Reading the Prophets in Context
By Davis Bitton

Those who have wished to have the teachings of the Latter-day prophets in their most convenient form have long had available to them compilations of statements arranged topically.  Do you want to know what President Brigham Young taught on the subject of agency?  Go to the volume compiled by Elder John A. Widtsoe, and you will find several good sentences and paragraphs.

The standard collections of the earliest presidents of the Church have been the following:

In addition to these volumes, Church presidents often published separate works.  Sometimes they are compilations of sermons, sometimes they include passages drawn from sermons, revised and rearranged, and sometimes they are entirely fresh works appearing first in printed form.   Here I wish to focus attention on compilations.

Teacher, is it permissible to ask a question?  I raise my hand timidly.  How did the compiler choose which statements to include and which to exclude?  Is it possible that other statements equally memorable still rest in the complete sermon, ignored by those who have available only the compilation of selected passages?

Let us look at a single example, a sermon delivered by Brigham Young on 6 October 1854 as published in Journal of Discourses, volume 2, in 1855.  As he speaks, the main subject on President Youngs mind is the Perpetual Emigrating Fund.  Emigrants who lacked sufficient means could borrow from it to pay their passage, but in so doing they agreed to pay back the loan promptly.  He now demands that those who owe pay up and pay up now or in the very near future.  From this long discourse the compiler of Discourses of Brigham Young selected the following three excerpts:

I like those statements, but they are hanging out in the wind, disconnected.   Reading them in the compilation, we have no way of knowing their connection to the problems of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund.

Following the first quotation, President Youngs complete sermon continues:

We hear the sense of the urgency.  Any idea that powerful Church leaders are trying to squeeze money from poor emigrants for their own benefit is dispelled.  And some sense of the extreme penury of many incoming Saints comes through.

Not all of the gathered Saints were angels.  Some apparently took advantage of the system.  Listen to this:

That is the statement that comes immediately before the second excerpt quoted above that was selected by the editor for printing.

Reading the complete sermon, I learn about some of the problems associated with the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, a magnificent idea that enabled thousands of poor people to emigrate.  But it did not operate like clockwork.

The third quotation above is a good statement about practical religion.  But why did not the editor include these words that preceded it?

You need to be instructed with regard to these items of every day duty one towards another.

That is Brother Brigham through and through.  Then, after the statement chosen for the compilation, we read:

We could do worse than take these words as our slogan when listening to the addresses given at general conference in our day.

Comparing selected excerpts with the complete sermon from which they are drawn is an instructive exercise.  Another is to have two or more people read through a sermon and select passages they would put in a compilation if they were performing that role.  Assign a limit to make it realistic: choose three quotations from this sermon, not to exceed so many words.  What do you think the chances are that the readers would choose the same words?

Human beings have long utilized books of quotations drawn from larger works.  I do not criticize compilations as such.  But I am calling attention to the nature of compiling, its basis in individual preference, and the resulting divorce of the chosen passages from the context that drew forth the remarks in the first place.

Of the making of compilations there is no end.  In 1957 Jerreld L. Newquist compiled Gospel Truth from the works of George Q. Cannon, which in turn has provided quotations for many general conference talks.  Having read all of the surviving sermons of George Q. Cannon, I raise the same questions just asked about Brigham Young. 

Why this selection and not that?  Why stop the quotation at this point?  Why not include more of the context?  Obviously a compiler makes many judgment calls, knowing that others would almost certainly choose differently.

There is the handy Of All Things: A Nibley Quote Book, compiled by Garry P. Gillum in 1981, containing many nuggets.  But it is sad to think of anyone using it who never reads the substantial works from which the quotations are drawn.

Now we have the compilations being used as lesson manuals in priesthood meeting and Relief Society.  Teachings of Presidents of the Church — this is the general title, with separate volumes on Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, David O. McKay, and Harold B. Lee.

Each of these volumes is the work of a committee.  How did they go about their task?  Did they start with the existing published compilations, the works listed above, and select passages from them?  How much additional research did they do?  Footnote references inform us that they utilized the work of previous compilers but also found additional quotations.

If there was a difference of opinion, how did the committee decide?   I assume they selected statements that, in their view, have application today, excluding items that might be confusing or that refer to long forgotten historical events.  Knowing some persons who labored on these committees, I am confident they went about their assignment conscientiously and prayerfully.

Think of it.  Throughout the world a beautiful process is going on of transforming people of different nationalities and languages into the Saints of God, making them one people.  Part of that process is our common worship (including hymns), part is the temple, and part the instruction that takes place in the home, the church auxiliaries, and seminary and institute.  But part also has to do with the basic library that rests on the shelf of Latter-day Saints in many lands, including the standard works and now Teachings of Presidents of the Church.  I rejoice at that thought.

Yet some readers are not being satisfied with snippets.  They want to read entire sermons.  That is exactly what we do as conference addresses are published twice each year in the Church magazines.

The Church News often publishes excerpts from President Gordon B. Hinckleys addresses to different congregations around the world.   How we enjoy those!  But snippets are no substitute for the complete sermon.  Happily, we can read President Hinckleys conference addresses as they appear in Church magazines and Conference Reports.  And a valuable work, Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, includes, not snippets, but complete talks he has given since becoming president of the Church in 1995. 

Two volumes have appeared.

Whether in the form of brief snippets, the more satisfying complete sermon, or a combination of the two, these are words of great importance to Latter-day Saints.  Why have living prophets if we pay no attention to what they say?  Let us make room for their words in our minds — even if we have to spend a little less time on frivolous entertainment and the evanescent news of the day.