At the Pulpit

God Has Revealed It unto Me

By Rachel H. Leatham

This new series highlights the lives of devoted women and their messages, excerpted from the book At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women (2017). Selected chapters are available at churchhistorianspress.org/at-the-pulpit.

Photograph of Rachel Leatham courtesy of Church History Library; frame from Getty Images

About Sister Leatham

Rachel Hannah Leatham (1884–1979) became the second woman to be included in the Church’s official conference report when she spoke at an outdoor overflow meeting of general conference on April 5, 1908.

She was among the first generation of unmarried women to serve a proselyting mission for the Church. When she was 22, she was assigned to serve in the Colorado Mission in September 1906.

Upon her return to Salt Lake City in 1908, Sister Leatham volunteered as a guide at the Temple Square Bureau of Information. The bureau had opened in 1902 to provide accurate information and distribute Church literature to those who visited Temple Square.

During this era, general conference was held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. When the Tabernacle was full, attendees were directed to overflow meetings in the nearby Assembly Hall. When the Assembly Hall was full, people congregated on the lawn near the Bureau of Information Building, where services for the overflow meeting of conference were conducted.

This message is an excerpt of the talk Sister Leatham gave at the general conference overflow meeting on April 5, 1908. Punctuation and capitalization standardized.

I think that I am one of the happiest girls in all the world, and it is the gospel that makes me feel this way, for I do know that the gospel is true. I do know that God our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, came down and brought the gospel and established it and spoke to the Prophet Joseph Smith. …

I feel that if I could live forever, I could never thank my Heavenly Father enough for the blessings that have come into my life, for the privilege of going out into the world and bearing this testimony, telling them of the gospel being restored, of the authority Christ has given to His servants, and of the blessings that are in store for those who listen to and obey the words of truth, life, and salvation. …

I sometimes think that we young folks at home do not fully realize the responsibilities that rest upon us. We do not always remember that those who stand at our head are aged, and that when our fathers and mothers are gone, it will devolve upon us to assume their work; that we are the future responsible people of Zion. Are we doing our part, and are we preparing ourselves so that we will be able to do the work that our fathers have done?

… Are we able to tell what the promises are that God has made us, if we will keep His commandments? Are we familiar with the ancient record of the inhabitants of this continent, the Book of Mormon? And are we familiar with the great truths that are taught therein and with those books that teach us the beauties of the work in which we are engaged today? I am afraid we are not sufficiently conversant with the principles of the gospel and that we are not as diligent as we should be.¹

Where much is given, much is required; and you know, every one of you, how much has been given to us, and how much will be required at our hands [see Luke 12:48; D&C 82:3]. Are we preparing ourselves so that we will not fall short? Let us live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God [see Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; D&C 84:44]. Let us live so that He will ever be willing to own us, and bless us, and love us.

… I want to say again that I know the gospel is true. Not because my father knows it, not because my mother has always taught it to me, but I know that the gospel is true because God has revealed it unto me. His Spirit has borne witness unto my spirit [see Romans 8:16], and that testimony is God’s most precious gift to me.

May God bless us all, I ask in the name of Jesus, amen.

Note

1. Sister Leatham’s monthly letters to her mission president reveal her diligence. On February 25, 1907, she wrote, “I have endeavored to do my duty and found great satisfaction in my labors” (Colorado Denver South Mission General Minutes, 166).