October 11, 1872 — Senior and Junior Retrenchment Association, Fourteenth Ward Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory

Saints of God can be edified by nothing but the Spirit of God. We have attained to an elevation so high above the ordinary walks of life that nothing but the revelations of heaven would edify the Saints, their aspirations being so much higher. I was pleased with a remark in the minutes made by a sister saying it is uphill business.11 It is uphill, and if you continue you will attain to something much higher than those who go downhill. How much more satisfying to you it will be if we can look back upon our preceding years, having done what God required of us to do. They who are opposed to the course the young ladies are pursuing may seem to enjoy themselves for a while, but they do not know what it is to taste true happiness. It is but the gratification of the lower faculties of the mind; the higher emotions emanate from God. I am interested in my young sisters; they have taken a course that will elevate, prepare, and purify them for the presence of Goddesses in eternity.

This life is full of trouble. Then why should we concentrate our all in that which is fading and will pass away? My young sisters, do not grow cold, but be active in preparing yourselves to be of some use in the kingdom of God. Some seem to think they live for nothing but self-gratification. Our religion is not a fable; it is a reality. And if we live it so as to have the Spirit of God in our hearts, no matter what we are called to pass through, God is with us to comfort and strengthen us. I sometimes think we have all got to look upward, but it seems natural for women to lean sideways. That is not sufficient. My young sisters who meet together and have the Spirit of God in their hearts have a foretaste of eternal happiness.

Human knowledge can never impart the spirit and intelligence they possess.12 We may talk with some for a generation and yet cannot by words enlighten their understanding. If we have influence with God to penetrate their hearts, it shows them the difference between the things of God and the things of the world. It is necessary for the young to meet together and exercise in religion; it is just as much use to them as to any. We should consider ourselves immortal beings and live for immortality. We should improve every opportunity of treasuring up knowledge and everything that will have a tendency to enlighten our understanding and make us useful, but not for aggrandizing ourselves. We should live for others; in doing so we benefit ourselves. The person that does the most good is the happiest. I was blessed when a child in realizing the advantage and superiority of doing good to being useless. I devoted my early life to studying. How it makes my heart ache over the waste of time and physical energies of some of the young by devoting themselves to amusement instead of study.13 Not that I would discard amusement, but do not make a business of it. It then ceases to be a diversion.

I was very much pleased with the conference. In speaking of the people living so far beneath their privileges, President Young has said at three different times, “Yet out from this people the Lord will call a people that will do his will.” I have wondered how, when, and to whom is this call to be made. In his remarks one day during conference, President Young spoke of establishing a colony composed of those who had sufficient confidence in each other to bind themselves in an indissoluble band.14 Those that cannot see the order of Enoch will think it an excitement caused by the brethren. It rejoices my heart to see that God is working in our midst, and who are prepared to enter in? Those who have abided the whole law. When we all come to examine ourselves, we shall find the weaknesses of the flesh.

I am thankful to God that I am associated with good sisters. Know that many of them are thinking of something besides human grandeur and mortal wealth; know that you love and are seeking after things of God. Let us do it with our whole hearts. I suggest that we bring forward subjects that will improve and benefit us as daughters of the Most High. Let those things that are foreign to us be let alone. I would not have you think that spiritual exercises are going to perfect us. They alone will not do it. We come together to get our energies aroused to assist us in the duties of life. It is a difficult thing for mortals to take an even course, to devote to each duty that portion of time which belongs to it.

We want to study, reflect, pray, speak, sing, attend meetings, partake of the sacrament, seek out the poor and the needy and those who are losing the light of eternity from their bosoms. I do not believe in taking the course the sectarian world is pursuing, that is, looking after the heathen and neglecting their duties at home.15 Do not leave those that are nearby to reach after those that are far from us. Our labors for the advancement of the kingdom of God will not be lost; they are sure to meet with their reward. We may labor for other things, and they will perish as the grass. I would exhort the aged to use their influence with the young in trying to get them interested in educational matters. We want to be good housewives. Our young ladies should learn trades and get all the book knowledge that they can. But the perfect knowledge of domestic duties lays the foundation of a thoroughly accomplished lady. This constitutes a foundation upon which you may heap a great many of the finer accomplishments, and she will not become top heavy. But the ornaments are of no use if we are deficient in the other acquirements. To become queens and priestesses we must be business women.16 We are laying the foundation of the kingdom of God, and it is our duty to mold the character of this generation. We do not want to be ignorant in regard to the principles of the gospel or any department of education which elevates us for the field of action. We expect heaven to be of a higher and more perfect order and free from the weaknesses and impurity of the flesh.

Source: Senior and Junior Cooperative Retrenchment Association, Minutes, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, looseleaf, 1871–1874, Oct. 11, 1872, 42nd Meeting, [2–5],Copyright 2023 by Sonia Pressman Fuentes. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Also: At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women, eds. Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2017), pp. 56-59.