophet, a great pioneer in American life. I ask why should I not, at the closing of my life, give in my way an authentic picture of him, with the hope that it may be faith-promoting and convincing to others as it has been to me? When I read of those 143 pioneers who landed in this valley on July 24, 1847, and in one short month they accomplished more for the beginning of a great work than other men have accomplished in a lifetime, I marvel at it. I can remember reading a discourse preached by President Brigham Young at the funeral of Jedediah M. Grant, wherein he said : "This man who lies before you accomplished more in ten years than some men accomplish in one hundred." ¶

I now desire to call to the attention of the Kimball race what was ¶

accomplished by President Heber C. Kimball and others in preaching: the gospel in England. ¶

Heber Chase Kimball was born in Sheldon, Vermont, June 14, 1801. When he was eleven years old, his parents removed to West Bloomfield, New York, where his father, who was a blacksmith, established a large shop in which Heber was taught blacksmithing. At the age of nineteen, he was thrown upon his own resources, his father having failed in business. Heber was relieved by his elder brother, Charles, who taught him the potter's trade. Heber C. suffered severe poverty to the extent of actual hunger at this time, but it was largely brought about by his shyness and timidity. ¶

"With all his trials, hardships and persecution he was a singular compound in his nature, of courage and timidity; weakness and strength, with a penchant for mirth and a proneness for melancholy, and blending the lion-like qualities of a leader of men with the bashfulness and lamb-like simplicity of a child. ¶

"Men like Heber C. Kimball are not accidents. They are, emphatically and in the truest sense, children of destiny. What is true in this respect of ancient prophets, like Abraham and Jeremiah, is true also of modern prophets. ¶

"This wondrous triad of spirits, known to the world as Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, of "Green mountain boys" of Vermont, went forth in the name of the great Jehovah to plant the banner of gospel truth." ¶

In the spring of 1837, Brother Kimball was informed by Brother Hyrum Smith, one of the Presidency of the Church, that he was designated by the Holy Spirit, at a conference of the authorities of the Church, to go on a mission to Great Britain. ¶

Brother Kimball felt his weakness and unworthiness and could not help exclaiming, "O Lord, I am a man of stammering tongue, and not fit for the work." ¶

In June, 1837, he bade adieu to his family, friends, the town of Kirtland, in company with Brother Orson Hyde and others, and arrived in England July 15, 1837. ¶

They were moved upon to go to Preston. It was a day on which representatives were chosen. On one of the flags that were unfurled was this motto : "Truth will prevail." The brethren exclaimed. "Amen —so let it be." ¶

They arrived in Kirtland in May, 1838, having been absent about ten months. ¶

There were great numbers initiated into the Church. Those who were sick flocked daily to be healed. The brethren slept but little, and some nights and days were taken up in baptizing, confirming, administering to the sick and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They baptized ten, twenty and as many as twenty-five in one day. In Preston, fifty were baptized in one week and one hundred in four weeks. ¶

Referring to the vision of the legion of evil spirit in England, on the opening of the mission, Joseph Smith said, "Brother Heber, at that time you were nigh unto the Lord ; there was only a veil between you and him. The nearer a person approaches to the Lord the greater power does the devil manifest." ¶

On September 18, 1839, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and others started on a mission to England. Their wives and children were sick. ¶

Charles Hubbard sent a boy with a span of horses and wagon to start them out on their journey. Brigham and Heber were both sick and, with difficulty, got into the wagon. Reaching Kirtland, they had $13.50 on hand and had paid out $87. They had traveled 400 miles by stage and paid eight to ten cents a mile, had eaten three meals a day at fifty cents a meal and had paid fifty cents for lodgings. Brother Brigham suspected that Heber had put the money in the trunk, but Heber said a heavenly messenger provided the money. ¶

Elders Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Orson Pratt and R. Hedlock took ship for England, March 7, 1840, arriving April 6, 1840. On April 20, 1841, they returned to New York. They established the work of the Church in almost every noted town and city in Great Britain; baptized between seven thousand or eight thousand; printed 5,000 Books of Mormon, 3,000 Hymn books, 2,500 volumes of the Millenhl Star and 50,000 tracts; emigrated 1,000 souls to Zion ; established a permanent shipping place, and sowed in the hearts of thousands the seeds of eternal truth. ¶

The fall and winter of 1838 was one of the darkest periods in Church history — mobocracy on one hand and apostasy on the other. It was first a city, then a county, and a whole state rose in arms against God's people. ¶

Agreeable to the terms of the anti-"Mormons," whom the commissioners represented, the Saints, trusting in God, were now preparing for the exodus of the Church and its pilgrimage to the Rocky mountains, an event foreseen by the Prophet Joseph Smith and predicted by him in August, 1842. ¶

Heber C. Kimball accompanied President Brigham Young to Illinois, and was with President Young and the 143 pioneers that found their way to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. ¶

On returning to Winter Quarters, Brigham Young was chosen and sustained as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, with Heber C. Kimball as his first counselor, in the fall of 1847, a position my father occupied until his death in June, 1868. ¶

I honor my father for his faith, courage and integrity to God the Father and to his Son Jesus Christ. He was one of the first chosen apostles that never desired the Prophet's place — his hands never shook, his knees never trembled and he was true and steadfast to the Church and to the Prophet Joseph Smith. ¶

He built homes for his wives and children, two flour mills, carding machine mill, molasses mills, a linseed oil mill, school buildings, barns, cobble stone walls. He beautified gardens and farms and laid out his inheritance, and laid out city blocks and named the streets. He located hundreds of people who built homes, and he never speculated. ¶

At a council meeting held at the Prophet Joseph's house, Sidney Rigdon remarked that he had some feelings against Elder Kimball who prophesied of Nauvoo : "It is a very pretty place, but not a long abiding place for the saints." Sidney said : "I should suppose that Elder Kimball had passed through suffering and privations and mobbings and drivings enough to learn to prophesy good concerning Israel." With a mixture of meekness and humor, Heber replied: "President Rigdon, I'll prophesy good concerning you all the time if you can get it." ¶

Brother Brigham, Heber and others were enroute to Kirtland. Heber had chills and fever and was very ill. A doctor said he could give him something to relieve him. The doctor was drunk, and gave Heber a tablespoonful of morphine. He reeled and fell to the floor. Some of the brethren wept and said, "We will never see Heber again." Brother Brigham cared for him. Heber said : "Don't be scared. You brethren go ahead, for Brother Brigham and I will reach Kirtland before you will" ; and they did. ¶

During the famine of 1856, which was likened unto the famine of Egypt, Heber C. Kimball played a part like unto that of Joseph of old. He had prophesied of the famine. He, by his providence and foresight and anticipation of the famine, had saved his grain, filled his bins and storehouse, and he fed a hungry multitude, kindred, strangers and all. who looked to him for succor. His own family were put upon short rations, though he had thousands of bushels of wheat, with bran, shorts, corn and barley in abundance. Several hundred bushels of wheat were loaned to President Young, to help feed the hungry and the poor of Salt Lake City. ¶

Bishop John B. Maiben gives an interesting link in the historic chain at the time of the famine. "Some individuals who had flour sold it at $25 to $30 a 100 pounds. Not so with Heber, for at no time did he charge more than $6 a 100 pounds, then the standard tithing-offiee price. He distributed in various amounts, from five to fifty pounds to the poor, amounting to about 30,000 pounds. His acts of generosity, mercy and charity, during this time of sore distress, are worthy of the man. He kept an open house and fed from twenty-five to one hundred poor people at the tables daily, with bread, flour and other necessities that were worth their weight in gold." ¶

It is related that during the famine, a brother, sorely in need of bread, came to President Kimball for counsel as to how to procure it. "Go and marry a wife," was Heber's terse reply, after feeding the brother. The man thought Brother Kimball must be out of his mind, but when he thought of his prophetic character, he resolved to obey counsel. He wondered where such a woman was and, thinking of a widow with several children, he got busy and proposed. As widows generally do, she accepted him. In that widow's house was laid up a six months' store of provisions. She surely grub-staked him. Meeting Brother Kimball soon after, the prosperous man of a family said: "Well, Brother Heber, I followed your advice." "Yes," said the man of God, "and you found bread." ¶

About this time, they had to meet the wants of the immigration, which had commenced pouring in from Europe. The crickets had played havoc with the crops, in spite of the interposition of the gulls. Great wisdom and the broadest charity had to be exercised to relieve suffering and hunger. The people were put upon rations, all sharing the same, like members of one family. As filling, they dug roots and ate them, like the Indians, or cooked and ate the hides of animals. ¶

It was during this time of famine, when the half-starved, halfclad settlers scarcely knew where to look for the next crust of bread, or for rags to hide their nakedness, that Heber C. Kimball, filled with the spirit of prophecy, in a public meeting, declared to the astonished congregation, that, within a short time, states' goods would be sold in the streets of Great Salt Lake City cheaper than in New York, and that the people should be abundantly supplied with food and clothing. ¶

As soon as the spirit force had abated, on resuming his seat, he remarked to the brethren that he feared he had missed it that time. President Young said: "Never mind, let it go." Charles C. Rich, an apostle, said : "I don't believe a word of it." Heber said : "Neither do I, but God hath spoken." The words of a prophet, when spoken by the. spirit of God, are the words of God, as he is the dictator. ¶

The advent of the gold hunters, on their way to California, set on fire, as it were, the civilized world, and hundreds of richly laden trains made Salt Lake City their resting place. Thus, the Prophet Heber's words came true, for states' goods were actually sold in the streets here cheaper than they could be bought in New York. ¶

Heber, a few years later, said, "That is the way I prophesy, but I have predicted things I did not foresee and did not believe anybody else did, but I have said it, and it came to pass. The Lord led me right, but I did not know it." ¶

"Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital," said Heber C. Kimball, to Parley P. Pratt, in April, 1836, "And there," continued Heber prophetically, "thou shalt find a people prepared for the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions round about, and many shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth, and shall be filled with joy; and from the things growing out of this mission shall the fulness of the gospel spread into England and cause a great work to be done in that land." ¶

This pointed prophecy was strikingly fulfilled. The Fieldings, who were among the people that Parley found in Canada, ready to receive his message, had a brother in England, a minister, to whom they wrote concerning the rise of "Mormonism," and thus prepared the way for Apostles Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, who, with their associates, including Willard Richards and Joseph Fielding, carried the gospel across the Atlantic. The Rev. James Fielding, the minister referred to, received them kindly (though he afterwards turned against them) and it was from his pulpit in Vauxhall chapel, ¶

Preston, Lancashire, July 23, 1837, that these elders preached the first "Mormon" sermons ever heard in Britain. ¶

In August, 1853, Heber addressed the Saints in the Salt Lake Tabernacle : "I know you will prosper and live in peace in the mountains of Great Salt Lake and be perfectly independent. You will live in peace and God will be your defence. The Lord can turn the nations, as I can an obedient horse. They are governed and controlled by the Almighty. There are a few other things I wanted to say: Take care of your grain; for it is of more worth to you than gold and silver." This theme he stressed for the next three years, but they heeded him not and they suffered the consequence. He further said later: "I would like to see the people manufacture their own clothing, machinery, knives, forks and everything else, for the day will come when we will be under the necessity of doing it, for trouble and perplexity, war and famine, bloodshed and fire, thundering and lightning will roll upon the nations of the earth, insomuch that we cannot get to them nor they to us." ¶

Brother Brigham said : "This is the place." Brother Heber said : "Here it is on high. It is the best country I ever saw." ¶

At family prayers, just a little while before his death, he remarked that the Angel Moroni had visited him the night before and had informed him that his work on this earth was finished and he would soon be taken. ¶

He died the morning of June 22, 1868. ¶

No wonder we are thrilled and rejoice and glorify the name of God, that his servants, messengers of life and salvation, have a message to deliver unto his children. ¶

God bless you one and all. I sustain and uphold the hands of the priesthood, and I desire, as you do, to be saved and exalted in the presence of God. which, if I know anything, I know it must be the greatest gift of God to his children. God bless you. Amen. ¶