And the heavens had so decreed. It was not chance, it was destiny "shaping their ends," and fulfilling her mission in their behalf. And though from the ends of the earth—what matter names or nativity?—it had been the same. "He that scattered Israel will gather him." From all nations that fated blood, when goes Jehovah's fiat forth, like the rain-drops sprinkled upon the hills, must trickle back to the Ocean whence it came.
It was a coalescing of divine affinities, the relinking of a spirit chain, which, though it often part, is never broken, and though seemingly divided, forever inseparable.
"Are you ever going to be prepared to see God, Jesus Christ, His angels, or comprehend His servants, unless you take a faithful and prayerful course?"
"Did you actually know Joseph Smith?"
The questions are Heber C. Kimball's, addressed in later years to a congregation of the Saints.
"No," he answers for them, and continues:
"Do you know Brother Brigham? No."
"Do you know Brother Heber? No; you do not."
"Do you know the Twelve? You do not; if you did you would begin to know God, and learn that those men who are chosen to direct and counsel you, are near kindred to God and to Jesus Christ, for the keys, power and authority of the kingdom of God are in that lineage."
This, then, was the purpose, the divine intending, for which they were now in conjunction; "noble and great ones," great in the heavens and great upon the earth, ordained as "rulers" ere morning stars sang gladsome greeting, or Sons of God shouted for joy around the cradle of the infant world. This, the object of their descent from celestial empires; to build up a Kingdom unto God, and prepare the world for the coming of Him "whose right it is to reign." Jewels from Jehovah's diadem, diamonds in the dust, unseen of saint or sinner in all their lustre, concealed from a world unworthy of the light it could not comprehend.