James E. Talmage

“It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire.”

James E. Talmage  |  Jesus the Christ

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One who really prays that this kingdom will come…[will make the effort to] keep himself in harmony with the order of the kingdom, to subject the flesh to the spirit, selfishness to altruism, and to learn to love the things that God loves. To make the will of God supreme on earth as it is in heaven is to be allied with God in the affairs of life.

James E. Talmage  |  Jesus The Christ - Page 157

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Our Lord’s descent from the holy heights of the Mount of Transfiguration was more than a physical return from greater to lesser altitudes; it was a passing from sunshine into shadow, from the effulgent glory of heaven to the mists of worldly passions and human unbelief; it was the beginning of His rapid descent into the valley of humiliation.

James E. Talmage  |  Jesus The Christ

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“The purpose . . . is that of promoting among the members of the Church a vital, active interest in the compilation of genealogical records, in the collating of items of lineage and in the formulation of true family pedigrees, so that the relationship between ancestry and posterity may be determined and be made readily accessible. . . . It is a notable fact that the last seven or eight decades have witnessed a development of interest in genealogical matters theretofore unknown in modern times. . . . There is . . . an influence operative in the world, a spirit moving upon the people, in response to which the living are yearningly reaching backward to learn of their dead.”

James E. Talmage  |  “Genealogical Work Is Essential to Redemption of the Dead in the Holy Temples of the Lord”

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“Inasmuch as salvation is attainable only through the mediation and atonement of Christ . . . faith in Jesus Christ is indispensable to salvation.”

James E. Talmage  |  Articles of Faith, 96

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“Though within the reach of all who diligently strive to gain it, faith is nevertheless a divine gift, and can be obtained only from God”

James E. Talmage  |  Jesus the Christ

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“Belief, in one of its accepted senses, may consist in a merely intellectual assent, while faith implies such confidence and conviction as will impel to action.”

James E. Talmage  |  Articles of Faith

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It is peculiar to the theology of the Latter-day Saints that we regard the body as an essential part of the soul. Read your dictionaries, the lexicons, and encyclopedias, and you will find that nowhere [in Christianity], outside of the Church of Jesus Christ, is the solemn and eternal truth taught that the soul of man is the body and the spirit combined.

James E. Talmage  |  CR, October 1913, p. 117

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