- Verses 1, 4, 5: Selected from Joseph Smith Jr.’s March 22nd, 1839 letter to Isaac Galland
- Verse 2: Selected from Joseph Smith Jr.’s June 5th, 1844 letter to Israel Daniel Rupp
- Verse 3: Selected from Joseph Smith Jr.’s May 6th, 1833 revelation
- Verses 6-7: Selected from Joseph Smith Jr.’s July 23rd, 1843 discourse
1. The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is that we believe that we have a right to embrace all and every item of truth – without limitation and without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men or by the dominations of one another – when that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the highest degree of evidence of the same.
2. By proving contraries, truth is made manifest.
3. Truth is a knowledge of things as they are, of things as they were, and of things as they shall be.
4. Mormonism is truth, and all who embrace it feel themselves at liberty to embrace every truth. Consequently, the shackles of superstition, bigotry, ignorance, and priestcraft fall at once from their necks, and their eyes are opened to see the truth, and truth greatly prevails over priestcraft.
5. One of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism is to receive truth – let it come from whence it may.
6. Have the Presbyterians any truth? Embrace that. Have the Baptists, Methodists, and so forth? Embrace that.
7. Embrace all the good in the world, and you will come out a pure Mormon.