Was beat with fist and not with stick.”
He began with generalisms about humility, faithfulness, obeying counsel, and not beggaring one’s neighbor. Addressing the hand-cart emigrants, newly arrived from the “sectarian world,” he warned them to be on the look-out, or that every soul of them would be taken in and shaved (a laugh). Agreeing with the Prophet—Mr. Kimball is said to be his echo—in a promiscuous way concerning the morality of the Saints, he felt it notwithstanding his duty to say that among them were “some of the greatest rascals in the world” (a louder laugh, and N.B., the Mormons are never spared by their own preachers). After a long suit of advice, à propos de rien, to missionaries, he blessed, amen’d, and sat down.
I confess that the second President’s styleMR. KIMBALL’S STYLE. startled me. But presently I called to mind Luther’s description[147] of Tetzel’s sermon, in which he used to shout the words Bring! bring! bring! with such a horrible bellowing, that one would have said it was a mad bull rushing on the people and goring them with his horns; and D’Aubigné’s neat apology for Luther,[148] who, “in one of those homely and quaint, yet not undignified similitudes which he was fond of using, that he might be understood by the people,” illustrated the idea of God in history by a game of cards! “... Then came our Lord God. He dealt the cards:... This is the Ace of God....” Mormons also think it a merit to speak openly of “those things we know naturally:” they affect what to others appears coarseness and indelicacy. The same is the case with Oriental nations, even among the most modest and moral. After all, taste is in its general development a mere affair of time and place; what is apt to froisser us in the nineteenth may have been highly refined in the sixteenth century, and what may be exceedingly unfit for Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame is often perfectly suited to the predilections and intelligence of Wales or the Tessin. It is only fair to both sides to state that Mr. Kimball is accused by Gentiles of calling his young wives, from the pulpit, “little heifers;” of entering into physiological details belonging to the Dorcas Society, or the clinical lecture-room, rather than the house of worship; and of transgressing the bounds of all decorum when reproving the sex for its penchants and ridicules. At the same time, I never heard, nor heard of, any such indelicacy during my stay at Great Salt Lake City. The Saints abjured all knowledge of the “fact,” and—in this case, nefas ab hoste doceri—so gross a scandal should not be adopted from Gentile mouths.
[147] History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Book iii., chap. i.
[148] Ditto, Preface.
After Mr. Kimball’s address, a list of names for whom letters were lying unclaimed was called from the platform. Mr. Eldridge, a missionary lately returned from foreign travel, adjourned the meeting till 2 P.M., delivered the prayer of dismissal, during which all stood up, and ended with the benediction and amen. The Sacrament was not administered on this occasion. It is often given, and reduced to the very elements of a ceremony; even water is used instead of wine, because the latter is of Gentile manufacture. Two elders walk up and down the rows, one carrying a pitcher, the other a plate of broken bread, and each Saint partakes of both.
Directly the ceremony was over, I passed through the thirty carriages and wagons that awaited at the door the issuing of the congregation, and returned home to write my notes. Before appearing in the “Deserét News” the discourses are always recomposed; the reader, therefore, is warned against the following report, which appeared in the “News” of Wednesday, the 5th of September.
“Bowery.—Sunday, Sept. 2, 10 A.M., Bishop Abraham O. Smoot addressed the congregation. He said he rejoiced in the opportunity he had been favored with of testing both principles and men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; he was fully satisfied that those who do right are constantly filled with joy and gladness by the influence of the Holy Ghost. Every man must know God for himself, and practice the principles of righteousness for himself; learn the truth and the light, and walk therein. Men are too much in the habit of patterning after their neighbors’ actions instead of following the dictates of the Spirit of God; if the Saints do right they are filled with light, truth, and the power of God. It has been a matter of astonishment to many how we could so much rejoice in the things of God, but the reason is our religion is true, and we know it, for God has revealed it unto us, and hence we can rejoice in the midst of calamities that would make our enemies very cross, and cause them to swear about their troubles. Nine tenths of those who have apostatized have done it on account of prosperity, like Israel of old, but the Lord desires to use us for the advancement of his kingdom, and the spreading abroad of light and truth. We should live for God, and prepare ourselves for all the temporal and spiritual blessings of his kingdom.
“President Brigham Young said if our heavenly Father could reveal all he wishes to his Saints, it would greatly hasten their perfection, and asked the question, Are the people prepared to receive those communications and profit by them, that would bring about their speedy perfection? He discovered a very great variety of degrees of intelligence in the people; he also observed a manifest stupidity in the people attempting to learn the principles of natural life. Observed that God is just and equal in his ways, and that no man will dare to dispute; also that there is no man in our government who will speak truthfully, and according to his honest convictions, but who will admit that we are the most law-abiding people within its jurisdiction. Remarked that all the heathen nations have devotional instincts, and none more than the natives of this vast continent; and they all worship according to the best of their knowledge. The whole human family can be saved in the kingdom of God if they are disposed to receive and obey the Gospel. Reasoned on the subject of fore-ordination, and said the religion of Jesus Christ is designed to make the bad good and the good better. Argued that there is a feeling in every human breast to acknowledge the supremacy of the Almighty Creator. God is just, he is true, and if this were not the case no mortal could be exalted in his presence; advised all to improve upon the knowledge they had received of the things of God. Referred briefly to the birth of Christ, and the attendant opposition and threatening of the governments of the nations of the earth.
“President Heber C. Kimball followed with appropriate remarks on the practical duties of life, the necessity of humility and faithfulness among the Saints, and admonished all to be obedient to the mandates of heaven, and to the counsels of the living oracles. In giving advice to the elders who are expected to go on missions to preach the Gospel, he said: ‘The commandment of Jesus to his apostles anciently has been renewed unto us, viz., Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’”