Talked Big Things

"Talked Big Things"

"Talked Big Things"
Mormon History Related

"These are surely some of the days which our faithful and farsighted ancestors saw in the earliest years of the Restoration. In a general conference of the Church in April 1844, the brethren recalled those first gatherings of 1830. One of them said: 'We [talked] about the kingdom of God as if we had the world at our command; we talked with great confidence, and talked big things, although we were not many [in number]; . . . we looked [and] if we did not see this [congregation], we saw by vision, the church of God, a thousand times larger [than it was then], although [at the time] we were not enough to well man a farm, or meet a woman with a milk pail. . . . All the members [of the Church] met in conference, in a room 20 feet square. . . . We talked about . . . people coming as doves to the windows, that all nations should flock unto [the Church]. . . . If we had told the people what our eyes behold this day, we should not [have been] believed' (Times and Seasons, 1 May 1844, 522-23). "If this was their feeling in that fateful year of 1844, just prior to Joseph Smith's martyrdom, what must those same brethren and sisters see from their eternal home on a day like this! So much has happened since then for which they and we need to be grateful. And, of course, this is not the end. We have much work yet to do, in both the quality and quantity of our faithfulness and our service. George A. Smith, counselor in the First Presidency to President Brigham Young, once said by way of caution, 'We may build temples, erect stately domes, magnificent spires [and] grand towers, in honor of our religion, but if we fail to live the principles of that religion . . . , and to acknowledge God in all our thoughts, we shall fall short of the blessings which its practical exercise would ensure' (Deseret News Weekly, 17 July 1872, 348). We must be humble and conscientious. The honor and the glory of all that is good goes to God, and there is much still ahead of us that will be refining, even difficult, as He leads us from strength to strength."

Jeffrey R. Holland, "As Doves to Our Windows," Ensign, May 2000, 75

Topics: Proclaim the Gospel