Heber C. Kimball's Deliverance from Evil Spirits in Preston

During the first Latter-day Saint mission outside North America — ten days after the missionaries arrived in Preston, England — the Apostles Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde were awakened before daybreak on Sunday, July 30, 1837, at their lodging on Wilfred Street by Elder Isaac Russell, who begged them to pray for his deliverance from evil spirits tormenting him so severely that he felt he could not live unless he obtained relief. As Kimball and Hyde laid their hands on Russell and rebuked the spirits, Kimball was struck with great force by an invisible power and fell senseless to the floor, as if he had been shot. Hyde — assisted in the earliest account by Russell himself — lifted him, cried to the Lord, and rebuked the evil spirits in the name of Jesus Christ, and Kimball revived in part, sweat rolling from him so powerfully that his clothes were as wet as if he had been taken out of the river; he remained weak for a day or two afterward. The elders could distinctly hear the spirits rage, foam out their shame, and gnash their teeth at them — though in the earliest published account, Kimball's letter to his wife Vilate printed in the Elders' Journal (October 1837), the attackers remained invisible and only audible.

On the following night, as the missionaries again came to Russell's relief, the Lord opened to Kimball and Hyde a vision of the infernal world itself: a host of foul spirits in the midst of the room, in various shapes and forms — misshapen, disgusting, half one creature and half another, the most miserable appearances one could possibly imagine — foaming and gnashing their teeth at the servants of God. Kimball's 1840 journal records that they gazed upon the evil spirits for about an hour and a half (Willard Richards timed the vision at ninety minutes), and he testified: "I shall never forget the horror and malignity depicted on the countenances of these foul spirits." Orson Hyde later wrote that every circumstance "is just as fresh in my recollection at this moment as it was at the moment of its occurrence," recalling "their awful rush upon me with knives, threats, imprecations and hellish grins." Kimball later explained in an 1856 sermon how his vision was opened so that the walls of the house were no obstruction: "my spirit could look through the walls of that house, for I looked with that spirit, element, and power, with which angels look... It was upon that principle that the Lord showed things to the Prophet Joseph."

Modern scholarship — Christopher James Blythe's study of the experience, drawing on the contemporary journal of fellow missionary Joseph Fielding — shows that the two experiences occurred on two successive days and were conflated into a single event in later retellings, including Orson F. Whitney's 1888 Life of Heber C. Kimball: the audible assault came on Sunday morning before daybreak, and the visual vision the following night. Fielding's journal also preserves that Kimball was initially skeptical of Russell's plea, not fully believing his testimony until the adversary's power was made unmistakably real. Despite his weakness from the shock, Kimball had the joy that same morning of baptizing nine individuals into the kingdom of God.

Returning home, Kimball met with the Prophet Joseph Smith, who rejoiced rather than showing concern: "I then knew that the work of God had taken root in that land," and assured Kimball that "the nearer a person approaches the Lord, a greater power will be manifested by the adversary to prevent the accomplishments of His purposes." Kimball testified that through the experience he "learned the power of the adversary, his enmity against the servants of God, and got some understanding of the invisible world."

Fuller account of this event (in the witness's own words):

On the morning of the 30th of July, [1837], just as the day was beginning to dawn, Elder Isaac Russell (who had been appointed to preach to a people in the country) came into our room, and even before he reached the middle of the floor, he cried out, 'Brother Kimball, I want you should get up and pray for me that I may be delivered from the evil spirits that are tormenting me to such a degree that I feel I cannot live long, unless I obtain relief.' I arose upon the bed, and Brother Kimball got upon the floor and I sat upon the bed; we laid our hands on him, and Brother Kimball rebuked and prayed for him but just before he had finished his prayer, his voice faltered, and his mouth was shut, and he began to tremble and reel to and fro, and fell on the floor like a dead man, and uttered a deep groan. I immediately seized him by the coat and drew him to the bed, and called upon Brother Russell to assist me, but he could not move, for he was paralyzed and nearly as helpless as Brother Kimball. I then cried to the Lord to have mercy on my brother, and not suffer him to be destroyed by the power of the devil. I laid my hands on him and rebuked the evil spirits in the name of Jesus Christ, and commanded them to depart. Brother Kimball then began to revive, and came to himself, and we raised him up and he sat upon the bed. We could very sensibly hear the evil spirits rage and foam out their shame. We were not permitted to see them, but we could hear them as plainly as if they had been in the room, and they were raging and foaming and gnashing their teeth at us.