Life of Heber C. Kimball, an apostle

by Orson F. Whitney

And shall it not be seen when all history is written, on earth as in heaven, where it exists as a prophecy; when all secrets are revealed and hidden things made known; that Time with all its ages is a chain, a climax, an ascending scale of dispensations, merging in each other, and all into one, like rills and rivers mingling with the ocean; that men and nations from the beginning have carved out the way for other men and nations; that human lives and human events, like sections of machinery turned by the enginery of Omnipotence, have fitted into and impelled each other, under the controlling, guiding master mind and hand that "doeth all things well?"

Was not the past all preparatory to the present? Does not the present foreshadow the future? Are not influences at work, even now; doctrines being taught, truths put forth by pulpit, play and press; discoveries made in art and science; antiquities unveiled and mysteries brought to light, that are surely paving the way for the revelations of Jesus Christ, past, present and to come? Is not the knowledge now possessed by the Saints, glorious though it be, but a foretaste, the antepast of a greater feast of knowledge yet to follow?

The mission of Elias is the mission of preparation, the lesser going before the greater, opening up the way.

The mantle of Elias falls on many shoulders; the shadow of that mantle on many more.

In America, it was Sidney Rigdon, Alexander Campbell and other orators and divines, who prepared the way before Joseph Smith and the fullness of the everlasting gospel. In England, the Fieldings, the Matthews, the Aitkens and other lights, shed the lustre of advanced thought over the path-way soon to be brightened by the beams of eternal truth. Receiving not the light themselves, they nevertheless bore witness of its approach, and unknowingly made ready the minds of many for its acceptance. The more lustrously they shone, the greater their measure of power, the higher, wider, deeper, more advanced and more liberal their doctrines, the nearer they approximated, although they knew it not, to what the world terms "Mormonism," what men in other ages called "Christianism," but what the Gods in eternity have glorified as the Gospel of life and salvation.

This preparatory work, like the work which was to follow, was both spiritual and temporal. In America, the sword of a Washington, the pen of a Jefferson had carved out the legend of liberty, "All men are equal," ere the Gospel trump was heard again proclaiming, to high and low, rich and poor, "Peace on earth, good will to men." In England, Victoria had ascended the throne, and the spirit of reform, in church and state, was rolling, a billow of victory, over the land. Society was moved to its center. Old institutions were crumbling. The iconoclast was abroad. Steam and electricity had begun their miracles; science was exploding superstition; tyrant's thrones were tottering; Liberty's upheaval in the west had shaken the very pillars of the east; the "former things" were passing away; He that "sat upon the throne" was making "all things new."

Thus had God prepared the way for the advent of the everlasting
Gospel.

As we have seen, the man chosen to pioneer the work on Europe's shores, to lead the assault on Satan's strongholds in the old world, and wave back over the Atlantic to his chief the signal of truth triumphant among the nations, was Heber C. Kimball.

Speaking of those "lesser lights" who went before him and his brethren
and unwittingly helped them to establish Mormonism in the British
Isles, Heber says, referring now to the mission of Elders Richards and
Goodson to the city of Bedford:

"A minister by the name of Timothy R. Matthews, a brother-in-law to Joseph Fielding, received them very kindly, and invited them to preach in his church, which was accepted, and in it they preached several times, when a number, amongst whom were Mr. Matthews and his lady, believed their testimony, and the truths which they proclaimed. Mr. Matthews had likewise borne testimony to his congregation of the truth of these things, and that they were the same principles that were taught by the Apostles anciently; and besought his congregation to receive the same. Forty of his members went forward and were baptized, and the time was appointed when he was to be baptized. In the interval, however, Brother Goodson, contrary to my counsel and positive instructions, and without advising with any one, read to Mr. Matthews the vision seen by President Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, which caused him to stumble, and darkness pervaded his mind; so much so, that at the time specified he did not make his appearance, but went and baptized himself in the river Ouse; and from that time he began to preach baptism for the remission of sins. He wrote to Rev. James Fielding saying that his best members had left him."