Early Scenes in Church History, is the eighth in a series of 17 books called The Faith-Promoting Series. Published between 1879 and 1915, this series of books was published by the Juvenile Instructors Office for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints. It was George Q. Cannon's inspiration that produced the series, however.

In 1866, Cannon, then a member of the Quorum of the 12, began publication of a magazine for youth and young adults called The Juvenile Instructor, which he owned and published until his death in 1901, when his family sold the magazine to the LDS Church's Sunday School organization. Thus, in 1882 when the present work, Early Scenes in Church History, was published, it was a work undertaken under the direction of Cannon, with the blessing of the Church's governing leadership.

In the preface, the publisher provides that the purpose of the work is to preserve stories of faith from early Church history before they are lost, primarily for the benefit of the next generation of Latter-day Saints. The underlying premise for the work is that the rising generation of Latter-day Saints understand the legacy of faith bequeathed to them and thereby be inspired to acquire their own faith to carry on in the work of the Lord initiated by their spiritual, if not literal, forbearers.

Put another way, the premise for the work was to remember what God has done for this people, both collectively and individually. Portions of The Faith Promoting Series, including the present work, amount to almost an oral history project of people from Joseph Smith's generation. The simple narratives presented amount to the raw material of history, and preservation of these narratives saved from oblivion many personal and profound experiences of conversion and service.

Prophetically writing in one preface, Cannon observed that "men will seek with avidity" for such firsthand information "but a few years hence."