Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle. Orson F. Whitney

Brigham and Heber together in Kirtland! By what strange fatality were these mighty lives thus interwoven? We have seen how Brigham and Heber came together, and how, from thenceforth, the currents of their lives and fortunes ran parallel. Now they were joined with Joseph, their prophet chief, like streams that swell a river.

      Interesting is it also, if only as a coincidence, that so many of the leading spirits of the latter-day work should have been natives of Vermont—a diadem for thee, proud State, and one which thou wilt prize in coming time!—from whence scattered, ere acquaintance with the Gospel or with each other began, to meet as co-laborers in the same great cause, among the hills and dales of Northern Ohio. As though the heavens had decreed their lives should thus commingle.

      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.

      Had Heber's inspired mind probed the secret of Joseph's thought, expressed in his own oft-quoted words: "Would to God, brethren, I could tell you who I am!"

      As Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ, its president and earthly head, and holder of the keys of the last dispensation, Joseph was already in the high and holy office for which he was predestined and fore-ordained. Not so, Brigham; not so, Heber; not so their apostolic compeers. A trial of their faith was first necessary, a trial now near at hand, to prove them worthy in the flesh of the great calling whereunto they were called in the eternal councils.

      In the month of February, 1834, came a commandment from the Almighty unto His prophet, to "gather up the strength of His house," and "go up and redeem Zion;" in other words, to recover from the hands of a fierce and merciless mob the lands in Jackson County, Missouri, from which the Saints had been driven.

      Such were the origin and object of Zion's Camp. Such, the nature of the perilous duty laid upon them.

CHAPTER VII.

       Table of Contents

      THE REDEMPTION OF ZION—ENOCH'S CITY TO RETURN—OBJECT OF THE UNITED ORDER—CAUSE OF THE JACKSON COUNTY EXPULSION—THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF.

      The redemption of Zion! The building of the new Jerusalem!

      Theme of the ancient prophets and glory of the latter days!

      Such was the sublime mission given to the Saints of the Most High.

       Thus came the word of the Lord concerning it, March, 1831:

      "Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said, gather ye out from the eastern

       lands, assemble ye yourselves together ye elders of my Church; go

       ye forth into the western countries; * *

      "And with one heart and with one mind, gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you,

      "And it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the Saints of the Most High God;

      "And the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the

       Lord also shall be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come

       unto it, and it shall be called Zion.

      "And it shall come to pass, among the wicked, that every man that

       will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee unto

       Zion for safety.

      "And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under

       heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war

       one with another.

      "And it shall be said among the wicked, let us not go up to battle

       against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore

       we cannot stand.

      "And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered

       out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with

       songs of everlasting joy."

      With this glorious object in view, this sublime motive firing their souls and filling their hearts with holy zeal, the Saints, in the summer of 1831, had commenced gathering upon the land of Zion—Jackson County, Missouri, the chosen site of the great city and temple of God. Their purpose, to fulfil prophecy, to found the modern Zion, New Jerusalem, capital city of the kingdom of God. A counterpart of the Zion of Enoch, sanctified of old and taken into the heavens, to return in latter times as a leaven of righteousness, to leaven this lump of clay, the mother earth of our mortality, and make it like unto itself, and in due time a glorified planet, purified, redeemed, and from sin forever free.

      To prepare the world for that supreme hour "when the Lord shall bring again Zion," was and is the mission of the Saints of latter days. And this that the scripture might be fulfilled, which says:

      "The Lord hath brought down Zion from above.

      "The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath.

      "The earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength:

      "And truth is established in her bowels:

      "And the heavens have smiled upon her:

      "And she is clothed with the glory of her God:

      "For he stands in the midst of his people."

      The meeting of the Zions! The marriage of the worlds! Zion from beneath, the type of truth from earth, embracing Zion from above, the symbol of righteousness from heaven.

      "And they twain shall be one!"

      Preparatory to this miraculous event, and indeed to render it possible, the order of Enoch, the system of divine economy whereby the Zion of the ancients was redeemed and sanctified, had been newly revealed to the Zion-builders of the last days.

      What says Moses of Enoch and his city?

      "And