As President Young has said, this is the household of faith, this is his house, and this is his people, and he is our leader, our Governor, he is our prophet, and he is our Priest. As I have said in other places and in other meetings, when speaking to the Elders, when they are sent from this place, they are sent forth by the shepherd that God has stationed here; he is the head shepherd that is visible on earth, under the direction of Joseph, and he sends forth the Elders as shepherds to gather up the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and bring them home to put them into the fold. I have said that you have no business to maize a selection of any of these sheep, or to make a choice of them, or make any covenant with them, until they are brought home and placed in the fold, and then if you want a sheep or two, ask the shepherd for them, and if you choose a sheep without taking this course you will get your fingers burnt. Why? Because they are his sheep—mark it. How would you like it, were I to go and take one of your sheep without permission, would you ever think of such a thing? One is just as right as the other. You will learn these things by and by. I would rather have my head laid upon a block, and severed from my shoulders, than ever make a proposal to any woman living upon the earth and marry her, unless I had permission from the chief shepherd. That tells it. I do not know that you can all understand me, but those who have their eyes open understand it. I only hint at these things, that you may be careful of the course you take. (Heber C. Kimball, October 8, 1852, JOD 1:207)
If we are
looking forward to such a glorious time—to such a happy period, let us endeavor
to prepare ourselves, and awake from our slumber, and do the duties required at
our hands. Pay up your debts, pay them up to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund; let
the means be sent back immediately, that those who are starving to death, and
are ground down with tyranny, may enjoy the same privileges as you. Remember
them, and God will remember you. But if you turn your back upon these
principles, and will not seek to do unto others as you would have them do to
you; if you will not listen to the instructions of our prophet, and to
the instructions of others who have spoken on this stand, you will wither away
like a dried reed, and you will bear no authority, and that you. have will be
taken from you, and you will be left poor and miserable, and become the
offscouring of the earth, under the curse of the Almighty for your
disobedience. (Orson Pratt, October 7, 1854, JOD 2:61)
Brother
Joseph is gone, and now brother Brigham Young, the Governor of the Territory of
Utah, is our prophet, our leader, our Revelator; and it is for me and
you to listen to him with all diligence, the same as we would listen to Joseph
were he alive. Brother Brigham is his successor; his word is sacred; and if you
do not observe it, it will not be well, and there is where I fear for you,
brethren. I do not fear so much for myself as I do for you, because it will go
hard with you, if you disobey his advice. There will many of you turn from the
faith; you will turn your backs to us, and some will be guilty of shedding
innocent blood, if you are not aware. This will be the result of apostacy. When
that spirit attacks you, you will be led to do as other apostates have, who
have turned from the Church of Christ. (Heber C. Kimball, August 13, 1853, JOD
2:107)
When He
commands us to go forth and preach His word, and declare His Gospel—faith, and
repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, with the laying on of hands
for the gift of the Holy Ghost, He says it is the same as though it were spoken
by His own voice, and the same condemnation will rest upon the world, and upon
those people who hear it and do not abide it, and keep it, and walk in it. This
is my testimony, and this is the testimony that God has revealed to us as a
people. When he sent forth his disciples in his day he said, If they will not
hear you they will not hear me; and if they will not obey you they will not
obey me, and if they will not obey me they will not obey my Father. So it is with us, if you will not listen,
obey, and practise those things that are laid before you by President Young and
his brethren, you would not obey God, if He should speak from the heavens. Why?
Because the Almighty has appointed him his delegate, just as much as we have
appointed Doctor Bernhisel to be our Delegate to Congress, to lay before them
those things that we want in connexion with him. He has not gone to do his own
will, but he has gone to do the will of those who have sent him. So it is with
President Young. He is our head, he is our President, our prophet, and
Leader, and the Government of the United States have appointed him our
Governor. He was before, in a Church capacity. Then his voice to this people is
the voice of God, just as much as was Moses God, when God called him and set
him to preside among the children of Israel. His word was the word of God to.
that people, and when they did not listen to him they suffered the penalty. We
read there were two-and-twenty thousand fell in one day because of their
rebellion. They rebelled against Moses, against his counsel, and against his
government, which was of course rebelling against the character who sent him.
God sent him and authorized him; and to us President Young is sent, ordained,
and appointed by the Almighty, as Joseph's successor, to lead this people. I
want the world to know this; I want the people who come into these valleys, and
do not believe "Mormonism," to know what we believe. Probably there
are but few men in the United States but what know that we look up to President
Brigham Young as our leader, Prophet, and dictator. I want you to understand
that I actually do, and I believe I have done so to the entire satisfaction of
this people. I have proved it by my works from the day I came into the Church
until the present time. (Heber C. Kimball, September 17, 1854, JOD 2:221-22)
I do not
feel as though I desired to take up much time, I merely wish to say a few words
in regard to what we have heard to-day. I am aware that a great many in the
world are pleased with fancies, they are gratified and edified with that which
is artificial, but if people would be pleased and instructed with such remarks
as we have heard to-day, it would be well, for they are the principles that
will save you, that will lead you into the celestial world. Listen to that
which you have heard to-day from brother Brigham; he is our leader, our
prophet, our Priest, and our Governor—the Governor of the Territory of
Utah. In him is every power and key of celestial life and salvation, pertaining
to every person there is on this earth, and that is a principle which but few
persons realize. You take away the keys that are with him, and with those who
sustain him, and I would not give a dime for you. Sin to such a degree that
brother Brigham and his counsellors, and those who are associated with him—the
Apostles of Jesus Christ—withdraw from your midst, and I would not give a dime
for all the salvation you have got; that is my faith. He holds the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, just as much as Peter, James, and John did after Jesus
committed the keys to them on the mount, and said, "I give unto you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, and whomsoever you bless I will bless, and whomsoever
you curse I will curse." (Heber C. Kimball, January 27, 1856, JOD 3:197)
You have
been warned before hand, and that by revelation from God through Joseph Smith,
and afterward through brother Brigham who is our prophet, you have been
warned, time and time again, to take care of your grain. In future build
yourselves good store-houses and save your grain for a time of famine, and
sickness, and death upon the nations of the wicked, to get rid of the evil
doers. I have noticed those predictions, I have reflected upon them ever since
they were told us. (Heber C. Kimball, March 2, 1856, JOD 3:227)
My feelings
are for you to learn to follow our leader, our prophet, our President.
He will be our President in eternity, and Joseph is his President and will
counsel him, and you need not trouble yourselves, but do as you are told and
you will obtain salvation and go into the celestial glory. You will then dwell
in the same glory with Joseph, with father Smith, with the Apostles and Saints;
and by taking such a course not one of you will fall, and I know it. (Heber C.
Kimball, June 29, 1856, JOD 4:3)
When our
President, our Leader our prophet, speaks unto us from week to week, and
from Sabbath to Sabbath, do his teachings reach our hearts? Do the people hear?
Do the people understand? If they do, they are not all careful to practice.
I have told
you, a great many times, that the word of our Leader and Prophet is the word of
God to this people, and you play with those words, and you neglect them. You
neglect the voice and word of God, and it will fall upon you in a way that you
never expected, and you do not expect it now. But there is yet a chance for us
to redeem ourselves; and there is a great deal more necessity for us to redeem
ourselves, than there is for us to redeem the dead, for the dead they are dead,
and you cannot help it; but we are living and can help ourselves, and I suppose
God helps those who help themselves. (Heber C. Kimball, September 21, 1856, JOD
4:46)
Brethren, I
wish to speak to you about the reformation that is now taking place, and to
inform you that God would have this people adhere to and listen to it. He would
have this people take a course to live their religion, that they may be
faithful and have confidence in God their Father, and have a testimony of
things in heaven, and that brother Brigham is our prophet and leader,
and that the Twelve Apostles are called of God; that they may know these things
for themselves, and thus get such a testimony and such a portion of the Spirit
of God, of the Holy Ghost, that they will stand. (Heber C. Kimball, December
21, 1856, JOD 4:138)
Upon the
same principle, let every man render over his property with an eternal deed
that cannot be broken; throw it all into the big reservoir. Suppose that one
puts in one drop, another two, another ten, and another a hundred, do you not
see, when you throw in your property—your substance—into one reservoir, that it
makes us all one, and that you cannot become one without this principle? You
may work to all eternity, and never connect the branch with the vine, upon any
other principle than that of putting your property and temporal blessings with
your spiritual interests, whereby they will both become one. If you do not do
that, I do not mean in one thing only, but in everything that God requires of
you by His servants, if you do not bring your substance forward and lay it down
at the Apostles feet, you will be stripped. Brother Brigham is the chief
Apostle of Jesus, and be is on, President, our prophet, and our leader,
and we the Twelve are his brethren, and you have got to lay down your substance
at their feet, as the Saints did in the days of the ancient Apostles of Jesus.
(Heber C. Kimball, March 1, 1857, JOD 4:251)
When we
want the Spirit of Christ, what course shall we take to get it? There is but
one way. Brother Brigham is our leader, our prophet, Seer, and
Revelator, to organise and set in order this Church and kingdom; and my calling
is to be one with him, to assist him and act with him, and have the same spirit
in me that is in him. That is my calling, whether I live up to it or not to the
fullest extent. I should be one with him in all things, and should partake of
the same power—the same spirit of revelation; and if I partake of these
elements with him, then I am one with him; and if I do not come up to these
privileges and duties, I am so far a hindrance to him, and draw him back
instead of helping him forward. (Heber C. Kimball, April 19, 1857, JOD4:361)
The Devil
and his emissaries are out against us. They want to destroy our prophet
and to glut themselves with the blood of innocence. There is not a spot where
the Lord can tarry over night outside of these valleys of the mountains; the
rest of the world is Babylon, in the strictest sense of the word.
Oh, how the
Devil does labour to diffuse the spirit of Babylon among the people. To do this
he has sent his emissaries across the Plains a thousand miles to bring
destruction upon the Saints of God; but the Lord Almighty has defeated them in
their plans. The angel of the Lord has stood in the way as much so as in the
days of the Prophets; and if our asses have not spoken, our boys have, and the
way of our enemies is hedged up so that they cannot get here; and they never
will, so long as the people will do as they are told. This is a comfort to my
heart. How I have longed to see this day when the kingdom of God should be
free—when the Saints should enjoy their rights and privileges as Saints of the
Lord. This is what we have been labouring for. It is what Joseph and all the
Apostles have laboured for day and night, unwaveringly. (John Young, October
25, 1857, JOD 5:371)
For this
very plain preaching, which they were compelled to hear or hear of, they
threstened us with troops of the United States; and they left no stone unturned
to excite the Government to send troops. This idea was a momentary damper upon
some spirits; but sober second thought asked the question—"Shall I,
through fear of an army being sent here, be guilty of collusion with sin and of
failure to expose and rebuke it?" The noble-minded and fearless servants
of God said, "No! No!! No!!!" The work of reformation and
purification. went gloriously on; and by-and-by the word of assurance and
comfort came to us through our prophet and fleer—the fearless Brigham,
who dares to do right—"Sanctify yourselves before me; put iniquity far
from you; assert your rights, and stand up to them; and behold, and lo! I will
fight your battles, and the children of Zion shall be victorious; and the name
of your God shall be magnified in the eyes of your enemies. Trust in me; be
valiant and fear not, and the kingdom is yours." I may not repeat the word
of the Lord through his servant verbatim, but give it according to memory. I am
not, however, far wrong. (Orson Hyde, JOD 6:12)
The very
moment that revelation. to this Church through our prophet and
Presidency ceases to be communicated unto us, and we adopt any series of books,
whether the writings of Joseph or the writings of any other man, or all the
writings and revelations that ever have been given, and say, This much we
receive, and no more; then we are as dead as the lifeless corpse: we cut off
the channel of revelation, and the light and the communication between us and
eternal happiness; we cut asunder the thread of light, and we are in darkness
and adrift at sea, without a compass to guide us, like any other religious
denomination. Hence it is that we bear testimony of the fulness of the Gospel
and of the Priesthood conferred upon Joseph Smith, and conferred upon our
prophet and President Brigham Young, and all the authorities of Israel in
their sphere and in their standing and position. (George A. Smith, January 3,
1858, JOD 6:160-61)
Peter,
James, and John committed the same keys to Joseph Smith in this last
dispensation, and he committed them to his Twelve Apostles before his
martyrdom, Brigham Young presiding over them, who is now our prophet and
leader, and holds the keys of the kingdom of God on the earth in the last days;
and he will hold them for ever; and Joseph holds those keys in the
spirit-world, and will continue to hold them,—President Young holding them in
connection with him, and every other man
in his order and standing in this Church holding them in connection with
President Young. (Heber C. Kimball, October 7, 1859, JOD 7:328)
The Elders
of Israel have gone forth and borne a true and faithful testimony of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, and they have been assisted by the gift and power of the Holy
Ghost. Our prophet and Elders have been filled with good desires for the
people and have gone abroad and tried to bring mankind to a knowledge of the
truth. Our President has cast his mind abroad over the world, and in his
meditations he has planned for the welfare of the human family, and yet the
wicked have desired his life, and thousands have despised him because he has
reproved them for their wickedness, and advocated righteous principles, and
called upon them to repent of their sins and be baptized according to the order
of God. (Wilford Woodruff, April 22, 1860, JOD 8:264)
This
inordinate desire for riches is a gentile tradition that we were taught before
we came, into this Church. We brought these feelings into the church; and when
we embraced the Gospel we verily thought it was all spiritual, and had nothing
to do with temporal matters. We came to this valley, filled with these notions
and traditions. But it is time now that we began to awake up and listen to the
counsel of him who is our leader, our prophet and President. He has been
telling us all the day long that we must become more united, that me must seek
with all our hearts to be one, not only in regard to baptism and the laying on
of hands, and doctrine generally; but united in our interests as a people, in
order that we may build up the kingdom of God and extend its borders, that when
the time shall come for that great central city to be built up on the
consecrated spot this people may have wealth in their possession to perform the
work of God. Instead of that now poverty reigns, and I have sometimes thought
it would reign until the order of things is changed. (Orson Pratt, November 1, 1868, JOD 12:321)
I have
travelled somewhat extensively in the Territory, and I bear my testimony this
day, that this is the spot, and I feel confident that the God of Heaven by His
inspiration led our prophet right here. And it is the blessing of God
upon the untiring energy and industry of the people that has made this once
barren and sterile spot what it is to-day. (George A. Smith, June 20, 1869,
JOD 13:86)
The
circumstances under which we came to those mountain valleys are well known;
they need not be recited now. After we had passed through the chastisement, the
Lord moved upon our national government to bestow favors upon the people of
God. They gave us what is called the Organic Act, a bill of rights as good as
we could expect from their hands, and what was more, they conferred political
favor upon our leader, our prophet and President, Brigham Young, by
making him Governor of the Territory. (Lorenzo Snow, April 7, 1882, JOD
23:153-54)