Joseph Fielding Smith

“When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from among our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. The ancient prophets who died were those who came to visit their fellow creatures upon the earth. They came to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; … such beings … waited upon the Savior and administered to him on the Mount. … Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  (Gospel Doctrine, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1970, pages 435–36.)

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Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: “You will have the joy, the pleasure, and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after is resurrection, until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.” There is restitution, there is growth, there is development, after the resurrection from death. I love this truth. It speaks volumes of happiness, of joy and gratitude to my soul. Thank the Lord he has revealed these principles to us.

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Gospel Doctrine, p. 455

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“No member of the Church, who refuses to observe this sacred ordinance, can retain the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost. It is as true today as it was in the days of Paul, that many members of the Church are weak and sickly, in spirit and body, and many sleep, because they have failed to show their love for, and obedience to, the Lord Jesus Christ in the keeping of this commandment.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Seek Ye Earnestly (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970), 108

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“Every child that comes into this world is carried in water, is born of water, and of blood, and of the spirit. So when we are born into the kingdom of God, we must be born the same way. By baptism, we are born of water. Through the shedding of the blood of Christ, we are cleansed and sanctified; and we are justified, through the Spirit of God, for baptism is not complete without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You see the parallel between birth into the world and birth into the kingdom of God.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Doctrines of Salvation

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“The home … is the workshop where human characters are built and the manner in which they are formed depends upon the relationship existing between parents and the children. The home cannot be what it should be unless these relationships are of the proper character. Whether they are so or not depends, it is true, upon both parents and children, but much more upon parents. They must do their best.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

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“Sacrament meeting is the most sacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of the Church.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1955), 2:340.

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“I have heard people say, and members of the Church too, ‘I have a right to do as I please.’ My answer is: No, you do not. You haven’t any right at all to do just as you please. There is only one right that you have, and that is to do just what I read to you: keep the commandments of Jesus Christ. He has a perfect right to tell us so. We have no right to refuse. I do not care who the man is; I do not care where he lives, or what he is – when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to him, he has no right to refuse to receive it. He has the privilege. He is not compelled to receive it, because our Father in heaven has given to everyone of us, in the Church and out, the gift of free agency. That free agency gives us the privilege to accept and be loyal to our Lord’s commandments, but it has never given us the right to reject them. Every man who rejects the commandments of our Father in heaven is rebellious.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Conference Report, April 1967, pp. 120-21

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“No member of this Church can stand approved in the presence of God who has not seriously and carefully read the Book of Mormon.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Improvement Era, December 1961, pp. 925-26

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As for William E. McLellin, his conduct, though kind, was very peculiar. He, it will be remembered, was one of the original Twelve Apostles, chosen in 1835, but excommunicated with David Whitmer and others for apostasy a few years later. He treated Brother Pratt and myself with every consideration, fairly gluing himself to our society as long as we remained at Independence, acting as our guide in visiting every point of interest in that historic town, loitering about our hotel while we took our meals, and waiting to rejoin us at every possible opportunity. He was full of reminiscences, but seemed to be all unsettled in his feelings and convictions, at one moment praising the Prophet Joseph to the skies, and at the next casting reflections upon him and the other Church leaders of his period. I never saw the sad effects of apostasy more plainly manifested. He stated that he was writing a book about his early connection with the Church, but I have never learned that he completed it. When we departed he accompanied us to the railroad station and stood gazing after us until our train disappeared in the distance. I corresponded with him afterwards as long as he lived.

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  “Reminiscences by the First Presidency, Dec. 21, 1901; Pres. Joseph F. Smith, Pres. John R. Winder, Pres. Anthon H. Lund; Deseret News, December 21, 1901, p. 57

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“The day of the coming of the Lord is near. I do not know when . . . . I sincerely believe it will come in the very day when some of us who are here today [April 5, 1936] will be living upon the earth. That day is close at hand. It behooves us as Latter-day Saints to set our houses in order, to keep the commandments of God, to turn from evil to righteousness, if it is necessary, and serve the Lord in humility and faith and prayer.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Doctrines of Salvation, 3:2-3

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