Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. SmithSmith, Joseph F. (Joseph Fielding)
Religion
Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith
Smith, Joseph F. (Joseph Fielding)
Latter Day Saint churches
ALL OFFICERS OF THE PRIESTHOOD NECESSARY AND SHOULD BE RESPECTED. I
believe it to be the duty of the Church to recognize and acknowledge
every man who holds an official position in it, in his sphere and in
his calling. I hold to the doctrine that the duty of a teacher is as
sacred as the duty of an apostle, in the sphere in which he is called
to act, and that every member of the Church is as much in duty bound
to honor the teacher who visits him in his home, as he is to honor the
office and counsel of the presiding quorum of the Church. They all have
the priesthood; they are all acting in their callings, and they are all
essential in their places, because the Lord has appointed them and set
them in his Church. We cannot ignore them; or, if we do, the sin will
be upon our heads.--_Oct. C. R.,_ 1902, p. 86.
{205} CHECKS UPON CHURCH MEMBERS. I say that when these members of
the Church are in error or doing wrong, we have the check on them in
the first place in the wards; bishops look after them; then their
quorums to which they belong have jurisdiction and they are required
to look after them, too, and then after the quorums look after them
the presidencies of the stakes look after them and see that they are
helped; that they are strengthened; that they are admonished; that
they are warned, and that they are applauded when they do their duties
and keep the commandments of the Lord. So the Lord has placed a great
many checks upon the members of the Church with a view to teaching
them right principles, to help them to do right, to live right and to
be pure and clean from the sins of the world, that the body of the
Church may be perfected, that it may be free from disease, from all
contagious evils, just as the body of the man Jesus Christ is free from
all taint, evil and sin. So God has placed these safeguards in the
Church, from the deacons to the apostles, and to the presidency of the
Church, with a view of persuading men and women to keep themselves pure
and unspotted from the world and to help them to be faithful to their
covenants entered into with one another and with their God.--_Apr. C.
R.,_ 1913, pp. 6, 7.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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