B. H. Roberts was a prolific and influential writer and speaker in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the turn of the 20th century. He’s been called the Church’s most eminent intellectual,[1] its best officially accepted theologian,[2] one of our most important historians,[3] and possibly the most prolific and most effective defender of the Church.[4] He wrote at a furious pace throughout his adult life, publishing 35 books, over 300 articles, and scores of manuals, pamphlets, tracts, and sermons, becoming, in the words of biographer Truman G. Madsen, “the most prolific interpreter of Mormonism’s first century.”[5] This article provides Elder Roberts quotes about topics such as scriptures, salvation, and the Church’s history.
Learn more about B. H. Roberts in the biography In the Public Arena.
Table of Contents
- Atonement
- God
- The Church
- History
- Holy Ghost
- Joseph Smith
- Learning
- Music
- Prayer
- Plan of Salvation
- Premortal Existence
- Repentance
- Scriptures
- Service
Atonement of Jesus Christ
Among men we sometimes see this willingness to suffer for others. Men there are who would lay down their lives for their friends. In the times when imprisonment for debt was customary in England, we often meet instances where out of pure love and kindness towards his fellows, a man under no obligation whatever to do so, has paid the debts of the unfortunate, satisfied the demands of the law, and set the captive free. It is related of Lord Byron that when he was a lad attending school, a companion of his fell under the displeasure of a cruel, overbearing bully, who unmercifully beat him. Byron happened to be present, but knowing the uselessness of undertaking a fight with the bully, he stepped up to him and asked him how much longer he intended to beat his friend. “What’s that to you?” gruffly demanded the bully.
“Because,” replied young Byron, the tears standing in his eyes, “I will take the rest of the beating if you will let him go.”
That partakes to some extent, at least enough so for illustration, of the spirit by which the Son of God was actuated when he offered himself a ransom for mankind, to redeem them from the power and dominion of death, from which they were powerless to free themselves.
The Gospel: An Exposition of its first principles; and Man’s Relationship to Deity, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1901), 23-24.
God
We first say that God is represented as being in human form, and then to get the exact truth say: “Or, rather, man was created in the image and likeness of God.”
The Seventy’s Course in Theology, 5 vol. (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1907-1912), 2:192.
This is the world’s mystery revealed. This is God manifested in the flesh. This is the Son of God, who comes to reveal the Father, for he is the express image and likeness of that Father’s person, and the reflection of that Father’s mind. Henceforth when men shall say. Show us the Father, he shall point to himself as the complete revelation of the Father, and say, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also.” Henceforth, when men shall dispute about the “being” and “nature” of God, it shall be a perfect answer to uphold Jesus Christ as the complete, perfect revelation and manifestation of God, and through all the ages it shall be so; there shall be no excuse for men saying they know not God, for all may know him, from the least to the greatest, so tangible, so real a revelation has God given of himself in the person and character of Jesus Christ.
The Seventy’s Course in Theology, 5 vol. (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1907-1912), 2:119.
Whatever… quality that is ascribed to God, must be in harmony with what Jesus Christ is.
The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: the Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1903), 119.
Our lives through the gospel may be made to touch the life of God, and by touching the life of God partake somewhat of His qualities.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1905, 45.
The man who so walks in the light and wisdom and power of God, will at the last, by the very force of association, make the light and wisdom and power of God his own—weaving those bright rays into a chain divine, linking himself forever to God and God to him. This the sum of Messiah’s mystic words, “Thou, Father, in me, and I in thee”—beyond this human greatness cannot achieve.
“Brigham Young: A Character Sketch,” Improvement Era, June 1903, 574.
The Church
As I understand the Church of Christ its mission is two-fold: first, it is to proclaim the truth; second, it is to perfect those who receive the truth. I think these two things cover, in a general way, the entire mission of the Church.
Report of the Semi-annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), October 1903, 75.
When the king of England dies, a herald is sent out to make the announcement, which he does in this form: “The King is dead. Long live the King.” No sooner is the announcement made that the king is dead than it is followed by the other sentence, Long live the king. It is an announcement which means that though the king has just died, yet England has not been an instant without a ruler. In one breath the passing of one monarch is made known, and the all hail given to his immediate successor. That is the theory of the British constitution, that while kings may come and go, the British sovereign always is, and there is no lapse in succession to the throne.
In some such way that is true of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also. From the time it was organized by divine appointment of God there has never been a moment when there has not been a President of the Church of Jesus Christ in the earth. And although presidents may come and go in the future, my faith is that there will never be a time when there is not an immediate successor in the presidency. The constitution of the Church makes this provision.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), June 1919, 20-21.
[Although] the Lord has opened the heavens and has given a new dispensation of the Gospel, it does not follow that His servants or His people are to be contentious; that they are to make war upon other people for holding different views respecting religion.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1906, 14.
While there was this universal apostasy, while the Church of Christ as an organization was destroyed, and replaced by the churches of men, yet just as when the sun goes down, there still remains light in the sky— so, too, notwithstanding this apostasy from the Church, there still were left fragments of truth among the children of men, and some measure of truth thank God, through his mercy, has always remained with man, not only with Christians but with all God’s children. He has not left himself in any of the ages of the world without his witnesses, and he has sanctified all generations of men with some measure of the truth; therefore, when we proclaim this apostasy from the Christian religion and the destruction of the Church of Christ, it does not follow that we hold that all truth, that all virtue, had departed from the world, or that God had absolutely withdrawn from his creation. Not so. The light of truth burned in the bosom of good men.
Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 2:303-304.
This is the “Mormon” theory of God’s revelation to the children of men. While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is established for the instruction of men; and is one of God’s instrumentalities for making known the truth, yet he is not limited to that institution for such purposes, neither in time nor place. God raises up wise men and prophets here and there among all the children of men, of their own tongue and nationality, speaking to them through means that they can comprehend; not always giving a fulness of truth such as may be found in the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but always giving that measure of truth that the people are prepared to receive. “Mormonism” holds, then, that all the great teachers among all nations and in all ages, are servants of God.
Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 1:512-513.
While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is given a prominent part in this great drama of the last days, it is not the only force nor the only means that the Lord has employed to bring to pass those things of which His prophets in ancient times have testified.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1902, 14.
History
God has given us a system of truth that constitutes the Gospel of Jesus Christ—to my mind this Gospel is invulnerable; it is perfect, and unassailable with truth and reason. To defend it is a joy, and always a success. But our history—which is but another name for our conduct—is not always defensible at all points.
Report of the Semi-annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), October 1909, 103.
I think it a reasonable conclusion to say that constant, never-varying inspiration is not a factor in the administration of the affairs of the Church; not even good men, no, not even though they be prophets or other high officials of the Church, are at all times and in all things inspired of God. It is only occasionally, and at need, that God comes to their aid.
That there have been unwise things done in the Church by good men, men susceptible at times to the inspiration of the Spirit of God, we may not question. Many instances in the history of the Church, through three quarters of a century, prove it, and it would be a solecism to say that God was the author of those unwise, not to say positively foolish, things that have been done. For these things men must stand responsible, not God.
It is well nigh as dangerous to claim too much for the inspiration of God, in the affairs of men, as it is to claim too little. By the first, men are led into superstition, and into blasphemously accrediting their own imperfect actions, their blunders, and possibly even their sins, to God; and by the second, they are apt to altogether eliminate the influence of God from human affairs; I pause in doubt as to which conclusion would be the worse.
“Relation of Inspiration and Revelation to Church Government,” Improvement Era 8 (March 1905): 367-369.
I want to warn members of the Church against speaking lightly or slightingly of sacred things, or of the servants of God. In nothing, perhaps, can you more offend God or grieve his Spirit. Have nothing to do, I pray you, with “smart” quips against the truth, however respectable their origin, or however popular or catchy their phraseology. I pray you give them no lodgement in your hearts. Remember, we live under the law of God.—Speak no evil of mine anointed; do my prophets no harm. And remember always that whatever the weakness and the imperfections of men may be, whatever weaknesses they may have manifested before the Church in the past, or may manifest before it in the future (for the end is not yet), their weaknesses and imperfections affect not the truth that God has revealed. The Lord will vindicate his truth, and at the last it will be found that,
‘Tis no avail to bargain, sneer, and nod,
And shrug the shoulder for reply to God.Remember also that ridicule is not argument; that a sneer, though it may not be susceptible of an answer, is no refutation of the truth; that though profane ribaldry may provoke a passing merriment, the profaner’s “laugh is a poor exchange for Deity offended.” I therefore admonish you, as a friend and brother, to stand aloof from all these things. Hold as sacred the truths of God; and hold in highest esteem, as indeed you may, those whom God has appointed to be his prophets, apostles and servants.
Improvement Era, March 1905, 370.
I am willing that this tree of Mormonism should be judged by its fruits absolutely, and let it stand or fall by that test. But, what I do object to is the course so often pursued by our critics. That course is as if one should go into an orchard of twenty or fifty acres of fruit-bearing trees, and should seek out and find here and there—as one may, even in the best of orchards—the wind-beaten, blasted, mildewed, dwarfed, or shrunken fruit, and carefully raking this together, represent that as the fruit of the orchard! Whereas the facts are that there are scores of tons of beautiful, ripe and perfect fruit that is a credit to the orchard and to the husbandman of it. Yet all that is passed by, and you are asked to judge the orchard by the blasted specimens that have been raked together.
So in this work called Mormonism. Let our critics take into account the rich harvest of righteous souls that this system has produced; and the present upright and honorable men and women of our system, and judge not the people by those who have failed to reach the high ideals that Mormon-ism holds up as the goal of moral and spiritual achievement, and who fail because they depart from our principles and the practices they enjoin.
Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 2:444-445.
Holy Ghost
After water baptism comes the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Knowing our human weakness, knowing human inability to live unassisted upon the high moral plane projected in the ethical teachings of the gospel, God brings to our poor, human weakness the strength of God by imparting the Holy Spirit, which is the link that shall hold us to God, the medium of communication between our souls and soul of God; making, at need, God’s strength our strength, his wisdom, as we may bear it, our wisdom, and his righteousness our righteousness.
Deseret Semi-Weekly News, 13 October 1910, p. 8.
Salvation is a matter of character-building under the Gospel laws and ordinances, and more especially with the direct aid of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel: An Exposition of its first principles; and Man’s Relationship to Deity, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1901), 208.
To be known, the truth must be stated and the clearer and more complete the statement is, the better the opportunity will the Holy Spirit have for testifying to the souls of men that the work is true.
New Witnesses for God, 3 vol. (Vol. 1: Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895. Vol. 2 & 3: Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1903-1908), 2:vii.
The means by which revelation may be communicated to the church or to man are varied. Revelation may be given by direct communication with God, as in the case when the Lord walked with Enoch, or talked face to face with Moses, as a man speaks to his friend. Or it may be by the ministrations of angels, of which we have numerous instances, both in the Old and New Testaments; but more generally the communication of God’s will to man is through the medium of the Holy Ghost.
New Witnesses for God, 3 vol. (Vol. 1: Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895. Vol. 2 & 3: Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1903-1908), 1:152.
Joseph Smith
[Joseph Smith] lived his life, as I have said elsewhere, in crescendo, it grew in intensity and volume as he approached its close. Higher and still higher the inspiration of God directed his thoughts; bolder were his conceptions and clearer his expositions of them. So far was he from being a “fallen prophet” in the closing months of his career, as apostates charged, that he grew stronger with each passing day; more impressive in weight of personal character, and charm of manner; for he was preserved amid all the conflicts and trials through which he passed—until the shadows of impending death began to fall upon him in Carthage prison—the natural sweetness of his nature, and the intellectual playfulness characteristic of him from boyhood.
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vol. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1902 – 1932), 6:xlii.
Great as we believe the Prophet Joseph Smith to have been, and he was great … but as between him and the Christ, as the mountains rise above the foothills so, too, does the Christ rise above him, and all men, all angels, all teachers, all prophets. To him, and not to any man or set of men, do we pay divine honor.
“Roberts in Defense of His Faith,” Ogden Evening Standard, 1910-09-19, p.4.
Learning
It is a good thing, occasionally, to recur to first principles, as a means of keeping in view the whole system for which we stand.
Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 2:492.
Faith is trust in what the spirit learned eons ago.
B. H. Roberts, “Scriptural Notebook,” BYU Special Collections under “F”.
God sets no premium upon mental and spiritual laziness.
New Witnesses for God, 3 vol. (Vol. 1: Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895. Vol. 2 & 3: Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1903-1908), 2:111.
Music
A Mozart, a Beethoven, or a Handel, may … call out from the silence those melodies and the richer harmonies that lift the soul out of its present narrow prison house and give it fellowship for a season with the Gods.
The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: the Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1903), 33-34.
Let us learn to sing Mormonism as well as to preach it.
The Seventy’s Course in Theology, 5 vol. (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1907-1912), 1:viii-ix.
Prayer
Prayer is not a mechanical function. One may not always pray when one chooses. Something more than words is needed. Prayer is soul of man communing with soul of God—the infinite of man reaching upward to touch the infinite of God. God must be a party to the blending of souls, else there is not prayer.
A comment on Newell Knight’s attempt to pray, HC 1:83. Cited in Truman G. Madsen, Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 354. I
Plan of Salvation
The purpose of God in the earth life of man—man’s eternal progression, and in that, and growing out of it, man’s everlasting joy.
The Truth, the Way, the Life, an Elementary Treatise on Theology: The Masterwork of B. H. Roberts, edited and annotated by Stan Larson (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994), 264.
It is idle today to ask men to be satisfied with the old sectarian notions of man’s future life, where at best he is to be but one of a minstrelsy twanging harps and singing to the glory of an incorporeal, bodiless, passionless, immaterial incomprehensible God. Such a conception of existence no longer satisfies the longings of the intelligent or spiritual-minded man. Growth, enlargement, expansion for his whole nature, as he recognizes that nature in its intellectual, moral, spiritual and social demands, are what his soul calls for.
The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: the Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1903), 35-36.
I think it must be evident to all who have looked upon the dead, that man is a dual being. Who that has stood by the bier of a friend, a parent, child or wife, and looked upon the lifeless form stretched upon it, but has felt that the being he loved has departed, that he is looking upon the casket merely that contained the jewel —the spirit.
The Gospel: An Exposition of its first principles; and Man’s Relationship to Deity, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1901), 284-285.
What is progression? Overcoming difficulties. Those who have the most difficulties, disappointments, sicknesses, etc., develop the greatest souls.
Cited in Truman G. Madsen, Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 35.
This work that can be done for the dead enlarges one’s views of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One begins to see indeed that it is the “everlasting gospel;” for it runs parallel with man’s existence both in this life and in that which is to come. It vindicates the character of God, for by it we may see that justice and judgment, truth and mercy are in all his ways.
New Witnesses for God, 3 vol. (Vol. 1: Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895. Vol. 2 & 3: Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1903-1908), 1:380.
Premortal Existence
Man is not so much lime, phosphate, and other gross materials, but man is spirit; and was, like Jesus, in the beginning with the Father.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1904, 18.
The effect of these two doctrines, the recognition of the spirit of man as an eternal being, and his being a free moral agent, is tremendous in accounting for things. Elsewhere, contrasting this view of things with some modern Christian views, I have said: “As matters now stand, the usually accepted Christian doctrine on the matter of man’s origin is that God of His free-will created men. That they are as He would have them, since in His act of creation He could have had them different if He had so minded. Then why should He—being infinitely wise and infinitely powerful, and infinitely good—for so the creeds represent Him—why should He create by mere act of volition, beings such as men are, not only capable of, but prone to, moral Evil? Which, in the last analysis of things, in spite of all special pleadings to the contrary, leaves responsibility for moral Evil with God?” …
On the other hand, under the conception of the existence of independent, uncreated, self-existent Intelligences… Under this conception of things, how stand matters? Why, ever present through all changes, through all the processes of betterment, is the self-existent entity of the “Intelligence” with the tremendous fact of his consciousness and his moral freedom, and his indestructibility—he has his choice of moving upward or downward in every estate he occupies. …
This conception of things relieves God of the responsibility for the nature and status of intelligences in all stages of their development; their inherent nature and their volition makes them primarily what they are, and this nature they may change, slowly, perhaps, yet change it they may. God has put them in the way of changing it, by enlarging their intelligence through change of environment, through experiences; the only way God effects these self-existent beings is favorably; He creates not their inherent nature; He is not responsible for the use they make of their freedom; nor is He the author of their sufferings when they fall into sin: that arises out of the violations of law, to which the “Intelligence” subscribed, and must be endured until the lessons of obedience to law are learned.
Joseph Smith the Prophet Teacher: A Discourse by Elder B. H. Roberts (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1908), 57-60.
There is a wonderful amount of information that runs side by side with this doctrine of the pre-existence of man’s spirit. There is a world of knowledge unfolded when this principle is recognized. I can now understand how it is that sometimes, in spite of all adverse circumstances, there are spirits that rise from the lowliest and most unfavorable conditions to grandeur and nobility of heart and head. …
I believe that character primarily is based upon the nature of the spirit, the extent of its development, the amount of growth it had before it tabernacled in the flesh; and that parentage, instead of creating character, can only modify it; that instead of environment creating character, it can only modify it. Hence, you sometimes see this strange thing, that in spite of vicious parentage, in spite of unfavorable environment, you see a character rising to its own native heights of nobility and grandeur, purely because the spirit before it came here had stamped upon it God’s own nobility, and no amount of influence coming from vicious parentage or from unfavorable environment could altogether crush out the native nobility of that spirit; but it sprung upward, took its place in the earth, and became a benefactor to the children of men.
“What is Man?” Discourse Delivered by Elder B. H. Roberts in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, January 27th, 1895. Deseret Evening News 1895-03-09, p. 9.
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Repentance
Repentance . . . consists not alone in deep and heartfelt sorrow for sin, but coupled with it must be a firm determination of amendment of conduct. It must be a godly sorrow working a reformation of life.
Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2 vol. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 1907- 1912), 1:15-16.
Repentance is chiefly beneficial to the person who practices it. The commandment from God to repent—always given in connection with the declaration of the Gospel—is really nothing more than an invitation to do one’s self a kindness. It can only be an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
The Gospel: An Exposition of its first principles; and Man’s Relationship to Deity, 3rd ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1901), 131.
Scriptures
“I can no more remember the books I have read than the meals I have eaten,” said Emerson, “but they have made me.” In this way the American philosopher recognizes the simple truth that the reading of books has something to do with the making of a man—that they affect the mind. …
“Do you ever think,” said a writer in one of our popular magazines—”Do you ever think what is the effect of a book on your mind? . . . Is your mind purer for it, or clearer? Has it filled your mind with good or bad images? Has it raised your standard or lowered it? . . . Every book you read and understand affects you for better or worse. It has some effect upon you, and if you are sane you are bound to find out what that is.”
In common with all books the Book of Mormon has its spirit, produces its effects upon the minds of men; and as it claims to be a work originally written and also translated through the inspiration of God, and deals primarily with sacred things, it is to be expected that the spirit of this book will have not only a good, but even a divine influence; that it will be of a faith-promoting, doubt-dispersing, comfort-bringing character. Its effects upon the minds of men, therefore, may be another test of its claims to a divine origin; and to that test I now submit it.
New Witnesses for God, 3 vol. (Vol. 1: Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon and Sons, 1895. Vol. 2 & 3: Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1903-1908), 3:324-325.
We seldom hear the Doctrine and Covenants spoken of as a volume of scripture and important as a help in convincing the world of the truth of our message. Perhaps I can present the thought I hold in my mind upon that subject by relating a circumstance that happened very many years ago in the Southern States. On one of the branch streams of the Tennessee river in one of our conference districts, there lived a woman of some considerable local fame, I may say, noted for her strong character, her intelligence and her religious sincerity. It so happened that she invited us to her home on one of our visits to induce her to read the Book of Mormon and to pay attention to the doctrines we had explained. Several of the local ministers who rather depended upon her as something of a pillar in one of their churches, heard with alarm the fact that she was reading the Book of Mormon, and called upon her to persuade her to give up her perusal of it; and gave her the stereotyped idea used by opponents of the book at that time, and brought to her pamphlets and articles from periodicals to show that the Book of Mormon was fiction and originated in the Spaulding Romance. They urged her to read this testimony against the book, and she promised them she would do so.
In the course of a week or two they returned to her to inquire the progress she was making, and she answered them in substance in this way: “I am somewhat confused in relation to this Book of Mormon. The Mormon elders tell one story of its origin and you tell another, and I must confess I am somewhat perplexed about it; but,” said she, “here is another book that the Mormon elders have presented to me and which I have read. They call it the Doctrine and Covenants. It purports to contain a number of revelations to Joseph Smith which he is said to have received. It is nearly equal in volume to the Book of Mormon, and there is no question at all in relation to the authorship of this book. None of you questions, that Joseph Smith wrote it. He is the author of it, and claims everything in it to be inspired of God; and I wish to state to you,” said she, “that this book,—the revelations that are in it—contains as much evidence, and even more evidence, that the man who produced it was inspired of God than does the Book of Mormon that it was written by inspiration. Now what have you to say to that, and how will you explain away that?”
Of course they had no explanation. The Book of Doctrine and Covenants stands unquestioned as to its authorship, and I wish to express a belief that there is evidence of inspiration in it equal to that of the Book of Mormon.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1929, 118-119.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds in its hands, and is commissioned to use these other holy scriptures brought forth in this chosen land, speaking from the dust of “Cumorah’s lonely hill,” for the sleeping nations of the American Continent: and the living word of God in this age, as contained in the revelations found in the Doctrine and Covenants and in the Pearl of Great Price, brought forth by the Prophet Joseph Smith, are here to correct the errors of those who would throw out of the reckoning the word of God as found in the record of the “Twelve Apostles of the Lamb,” the New Testament; they are here to affirm, with all the strength that comes from these volumes of witnesses,—this cloud of witnesses—that Jesus is indeed the Christ; that he is the Creator, not only of our own world, but of many worlds.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1924, 77-80.
Service
About the only way in which men can effectively express their love for God is through service to the children of God, to men.
Report of the Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, multiple years), April 1914, 101.
Further Reading
- Joseph Smith
- B. H. Roberts and Politics
- Bruce R. McConkie Quotes
- Dallin H. Oaks Quotes
- Russell M. Nelson Quotes
B. H. Roberts Resources
- Works by or about B. H. Roberts (Internet Archive)
- Introduction to History’s Apprentice: The Diaries of B. H. Roberts (Signature Books)
- B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena (Signature Books)
- Inheriting the “Great Apostasy”: The Evolution of Latter-day Saint Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (FARMS)
- Seer Stones and Grammar: B. H. Roberts on translation (Times and Seasons)
- B. H. Roberts on a Non-Mormon Topic: An Exercise in Historiography (BYU Studies Quarterly)
[1] See Stan Larson, “Intellectuals in Mormon History: An Update,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26 (Fall 1993): 187-189.
[2] See Blake T. Ostler, “An Interview with Sterling McMurrin,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17 (Spring 1984): 38.
[3] See Craig Mikkelsen, “The Politics of B. H. Roberts,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 9, no. 2 (), 26.
[4] See McKay V. Jones, “Evasive Ignorance: Anti-Mormon Claims that B. H. Roberts Lost His Testimony,” FAIR,___
[5] Truman G. Madsen, Defender of the Faith: The B.H. Roberts Story (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), xi.
One reply on “B. H. Roberts Quotes”
For me personally, the Big Five – in terms of intellect – are Orson Pratt, B. H. Roberts, James E. Talmage, John A. Widtsoe, and Lowell Bennion. Each brought a different dish to the table and for that I feel truly indebted.