George Teasdale

“ Do we believe that all we have, or that we ever expect to have, comes or will come from God? Do we understand this principle? Do we understand that if we do not obey the Gospel, that if we do not offer unto the Father the offering of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we will not be accepted of Him? Do we understand that unless we live the principles that He has revealed from the heavens, that we have no promise of the future, and then to think it a light thing not to pray. ”

“ How marvelously He has blessed us as a people, and how cheerfully He has poured out His Spirit upon us when we have sought it. It behooves us to walk in His paths. It is our duty to walk in the light, even as the beloved Apostle said: "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." ”

“ We as a people should certainly be a prayerful people, and I would venture to say that if we were not, if we depended upon our own strength, the time will come when we will fail. I cannot understand how in a well ordered house family prayer can be dispensed with. I cannot understand how it is that men understanding the responsibility that rests upon them, understanding their own weakness and insufficiency, understanding the blessing that God our Eternal Father has promised unto us through our faithfulness, should consider that they can do without God. ”

“ It is a most awful thing to die in one's sins. It is most awful to be classed with those who misrepresent, who are called in the Bible liars, who are to have their portion in the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death. When I think that men of professed intelligence will stoop to such dishonorable means to bring trouble upon innocent people, I think they ought to be prayed for that God would have mercy upon them, that He would convert them from the error of their ways, that they might not be blotted out from the book of remembrance and become subject to the second death. ”

“ I think common humanity should inspire us to pray for them. They are the children of God, and they are in the image of God, they are our brethren and sisters, children of the same parent: and it is a duty we owe to God and to mankind to pray that the Lord may have mercy upon sinners. ”

“ What is the meaning of prayer? Why, it is to earnestly ask something that we require with all our hearts. All who are in fellowship of the Holy Ghost, will ask God for His Spirit to be in their hearts in all their business relations, even, that they might not soil their hands, but keep them clean and their hearts pure, that they might merit His approbation. ”

“ What do we know only as we are taught, of God, and what can they know of the true faith only as they are taught of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His dying agonies, and the martyrs Stephen filled with the Spirit of His master, said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." ”

“ I cannot understand how a woman can love her children and not plead before the Almighty, that they may be protected from all accident, that they may enjoy their senses, that they may be preserved in the use of their limbs, that they may not meet with any accident that would disfigure or disable them in the battle of life. ”

“ We expect our children to be associated with the Primary Associations, and they certainly should know how to pray. We do them an injustice when we do not divide up the honors in prayer in this way. It is requisite that all should take their turn in prayer, and I do not think it should be done for form's sake. It should be the expression of glad hearts, understanding the great blessings that have been conferred upon us through the light and intelligence of the Gospel, and feeling glad that we are not under the condemnation of priestcraft, but that we have the privilege of priesthood ”

“ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. ”

“ I asked that if it was the truth I might know it; because if any man desired eternal life I did; if any man desired to serve God I did; if any man desired the remission of his sins I did; and consequently I went to that source that I would presume all intelligent men and women would appeal to when a message of the kind that came unto us through the Prophet Joseph Smith was sounded in our ears. ”

“ It might not be believed that among the people who profess to be Latter-day Saints, there, are those who neglect prayer. We have had to ask young men, sometimes, that were Elders and who had been recommended to be Seventies, if they prayed, and in telling us the truth, they have stated that they did sometimes. ”

“ Why, it seems to me that in every well regulated family the head thereof should gather his wives and children around him and bow at the altar, even the family altar, and offer unto God thanksgiving and praise for His protecting care and to entreat Him for His Spirit that we might be led by its counsels that He might not suffer us to be led into temptation, but that He would deliver us from evil. ”

“ In a revelation that has been given, and that is frequently quoted, we are told that when we do as the Lord sayeth He is bound to fulfill; but when we do not we have no promise. And on another occasion He said that He could not look upon sin with the slightest degree of allowance. ”