Joseph F. Smith
Charity, or love, is the greatest principle
in existence. If we can lend a helping
hand to the oppressed, if we can aid
those who are despondent and in
sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate
the condition of mankind, it is our
mission to do it, it is an essential part of
our religion to do it.
Joseph F. Smith
Born: November 13, 1838
Died: November 19, 1918
Apostle: July 1, 1866
President: October 10, 1901
November 19, 1918
True Greatness
•
Those things which we call extraordinary, remarkable,
or unusual may make history, but they do not make real
life. After all, to do well those things which God
ordained to be the common lot of all man-kind, is the
truest greatness. To be a successful father or a
successful mother is greater than to be a successful
general or a successful statesman. One is universal
and eternal greatness, the other is ephemeral. . . .
We should never be discouraged in those daily tasks
which God has ordained to the common lot of man.
Each day's labor should be undertaken in a joyous spirit
and with the thought and conviction that our happiness
and eternal welfare depend upon doing well that
which we ought to do, that which God has made it
our duty to do.
Joseph F. Smith
True Family
•
Who are there besides the Latter-day Saints who contemplate the thought
that beyond the grave we will continue in the family organization? the father, the
mother, the children recognizing each other in the relations which they owe to each
other and in which they stand to each other? this family organization being a unit
in the great and perfect organization of God's work, and all destined to
continue throughout time and eternity?
We are living for eternity and not merely for the moment. Death does not part us
from one another, if we have entered into sacred relationships with each other by
virtue of the authority that God has revealed to the children of men. Our relationships
are formed for eternity. We are immortal beings, and we are looking forward to the
growth that is to be attained in an exalted life after we have proved ourselves faithful
and true to the covenants that we have entered into here, and then we will receive a
fulness of joy. A man and woman who have embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ
and who have begun life together, should be able by their power, example and
influence to cause their children to emulate them in lives of virtue, honor, and in
integrity to the kingdom of God which will redound to their own interest and salvation.
No one can advise my children with greater earnestness and solicitude for their
happiness and salvation than I can myself. Nobody has more interest in the welfare
of my own children than I have. I cannot be satisfied without them. They are part of
me. They are mine; God has given them to me, and I want them to be humble and
submissive to the requirements of the gospel. I want them to do right, and to be right
in every particular, so that they will be worthy of the distinction that the Lord has
given them in being numbered among his covenant people who are choice above all
other people, because they have made sacrifice for their own salvation in the truth.
Joseph F. Smith
True Parental Love
• Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the
gospel, if you wish them to be obedient to and united with you, love them!
And prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For
your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys-however wayward they might be, . . . when you speak or talk to them, do it not in
anger; do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly; get
down and weep with them, if necessary, and get them to shed tears with
you if possible. Soften their hearts; get them to feel tenderly towards you.
Use no lash and no violence, but . . . approach them with reason, with
persuasion and love unfeigned.
Joseph F. Smith
• God forbid that there should be any of us so unwisely indulgent, so thoughtless
and so shallow in our affection for our children that we dare not check them in a
wayward course, in wrong-doing and in their foolish love for the things of the world
more than for the things of righteousness, for fear of offending them.
Joseph F. Smith
• I have often said, and will repeat it, that the love of a true mother comes nearer
being like the love of God than any other kind of love.
Joseph F. Smith
True Parental Teaching
• Another great and important duty devolving upon this people is to teach their
children, from their cradle until they become men and women, every principle of the
gospel, and endeavor, as far as it lies in the power of the parents, to instil into their
hearts a love for God, the truth, virtue, honesty, honor and integrity to everything
that is good. That is important for all men and women who stand at the head of a family in
the household of faith. Teach your children the love of God, teach them to love the
principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach them to love their fellowmen, and especially
to love their fellow members in the Church that they may be true to their fellowship with the
people of God. Teach them to honor the Priesthood, to honor the authority that God has
bestowed upon his Church for the proper government of his Church.
Joseph F. Smith
• Teach your children so that they cannot commit sin without violating their
conscience, teach them the truth, that they may not depart from it. Bring them up in the
way they should go, and when they get old they will not depart from it. If you will keep your
boys close to your heart, within the clasp of your arms; if you will make them to feel that you
love them, that you are their parents, that they are your children, and keep them near to
you, they will not go very far from you, and they will not commit any very great sin.
Joseph F. Smith
• Not one child in a hundred would go astray, if the home environment, example and
training, were in harmony with the truth in the gospel of Christ, as revealed and
taught to the Latter-day Saints. Fathers and mothers, you are largely to blame for the
infidelity and indifference of your children. You can remedy the evil by earnest
worship, example, training and discipline, in the home.
Joseph F. Smith
True Home Life
• What then is an ideal home--model home, such as it should be the ambition of the
Latter-day Saints to build; such as a young man starting out in life should wish to
erect for himself? And the answer came to me: It is one in which all worldly
considerations are secondary. One in which the father is devoted to the family
with which God has blessed him, counting them of first importance, and in which
they in turn permit him to live in their hearts. One in which there is confidence,
union, love, sacred devotion between father and mother and children and parents.
One in which the mother takes every pleasure in her children, supported by the
father--all being moral, pure, God-fearing.
Joseph F. Smith
• The husband should treat his wife with the utmost courtesy and respect. The
husband should never insult her; he should never speak slightly of her, but
should always hold her in the highest esteem in the home, in the presence of
their children. We do not always do it, perhaps; some of us, perhaps, do not do it at
all. But nevertheless it is true that we ought to do it. The wife, also should treat the
husband with the greatest respect and courtesy. Her words to him should not
be keen and cutting and sarcastic. She should not pass slurs or insinuations at
him. She should not nag him. She should not try to arouse his anger or make
things unpleasant about the home. The wife should be a joy to her husband,
and she should live and conduct herself at home so the home will be the most
joyous, the most blessed place on earth to her husband.
Joseph F. Smith
True Responsibility
• The parents in Zion will be held responsible for the acts of their children,
not only until they become eight years old, but, perhaps, throughout all
the lives of their children, provided they have neglected their duty to their
children while they were under their care and guidance and the parents were
responsible for them.
Joseph F. Smith
• Let us conquer ourselves, and then go to and conquer all the evil that we
see around us, as far as we possibly can. And we will do it without using
violence; we will do it without interfering with the agency of men or of women.
We will do it by persuasion, by long-suffering, by patience, and by forgiveness
and love unfeigned, by which we will win the hearts, the affections and the
souls of the children of men to the truth as God has revealed it to us. We will
never have peace, nor justice, nor truth, until we look to the only true fountain
for it, and receive from the fountain head.
Joseph F. Smith
• Charity, or love, is the greatest principle in existence. If we can lend a
helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent
and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it
is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it.
Joseph F. Smith
True Example
• Let us follow in the footsteps of our Master, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He alone is the perfect example for mankind. He is the
only infallible rule and law, way and door into everlasting life. Let
us follow the Son of God. Make him our exemplar, and our
guide. Imitate him. Do his work. Become like unto him, as
far as it lies within our powers to become like him that was
perfect and without sin.
Joseph F. Smith
• Above all things let me say to the presidents of stakes and
counselors and presidents of missions, and to the bishops and
their counselors--let me say to you all, live exemplary lives, so
that you can each say to the people: "Come and follow me,
follow my example, obey my precepts; be in union with me,
and follow Christ."
Joseph F. Smith
True Obedience
•
Every blessing, privilege, glory, or exaltation is obtained only through obedience
to the law upon which the same is promised. If we will abide the law, we shall receive
the reward; but we can receive it on no other ground. Then let us rejoice in the truth,
in the restoration of the Priesthood--that power delegated to man, by virtue of which
the Lord sanctions in the heavens what man does upon the earth. The Lord has
taught us the ordinances of the gospel by which we may perfect our exaltation in his
kingdom. We are not living as the heathen, without law; that which is necessary for
our exaltation has been revealed. Our duty, therefore, is to obey the laws; then we
shall receive our reward, no matter whether we are cut down in childhood, in
manhood, or old age; it is all the same, so long as we are living up to the light we
possess we shall not be shorn of any blessing, nor deprived of any privilege;
for there is a time after this mortal life, and there is a way provided by which we may
fulfil the measure of our creation and destiny, and accomplish the whole great work
that we have been sent to do, although it may reach far into the future before we fully
accomplish it.
Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it
after his resurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for
which he then came to the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he?
Not until he has redeemed and saved every son and daughter of our father Adam
that have been or ever will be born upon this earth to the end of time, except the
sons of perdition. That is his mission. We will not finish our work until we have
saved ourselves, and then not until we shall have saved all depending upon us;
for we are to become saviors upon Mount Zion, as well as Christ. We are called
to this mission.
Joseph F. Smith
True Leadership
•
One of the highest qualities of all true leadership is a high standard of
courage. When we speak of courage and leadership we are using terms that
stand for the quality of life by which men determine consciously the proper
course to pursue and stand with fidelity to their convictions. There has never
been a time in the Church when its leaders were not required to be courageous
men; not alone courageous in the sense that they were able to meet physical
dangers, but also in the sense that they were steadfast and true to a clear
and upright conviction.
Leaders of the Church, then, should be men not easily discouraged, not
without hope, and not given to forebodings of all sorts of evils to come. Above
all things the leaders of the people should never disseminate a spirit of gloom in
the hearts of the people. If men standing in high places sometimes feel the
weight and anxiety of momentous times, they should be all the firmer and all the
more resolute in those convictions which come from a God-fearing conscience
and pure lives. Men in their private lives should feel the necessity of extending
encouragement to the people by their own hopeful and cheerful intercourse with
them, as they do by their utterances in public places. It is a matter of the
greatest importance that the people be educated to appreciate and
cultivate the bright side of life rather than to permit its darkness and
shadows to hover over them.
Joseph F. Smith
True Dangers
•
There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church within, and the
authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned
unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are flattery of prominent men in
the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity.
But the third subject mentioned--personal purity, is perhaps of greater
importance than either of the other two. We believe in one standard of morality
for men and women. If purity of life is neglected, all other dangers set in upon us like
the rivers of waters when the flood gates are opened.
Joseph F. Smith
•
•
The wise man is, therefore, going to steer his course away from the living death
of pleasure-seeking. He is not going into bondage or debt to buy automobiles and
other costly equipages to keep pace with the rush of fashionable pleasure-seeking,
in this respect. He is not going to borrow money to satisfy the popular craze for
traveling in Europe or in our own country, with no purpose in view but pleasure. He
is not going to grow nervous and gray in a struggle for means that his wife and
daughter, for mere pleasure, may spend the summer at costly, fashionable resorts,
or in distant lands. It is true that there are many in our community who do not
appear to be wise, and who are doing just these and other foolish acts for so called
pleasure. . . .
Joseph F. Smith
It is remarkable how easy it is to learn sin and how hard it is to forget it.
Joseph F. Smith