Taken from the First Lecture on Faith
delivered at the School of the Prophets at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835
1. Faith is the assurance we have of the existence of things that we have not seen and the principle of action in all intelligent beings.
2. If we were duly to consider ourselves and turn our thoughts and reflections to the operations of our own minds, we would readily discover that it is faith, and faith only, that is the moving cause of all our actions; that without faith, we would be in a state of inactivity, and all of our exertions would cease, both physical and mental.
3. Were we to go back and reflect upon the history of our lives, from the period of our first recollection, and ask ourselves what motivated us to act in all our lawful avocations, callings, and pursuits, what would be the answer? Would it not be that it was the assurance we had of the existence of things that we had not yet seen? Was it not the hope that we had, in consequence of our belief in the existence of unseen things, that motivated us to act in order to obtain them?
4. Are we not dependent on our faith, or belief, for the acquisition of all knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence? Would we exert ourselves to obtain wisdom and intelligence unless we believed that we could obtain them?
5. Would we have ever sown if we had not believed that we would reap? Would we have ever planted if we did not believe that we would gather? Would we have ever asked unless we had believed that we would receive? Would we have ever sought unless we had believed that we would have found? Or would we have ever knocked unless we had believed that it would have been opened unto us?
6. Is there anything that we would have done, physically or mentally, if we had not previously believed? Are not all our exertions, of every kind, dependent on our faith? What do we possess that we have not obtained by reason of our faith? Our food, our raiment, our lodgings – is it not true that we obtained them all by reason of our faith?
7. Faith is the moving cause of all action within ourselves and in all other intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth.
8. Just as faith is the moving cause of all action in temporal concerns, so it is the moving cause of action in all spiritual concerns.