Skip to content

Lorenzo Snow

Portrait of Lorenzo Snow
Portrait: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

AUTHOR PROFILE

Lorenzo Snow

Lorenzo Snow was the fifth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He joined the Church after studying and worshipping with Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, then spent decades in missionary and apostolic service. His brief presidency is often remembered for a renewed call to pay tithing.

FEATURED QUOTE
“While moving slowly forward in pursuit of something to kill, my mind was arrested with the reflection on the nature of my pursuit—that of amusing myself by giving pain and death to harmless, innocent creatures that perhaps had as much right to life and enjoyment as myself. I realized that such indulgence was without any justification, and feeling condemned, I laid my gun on my shoulder, returned home, and from that time to this have felt no inclination for that murderous amusement.”
— Lorenzo Snow

Biography at a glance

  • Church service: Apostle from 1849; President of the Church from 1898 to 1901
  • Family connection: Brother of Eliza R. Snow
  • Ministry: Missions in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific

Conversion and missionary work

Snow came to Kirtland in 1836 after his sister Eliza invited him to study Hebrew among the Saints. He joined the Church and later traveled widely as a missionary and leader. The Church’s history account outlines his missions and family life.

Leading through financial strain

When Snow became Church president in 1898, the Church faced serious debt after years of legal pressure over plural marriage. He asked members to recommit to tithing as the Church worked to regain financial stability. He died in 1901, shortly after a general conference address.

Related LDS Flow reading

Explore related people and topics

Sources and further reading

Quotes by Lorenzo Snow

8 quotes

“While moving slowly forward in pursuit of something to kill, my mind was arrested with the reflection on the nature of my pursuit—that of amusing myself by giving pain and death to harmless, innocent creatures that perhaps had as much right to life and enjoyment as myself. I realized that such indulgence was without any justification, and feeling condemned, I laid my gun on my shoulder, returned home, and from that time to this have felt no inclination for that murderous amusement.”

Personal Journal

— Lorenzo Snow

“We were born in the image of God our Father; He begat us like unto Himself. There is the nature of Deity in the composition of our spiritual organization. In our spiritual birth, our Father transmitted to us the capabilities, powers and faculties which He possessed, as much so as the child on its mother’s bosom possesses, although in an undeveloped state, the faculties, powers and susceptibilities of its parent.”

in Eliza R. Snow, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, 335

— Lorenzo Snow

“Think of the promises that are made to you in the beautiful and glorious ceremony that is used in the marriage covenant in the temple. When two Latter-day Saints are united together in marriage, promises are made to them concerning their offspring, that reach from eternity to eternity. They are promised that they shall have the power and the right to govern and control and administer salvation and exaltation and glory to their offspring worlds without end. And what offspring they do not have here, undoubtedly there will be opportunities to have them hereafter. What else could man wish? A man and a woman in the other life, having celestial bodies, free from sickness and disease, glorified and beautified beyond description, standing in the midst of their posterity, governing and controlling them, administering life, exaltation, and glory, worlds without end”

Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, 138

— Lorenzo Snow

“There is a way by which persons can keep their consciences clear before God and man, and that is to preserve within them the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of revelation to every man and woman. It will reveal to them, even in the simplest of matters, what they shall do, by making suggestions to them. We should try to learn the nature of this spirit, that we may understand its suggestions, and then we will always be able to do right. This is the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint. We know that it is our right to have the manifestations of the spirit every day of our lives. This is a grand means that the Lord has provided for us, that we may know the light, and not be groveling continually in the dark.”

Conference Report, April 1899, p. 52

— Lorenzo Snow

In many instances of a similar nature where the destruction of the people of God seemed imminent, and there appeared no way of escape, suddenly there arose something or another that had been prepared for their salvation to avert the impending destruction. We find this in the case of the Israelites when led by Moses. When they came to the Red Sea and the Egyptian army in their rear threatened their destruction, there seemed no way of escape, but at the very moment when deliverance was required, behold, it appeared and they were delivered. So it has been and so it ever will be with us. Notwithstanding our difficulties may appear very great, yet there will be means provided for our escape if we ourselves perform the duties incumbent upon us as the children of God. But it may become necessary in the future – and this is the point I wish to make – for some of the Saints to act the part of Esther, the queen, and be willing to sacrifice anything and everything that is required at their hands for the purpose of working out the deliverance of the Latter-day Saints. . . .But it is our business to step forward as did Esther, and be willing to risk all for the salvation of the people. In undertaking her task, Esther said, “If I perish, I perish.” Here is a lesson for our sisters. But the people of God will not perish. There will always be a ram caught in the thicket for their deliverance.

Journal of Discourses 23:290, p. 293

— Lorenzo Snow

“There is a way by which persons can keep their consciences clear before God and man, and that is to preserve within them the spirit of God, which is the spirit of revelation to every man and woman. It will reveal to them, even in the simplest of matters, what they shall do, by making suggestions to them. We should try to learn the nature of this spirit, that we may understand its suggestions, and then we will always be able to do right. This is the grand privilege of every Latter-day Saint.”

Conference Report, April 1899, p. 52

— Lorenzo Snow

© Copyright 2026, All Rights Reserved