Elder Marlin K. Jensen told us about the woman pictured in the video above, the one who can actually read Pitman shorthand. She has been able to translate Pitman shorthand notes of early Church sermons into prose, sermons that were otherwise lost to us. It is nice to see this project online so we can explore hitherto unexplored areas of Church history.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the "Lost Sermons" project.
Brigham Young on mortal death:
We should be in a hurry to receive our rest … but having that desire in our hearts to live causes us to cling to the world that we may finish the work the Lord gives us to do.Parley P. Pratt on his missionary labors:
Traveling abroad to preach the gospel is one of the pleasantest and easiest of all the labors of the kingdom.John Taylor on the Gospel:
The gospel of Jesus Christ, the principles of salvation, and the science of an eternal life is a matter so great, so wide, and so comprehensive that it is difficult to know where to commence and where to leave off, difficult to find the beginning the middle or the end. It is something like the Melchizedek priesthood, without beginning of days or ends of years. It reaches back into eternity and forward into eternity.Orson Pratt on partaking of the Sacrament weekly:
Do we feel and realize these things as we ought from Sabbath to Sabbath? Do we think of these things? Do we meditate upon them? Do we reflect upon the subject or do we merely come and partake of this ordinance as a kind of secondary consideration, not thinking about the object for which it was instituted and thus pass the time without having benefitted?Heber C. Kimball on abiding by our covenants whether other people do or not:
Suppose you should all turn away from [the] faith. What has that to do with me? Suppose you should all act like devils. What is that to me? What has that to do with my religion? I am to serve God and keep his commandments perfectly independent, that is from the acts of any other person in God’s world. It has nothing to do with me one way nor the other, but it is for me to serve God and keep his commandments, to fulfill my covenants. When I went into the water [of] baptism I made [a] covenant I would forsake the world with all [that] pertains to it, and cleave unto the Lord God with all my heart all my days. This is the covenant that I made, to turn away from the world. That is the covenant you made, or the one you should have made. Now, will you fulfill it?
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