The following is based on Daniel O. McClellan, “2 Nephi 25:23 in Literary and Rhetorical Context,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 29 (2020): 1-19
Earliest Possible Allusion to 2 Nephi 25:23: Brigham Young,
February 3, 1867:
It requires all the atonement of
Christ, the mercy of the Father, the pity of angels and the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ to be with us always, and then to do the very best we possibly
can, to get rid of this sin within us, so that we may escape from this world
into the celestial kingdom. This is just as much as we can do, and there is no
room for that carelessness manifested by too many among us. (JOD 11:301)
David L Paulsen and Cory G. Walker, “Work, Worship, and Grace,” FARMS Review 18, no. 2 (2006): 101-2:
It is clear from President
Young’s words that the combination of doing the best we can and the
grace of God is necessary in order for us to inherit the celestial kingdom and
all the blessings our Heavenly Father has to bestow. It is also clear that even
the best man is inexorably dependent on grace for his salvation.
What did Brigham Young mean by
the phrase “[doing] the very best we possibly can”? He once said that “in and
of ourselves we have no power to control our own minds and passions; but the
grace of God is sufficient to give us perfect victory.” (Brigham Young, Journal
of Discourses, 8:226) He also said that “the grace, the power, and the
wisdom of God will make me all that I ever will be, either in time or
eternity.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:162) Thus, even the
ability to make the very best effort we can, of ourselves, nevertheless
requires grace. Without the grace of God there is no way for us to do our best:
it is his mercy that makes our best even possible. Grace is thereby doubly tied
to the Mormon doctrine of works and salvation for President Young. If there is
still any doubt concerning President Young’s position on the necessity of grace
in obtaining salvation, his following words help make the matter quite clear:
“All will have to come to the Lord and be sanctified through the grace of
Christ by faith in his name; without this, I am happy to say, that none can be
purified, sanctified and prepared to inherit eternal glory.” (Brigham Young, Journal
of Discourses, 14:150).
Marion G. Romney, “Repentance Worketh Salvation,” General
Conference, October 1955
For, after all, it is by the
grace of Christ that men are saved, after all they can do. The thing they can
and must do is repent. (Conference Report [October 1955]: 123)
Reynolds and Sjodahl on 2 Nephi 25:23
The doctrine here stated is,
salvation is freely given and cannot be “earned” (George Reynolds and Janne M.
Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Press, 1955]: 1:379)
“After” in the Oxford English Dictionary Online
(www.oed.com)
“in spite of, notwithstanding (a
preceding event or action)”
History of the Church, c. 1840
She refused to go any further
with him; upon which he got hold of her by the arm to force her along; but her
sister, was soon with them; and the two women were too many for him and he was
forced to sneak off without his errand <prey>, after all his labor and ingenuity.
(History, 1838-1858, Volume A-1 (December 23, 1805-August 30, 1834): 43, URL: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834/49)
Commentary:
The full semantic load here
includes the sense of following after in time but more salient is the sense of “despite
all his labor and ingenuity.” In spite of expectations in light of all his
effort, he came away empty-handed. This kind of usage, almost contemporary with
the publication of the Book of Mormon, ought to be governing our interrogations
of 2 Nephi 25, but I have seen no such engagement with the nineteenth0century
literary context. (McClellan, p. 8)
The construction “after all (that) [NOUN/PRONOUN] can
do”
N.B.: The Printer's Manuscript and the 1830 Book of Mormon
reads "after all that we can do." Royal Skousen, in his
The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (p. 132) restores the
"that" to 2 Nephi 25:23. See my blog post: 2
Nephi 25:23 in the Printer's Manuscript and 1830 Book of Mormon: "After
all THAT we can do"
Example 1:
Here is an example of the construction from an 1829 edition
of A French Grammar:
In the Dictionary, as I observed
in paragraph 42, you will find, against every Noun, either s.m or s.f..
The former means Substantive (or Noun) masculine, and the latter
Substantive (or Noun) feminine. And this, after all that Grammarians can
do; after all the rules that they can give, is the only sure way of learning (from
books) the Gender of the French Nouns. (William Cobbett, A French Grammar: Or
Plain Instructions for the Learning of French. In a Series of Letters. A New
Edition [London: William Cobbett, 1829], 68-69)
Commentary on the Above:
The point of the idiom here is to
show that among all that grammarians can do or teach, there are no principles
they can formulate from which one may deduce the grammatical gender of
nouns. The gender of each noun must be memorized individually by reference to
the grammar, notwithstanding, or despite, all else they might be able,
to explicate or systematize. The sense is demanded by the context; temporal
sequence along cannot make sense of the sentence. Memorizing the gender of
French nouns does not suddenly become “the only sure way of learning”
them only after grammarians have exhausted all other efforts and delivered
all their other rules. In fact, one can simply memorize them without appealing
to any, much less all, other potential methods of identification. Memorization
always has been and remains the only sure way to know the gender despite everything
else grammarians may do. (McClellan, p. 9)
Examples 2-4:
Nor can it believe any Merit
with finite imperfect Man, shortcoming and polluted in his most Holy Things,
and owning his all to GOD, and having nothing of his own, and who, after all he
can do, is still an unprofitable Servant. (Thomas Blackwell, Ratio Sacra, or
An Appeal unto the Rational World, about the Reasonableness of Revealed Religion
[Edinburgh: Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderjon, 1710], 40)
It is certain that after all we
can do, still we are unprofitable servants: we have done but that which was our
duty to do, even supposing we performed a perfect and compleat obedience.
(Samuel Seyer, Essays on the Important Truth Contained in the Holy
Scriptures [London: A. Millar & C. Richardson, 1761], 59)
Every thinking man must be
sensible, that after all his endeavours, and the very utmost he can do, he is
still not only an unprofitable, but too often an ungrateful and disobedient
servant. (Beilby Porteus, An Earnest Exhortation in the Religious Observance
of Good Friday, 2nd ed. [London: J. & F. Rivington, 1777], 8)
Commentary on the Above:
While the phrase “unprofitable
servants” is familiar to us from the Book of Mormon, the texts above drawn from
Luke 17:10, which reads in the KJV: “So likewise ye, when he shall have done
all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we
have done that which was our duty to do.” Within the context of Luke 17, the rhetorical
purpose is to insist that there is no special praise earned by doing everything
we are commanded to do, since we would always merely be fulfilling our duty. In
the literature quoted above, “all we/he can do” substitutes for and
rhetorically expands upon the set of “all those things which are commanded you.”
We are unprofitable not only if we do all we are commanded to do, but even if
we do that as well as any and all other things we ever could do. Mosiah
2:21 reflects a similar expansion on Luke 17:10:
I say unto you that if ye should
serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from
day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according
to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye
should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable
servants.
Mosiah 2 agrees with the writers
above that we are unprofitable servants, not just once we have done all
we can do, but despite everything we ever could do. The point
here is clearly not that we suddenly become unprofitable servants upon
completion of the entire list of possible works, but that no matter how short
or long that list of works is, even if we were to complete it all, we
yet remain unprofitable servants, just as we would be having left the list
incomplete. This is a way to rhetorically amplify the necessity and the power
of grace. (McClellan, p. 10)
Example 5:
The following is from McClellan, pp. 10-11:
The connection with grace as an unmerited gift is made much
clearer in later elaborations of this theme. Reverend David Brainerd was a
missionary in the late eighteenth century to Indigenous peoples around New York
and Pennsylvania. His memoirs, published in 1822, describe how he “exhorted,
and endeavored to persuade, them to be reconciled to God through his dear Son,
and thus to secure an interest in his everlasting favour” (Rev. Jonathan
Edwards and Sereno Edwards Dwight, eds., Memoirs of the Rev. David Brainerd;
Missionary to the Indians on the Borders of New-York, New-Jersey, and
Pennsylvania [New-Haven: S. Converse, 1822], 260). (Note the parallels here
with the comments in 2 Nephi 25:23 about laboring to “persuade our children . .
. to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God.”) Unfortunately, according
to Reverend Brainerd, the Quakers were doing some exhorting of their own. He
writes:
There were several of the Indians
newly come here, who had frequently lived among Quakers, and, being more
civilized and conformed to English manners than the generality of the Indians,
they had imbibed some of the Quaker’s errors, especially this fundamental one,
viz., That, if men will but live soberly and honestly according to the
dictates of their own consciences, or the light within, there is then no danger
or doubt of their salvation. (Edwards and Dwight, eds., Memoirs of the Rev.
David Brainerd 260 [all emphasises in quotes from this volume are in the
original])
One Indigenous woman was an exception, though, and he gives
the following account of their discussion:
She answered, in broken English, ‘Me
try, me try save myself; last my strength be all gone; (meaning her ability
to save herself;0 could not me stir bit further. Den last me forced let
Jesus Christ alone send me hell, if he please.’ I said, ‘But, you was
not willing to go to hell; was you?’ She replied, ‘Could not me help it.
My heart, he would wicked for all. Could not me make him good, (meaning, she
saw it was right she should go to hell, because her heart was wicked, and would
be so after all she could do to mend it.) (Edwards and Dwight, eds., Memoirs
of the Rev. David Brainerd, 261)
This individual’s heart is not understood to become wicked
upon completion of everything she could do to mend it; rather, it remains wicked
despite all she could do to mend it.
Example 6:
But your own wisdom and greatness
must be laid in the grave—it is after all you can do, the free and unmerited
gift of God. (John Hersey, The Importance of Small Things; or, A Plain
Course of Self-Examination To Which is Added Signs of the Times [Georgetown:
Rind’s Press, 1831], 20)
McClellan (p. 12): “We can hardly accuse this author of insisting
the free and unmerited gift of God is merited once we have
exhausted every last ounce of effort.”
Example 7:
The following is from McClellan, pp. 12-13:
A periodical called Evangelical Magazine published an
article in May of 1834 entitled “Practical Tendency of the Doctrines of Grace,”
and in that article, the editors berated those “who are not pleased with the
doctrine, as God has revealed it: who are not willing to admit that
regeneration is by the immediate, sole agency of the Spirit” (Anonymous, “Practical
Tendency of the Doctrines of Grace,” Evangelical Magazine 2, no. 11
[18340]: 491). They continue:
It has been often tried and
proved, by sinners under the deepest conviction, that even their most ‘desperate
efforts,’ unaided by the immediate operation of the Spirit on the heart, are
altogether inadequate to the production of the holy affections . . . The
reasons is, they have no desire for that in which holiness consists; the fountain
still remains corrupt. And after all they can do, without this Divine influence
on the heart, they remain utterly unprepared for the kingdom of heaven. (Anonymous,
“Practical Tendency,” 493-94)
The same conclusion is expressed in The Fireside Friend,
from 1840:
You may, therefore, imagine that
you are very good; and, like the young man, who, after recounting his virtues
to our Saviour, complacently asked, “What lack I yet?” you may suppose you are
fulfilling all the commandments. But, after all that you can do, you will find,
on examining yourself by the word of God, that you fall short of your duty, and
need pardon and forgiveness. Mere morality is not sufficient to entitle us to
the hopes of the gospel. (Mrs. Phelps, The Fireside Friend, or Female
Student: Being Advice to Young Ladies on the Important Subjects of Education [Boston,
MA: Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb, 1840], 22)
The implicit and sometimes explicit target of these comments
is the person who thinks that grace is earned, or that they can work their way
to heaven. The eighteenth-century quotes took rhetorical aim at “natural religion”—and
primarily its manifestation within deism—which was more concerned with promoting
moral philosophy than with miracles of Jesus’s saving grace.