The Lectures on Faith

On the Doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
Of Faith.
Section 1.
1. Faith being the first principle in revealed religion, and the foundation of all righteousness, necessarily claims the first place in a course of lectures which are designed to unfold to the understanding the doctrine of Jesus Christ.
2. In presenting the subject of faith, we shall observe the following order—
3. first, faith itself—what it is.
4. Secondly, the object on which it rests. And,
5. Thirdly, the effects which flow from it.
6. Agreeable to this order we have first to show what faith is.
7. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in the eleventh chapter of that epistle and first verse, gives the following definition of the word faith:
8. Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
9. From this we learn that faith is the assurance which men have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings.