Minute Book offers look into early days of Relief Society

“God is looking down upon you, the angels are recording your secret acts. … Let us pray daily, and try to become more refined and visionary and bring up our children to be polite and refined, that they may be useful monuments to society. Endeavor to make home happy, keep your children from various company; and while you study to dress them neatly, do not neglect to adorn them much with those principles which will tend to elevate and ennoble them, and prepare them for future usefulness in the kingdom of our God." — Eliza R. Snow

“In the beginning, God created man, male and female, and bestow’d upon man certain blessings peculiar to a man of God, of which woman partook, so that without the female all things cannot be restor’d to the earth. It takes all to restore the Priesthood.” — Newel K. Whitney

“God was well pleased with this Society. If we were humble and faithful, the Lord would pour out upon the members … the gift of prophecy. That all sisters would have the Spirit." — Patty Sessions

“This Society shall have power to command Queens in their midst." — Joseph Smith

“This Society is to get instruction thro’ the order which God has established thro’ the medium of those appointed to lead — and I now turn the key to you in the name of God and this Society shall rejoice and knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time." — Joseph Smith

“Ye shall do the work which ye see me do. These are the grand key words for the Society to act from." — Joseph Smith

“Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness." — Joseph Smith

“The popular institutions of the day should not be our guide — that as daughters of Zion we should set an example for all the world." — Eliza R. Snow

“We can enjoy the privilege of associating together to converse on the things of the Kingdom, to comfort and edify each other while passing through this vale of tears." — Elizabeth Ann Whitney

Jan Tolman is a mother of six who enjoys spending time researching the history of Relief Society. For additional information on Relief Society, visit her blog at www.ldswomenofgod.com/blog.