said, nobody had been killed . He warned them, however, that the time "is not far distant" when the LDS Church would enforce the law of blood atonement against covenant breakers . One of the temple covenants at the time was, "I will never have anything to do with any of the daughters of Eve, unless they are given to me of the Lord." Though the "strict penalty of the law" dictated death to atone for breaking this covenant, Young said that the church would "not yet" enforce it . On January 11, 1857 Heber C. Kimball, a member of the First Presidency, spoke about the adulterers within the church and warned that "[t]hey are worthy of death, and they will get it. That time is near by, and God has spoken from the heavens, and when certain things are about right, we shall make a public example of those characters, ...and the time is just at our doors." In the meantime, rather than atoning for sins with blood, Kimball taught that it was possible to at least partially atone for sins by means other than blood, and encouraged covenant breakers to "pay all you can, that there may not be much against you when the accounts are settled up." Echoing Kimball's words, on February 8, 1857, Young warned the church that institution of the "celestial law" requiring mandatory blood atonement was "nigh at hand," and that under this law, covenant breakers guilty of adultery would be "hewn down." In the meantime, he said, "if this people will sin no more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them without taking life." Voluntary blood atonement and enforcement by individuals In addition to talk about blood atonement as a theocratic form of capital punishment whose time was "nigh at hand," church leaders also discussed unofficial blood atonement. According to one interpretation of Brigham Young's sermon on March 16, 1856, the sermon encouraged enforcement of the doctrine by individuals in certain situations. He said that if "you found your brother in bed with your wife, and put a javelin through both of them, you would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God." He said, "under such circumstances, I have no wife whom I love so well that I would not put a javelin through her heart, and I would