The following is the notice of his last public speaking, which occurred on the 7th of June, just previous to his death:
"President H. C. Kimball spoke at some length on the power and order of the Priesthood, instructing the congregation upon various things connected therewith. He pointed out the blessings flowing from obedience to the authority which the Lord has conferred upon His servants on the earth; and the evil results which follow disobedience and rebellion; for the Lord governs and rules in all worlds, and we cannot, if we would, get to any place where His power is not."
His closing words at this time were almost a prophecy of his approaching end; being upon the subject of family training, during which he quoted from the revelation wherein the Lord commands His servants to set their houses in order.
CHAPTER LXVI.
DEATH OF VILATE, THE WIFE OF HEBER'S YOUTH—PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG PREACHES HER FUNERAL SERMON—HIS FEELING TRIBUTE TO HER MEMORY—HEBER PROPHESIES OF HIS OWN DEATH.
On the 22nd of October, 1867, there was gloom in the household of Heber C. Kimball. On that day died Vilate, the partner of his youth, the noble and unselfish sharer of his life's joys and sorrows. In the sixty-second year of her age, after an almost unexampled life of toil, heroism and self-sacrifice, God called her home to a glorious rest.
One of the immediate causes which led to her death—though for months she had been a sufferer, and the sun of her life was visibly setting—was the untimely end of her son, Brigham Willard Kimball, who died on the plains while returning from a mission to England. Vilate took the death of her son very much to heart, and her grief over the event is supposed to have hastened the termination of her own life.
Her loss was a heavy blow to her sorrowing husband. Heber's struggle, in faith and prayer, to hold her to earth, was almost as great as that of death to take her away. He related that when she first fell sick, on going into her room to administer to her, he saw, standing at the head of her bed, an evil spirit, a female. Kneeling down he prayed, and then rebuked the apparition in the name of Jesus. It disappeared, but soon returned with a host of fallen beings.
He then called in several other Elders, and unitedly they rebuked the evil spirits, when they departed, and he saw them no more at that time.
Thus he struggled on, hoping and praying to the end that she might be spared. Sometimes, in his yearning for the continuance of their companionship here a while longer, it seemed as though he would prevail with the Lord. But the last hope of this at length faded, the end came, and he bowed in resignation to the inevitable.