Eliza R. Snow on Eternal Progression

Eliza R. Snow

We have been instructed that each one of us in our organizations is endowed with the germs of every faculty requisite to constitute a god or a goddess. These little ones in their mothers’ arms have the germs of all the capabilities which we exhibit, and what constitutes the difference between them and ourselves? Merely a lack of development in them, and this development requires cultivation, energy, and perseverance. The organization of the Female Relief Society places the sisters in positions to bring into exercise and thus develop all of our faculties: thus in doing good to others, we benefit ourselves… Let us try to realize our responsibilities and honor our position.

“Let Us Cultivate Ourselves,” Salt Lake City Seventeenth Ward Relief Society Minutes, page 148, Salt Lake City: Church History Library, 1869.02.18

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More from Eliza R. Snow

I had learned to call thee Father, Thru thy Spirit from on high, But, until the key of knowledge Was restored, I knew not why. In the heav’ns are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare! Truth is reason; truth eternal Tells me I’ve a mother there.

For a wise and glorious purpose Thou hast placed me here on earth And withheld the recollection Of my former friends and birth; Yet ofttimes a secret something Whispered, “You’re a stranger here,” And I felt that I had wandered From a more exalted sphere.

The time was when we thought that our husbands would save us, independent of our own exertions. Now we understand that instead of depending entirely on our husbands for salvation and position, we have to work them out ourselves. The responsibility and labor that devolve upon women are becoming more important. If society is reformed, it is to a great extent because women are refined.