Life of Heber C. Kimball, an apostle

by Orson F. Whitney

The accusations against the Twelve were more serious. It was said that they had sought to be independent of the presiding quorum of the Church, and had failed to fulfill their mission, in not preaching, at the Freedom conference, the gathering to Zion, or the collection of means for the Kirtland Temple and the purchase of lands in Missouri. Both charges were proved to be groundless.

At the council, where the Apostles laid their grievances before the Presidency, and "all things were reconciled," the Prophet Joseph, it is said, made a covenant with the Twelve that never again would he entertain a charge against them on one-sided testimony, or pass judgment upon them even in thought, without first giving them an opportunity of being heard in their own defense.

If this noble, just, and charitable resolve had always been adhered to by the Saints of God, in whom, if in any people, such a principle should find its exponents and exemplars, how many bitter heart-burnings might have been spared; how many reputations remained unblasted, enmities unaroused, wounds uninfected! Had the idle gossip, the malicious slanderer, the toadying, truckling tale-bearer, who oscillates, pendulum-like, between man and man, seeking occasion against his brother, making him "an offender for a word," coloring all he hears, and pouring into oft too willing ears his insidious tale of derogations and detractions;—had such characters invariably been required to face those whom they accused and to prove their assertions, who can say that the cause of Zion, the unity and purification of God's people, would not have been subserved rather than injured thereby? Are we not too prone to heed the tale-bearer, the secret enemy, who, striking unawares with "the shaft that flies in darkness," perchance seeks to build up his own, upon the ruins of his brother's reputation; and too slow to remember justice and the law of God—that in the mouths of two or three witnesses, and these not enemies of the accused, shall every word be established?

Well might Solomon say, and well may it be believed, that among the things which "the Lord doth hate," are "a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."

The men who had caused the trouble between the Presidency and the Apostles, or those whom Heber held responsible, were Warren Cowdery, Jared Carter and others, who, using Oliver Cowdery and other influential Elders near the person of the Prophet, as conduits of their ill-will, wrought injury to their brethren who were far away, unable, because absent, to defend themselves.

"I will here remark," says Heber, "that every individual who used an influence against the Twelve on their mission, apostatized and went out of the Church; and this should remain an everlasting warning to all others. In those days there was a continual itching in certain individuals to destroy the union existing between the Twelve and the First Presidency, and the union in the First Presidency, which thing they did at last effect, which broke up the Church for a time; for Oliver Cowdery, Warren Cowdery, Jared Carter, Frederick G. Williams, and six of the Twelve became disaffected, and turned against Joseph and those of the Twelve who sustained him."

As, in the end, good comes of evil, and from the compost-heap springs forth the flower of fragrance and beauty, so from the unhappy event related, issued good and glad results. From the time the reconciliation took place between the Presidency and the Twelve, a reformation commenced in the Church. "Those meetings," says Heber, "of humiliation, repentance, and confessing of sins, were truly the beginning of good days to us, and they continued through the endowment."

CHAPTER XII.

HEBER'S DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE—ITS DEDICATION—ANGELS ADMINISTER—THE "BELOVED DISCIPLE" JOHN SEEN—THE SOLEMN ASSEMBLY—THE ELDERS ENDOWED WITH POWER FROM ON HIGH—HEBER'S LONE MISSION.

The Kirtland Temple was dedicated on the 27th of March, 1836. It was yet in an unfinished state, but for some time had been used for meetings and councils of the Priesthood. From Heber's pen we have the following description of the edifice and the ceremonies of its dedication: