Tag Archives: Joseph Fielding Smith

New release: 1912 Young Women’s manual on “The Restoration of the Gospel”

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As the author Osborne Widtsoe (Elder John A. Widtsoe’s brother) wrote, “The following chapters on the subject of the Restoration are the outcome of an invitation to write, during the winter of 1910-11, a series of lessons for the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association.” The result, now available as a free e-book on Project Gutenberg, was originally published with a preface by then-Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, where he stated:

This book, prepared by Elder Osborne J. P. Widtsoe, dealing with the important subject of the restoration of the everlasting Gospel, should be read and its contents carefully considered by those who are seeking after truth. It treats the restoration clearly, and places before the people many things that have not been generally considered heretofore. It will be a means of strengthening the faith of the youth of Israel and will impart information that is invaluable. May the spirit of truth accompany the work and rest upon all those who diligently read it with a desire to learn of and profit by the restoration of the Gospel!

Thanks to Renah Holmes and Andy Hobbs for their work on this one.

Now releasing…all the pamphlets!

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Not quite all the pamphlets, but Scrap Book of Mormon Literature vol. 2, now on PG, contains an embarrassment of riches. It includes about 45 selections from authors including:

  • Brigham Young
  • Joseph Fielding Smith
  • Heber J. Grant
  • B. H. Roberts
  • Parley P. Pratt
  • George Q. Cannon
  • Orson Pratt
  • Orson Hyde
  • Orson F. Whitney

Obviously that’s a pretty good cross section from the first century of Church writing, thanks to mission president and compiler Ben E. Rich. He included materials originally published everywhere from the Liverpool to Japan.

And if you’re wondering…you didn’t miss the release of volume 1; it’s just still in progress. Stay tuned. Fortunately the volumes work independently of each other.

Triple New Release: B. H. Roberts and Joseph Fielding Smith (& Project Update!)

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Well folks, it’s been a while, but we’ve got some good stuff for you.

Releases

The second volume of B. H. Roberts’ Defense of the Faith and the Saints is now available on Project Gutenberg. (See also vol. 1 here.) These together constitute a scrapbook of Roberts’ writing compiled from various national publications.

Roberts’ Outlines of Ecclesiastical History has also been posted. This work discusses the ancient church, the apostasy, the reformation, and the restoration of the gospel, while explicitly aiming to teach the principles of the gospel in the same treatment.

Finally, Salvation Universal, a pamphlet on salvation for the dead by Joseph Fielding Smith, is up. Remarkably, Smith, who was President of the Church 1970-1972, published this work in 1920 and had already been an Apostle for 10 years at that time.

Project Update

With that, a word of explanation is in order for the recent lag in releases. Since taking over the Mormon Texts Project, I have been blessed in many ways, including with a son, a house, admission to a part-time MBA program, a call to serve as ward clerk, and so on. Naturally, my time available for MTP is not what it once was. With this in mind, I’ve been cutting back on new project starts and focusing on completing our existing backlog of ~25 in-progress books.

I’m trying to prioritize completion of the backlog in a way that respects volunteers’ work (in some cases at the expense of our research assistants’ work and secondary intern projects), but if you’re wondering where your book you once worked on ended up, get in touch and I’ll see what I can do to hurry it along.

At this point, the project’s proofreading needs center on those few brave souls who are willing to tackle lengthier works and be extremely patient about final posting schedules. My greatest need is actually for help with post-production tasks (currently a bottleneck) including HTML generation and mildly technical text quality checks, so anyone skilled in such things is invited to get in touch.

In sum, don’t expect a terrific pace of new releases in 2017, but we do hope to keep pecking away at the backlog every so often.

Joseph Fielding Smith New Release Double Feature

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That’s right, two new releases: Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage, and Origin of the “Reorganized” Church and the Question of Succession. Both are pamphlets by a young Joseph Fielding Smith related to controversies with the Reorganized Church.

The first (what a title–maybe that’s why it gets so many downloads…) was a pamphlet coming in at just under 100 pages, in which there is given:

Correspondence between ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, (JR.,) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and MR. RICHARD C. EVANS, second counselor (1905) in the Presidency of the “Reorganized” Church. A conclusive refutation of the false charges persistently made by ministers of the “Reorganized” Church against the Latter-day Saints and their belief. Also a supplement containing a number of affidavits and other matters bearing on the subjects.

The second pamphlet, of a little more than 100 pages, was prompted by “Reorganite” missionary efforts in Utah. It discusses succession and the Reorganized Church as follows:

Part one of this book contains the discourse delivered in Ogden on the “Origin of the ‘Reorganized’ Church;” part two contains the discourse on the “Succession in the Presidency,” and part three deals with the most prominent differences existing between the Church and the “Reorganization,” wherein they accuse us of departing from the doctrines of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This matter in part three is added by request of a number of parties who have had to meet the sophistry of the Reorganite missionaries.

We may post some more discussion of  these later, but I’ve held their release up far too long already. Both were proofread and produced by Tyler Garrett, one of our BYU interns. Our thanks to him!

New PG Release: “Essentials in Church History” by Joseph Fielding Smith

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Now available for the first time on Project Gutenberg, Essentials in Church History was described as follows in the 1922 Deseret Book catalog:

Essentials in Church History
By JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
Of the Council of the Twelve and Church Historian

A History of the Church from the birth of the Prophet to the present time, in ONE LARGE VOLUME of 700 pages, suitably illustrated with portraits of the leaders, early scenes and documents of historical value, and original maps, showing the travels of the Church from its organization to its establishment in the mountains; also the route of the famous Mormon Battalion to the Pacific Coast.

In addition to the material rise and progress of the Church, this interesting work treats upon essentials in doctrine, Priesthood, Authority; the development of the leading teachings in this dispensation, temple work, etc.

This book is adopted as a text for the study of the Melchizedek Priesthood and for the Priests in the Aaronic Priesthood.

Containing, as it does, so much of interest and value in one volume, it should be found in every home of the Latter-day Saints, and in every Church and Public Library.

It is well printed and handsomely bound in cloth at $1.50

Thanks to Keepapitchinin for making said catalog available–since it’s from 1922, everything in it is in the public domain, and I expect to mine it for stuff to work on. (If anything in it strikes you as interesting, comment and let us know.)

For anyone who’s keeping score, Essentials was previously released on the old MTP site but only recently on Project Gutenberg. Expect B. H. Roberts’ The Life of John Taylor, an all-new release, to come out in about a week.