With Heber, as with Brigham, a fondness for incendiary speech was joined to a reluctance for violent action. During the "reformation" a few years later Heber's sermons, like those of his chief, were a direct incitement to riot and murder; but Kimball seems to have borne no direct part in the deeds which his unbridled tirades helped to precipitate. He preached the doctrine of blood atonement; but he seems never to have taken this method of atoning for any one's sins.