Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow

“[I] felt like shouting hallelujah,” exclaimed one woman after hearing Eliza R. Snow speak in 1883. During the mid- to late 1800s, Snow was a key figure in expanding women’s participation and leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was a writer, organizer, temple worker, and advocate for women. She was also an accomplished public speaker, giving nearly thirteen hundred recorded discourses between 1840 and her death in 1887. Of those discourses, fifty-two of the most powerful and timeless have been selected and carefully annotated for this book. Beyond her work in Relief Societies, Snow also helped create the church’s associations for young women and children and participated in the development of those organizations at the ward, stake, and general levels. John Taylor appointed her as the general president of the Relief Society in 1880, a position in which she served until her death. Snow’s discourses include religious instruction, urging women to awaken to their divine potential. She also encouraged them to engage in home manufacture, become politically involved and vote, enroll in medical courses, and subscribe to and write for the Woman’s Exponent, an independent Latter-day Saint women’s newspaper of the time. Eliza R. Snow called upon all Latter-day Saints to become “coworkers” with Christ as “joint heirs” with Him and “saviors on Mount Zion” —a call that remains relevant today. Her words can enlarge current work in ministering, speaking, and teaching. Read more