26 October 1877


Providence Relief Society and Young Ladies; Providence, Utah Territory

[. . .] Miss Eliza R. Snow, after some appropriate opening remarks, asked if we were really saints or merely professed to be saints. She said it would be well to think and reflect about it. She instructed the young ladies not to use slang phrases or corrupt their minds with bad words, and that it would be well for the young ladies to discuss it in their meetings and to set a good example before the younger sisters, and to patronize home-productions, and sustain those who were placed over them, and not to indulge in back-biting, but to be kind and friendly, and always speak kindly to one another. She urged the young ladies to be industrious and to get mulberry trees and plant them out, procure silk worms and raise silk so that they might make their own silk stockings and neck-ties, dresses, capes, handkerchiefs and everything that can be made from silk, and not to buy them of the outside world. She said the organization of the Relief Society was a revelation from God through Joseph Smith the prophet, and the Young Ladies Associations was a revelation from God to President Brigham Young. She gave much good instruction to the young men and women. She said it was no common thing in the days of Kirtland and Navuoo for little children to hold meetings, and to preach, pray, sing and enjoy the gifts of the Gospel. She inquired of the young ladies if they wished to be organized into a Mutual Improvement Society. They answered yes. [. . .] Miss Snow gave some most valuable instruction to these young sisters who were appointed to hold positions of honor and trust in the Association. [. . .] [p. 106]

Source Note

R. S. Reports,” Woman’s Exponent 6, no. 14 (15 Dec. 1877): 106.

See also Elizabeth Davis, “Visit to Northern Settlements,” Woman’s Exponent 6, no. 14 (15 Dec. 1877): 111.

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26 October 1877, Providence Relief Society and Young Ladies; Providence, Utah Territory, The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow, accessed March 19, 2024 https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/eliza-r-snow/1870s/1877/10/1877-10-26-a