I read this in September, 2003. I know this because there was a very brief time where I wrote the date that I completed the book on the inside of the front cover. Not sure why I stopped doing that, but I did. And we have all had to live with the consequences.
This here is a nice little compilation of seven lectures originally prepared in connection with the school of the elders and was even published as part of the 1835 D&C. The preface discusses the mystery of who authored these lectures and says that there is strong evidence that the majority of the writing was by Sidney Rigdon.
It is actually only 78 pages but feels like it's twice that length (not in a bad way) because of the depth of the doctrinal discussion. Some of it can drag (I'm looking at you Lecture Second), but it is worthwhile and most definitely worth a perusal. It is also from these lectures that comes one of the greatest quotes of all time which I will here quote prior to and apart from the other quotes because of its awesomeness: "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."
Some more quotes about faith:
"It is faith, and faith only, which is the moving cause of all action."
"Let us here observe, that three things are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation. First, the idea that he actually exists. Secondly, a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes. Thirdly, an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will. For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive."
"Those who know their weakness and liability to sin would be in constant doubt of salvation if it were not for the idea which they have of the excellency of the character of God, that he is slow to anger and long-suffering, and of a forgiving disposition and does forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. An idea of these facts does away doubt, and makes faith exceedingly strong."
"It is in vain for persons to fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them, who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they, in like manner offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the knowledge that they are accepted of him."
"And what constitutes the real difference between a saved person and one not saved is - the difference in the degree of their faith - one's faith has become perfect enough to lay hold upon eternal life, and the other's has not."
"If we find one saved being in all existence, we may see what all others must be, or else not be saved. We ask, then, where is the prototype? Or, where is the saved being? We conclude, as to the answer of this question, there will be no dispute among those who believe the Bible, that it is Christ: all will agree in this, that he is the prototype or standard of salvation."
"[The] teaching of the Savior most clearly show unto us the nature of salvation, and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them - that he proposed to make them like unto himself, and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings; and for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed; and on this hinge turns the door of salvation."
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