2 July 1874


Salt Lake City Seventh Ward Relief Society; Seventh Ward Schoolhouse, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory

White stone building with arched windows

Salt Lake City Seventh Ward meetinghouse, constructed in 1877. (Fairbanks, P. Kent. Seventh Ward Chapel, 116 West Fifth South Street, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT. 1967. Photograph. Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ut0056.photos/?sp=1.)

[. . .]

Miss E R Snow <said> your President [Alice W. Needham] has requested me to address the Sisters, I do not know what they want, but I pray the Lord to direct me. we are His daughters: we are the daughters of the Most High God, what an orig[i]n to boast of think of it Sisters. we have dwelt in the presence of God! have we any reccolection of it now? no. then how careful we should be to cultivate those principles that will qualify us to return again to his presence. the Latter Day Saints are the only people who have a knowledge of these things. Many of my young Sisters have been born in Zion, it is a great blessing to have been born in Zion if we live up to our privileges but that alone will not qualify us to hold an office in a Relief Society neither will the education and polish of the world qualify you to come up here and instruct the people of God no my Sisters we require something else even a knowledge of the truth and the Spirit of God in our hearts to direct us.

Is there a more honorable name, than being called a Teacher in a Relief Society. The heart of the Sisters should be open to receive their Teachers, then they will seldom be under the necessity of asking but the people will wish to donate to the poor and for other purposes in building up the Kingdom of our God upon the earth. when any one calls for support from the Society, it is the duty of the Teachers or Teacher to see and know all that is in the house, she then told us of a circumstance where help had been given and when the Teachers requested to see what was in the house the woman got very angry. and shortly after that she commenced store keeping. but you should be careful not to deny any one who is destitute, and see that you are filled with the spirit of God and minister to [p. 90] the spiritual as well as the temporal wants of the people. the duty of a teacher is to save souls and if any are cold and indifferent seek to arouse them from their stupor, and if they err take them by the hand and lead them back to the path of life. There are only two kingdoms that of God and that of the Devil. Do not be discouraged because you are only a few, I consider this order a part of the kingdom of God, and we should be noble daughters working in our Father’s family. I consider that I have nothing of my own and whatever I do is for my Father and I do wish to be joint heir with Jesus Christ

after addressing herself to the young Ladies she said that they will find, that they will need the Spirit of the Lord, their parents can place them in the way, but they must earn it for themselves. [. . .] [p. 91]

[. . .] Sister Snow spoke in tongues for the benefit of the Young who had never heard them. Sister Zina [D. H. Young] interperted them.

Bishop [William] Thorn had been greatly blest and edified this afternoon although coming in late, and felt to thank Sister Snow and the other sisters for coming to visit us. [. . .] [p. 92]

Source Note

Seventh Ward, Pioneer Stake, Relief Society Minutes and Records (1848–1922), vol. 3 (1868–1890), pp. 89–92, CHL (LR 12586 14).

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2 July 1874, Salt Lake City Seventh Ward Relief Society; Seventh Ward Schoolhouse, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow, accessed March 19, 2024 https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/eliza-r-snow/1870s/1874/07/1874-07-02