Rey L. Pratt

First Council of the Seventy (January 29, 1925 – April 14, 1931)

General Conference Addresses

• April 1931 General Conference
  • Agency
    • “It is true, my brethren and sisters, that the Lord has given us our free agency. iWe are not forced, but we are admonished and taught. So it seems to me there is no excuse for us if we stray away.”
    • “As I said in the beginning, I am happy to find myself in harmony and in accord with the teachings of the Church, in accord with the Gospel as it has been restored through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith. I have not one word or thought of criticism to offer as to the policy of the Church now or in times past. I feel perfectly secure, my brethren and sisters, in following the teachings of those whom I bear witness to you are prophets, seers and revelators unto this people. And it is a serious and a dangerous thing for us to set up our desires or our judgment contrary to that which comes through the servants of the Lord, particularly when spoken, as have been the admonitions of President Grant during this Conference.”
• October 1930 General Conference
  • Truth
    • “My desire is to see righteousness established among men and selfishness and wickedness done away.”
    • “My brethren and sisters, there is your manifestation and your witness of truth concerning God. It is given by him whose mission it was to bear witness to the truth in the world. Every teaching, then, of the Savior, if it be his mission to bear witness of the truth, is truth, taught to our Father’s children for their salvation here upon the earth. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Paul says, “is the power of God unto salvation,” and this is true. It is the witness of Jesus Christ in the world, of the truth.”
    • “Only truth can free the world from the errors that are in it today. Only truth can bring about a better condition in the world, and less hatred and strife and bitterness and misery among the children of men. I mean truth if it goes into the hearts of men and men live by the truth.”
• April 1930 General Conference
  • The Church Will Succeed
    • “Now, brethren and sisters, if this work were not of God I believe that we could believe still, today, that it would come to naught. But I know, by the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, and by the experiences that I have had in ministering as a humble missionary in the world, that the priesthood, restored to earth in this dispensation, is a reality. It is the power of God to act in his name, and its works; it operates.”
• October 1929 General Conference
  • Duty to Warn
    • “I take it, my brethren and sisters, that, as people having the gospel of Jesus Christ and a testimony of it, the Lord calls upon us to bear that testimony and make known his word to the world, and to bear testimony one to another of the inspiration of the Lord and the knowledge that has come to us concerning this great gospel plan that is instituted in the world for the salvation of men.”
    • “I raise my voice in warning against those who presume, because of any motive, be it whatever it may, to better the conditions in this Church other than through sustaining the authority that the Lord has given, through whom will come the revelations to guide and to direct this Church.”
    • “It is no use for you to criticize what is in the past, nor will it do any good for you to be particularly worried about what shall follow after you leave.”
• April 1929 General Conference
  • Evidences of the Book of Mormon
    • “Now to me it is a reality. It is my faith and belief in this Book of Mormon that has kept me going throughout all the dark years of my missionary service in Mexico. For it seems that no more obstacles could be placed in the way of missionary progress than have been, because of conditions that have reigned in that land. But the Book of Mormon recounts to us that the people of the land, the descendants of those who wrote these great prophecies of the Lord, are a covenant people of the Lord and they are to be redeemed.”
• October 1928 General Conference
  • Good and Evil
    • “I deplore the fact that there is evil existing, but I cannot ignore it, my brethren and sisters. This evil, thank the Lord^ does not exist to the same extent among those who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ as, it exists in the world. We find unchastity, immorality, lack of temperance, lack of reverence for God, or for man, or for law. We find men imbued with the idea that all is right if they can get by with it. But it is not, my brethren and sisters.”
    • “The greatest anxiety is that I may not falter by the wayside, that my faith may remain firm and that my testimony may grow and be strong; and after that I pray for my loved ones.”
    • “As I contemplate those who have gone to the great beyond in their innocence I would ten thousand times rather that they should all go than that they should make shipwreck of their faith.”
    • “I try to impress upon them the idea that the Church is very much in need of honest good members. No one can deprive them of being that no matter how little they might be called upon to do. They can labor zealously in keeping the commandments of the Lord. They can set examples worthy of imitation. They can bear their testimony to their fellow men. They can put themselves in a position to be useful.”
• April 1928 General Conference
  • How Firm a Foundation
    • “How firm a foundation is there laid in the work of the Lord for my faith? Will I be able to endure to the end? Will I be able to meet the changing conditions that I find in my life? I am not called upon now to do those things that I had to do as a boy, for I went into a new land and had to make fences, build ditches, kill snakes, ride the cattle range, and do many things that neither I nor my children are called upon to do now; but I meet conditions, my brethren and sisters, that test and try my faith. Will I be able to live and maintain my integrity and continue to build upon the faith of my fathers? Will I continue to build upon the broad foundation that is laid for our faith in the work of the Lord? We are living in an age of skepticism. We are living in an age of doubt. We are living in a day when men in all parts of the country doubt even the existence of our Father in heaven.”
• October 1927 General Conference
  • Report from the Mexican Mission
    • “And, my brethren and sisters, as I stand before you this afternoon, I make a plea for tolerance for the Lamanite people; they are our Father’s covenant children. I have learned it more intimately than I ever knew it before, in the last twenty-one years of consecutive missionary service among them. I was acquainted with them years before that, and, notwithstanding all that is said to the contrary in the press and hy people who might think very lightly before they speak, I have never been injured at their hands, nor have any of your boys or girls been injured at their hands.”
• April 1927 General Conference
  • Testimony
    • “In regard to the matter of testimony, I have concluded that those testimonies which have impressed me most have not been accompanied by reason why. They seem to carry with them their own conviction, and I verily believe-, my brethren and sisters, that they were given by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that same Spirit has witnessed to my spirit that they are true.”
• October 1926 General Conference
  • Report on the Mission
    • “I am grateful to the Lord for the participation that I have had in opening up this new mission. I am desirous to continue to serve in any capacity where I may be called to labor.”
• October 1925 General Conference
  • Necessity of Faith
    • “It was faith that made it possible for Joseph Smith to turn back and go to his certain martyrdom—for he knew where he was going; he said he was going like a lamb to the slaughter. But by faith he went and sealed his testimony with his blood.”
  • Preparing for a Mission
    • “I have had it brought home to me that the Lord sometimes takes us at our word when we say we are willing to make sacrifices.”
    • “If you really and truly mean it, prepare yourselves for the work, for I think I can see, as this work begins to open up, the necessity for the calling, not of one thousand men, but of ten times one thousand men, to reach all of our Father’s children who yet need the blessings of the gospel. Prepare yourselves by study. Prepare yourselves by getting out of debt.”
• April 1925 General Conference
  • A Testimony
    • “There is nothing in all the wide world that brings me more joy or more happiness than to associate with them, and to hear them with all humility and in all sincerity declare to the world that they know these things are true.”
    • “We can only be safe in obedience to the advice and to the counsel and to the admonition and to the reproof that may come to us through the sources of which I have spoken.”

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