Life of Heber C. Kimball, an apostle

by Orson F. Whitney

CHAPTER XLIX.

CHOICE OF JOSEPH'S SUCCESSOR—A MIRACLE—THE MANTLE OF JOSEPH FALLS UPON BRIGHAM YOUNG—HEBER C. KIMBALL HIS RIGHT HAND MAN.

In the death of its Prophet and Patriarch, the Church had received a stunning blow, but with superhuman vitality it revived from the shock, and rose up in God-like energy to renew its mission of salvation to mankind. Mighty men were they who had fallen, but God's work rests not upon man, and under the magic stroke of the wand of Omnipotence other great men had risen to fulfill their destiny and perpetuate the works and memories of the martyred slain.

But who was now the leader of Israel? Such was the problem presenting itself to the people. In the absence of their Prophet the Saints felt like sheep without a shepherd. He had carried the Church, as if an infant in arms, from the very hour of its birth, nursing it with the milk of revelation. It was now no longer a babe, yet still, as a little child, it had need to be led, by one in whom was the spirit and wisdom of the heavens.

A crisis had come. The First Presidency was no more. Death had dissolved that quorum. Next, stood the Twelve, an independent body, now holding the keys of the kingdom, from Joseph, its earthly founder.

But this fact, though known to the Apostles, upon whom he had rolled that burden and conferred that authority, was not so patent to the people. The order of the Priesthood was not so well known then as now. Experience had not supplemented revelation on these points, and doubtless there were many Saints in Nauvoo, as there are many now, who were not informed upon things which had been plainly taught them for years.

Besides, Sidney Rigdon, one of the three first presidents, was alive, to press his claims to the leadership, and not a few of the Saints openly favored his ambitious pretensions.

Who was to decide in such a controversy, and how was the right man to be known?

God had provided the way.

Elder Rigdon, on hearing of the martyrdom, had come in haste from Pittsburgh, whither he had retired some months before from the troubles and turmoils of persecuted Saint-life in Nauvoo, to offer himself as the "guardian" and "great leader" whom he declared was necessary to save Israel. Thus, the true shepherd, having "laid down his life for the sheep," the false one returned when the wolves had fled and the danger was thought to be over, to seize the laurels which another's valor had won. And this, forsooth, was the comforting message that he bore to the affrighted people: