hood vested in me.' That silenced them, and when she was two weeks old they presented the child to me; I took it in my arms and blessed it, that it should live to become a mother in Israel." The child's name was Mary Smithies, who afterwards became Heber's wife and the mother of several children. Finding, on his return from Europe, that the Church, with the exception of a few members, most of whom were lukewarm in the faith, had removed to Missouri, Heber at once prepared to follow. He left Kirtland with his family and a few others, about the first of July, 1838, and arrived at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, on the twenty-fifth of the month. He there met the Prophet Joseph and other dear friends and mingled with them tears of gratitude and joy. The five years from 1833 to 1838 was one of the darkest periods in the Church's history. Mobocracy on one hand and apostasy on the other, dealt the cause of God cruel blows, such as no human work could hope to withstand. Six of the Twelve Apostles and one of the First Presidency became disaffected, and many other Elders fell away and joined hands with the robbers and murderers of their brethren. Like a rock in mid-ocean, facing the storm, unmoved by wind or wave, stood Heber C. Kimball, among the truest, true; among the bravest, brave. In the fall of 1838, after a brief breathing spell, the mob troubles revived, and the tempest of persecution burst forth with tenfold fury. Far West was beseiged and fell a prey to mob violence. Joseph and other leading Elders were betrayed and made prisoners, and murder and rapine held high carnival amid the smoking ruins of peaceful homes and ravaged fields. Says Heber, who was as usual, in the thickest of the fray: "When the troops surrounded us, and we were brought into a hollow square, the first persons that I knew were men who had once professed to be beloved brethren, and they were the men who piloted these mobs * * into our city: William E. McLellin and Lyman E. Johnson, two of the Twelve, John Whitmer and David Whitmer, two of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon; and scores of others. William E. McLellin wanted to know where Heber C. Kimball was; someone pointed me out to him, as I was sitting on the ground. He came up to me and said: 'Brother Heber, what do you think of Joseph Smith, the fallen prophet,now? Has he not led you blindfolded long enough; look and see yourself, poor, your family stripped and robbed, and your brethren in the same fix; are you satisfied with Joseph?' "I replied, Yes, I am more satisfied with him, a hundredfold, than ever I was before; for I see you in the very position that he foretold you would be in-a Judas to betray your brethren—if you did not forsake your adultery, fornication, lying and abominations. Where are you? What are you about; you and Hinkle and scores of others? Have you not betrayed Joseph and his brethren into the hands of the mob, as Judas did Jesus? Yes, verily you have; I tell you Mormonism is true, and Joseph is a true prophet of the living God, and you, with all others that turn therefrom, will be damned and go to hell, and Judas will rule over you.' Joseph and other leading brethren were driven off like cattle to prison. Heber, not being well known in Missouri, and consequently less an object of hatred in the eyes of the mob, was set at liberty, and with Brigham Young, his fellow Apostle, shared and assisted in the exodus of the Saints from Missouri, in the winter of 1838-9. He visited Joseph and the brethren in prison, repeatedly, sometimes at the peril of his life, and ministered to their comfort and consolation. The following spring found the Church established at Commerce, afterwards Nauvoo, in the state of Illinois. Joseph had escaped from prison, with most of his captive companions, and the gathering of God's people was now resumed with unprecedented energy. One day, while crossing the Mississippi, on a steamboat, looking towards and admiring the beautiful site of Nauvoo, Apostle Kimball observed: "It is a very pretty place, but not a long abiding home for the Saints." Sidney Rigdon, one of the First Presidency, hearing of Heber's words, and dreading their prophetic potency, took him to task for it in the presence of Joseph and other Elders. "I should suppose," said he, petulantly, "that Elder Kimball had passed through sufferings and privations and mobbings and drivings enough, to learn to prophecy good concerning Israel." Heber replied: "President Rigdon, I prophecy good concerning you all the time-if you can get it." The retort amused Joseph, who laughed heartily, and Elder Rigdon yielded the point. Seven years later the truth and prescience of Heber's words were terribly confirmed. Hardly was he settled in his new home in Nauvoo, when he was called to fulfill another mission. Again he must cross the mighty ocean, to renew in foreign lands the work which he and his fellow laborers had commenced two years before. This time he accompanied Apostle Brigham Young, then President of the Twelve, and the majority of his quorum. A great work was performed by the Apostles in the British Isles; the mission was established on a broad and permanent basis, and the mighty stream of Israel's emigration from foreign shores set in motion. They returned in the summer of 1841, after an absence of nearly two years. It was during the days that followed their return, that Joseph taught Heber and others of the Twelve the principle of celestial or plural marriage. The pathetic story of how Heber and Vilate Kimball received and embraced this holy principle has been tenderly told by their daughter, Helen. Here is her narrative: "In Nauvoo, my father, among others of his brethren, was taught the plural wife doctrine, and was told by Joseph, the Prophet, three times, to go and take a certain woman as his wife; but not till he commanded him in the name of the Lord did he obey. At the same time Joseph told him not to divulge this secret, not even to my mother, for fear that she would not receive it; for his life was in constant jeopardy, not only from outside influences and enemies, who were seeking some plea to take him back to Missouri, but from false brethren who had crept like snakes into his bosom and then betrayed him. "My father realized the situation fully, and the love and reverence he bore for the Prophet were so great that he would sooner have laid down his life than have betrayed him. This was the greatest test of his faith he had ever experienced. The thought of deceiving the kind and faithful wife of his youth, whom he loved with all his heart, and who with him had borne so patiently their separations, and all the trials and sacrifices they had been called to endure, was more than he felt able to bear. "My mother had noticed a change in his manner and appearance, and when she inquired the cause, he tried to evade her questions. At last he promised he would tell her after a while, if she would only wait. This trouble so worked upon his mind that his anxious and haggard looks betrayed him daily and hourly, and finally his misery became so unbearable that it was impossible to control his feelings. He became sick in body, but his mental wretchedness was too great to allow of his retiring, and he would walk the floor till nearly morning, and some times the agony of his mind was so terrible that he would wring his hands and weep like a child, and beseech the Lord to be merciful and reveal to her this celestial principle, for he himself could not break his vow of secrecy. "The anguish of their hearts was indescribable, and when she found it was useless to beseech him longer she retired to her room and bowed before the Lord and poured out her soul in prayer to him who hath said: "If any lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not." My father's heart was raised at the same time in supplication. While pleading as one would plead for life, the vision of her mind was opened, and, as darkness flees before the morning sun, so did her sorrow and the groveling things of earth vanish away. "Before her was illustrated the order of celestial marriage, in all its beauty and glory, together with the great exaltation and honor it would confer upon her in that immortal and celestial sphere, if she would accept it and stand in her place by her husband's side. She also saw the woman he had taken to wife, and contemplated with joy the vast and boundless love and union which this order would bring about, as well as the increase of her husband's kingdoms, and the power and glory extending throughout the eternities, worlds without end. "With a countenance beaming with joy, for she was filled with the spirit of God, she returned to my father, saying: 'Heber, what you kept from me the Lord has shown to me.' She told me she never saw so happy a man as father was when she described the vision and told him she was satisfied and knew that it was from God. The three years following his return from England, Heber spent in the active prosecution of his apostolic labors. He fulfilled various missions in the States, but never again crossed the ocean to other lands. His purely missionary labors were drawing to a close. The hour of martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph was approaching, and upon the shoulders of the Twelve was about to roll the burden of the kingdom of the latter days. On the twenty-first of May, of the fateful year, 1844, Heber C. Kimball left Nauvoo, on his last mission to the Gentiles. He accompanied President Brigham Young, and other Apostles and Elders. The object of their mission was to present to the nation the name of Joseph Smith, as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. While they were absent Joseph and Hyrum were assassinated in Carthage jail. Heber was in Salem, Massachusetts, when the terrible news reached his ears. The Twelve, grief-stricken and almost crushed with sorrow, turned their sad steps homeward, arriving in Nauvoo on the sixth of August, forty days after the martyrdom. The Church had received a stunning blow, but with superhuman vitality it revived from the shock, and rose up in godlike energy to renew its mission of salvation to mankind. Under the magic stroke of the wand of Omnipotence, other great men had risen to perpetuate the works and memories of the martyred slain. Joseph's mantle fell upon Brigham Young. Heber C. Kimball was his right-hand man, and as he had before stood by Joseph, he now stood firm at the side of his successor, a pillar of faith and power not to be broken. On the seventeenth of February, 1846, he left the doomed city of Nauvoo, and joined the camp of Israel on Sugar Creek, with their faces towards the Rocky Mountains. His prediction concerning Nauvoo was being fulfilled. The exodus of the Saints from Illinois had begun. The camp commenced its westward march on Sunday, March 1, 1846. Three months later found them at Winter Quarters, on the Missouri river. From this point went forth the Mormon Battalion to Mexico, the same summer, and in the following spring, the Pioneers, whose destination was the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Heber C. Kimball was one of the famous little band whose wagons, on the twenty-fourth of July, forty years ago, rolled down yonder slope and encamped upon this then barren plain. The fall of the year found him back at Winter Quarters, assisting to prepare for the next season's emigration. At a conference held there, on the twenty-seventh of December, 1847, the quorum of the First Presidency, which had been vacant since the death of Joseph, was reorganized, and Brigham Young was chosen President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as his counselors. This action was confirmed at the General Conference in Great Salt Lake City, in October of the following year. The residue of Heber C. Kimball's history, here so briefly told, is confined to the land which his wives and children now inhabit, and where much of it that will never be written is cherished as precious memories in the hearts of tens of thousands. Many will remember his famous prophecy in the year 1848-the year of the cricket plague -when the half-starved, half-clad settlers scarcely knew where to look for the next crust of bread, or for rags to hide their nakedness. His amazing assertion that within a few months, "States goods" would be sold in the streets of Salt Lake City as cheap as in New York, and that the people should be abundantly supplied with clothing, with its wonderful fulfillment in the unexpected advent of the gold-hunters en route for California, is a notable instance of the prescient power that rested upon him, and stamped him as a prophet of God. In the famine year of 1856, he played a part like unto that of Joseph of old; feeding from his own bins and storehouses, filled by his providence and foresight in anticipation of the straitness of the times, the hungry multitude-kindred, strangers and all-who looked to him for succor. It is related that, in the midst of this season of distress, a brother, sorely in need of bread, came to him for counsel as to how he should procure it. "Go and marry a wife," was Heber's terse reply. Thunderstruck at receiving such an answer, at such a time, when he could scarcely find food for himself, the man went his way, dazed and bewildered, thinking that President Kimball must be out of his mind. But the more he thought of the prophetic character and calling of the one who had given him this strange advice, the less he felt like ignoring it. Finally he resolved to obey counsel, let the consequences be what they might. But where was the woman who would marry him? was the next problem. Bethinking himself of a widow with several children, whom he thought might be induced to share her lot with him, he mustered up courage, proposed and was accepted. In that widow's house was laid up a six months' store of provisions. Meeting President Kimball shortly afterwards, the now prosperous man of family exclaimed: "Well, Brother Heber, I followed your advice-" "Yes," said the servant of God, "and you found bread." But a volume might be written, and then the half remain untold, of the sayings and doings of this mighty man of God. We can only sketch them now, in haste and brevity, promising, by the blessing of the Lord, a book more worthy of the subject in the future. On the 22nd of October, 1867, died Vilate Murray Kimball, as noble a wife and mother, and as unselfish and devoted a Saint, as ever drew breath. Her loss was a heavy blow to her sorrowing husband. "I shall not be long after her," was the sad prophecy that fell from his quivering lips, as he followed the remains of his beloved partner to the tomb. In less than a twelve-month his words were fulfilled. On the morning of the 22nd of June, 1868, death again entered the household, leveling his fatal shaft at the mighty heart of its patriarchal head. At the age of sixty-seven years, his mind yet unimpaired, his iron frame unbent by age, but with health shattered by toil and trial in the service of his Maker, Heber C. Kimball, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, the tried and trusted friend of God passed peacefully from earth away. Freed from his mortal prison-house, of sorrow and of pain, his mission here completed, he sought once more the scenes and society of his spirit youth in the realms of eternal rest. Past angels, Gods and sentinels, who guard Orson F. Whitney. Pencils are sometimes lead, but the pen has to be driven.-Boston Transcript. EDITORIAL NOTES. THE sketch we publish in this number, of President Heber C. Kimball, may be read as the introductory to a forthcoming volume containing his biography. The Life of President Kimball will be eagerly anticipated by the people, with whom he was for so many years identified as counselor and friend. From the glimpse we get of his long career of usefulness and devotion to the highest principles of human life, in the sketch before us, we are justified in look. ing forward to the publication of his biography, with the keenest expectation of a literary feast, that will be most enjoyable and of the greatest benefit to those who shall partake. That a life so full of heroic incident, so fraught with examples of meritorious behavior should be lost to the future generations of Zion, would be a calamity; that it should have so able and devoted a historian as Bishop O. F. Whitney, to chronicle and set down in elegant diction the events that have distinguished it forever, among the people of God, is most fortunate. We shall be glad to welcome the Life of Heber C. Kimball and accord it the prominent place in the library of home literature, which it is sure to deserve. "Notable Buildings of Carthage" is the title of our engraving in this number. At the top of the page is seen, through the luxurious foliage of some splendid trees, the County Court House of Hancock County. Here many trials in which the Prophet Joseph and other leading brethren figured were held. Here the records of the purchases and sales of real estate, during the periods of settle ment and exodus are preserved. The building is a creditable one and the grounds about it are very attractively laid out in lawns and shaded paths. The present appearance of Carthage jail, is that of a substantial residence. It is so occupied, and is a conveniently and comfortably furnished home. The associations of this historic building are so horrible to Latter-day Saints that we shall not dwell upon them. The room occupied by the illustrious Martyrs is preserved as it was at the time of the tragedy, and visitors are courteously received and shown over the house by its There are several base ball players, each receiving a larger salary than does a United States Senator or the governor of any State except two. The average professional base ball player is better paid than school teachers, than learned university professors, and than most of the notable editors and ministers. And the "sluggers" get more newspaper mention, during their season, than do all the United States senators, school teachers, professors, preachers and editors combined. What wonder, then, that half the youths of the country incline to bat and ball instead of books! |