Journal of Discourses
From MormonWiki.org
"The Journal of Discourses is a 26 volume compilation of LDS presidents and apostles sermons, covering about 35 years. There were several men who were officially assigned by the LDS Church to record the talks... It is inconsistent of the Mormons to question the accuracy of the Journal of Discourses while the LDS leaders continue to quote from it. They never follow their quote with a disclaimer about the accuracy of the account. This issue only comes up when someone outside of Mormonism quotes something from their leaders that they are embarrassed about. It is a double standard." [1]
This article is a stub. Please edit it to add information.
Contents |
Quotes
- "We live in a time when the Journal of Discourses is avoided as a source in LDS Church publications—the Deseret News being the preferred citation for nineteenth century sermons—and people squint suspiciously at the words of Young, Kimball and Grant (as a side note, the Church’s shorthand expert LaJean Carruth recently told me that the JoD is much more accurate than the DNews). As much as I prefer living in the modern Church, and as much as I believe many nineteenth-century sermons to not be appropriate for modern devotion, I believe we should neither forget nor disparage the Journal of Discourses." [2]
- "Not only was the JD published by the LDS Church (using both the Church's press and a commecial press in Liverpool, England), the discourses were nearly all previously published in the "doctrinal" section of either the Deseret Evening News or the Deseret Weekly News, on the Church's press in Salt Lake City. Not only that, but the texts of the discourses were sometimes shortened by the Church-appointed editors of the Deseret News, under either direct 1st Presidency supervision, or under apostolic supervision. In other words, when you read a Brigham Young General Conference Address in an old volume of the Deseret News, you know that Young approved the text, that his secretary, Elder Reynolds reviewed the text, and that editors like Elder Carrington double-checked the text, prior to publication in Utah and reprinting in the JD. If you are saying that Mormons, back in, say, 1865, could have walked up to BY during a Conference Talk, and told him that they refused to follow his instruction, as the Church's Living Prophet, you are simply wrong. Had you attempted to do that, you would have been put through a church court trial for disobedience to direct instruction from the Lord's Anointed. Now, 140 years later, Mormons seem to think that they can pick and choose which sentences from those discourses are the Word of God, and which are not. Isn't the determination of doctrine still an exclusive prerogative if the 1st Presidency? If instruction, advice, counsel, or inspired opinion of a former Living Prophet (or even of a high level GA) is to be overrulled, then doesn't that decision have to come from a higher level in the Church than a member who objects to which printing press was used to publish that communication (and in a foreign reprint edition, for heaven's sake!)" -Dale R. Broadhurst [3]
- "In having in your library the 26 volume of the 'Journal of Discourses', you have a library containing the sermons of the Presidents and Apostles of the Church. If anyone tells you that the sermons found therein are not recognized by the Church, they know not what they are talking about." (Axel J. Andresen, Assistant Manager for Deseret Book Company, Deseret Book Co. Letter, June 12, 1963) [4]
- “The Journal of Discourses deservedly ranks as one of the standard works of the Church, and every rightminded Saint will certainly welcome with joy every Number as it comes forth from the press as an additional reflector of ‘the light that shines from Zion’s hill.’ We rejoice, therefore, in being able to present to the Saints another completed Volume – the Eighth of the series; and, in doing so, we sincerely commend the varied and important instructions it contains to their earnest consideration” (President George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, Preface, vol.8).
- "I say now, when they are copied and approved by me they are as good scripture as is couched in this Bible..." -Brigham Young [Citation needed]
- "It is replete with good teachings and wise counsels, and it may be read with profit by all lovers of truth." (Albert Carrington, Journal of Discourses. Preface, Volume 17)
- "I'm sure many of you have looked at the Journal of Discourses, which is absolutely flabbergasting, but remember, the Journal of Discourses was sanitized. It had been cleaned up three times before it was published in Liverpool. First of all, it was cleaned up as the clerks were taking down the messages, the addresses. And it's fascinating because the clerks were all English-trained clerks, often trained in business or legal shops, and they'd go along, and sometimes you can actually see what Brigham Young's saying, and then they'll go back and correct the grammar and eliminate the vulgarities. Brigham Young spoke much more colorfully than even what appears in the Journal of Discourses." - Will Bagley[1]
- “We now present the Eighteenth Volume of the JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES to the Saints, and to all lovers of truth. We feel confident that the important instructions on principle and doctrine therein contained, relative to the building of Temples, the salvation of the dead, the introduction of the Order of Enoch, and the general progress and development of the great Latter-day Work, will prove interesting, gratifying and beneficial to the Saints and to posterity, as those that have been previously published through this medium. We regret that the circulation of the JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES is so limited. Its importance would warrant a thousand-fold greater extension of this work. We anticipate a time not distant in the future, when a copy of the present volume will be more precious than gold. It is even now impossible to obtain a complete series. Copies should therefore be carefully preserved by all subscribers” (Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Preface, vol.18).
- “THE Second Volume of the Journal of Discourses needs no recommendation to make it interesting to every Saint who loves to drink of the streams that flow from the fountain of Eternal Truth.” (Franklin D. Richards, Journal of Discourses, Preface, vol.2).
- “In all, the collected Journal of Discourses contains 1,438 speeches given by fifty-five people, including Presidents of the Church, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, members of the seventy, and sixteen other speakers. Brigham Young gave 390; John Taylor, 162; Orson Pratt, 127; Heber C. Kimball, 113; and George Q. Cannon, 111. Twenty-one people gave a single speech, and the rest gave from 2 to 66 speeches” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism 2:769).
- “Every Latter-day Saint should take this opportunity of owning the written words of remarkable teachings from the LDS pulpit. To the clear and vigorous exposition of Latter-day Saint doctrine is added the unmistakable authority of divine inspiration” (Advertisement for the Journal of Discourses in the Deseret News, 3/21/1963).
- "Follow the living prophet. I had a young man recently about forty years of age who got into the cultist program. He studied the Journal of Discourses until he nearly knew them by heart. I confess that he knew them infinitely better than I did. However, he was depending wholly upon himself and his own interpretation of the program and was moving farther and farther away from the truth. He said, 'I know more about the sermons of the brethren in the days of Joseph and Brigham and Heber C. than does the President of the Church, or any of the apostles, or any of the stake presidents or the bishops. Why should I go to them?' And, I tried to point out to him that we have revelation these days as well as in the days of Joseph and Brigham and Heber C., and that the present-day leaders have exactly the same communication system and that it operates and is in effect. He would not go to his pastors, apostles, and prophets but depended upon himself. This young man became bold enough to say that President McKay may be a good man but that he was a false prophet" (Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp.446-447).
Notes
External links
- The Journal of Discourses online - The complete (HTML format) text
- Journal of Discourses photocopied images (PDF format) online at BYU
Non-Mormon
- The Journal of Discourses — Mere Opinions or Eternal Truth?, by Bill McKeever
Mormon
- I’ve been reading the Journal of Discourses with a great deal of interest and pleasure, but I notice that they are not printed by the Church. Can you tell me how authoritative I should consider them to be?, by Gerald E. Jones, director, LDS Institute of Religion (Ensign)
- Journal of Discourses, by Ronald G. Watt
- Journal of Discourses, by Michael R. Ash
- Are Brigham Young's Sermons scripture?, by John Walsh
- What are we to think of the various presently-unorthodox doctrines taught by Brigham Young and others as recorded in the Journal of Discourses? (BYU's 100 Hour Board)
- The Journal of Discourses (LDS.org topical entry)