LDS Books: Joseph Speaks: Topical Quotes by the Prophet Joseph Smith

It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind.

-Joseph Smith

A young man with little formal education, Joseph Smith's eloquent words reflect the tutorship of God himself. Latter-day Saints have long desired to know what Joseph had to say about many subjects, including the reality and nature of God, man's relationship with God, and what to look forward to in the great beyond.

This unique volume includes hundreds of quotations that have been carefully gleaned from the familiar Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, an earlier textual compilation conducted by Church historian and later prophet Joseph Fielding Smith. Though many books have been and will still be written about the Prophet Joseph Smith, the focus of Joseph Speaks is to make readily available by topic much of what Joseph Smith taught on a wide variety of timeless and poignant topics. This is the perfect reference book for any Latter-day Saint's bookshelf.

Reviews-

"Joseph Speaks: Topical Quotes by the Prophet Joseph Smith," compiled by Sterling H. Redd could easily be called "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith Made Easier."

In this book, Sterling Redd has organized thousands of sentence to paragraph length quotes from "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" in over 733 different topic headings. The topics are in the book in alphabetical order. It has a topical index at the front of the book. The topics are grouped into six major subject headings: "Doctrine," "Joseph and Beginnings," "Negativity and Consequences," "Next Life," "Principles," and "This Life."

Each quote in the book is referenced to its original page number in the 1976 edition of "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith." Each quote also has an end note number next to it. In the back of the book these citations show where the original quote used by "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" came from. Most of these citations come from the "Documentary History of the Church," but also come from: the "Far West Record," the " Evening and Morning Star," the "Messenger and Advocate," the "Manuscript History of the Church, " and the "Times and Seasons."

This book is an excellent "starter book". It is very easy to read and use. The quotes are short, basic and easy to find. It provides a convenient resource for finding quotes by Joseph Smith for talks and lessons.

-Andrew Hamilton