Heber J. Grant – Gospel Study

HEBER J. GRANT
7th President of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
November 23, 1918 – May 14, 1945

President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (November 18, 1916 – November 23, 1918)

Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (October 16, 1882 – November 23, 1918)

General Conference Addresses

April 1945 General Conference
- Keep the Commandments of God
  - “I rejoice exceedingly in the many blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we enjoy. I rejoice in having the fellowship and the faith and prayers and good feeling of those with whom I associate, I rejoice in the integrity, the faith, and the diligence of those who preside in the various stakes of Zion. I realize that we are beset with faults and failings and imperfections, but I am convinced that almost without exception those who have the charge of the Saints in the wards and stakes of Zion, and in the missions are men of God, and that their integrity is beyond question, and that, if need be, they would be ready and willing to lay down their lives for the advancement of the kingdom of God. I believe that the elders of Israel in all the different wards and stakes of Zion earnestly desire to know the mind and will of our Heavenly Father, and that they are ready and willing to do anything that is within their power, to fulfill that mind and that will and to carry it out in their lives. It is this integrity and this desire that give me joy and satisfaction, and that encourage me in the responsibilities that devolve upon me.”
  - “I realize and appreciate the fact that the Lord could pour out upon us an abundance of the wealth of this world, that he could make us all rich, because the mountains are full of wealth, and he could open up avenues to us that we could all become wealthy, but in doing this we would have no opportunity of showing our faith by our works we would have no opportunity of developing our manhood and of fitting and preparing ourselves by actual labor to go back and dwell in the presence of our Heavenly Father.”
  - “It is by the exercise of our mental faculties that we improve upon them; it is by the exercise of our physical powers that we strengthen them; it is by the cultivation and the exercise of our spirits that we grow in spirituality, that we grow in the testimony of the gospel, that we grow in ability and strength to accomplish the purposes of our Heavenly Father upon the earth.”
  - “On the subject of tithing I heard a very splendid illustration given by a teacher in one of our children’s classes: She brought with her ten beautiful red apples. She explained that everything we have in the world came to us from the Lord, and she said, “Now, if I give one of you these ten apples, will you give me one of them back again? Now, any one of you children that will do that, hold up your hand.” Of course, they all held up their hands. Then she said, “That is what the Lord does for us. He gives us the ten apples, but he requests that we return one to him to show our appreciation of that gift.” The trouble with some people is that when they get the ten apples, they eat up nine of them, and then they cut the other in two and give the Lord half of what is left. Some of them cut the apple in two and eat up one-half of it and then hold up the other half and ask the Lord to take a bite. That is about as near as they see fit to share properly and show their gratitude to the Lord.”
  - “And may we always remember, because it is both true and comforting, that the death of a faithful man is nothing in comparison to the loss of the inspiration of the good spirit.”
  - “It is a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ, now, as it always has been, to help every man to help himself—to help every child of our Father in heaven to work out his own salvation both temporally and spiritually.”
  - “It comes to each man, according to his needs and faithfulness, for guidance in matters that pertain to his own life. For the Church as a whole it comes to those who have been ordained to speak for the Church as a whole—and I say to you again, that it is the duty of the presidency of this Church to ask the people to do anything and everything that the inspiration of God tells them to do. We as Latter-day Saints, holding the priesthood of God, should magnify it, and we should respect the General Authorities of the Church; and as we respect them, God will respect us.”
  - “There is but one path of safety for the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty.”
  - “I say to all Latter-day Saints: keep the commandments of God. That is my keynote—just these few words: keep the commandments of God!”
October 1944 General Conference
- Admonition and Blessing
  - “I desire to bless the men and women who are thus giving their time and thought and are setting examples that are worthy of imitation, not only to those over whom they preside, but to all men. Every man and woman who is laboring for the salvation of the souls of men and keeping the commandments of God is entitled to be blessed, and I pray God that his blessings may come to them.”
  - “I pray that those who are at home and those who are away, in the armed forces and elsewhere, will be kept from evil in all its forms, by the prayers and righteous example of their parents, by remembrance of the teachings in their homes and church, by their own faithfulness and prayerfulness, and by the protecting influence of the angels of heaven.”
  - “I am sure that we need a light to surround our boys and girls in this day, and I pray that the protecting influence of faithful, God-fearing, God-serving parents may follow them and keep them wherever they go. I believe that with the faithfulness and obedience of parents and proper influences in the home, and with proper instruction and example to youth, we can keep them from all the temptations of the evil one.”
  - “The devil is ready to blind our eyes with the things of this world, and he would gladly rob us of eternal life, the greatest of all gifts. But it is not given to the devil, and no power will ever be given to him, to overthrow any Latter-day Saint who is keeping the commandments of God. There is no power given to the adversary of men’s souls to destroy us if we are doing our duty. But if we are not absolutely honest with God, then we let the bars down, then we have destroyed part of the fortifications by which we are protected, and the devil may come in. But no man who was chaste and who was keeping the other commandments of the Lord has ever lost the testimony of the gospel; no man who had the knowledge of the truth has ever turned to the right or to the left, who was attending to his duties, who was keeping the Word of Wisdom, who was paying his tithing, who was responding to the calls and duties of his office and calling in the Church.”
  - “May every father and mother so order their lives that their example will be an inspiration to their children; and may all realize that every Latter-day Saint carries, to a certain extent, upon his or her shoulders the reputation of the Church of Christ. We are trying to raise our children to be God-fearing, and to live lives worthy of the imitation of all men. May we read the revelations of the Lord Almighty and his Son Jesus Christ, that have been given to us, as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants; may we read them with a prayerful and a humble heart, seeking God for power and strength to live them, whether we are at home or away from home; and may we listen and give heed to the counsel of our leaders who fire with us today, I pray with all the power that I possess.”
  - “I have little or no fear for the boy or the girl, the young man or the young woman, who honestly and conscientiously supplicates God daily for the guidance of his spirit.”
  - “The minute a man stops supplicating God for his spirit and directions just so soon he starts out to become a stranger to him and his works. When men stop praying for God’s spirit, they place confidence in their own unaided reason, and they gradually lose the spirit of God, just the same as near and dear friends, by never writing to or visiting with each other, will become strangers. We should all pray that God may never leave us alone for a moment without his spirit to aid and assist us in withstanding sin and temptation.”
  - “The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is, to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a weary and thirsty land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun.”
  - “And such the Constitution of the United States must be to every faithful Latter-day Saint who lives under its protection. That the Lord may help him to think straight, and to pursue a straight course regardless of personal advantage, factional interest, or political persuasion, should be the daily prayer of every Latter-day Saint. I counsel you, I urge you, I plead with you, never, so far as you have voice or influence, permit any departure from the principles of government on which this nation was founded, or any disregard of the freedoms which, by the inspiration of God our Father, were written into the Constitution of the United States.”
  - “One fundamental thing for a Latter-day Saint is to be honest. Another is to value his word as faithfully as his bond; to make up his mind that under no circumstances, no matter how hard it may be, by and with the help of the Lord, he will dedicate his life and his best energies to making good his promise; and that he will not permit some personal advantage to cause him ever to compromise his principles.”
  - “I say to you that it is not an insignificant thing to hold the priesthood of God—to have the right to influence the powers of the heavens for good; and it is not a slight thing for us to neglect to honor the priesthood of God in those who preside over us, nor to ignore them in their counsel. My faith is such that I could lay down all that I possess rather than ever depart from the Latter-day work. I value all things as nothing in comparison with having the spirit of God to guide me.”
April 1944 General Conference
- Testimony and Blessing
  - “When it came time for me to speak, I remember standing here at this pulpit, feeling that this was perhaps the greatest of all the great themes that we as Latter-day Saints had to proclaim to the world. I laid the book down, opened at that page. I said: “I cannot tell you just why, but never before in all my life have I desired so much the inspiration of the Lord as I desire it today.” I asked the people for their faith and prayers. I prayed for the inspiration of the Lord, and I never thought of the book from that minute until I sat down thirty minutes later. I closed my remarks at twelve minutes after three o’clock, expecting that President George Q. Cannon, who was also present, would follow me. Brother Angus Cannon came to the upper stand, and said, “Brother George, there are forty-eight minutes left for you; will you occupy the rest of the time?””
  - “Brother George Q. Cannon declined, and indicated that he thought it would be a good time to close the meeting. But Brother Angus refused to take “No” for an answer, and said: “I am not going to waste three-quarters of an hour. If you don’t speak, I shall call on somebody else to occupy the balance of the time.”
  - “Brother Cannon said, finally: “All right, I will say something. And he arose and said in substance:
  - “There are times when the Lord Almighty inspires some speaker by the revelations of His Spirit, and he is so abundantly blessed by the inspiration of the living God that it is a mistake for anybody else to speak following him, and one of those occasions has been today in the address of Brother Grant, and I therefore ask President Angus Cannon to call on someone to offer the benediction, after the choir has sung, and dismiss the meeting.” Of course Brother Angus could do nothing else.”
  - “When I sat down after my talk, I remembered that my book was still lying open on the pulpit. President George Q. Cannon was behind me in the President’s seat, and I heard him say to himself: “Thank God for the power of that testimony!” When I heard this I remembered that I had forgotten the sermon I had intended to deliver, and the tears gushed from my eyes like rain, and I rested my elbows on my knees and put my hands over my face, so that the people by me could not see that I was weeping like a child. I knew when I heard those words of George Q. Cannon that God had heard and answered my prayer. I knew that my brother’s heart was touched.”
  - “One of the requirements made of the Latter-day Saints is that they shall be faithful in attending to their prayers, both their secret and family prayers. The object that our Heavenly Father has in requiring this is that we may be in communication with Him, and that we may have a channel open between us and the heavens whereby we can bring down upon ourselves blessings from above. No individual who is humble and prayerful before God and supplicates him every day for the light and inspiration of his Holy Spirit will ever become lifted up in the pride of his heart, or feel that the intelligence and the wisdom that he possesses are all sufficient for him.”
October 1943 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “We are the architects of our own lives, not only of the lives here, but the lives to come in eternity. We ourselves are able to perform every duty and obligation that God has required of men. No commandment was ever given to us but what God has given us the power to keep that commandment. If we fail, we, and we alone, are responsible for the failure, because God endows his servants, from the President of the Church down to the humblest member, with all the ability, all the knowledge, all the power that is necessary, faithfully, diligently, and properly to discharge every duty and every obligation that rests upon them, and we, and we alone, will have to answer if we fail in this regard.”
April 1943 General Conference
- Thanksgiving and Blessing
  - “I desire especially to extend my blessings to all the men and women who preside in all the stakes of Zion throughout the Church, in all the missions, in all the wards, in all the quorums of the Priesthood, and in all the auxiliary organizations. I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that there cannot be found in any part of the world other men and women giving so unselfishly of their time, of their talents, and of the best that is in them, for the salvation of the souls of men. I am satisfied that there are no other people who are devoting so much of their time, of their money, of their thoughts, and of their very being for the advancement of God’s work at home and abroad, as are the Latter-day Saints. And with all the power that God has given me, I desire to bless the men and women who are thus giving their time and thought and are setting examples that are worthy of imitation, not only of those over whom they preside, but of all men. Every man and woman who is laboring for the salvation of the souls of men and keeping the commandments of God is entitled to be blessed, and I pray God that His blessings may come to them.”
October 1942 General Conference
- My Call to the Apostleship
  - “I can truthfully say that from February, 1883, until today I have never had any of that trouble, and I can bear my testimony that I know that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the living God; and the evil one does not try to persuade me that I do not know what I am talking about. I have never had one slight impression to the contrary. I have just had real, genuine joy and satisfaction in proclaiming the gospel and bearing my testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the divine calling of Joseph Smith, the prophet.”
April 1942 General Conference
- Personal Testimony of the Lord’s Providence
  - “I want to tell you that starting with Brigham Young and coming down to your humble servant, the Lord has been with us and has directed this Church. May the Lord help us so to live that you will sustain us, and may I never live long enough that when I am in favor of a thing and all the brethren are in favor of it, such as was the case when we were opposed to bringing whisky back, that Utah and the Mormons will be in opposition to us. I would almost have staked my life, knowing that the people know that we did not want to have whisky again, that the people would not have voted to bring it back. If we would pay our tithing to God, and if we and all the people of this nation would stop using tobacco and drinking tea, coffee, and liquor, I do not care if this war cost $110,000,000,000—we could pay it all.”
October 1941 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I not only believe it, but I know it. The great majority of all the Latter-day Saints that are honest tithe payers are the most prosperous of all the people. I am not talking of individual exceptions. God says that “When you do what I say, I am bound,” and He has said that people rob Him in their tithes and their offerings, and we want it stopped.”
- Stay With Your Convictions
  - “Many of the Latter-day Saints have surrendered their independence; they have surrendered their free thought, politically, and we have got to get back to where we are not surrendering the right. We must stay with the right and if we do so God will bless us.”
  - “Now, I pray the Lord to bless the Latter-day Saints. I pray the Lord to bless the people of the world. I pray with all my heart and soul that any man—I do not care who he is or how high his position, that is doing anything to get us into war, that he may be confounded; and I pray that we will all pray for guidance with all our hearts and souls. I feel as though it might be well for the Latter-day Saints to set aside a day to pray and to fast and to ask the Lord to preserve us as a nation from getting into a war.”
April 1941 General Conference
- Responsibility in the Church Brings Humility
  - “As I was riding along to meet them on the other side I seemed to see, and I seemed to hear, what to me is one of the most real things in all my life, I seemed to see a Council in Heaven. I seemed to hear the words that were spoken. I listened to the discussion with a great deal of interest. The First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles had not been able to agree on two men to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve. There had been a vacancy of one for two years, and a vacancy of two for one year, and the Conference had adjourned without the vacancies being filled. In this Council the Savior was present, my father was there, and the Prophet Joseph Smith was there. They discussed the question that a mistake had been made in not filling those two vacancies and that in all probability it would be another six months before the Quorum would be completed, and they discussed as to whom they wanted to occupy those positions, and decided that the way to remedy the mistake that had been made in not filling these vacancies was to send a revelation. It was given to me that the Prophet Joseph Smith and my father mentioned me and requested that I be called to that position. I sat there and wept for joy. It was given to me that I had done nothing to entitle me to that exalted position, except that I had lived a clean, sweet life. It was given to me that because of my father having practically sacrificed his life in what was known as the great Reformation, so to speak, of the people in early days, having been practically a martyr, that the Prophet Joseph and my father desired me to have that position, and it was because of their faithful labors that I was called, and not because of anything I had done of myself or any great thing that I had accomplished. It was also given to me that that was all these men, the Prophet and my father, could do for me; from that day it depended upon me and upon me alone as to whether I made a success of my life or a failure.”
- Growing Older
  - “I have been very, very grateful for the attendance at our meetings, and I wish to leave with the people my faith and my prayers for their welfare. I would like to say to you good people that the Lord never makes any promises but what He fulfills them, and He has promised that when we do His will He will bless us, that He will guide us, that He will help us, and I am anxious always to try to get the Latter-day Saints to do the will of the Lord.”
  - “Let us do our best to encourage our boys in the army to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ as perfectly as though they were in the mission field, and to seek God for the guidance of His Spirit and its protecting care. Encourage your loved ones. I regret beyond all my powers of expression that we have to send our boys to war, and I feel that we would not have needed to do it if we had been governed properly.”
October 1940 General Conference
- Expressions of Gratitude
  - “I am thankful beyond expression for the very wonderful and splendid moving picture that has been made of Brigham Young. I have heard some little criticism of it, but we cannot expect the people who do not know that Brigham Young was in very deed the representative of God upon this earth, who do not know his wonderful character, to tell the story as we would tell it. We know that he was a prophet of the living God and the representative of the Lord here upon the earth. There is nothing in the picture that reflects in any way against our people. It is a very marvelous and wonderful thing, considering how people generally have treated us and what they have thought of us. Of course there are many things in the picture that are not strictly correct, and that is announced in the picture itself. It is of course a picture and we could not hope that they would make a picture at their expense, running into a couple of million dollars, to be just as we would like it. We know that Brigham Young was a powerful and wonderful man, the greatest man of his day, and one of the great things about Brigham Young was that he always gave credit to Joseph Smith for everything that he did. He claimed that he was simply building upon the foundation laid by the prophet of God, who had seen God and conversed with Jesus Christ. He never doubted for one minute the final triumph of the people here in Utah. He was a man of God, and the people thought the world and all of him.”
- Closing Remarks and Blessing
  - “I know as I know that I live, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Redeemer of mankind. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and the living God, and the instrument in the hands of God of again restoring to the earth the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the plan of life and salvation. I leave my blessing upon the righteous people of all the world. I bless the Latter-day Saints at home and abroad, those holding positions of trust, and those that have gone forth to proclaim the Gospel. I promise them that the Spirit of the Lord shall attend them if they live clean and pure lives.”
April 1940 General Conference
- A Telegraph
  - “I sympathize with our young people because of the temptations that beset them. I urge them, as I always have, to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ fully. In that way they will have health and happiness, and will meet with success in this life and will have an eternity of joy in store for them in the life to come. I bless them with courage to meet the problems that lie ahead.”
October 1939 General Conference
- Following the Lord
  - “Every true Latter-day Saint is a servant of the Lord desiring to know what the Lord would like him to do, and although their own personal ambitions might be vastly different from those of ourselves, yet men are learning that a real, genuine Latter-day Saint is a man worthy to be trusted in all particulars because he desires to know the mind and will of God.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Any man who does not believe in Joseph Smith as a prophet of the true and the living God has no right to be in this Church.”
April 1939 General Conference
- Marvelous Record
  - “We are the architects—not only the architects but we are also the builders of our own lives. If a man knows the mind and will of the Lord and fails to do it, he is drifting away from that straight and narrow path that leads to life eternal.”
  - “I have never seen the day since I became the president of the Tooele Stake of Zion, at the time I was not yet twenty-four years of age, when I did not want to know what the President of the Church wanted, and what the leading officials of the Church wanted me to do, and that I did not want to do whatever they would have me do, no matter what my personal likes or dislikes might be.”
  - “If there is anything in a belief which involves an eternity of future existence, there is everything.”
  - “Faith and knowledge without practice are of no value. All the knowledge in the world would not amount to anything unless we put that knowledge into actual practice.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Why is it that every missionary who fulfills a good mission says it is the best time of his life? It is because we have the truth and they are nearer to the Lord when in the mission field than in any other place.”
October 1938 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “How I do thank the Lord that I have an abiding and absolute knowledge that He lives, that He is my Father, that He hears and answers my prayers! How I do thank the Lord—it is beyond my ability to express my gratitude—for a knowledge that His Son is my Redeemer and yours; that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ visited the boy Joseph Smith, and that Moroni delivered into his hands the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated! I thank the Lord that when I read the Book of Mormon there came into my soul a testimony that it is exactly what it purports to be. I fell in love with Nephi, and more than any other character, except my Redeemer, in the Bible or the Book of Mormon he has been my guiding star.”
  - “We should have an ambition, we should have a desire to work to the full extent of our ability. Work is pleasing to the Lord.”
April 1938 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “There are two spirits striving with all men—one telling them what to do that is right, and one telling them what to do that will please themselves, that will gratify their own pride and ambition. If we live as we ought to live we will always follow that spirit that teaches us to do that which is right.”
  - “No man can teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ under the inspiration of the living God and with power from on high unless he is living it. He can go on as a member and we will pray for him, no matter how many years it may require, and we will never put a block in his way, because the Gospel is one of love and of forgiveness, but we want true men and women as our officers in the Priesthood and in the Relief Societies. And a man has no right to be in a high council who can not stand up and say that he knows the Gospel is true and that he is living it.”
October 1937 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “Let me tell you that where there is one idler among the sisters there are about twenty-five idlers among the brethren.”
  - “The keeping of the commandments of the Lord gives us success in the battle of life.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “No man can proclaim this Gospel by the Spirit of the Living God unless that man is living his religion; and with this great undertaking that we have before us now we must renew our loyalty to God, and I believe beyond a shadow of doubt that God inspires and blesses, and multiplies our substance when we are honest with him.”
  - “I pray from the bottom of my heart that God will give each and every man and woman who holds an office in any stake or ward the spirit and the feeling and the determination from this day, to renew his covenants with God, to live his religion; and if we are too weak to do these things, we should step aside and let somebody else take our place.”
April 1937 General Conference
- Reflections
  - “This morning I repeated ten hymns while lying in bed, trying to go to sleep. Sometimes I can get to sleep before I can repeat all the verses of “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief,” seven long verses. Generally I can get to sleep by the time I have repeated four verses; but I tried to get to sleep this morning by repeating ten first-class prayers to the Lord. The song of the righteous, we are told, is a prayer unto the Lord, and I rejoice in praying to the Lord in those songs morning after morning, and have done so, I am sure, for thirty long years. I have learned that by repeating hymns, and taking some exercises, and then sitting up and talking to a dictaphone I become level enough in my mind to go to sleep. After trying for about two and one-half hours to go to sleep this morning I finally did get to sleep.”
  - “With the help of the Lord, to the very best of my ability, I warned this people not to vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. I warned them against lies that were being circulated to the effect that there was more drunkenness and more use of liquor than there had been when we did not have Prohibition. Millions of dollars of money, I am sure, was expended to have the Eighteenth Amendment repealed. I have seen scores and scores of drunkards since it was repealed, and I have seen women go into restaurants and sit down and drink those things that we as Latter-day Saints know they should not drink.”
  - “The Lord God Almighty gave to us a revelation, and there is seldom a conference when someone does not take it upon himself to tell us: “Please do not speak on the Word of Wisdom. We hear it so much, we are sick and tired of it.” Let me tell you something: No mortal man who is a Latter-day Saint and is keeping the Word of Wisdom is ever sick and tired of hearing it. When a man leaves a meeting and says (I have heard it in the dark): “Can’t they find something else to, talk about besides the Word of Wisdom; I am sick and tired of it” of course he is, because he is full of stuff that the Word of Wisdom tells him to leave alone. In the slang of the town, he could not “give himself away” any plainer than when he says he is sick and tired of the Word of Wisdom. I thank God nearly every day of my life for the Word of Wisdom.”
- Governance of the Church
  - “We know as we know that we live that we have the truth. We have absolute confidence as the Presidency of the Church in the men whom we recommend for the apostleship. President Smith, in my judgment, although he called twelve men to the Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve during his life, made no mistake in any one of the men that he called. It may sound egotistical, but I am sure I have made no mistakes in the appointments to these quorums that I have made.”
October 1936 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “Do you know, I do not think work ever hurts anybody. I do not know of anything that destroys a person’s health more quickly than not working. It seems to me that lazy people die young while those who are ready and willing to labor and who ask the Lord day by day to help them to do more in the future than they have ever done in the past, these are the people whom the Lord loves, and they live to a good old age.”
April 1936 General Conference
- How Marvelous is the Church
  - “The powers of heaven have been handled in this Church from the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith until today upon the principles of righteousness.”
  - “I can say that the blessings of the Lord have been poured out in rich abundance upon every man who has stood at the head of this Church, because they have all sought righteously for the inspiration of the Spirit of God to guide them in all they have undertaken to do.”
- Fundamental Beliefs of the Church
  - “I am convinced without doubt, that a revelation in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, known as the Word of Wisdom, given by the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, to the Prophet Joseph Smith over one hundred years ago, would solve the economic problems not only of our country but of every other country, if it were obeyed by the people of the world.”
  - “Another thing that is needed is to maintain the Constitution of our country.”
October 1935 General Conference
- Let Us Build Our Faith
  - “Let us get faith as a people. Let us so order our lives that we are entitled to an increase of that faith. I am thankful that I know of no man or woman who ever joined this Church and attended his or her sacrament meetings, partaking of the sacrament in remembrance of the suffering of our Savior and his death; who was honest and conscientious in the payment of his or her tithes; who divided with the Lord as perfectly as they would ask the Lord to divide with them if they were making up the account; who have kept the Word of Wisdom—I have never known such an individual to lose his or her faith. But I have seen men and women apostatize from the Church and almost without exception I have seen that apostasy come upon them gradually.”
- The Bible
  - “I want to say that I know, from personal testimony to me, that in the University that I have contributed of my means to assist in its support, some teachers have been guilty of asking questions that they have no business to ask. Men who are drawing salaries are asking questions that create a disbelief in the Bible. If they would just control their tongues and teach what they are paid to teach, I for one would be grateful to them. When teachers stand before their classes and ask students to hold up their hands in answer to a question whether they believe something that is in the Bible, such instructors are doing that which I think they should refrain from doing, because that is not what they are paid for. Let the Bible alone, and not attempt to get a “ha-ha” out of those who do not believe its teachings.”
April 1935 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “When we say that we believe in God we mean that we believe in him as an individuality, as actually the Father of Jesus Christ—not a congeries of laws floating through the universe without form and void, but we believe him to be the Father of Jesus Christ. He is the God whom we as Latter-day Saints worship; and we believe Jesus Christ to be, not only one of the great moral teachers, the greatest the world has ever known, but the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind, that he came to earth with a divinely appointed mission, to die on the cross, in order that you and I and all eventually may have part in the resurrection.”
  - “We believe emphatically in what it says, “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” We have no faith in death-bed repentance. We have no faith that by making a confession just before death we can be saved.”
  - “May the Lord help us to sustain the law, and may we obey the law of God and leave alone those things that the Lord has told us are not good for us.”
  - “Those who are not keeping the Word of Wisdom will say that they get sick and tired of hearing such talks. They will get it from me as long as I have breath.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Like all the conferences that I have attended during the past fifty-two years, it is the best we have ever had. I have heard that expression regarding all the general conferences of the Church; and the only way that I can account for it is that we are hungry, and the same bread and butter tastes a little better when we have an appetite than it does otherwise although it is the same material.”
October 1934 General Conference
- Funeral Remarks
  - “There are many of us who make friends and sometimes make enemies. If Brother Hart had an enemy I have never heard of it. I have always heard people speak of him in the highest terms. To have a perfect and abiding knowledge that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and to devote the best that is in us to carry that knowledge to others and to inspire others to try to obtain it, is the highest labor I believe in which any of us can be engaged, and this was the labor of Brother Hart during the latter part of his life as one of the General Authorities of the Church, and it was a labor that he took pleasure in performing.”
- Closing Address
  - “There are those who have been forced into taking bankruptcy. That is what it is for. We can not help that. We can not help it if a bigger man than we are knocks us down, but we should never lie down and ask somebody to step on us.”
  - “I have never felt so humiliated in my life over anything as that the state of Utah voted for the repeal of prohibition. I do not want to interfere with any man’s rights or privileges. I do not want to dictate to any man. But when the Lord gives a revelation and tells me what is for my financial benefit and the financial benefit of this people, because “of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days,” I do think that at least the Latter-day Saints should listen to what the Lord has said.”
April 1934 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “Each and every year the Church is stronger than it was the year before. The Church is progressing, it is not going backward. Men may make mistakes, but the Church stands firm.”
  - “I am very happy indeed to feel that the Church does not make mistakes; that the Church has been true to its divine commission from the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph, and in fact from the time of the organization of the Church until the present.”
  - “I was astounded when one as weak as myself was called to be an apostle. It seemed almost beyond anything believable that I could become the president of the Church. But I am very thankful indeed today at being able to sleep with a clear conscience. I am very thankful that I have no fault to find except with my lack of ability and my lack of knowledge, but not with my lack of energy, or my lack of determination and willingness to labor. I am grateful for the little that I have accomplished, and rejoice that in all my labors I have found nothing that has in the slightest degree weakened my faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “We want them to know by personal conversation, by sitting down and talking with the young man or the young woman, that he or she has a willingness to go on a mission. I am not asking that they shall have a testimony; but I want them to be clean, and I haven’t the least doubt on earth, if they go out clean and with a desire to serve, that God will give them not only faith but a knowledge of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged.”
October 1933 General Conference
- Word of Wisdom
  - “Let me promise you right here and now that if you vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment, there will be a great many more professing Latter-day Saints who will be drunkards than there have been while the Eighteenth Amendment has been in force.”
  - “By the way, I received a postal card—the man who sent it did not have the courage to sign his name—asking me not to talk on the Word of Wisdom at this conference. I request each and every Latter-day Saint within the sound of my voice to read what I said about the Word of Wisdom just six months ago. Every word that I said I meant, and among other things I said I hoped and prayed that we as a people would not vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. Really, I was almost tempted this morning to read my whole sermon over again, and let it go at that, I think I shall have it printed—in fact I will have it printed, and anyone of you who wants a copy, or a half dozen copies of it, can write and get them.”
- Hunger for Conference
  - “The main reason why each conference seems to be the best is that we have an appetite for such things. On one occasion after I had been shoveling snow for many hours, being on a delayed train at the time, dry bread tasted very sweet. It almost makes my mouth water today as I think of Zebulon Jacobs, in a snow blockade between here and Ogden, inviting me into his car and taking a piece of iron and breaking an old piece of bread and dividing it with me. Hunger makes food very delicious. Hunger for the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us enjoy these conferences.”
April 1933 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “Many Latter-day Saints remark, “Well, it was not given by command, therefore we do not need to obey it.” No true Latter-day Saint is justified in saying that if the Lord reveals his will to man it is not his duty to obey it unless the Lord commands him to do so. The will of God, in what? “—in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days—” And let me add, for the temporal salvation of all people in all parts of the world in the last days.”
  - “I call to mind that upon one occasion a man ridiculed the Latter-day Saints, saying, “You people are always happy. If a man hits a Mormon and knocks him down, the Mormon thanks the Lord because he needed a little chastisement; and if you hit at a Mormon and miss him, he thanks the Lord for not getting hit.””
April 1932 General Conference
- Opening and Statistics
  - “I am tempted to ask the government to prosecute the people who use the mails to circulate malicious falsehoods. But there is something about the fact that when you handle a smoky, sooty stove-pipe you get your hands soiled.”
- Closing Address
  - “I have had a letter from one who was excommunicated in which he wanted to know when the time would come when we would stop treating the best blood of the Church that way, namely, by cutting them off the Church. I answered: When people quit going into adultery, so to speak, and calling it celestial marriage, maybe it will stop, so far as they are concerned.”
  - “In preaching on the Word of Wisdom, or preaching about cards, or preaching about anything else along the line of the teachings of the Authorities of the Church, if anybody preaches without charity he is not preaching according to the laws of the Gospel.”
  - “I want to say to all of our young people that I hope they will never get the impression that because they fail to live up to the Word of Wisdom and other teachings of this Church there is any hatred in my heart towards them. I try to even love my enemies, to say nothing about the sons and the daughters of men and women who would readily give their lives for this cause.”
October 1931 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I believe that the very best liars I have any acquaintance with are those who have been cut off from the Church and cast out. They seem to be very active at the present time, making statements that our property is being mortgaged, etc., notwithstanding the fact that there is no Church property mortgaged. Any person could go down to the county court house in any of the counties and find out if; the Church’s property is mortgaged. There is no part of the property of any one of the wards or stakes in our Church, or of the general Church property, that is mortgaged.”
  - “A true Latter-day Saint is living a life that is above reproach. He is living a life that stamps him in the eyes of all honest, conscientious people as a man worthy of respect and one who can be relied upon, because the true Latter-day Saint believes in God and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. He believes in sustaining the laws of God and the laws of his country, and in living a virtuous, true, upright life. No man can be a true Latter-day Saint without being worthy of the confidence of all men, without regard to whether they believe as he does or have any respect for his beliefs.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “In case any person fails to fully appreciate the plain statement of President Ivins that the book to which he referred is to be considered as the personal opinion of the author and not as having been approved by the Church, I wish all the members of the Church to know that when any book has the approval of the Church it will have the stamp of approval of the Presidency of the Church. Therefore, no agent selling any books is justified in quoting the Church as approving a book that does not carry the stamp of approval in it.”
April 1931 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “There are always to be found in any large group of people some who are uninformed, credulous, and easily susceptible to the persuasions of more forceful personalities. Such persons are often well-meaning and at heart very devoted to the Church. It is a matter of sorrow and deep regret to us that some such members of the Church have been inveigled by designing men and fanatics into the support and practice of unlawful relations. It is largely for the protection of such class of people within the Church and similarly minded converts to the Church that we feel the necessity of stressing this unpleasant subject so much.”
  - “The machinations of the proponents of unlawful marriages are, of course, carried on largely in secret. The Church has no adequate way of thwarting their endeavors before much harm is often done; although the officers of the Church, from the highest to the least, are definitely instructed to be constantly “on the watch for such teaching and propagandists. We have hesitated somewhat to make public statements or denials to charges and false assertions published in literature sent out by these enemies of the Church and its administration, because we have felt that- added publicity to their pernicious statements would be gratifying to them and probably useless in stemming their activity. There is scarcely a man among the leading authorities who has not been defamed by them, both in print and speech.”
  - “They have circulated their literature as widely as possible with their available means, even sending defamatory pamphlets to the missionaries of the Church in their fields of labor, extending to Europe. We suppose that in some instances this material may fall into the hands of investigators, weak members of the Church, and others who already, by reason of misrepresentation, are prejudiced against us. There are some, undoubtedly, among these who give credence to that which they read, although, of course, we should be able to expect and we do expect that no missionary of the Church would credit such false assertions.”
  - “Now, in conclusion, let me state again, as I have done many times before—and my statement is meant for every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for our neighbors and friends who dwell in the communities where we live, and for the whole world—that the Church does not countenance, aid, abet, tolerate or sanction in any way, shape or form the contracting of so-called “plural marriages,” but that on the contrary it absolutely forbids the members of the Church from entering into any such unlawful relations or teaching or encouraging such practices, and that it will continue in the future as it has done in the past to deal with and punish to the extent of its authority any persons who violate these injunctions. I do not know how to make it plainer or more forceful. If I did I would do so.”
  - “We may always expect to be assailed from without, but it seems to me we can reasonably hope that within the Church our solemn statements of fact and principle will be received at face value. It may be that among those who so malign the Church and its leaders are some who are conscientious in their endeavors. I am sorry that they are so simple and misguided as to permit themselves to be allied with those who, by reason of their propaganda and activity, are among the most malicious enemies of the Church. I pray that their eyes may be opened and their course set right. I pray also that all the people of the Church in all parts of the world may unite in a determined effort to abolish from the inside of the Church at least these insidious efforts and unlawful practices which are calculated to bring so much reproach upon us.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “We hear a great deal about obeying the Constitution of the United States. What is the matter with our obeying the constitution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? What is the matter with us being honest in obeying the laws of Almighty God by paying our tithing? There are a great many people who are very active in preaching this Gospel who fail to obey it themselves. Let us obey it, and then we shall find that there is no power on earth or beneath the earth that can stop us in good works.”
  - “May God help us each and all to live in such way and manner that his Spirit may be our constant guide and companion, I ask in the name of Jesus and in the authority of the priesthood of the living God that I hold. May God bless the people; may he bless the General, the Stake and the Ward authorities and the officers of the auxiliary organizations throughout the Church. May he bless the missionaries at home and abroad, and may he inspire the people to do missionary work.”
October 1930 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “May the Lord bless each and every one who has a testimony of the divinity of this work to so live the Gospel that his life will proclaim its message to the people of the world. The promise is made that those who will do the will of the Father shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether it be of man.”
April 1930 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “The Book of Mormon does not in any degree conflict with or take the place of the Holy Bible, but is the strongest corroborative evidence in existence of the divine origin of that sacred record. It has been before the world for more than a century, during which time no statement contained in it, whether it refers to the civil history or the religion of the people who kept the record, has been proved to be untrue.”
- A Blessing
  - “One of the most earnest prayers of my heart all my life has been that I should be able to live to be worthy of such a father and such a mother as were given to me.”
  - “We talk about the missionary work of the Elders who go forth to proclaim the Gospel; we talk about the great pioneer work of the early settlers of this country, but I wish to say here that it is the mothers at home who are making the sacrifice for the boys to go into the mission field. It is the mothers who stand the hardships far more than the men. Men are engaged in many activities, and without the devotion and absolute testimony of the living God in the hearts of our mothers this Church would die. May God bless the mothers of men, is my most humble prayer; and I do bless them in the name of God our Heavenly Father and in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “We have a lower death rate than the great life insurance companies. A wicked people never have a low death rate. We have a low divorce rate. We have a low insanity rate.”
October 1929 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “To me it is a marvel that any man having a testimony of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged as Latter-day Saints can sing lullabies to his conscience, figuratively speaking, and not be absolutely honest with the Lord in the payment of his tithes.”
April 1929 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I believe that I can say without fear of contradiction that we; as a people demonstrate by our actions that our religion is dearer to us and of more actual value than is the religion of any other people in the world to them.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “We have the testimony of Joseph Smith and the testimony of three witnesses to the effect that God gave them a knowledge regarding the Book of Mormon, that an angel of God declared from heaven that the book had been translated by the gift and power of God. These men were Oliver Cowdery. David Whitmer and Martin Harris. They left the Church, but to the day of their death they maintained their testimony regarding the declaration of the angel, and that they were commanded to bear witness of the divinity of this book, and they did so. Eight men, some of whom were excommunicated from the Church, maintained their testimony that they had seen and handled the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and they remained true to that testimony to the day of their death. The disbelief of all the world does not prove that those men did not tell the truth, because there are no witnesses on the other side.”
October 1928 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “The Presidency of the Church so far as they are concerned, allow every man, woman and child, that is old enough to vote, to vote according to his or her own conviction. But we do appeal to all men and women, realizing the responsibility resting upon them, to seek God our Heavenly Father to guide them politically as well as religiously, and to stand for right and for those things that are for the good of this nation.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “May we so order our lives that by our diligence, our faithfulness, our honesty, our integrity, our uprightness in all the walks of life, we can preach the gospel, is my most sincere and earnest prayer for every soul who has a testimony of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
April 1928 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I pray that the Lord will inspire each and all of us to greater diligence in performing to the full extent of our ability the duties and the labors that devolve upon us in doing vicarious work for our dead.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “I pray that all men and all women who hold any place of responsibility, no matter how high or how low, may magnify their callings and preach the gospel by their example of righteousness, that they may grow and increase in influence with God, and with those over whom they preside. I promise every soul holding any place of responsibility that the blessings of the Almighty shall be and abide with him if he strive, to the full extent of his ability, to magnify his callings.”
October 1927 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I wish that I had the ability to impress upon the Latter-day Saints the necessity of searching the commandments of God, the revelations from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants. If we as a people would live up to those wonderful revelations that have come to us, we would be a bright and shining light to all the wide world.”
April 1927 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “The very foundation of the Church rests upon the fact that a boy not yet 15 years of age saw God himself, a glorified man, beyond the power of any individual to describe, and that God introduced Jesus Christ to this boy. The very foundation of the Church rests upon the further fact that the man who baptized the Savior of the world, John the Baptist, laid his hands upon the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and ordained them to the Aaronic Priesthood, with the authority to baptize each other and commanding them to do so; that Peter, James and John, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, laid their hands upon the heads of these men and ordained them to the apostleship, giving to them the power to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and build up his Church in the world.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “We believe and teach, and have taught from my earliest recollection that God has protected and fought on the side of America in all of the struggles we have had for liberty; that he was with Washington and his armies. We sustain and uphold the president of the United States and the officers of this great country. We rejoice in the wonderful response that has been made upon all occasions by the Latter-day Saints to calls for money and for men to fight the battles of our country, and in all things to sustain and uphold this country.”
  - “I have the most supreme and absolute contempt for men who are guilty of proclaiming that virtue should not be maintained; that there is no sin in sexual intercourse. It is the doctrine of devils. It is an inspiration from the devil himself, and the men who defend things of this kind are instruments in his hands to try to destroy virtue and to wipe from the earth liberty and right, and all that is of real genuine worth to humanity.”
October 1926 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “The one supreme thing that devolves upon me, upon you and upon every Latter-day Saint is the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in public and in private, and above all to proclaim the gospel in our lives, by being absolutely honest in keeping the commandments of the Lord.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Every man and woman who is laboring for the salvation of the souls of men and keeping the commandments of God is entitled to be blessed, and I pray God that his blessings may come to them.”
April 1926 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I rejoice in the growth of the work of God. I rejoice in the integrity and devotion and the willing self-sacrifice of the people. I am very thankful for all of the many blessings that have come to us as a people, from the time when that great pioneer, Brigham Young, and that wonderful band of men and women, one hundred and forty odd, first came to this valley. I am thankful for the blessings of the Lord that have attended the Saints, notwithstanding the drivings and the persecutions and the mobbings that they have had to endure during the 96 years since the organization of the Church.”
  - “A whip helps a horse to go a little bit further, but it does not add any strength to the horse, and no narcotic or stimulant that creates an appetite for itself is good for man or woman. And thank the Lord we have his word to that effect.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Move where you cannot be forgotten and where there is an organized stake or ward of the Church. There is plenty of opportunity in the organized stakes of Zion for those who want to change their location here in Utah and in Idaho and in Canada.”
October 1925 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “There is nothing that qualifies a man so much for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as to study the revelations that the Lord has seen fit -to give us in our day.”
  - “What kind of men and women should we be, as Latter-day Saints, in view of this wonderful knowledge that we possess, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God? We should be the most honest, the most virtuous, the most charitable-minded, “the best people upon the face of the earth.”
April 1925 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “I announced in those meetings, in some of which the majority of the audience were non-members of the Church, that every Latter-day Saint must subscribe to the doctrine that God himself visited the boy Joseph Smith, and that God himself introduced Jesus Christ to the boy as his well-beloved Son. I announced to these audiences that among the Latter-day Saints there is no evidence of “modernism” so-called, and that no man or woman will be fellowshiped in this Church who denies the individuality, the personality of God, or that Jesus Christ is in very deed the Son of the living God, the Redeemer of the world.”
  - “I reiterate that men who do not obey the Word of Wisdom are not worthy to stand as examples before the people, to be invited into private priesthood meetings and to discuss matters for the welfare of the Church of God. Their disobedience shows a lack of faith in the work of God. I shall not take your time to read all of the Word of Wisdom, but I shall take time to read the words of the living God that must be acknowledged by every Latter-day Saint to be the word of God, or he or she is not entitled to be a member of this Church. After telling us what is good for us, the Lord makes a promise that is one of the most marvelous, one of the most uplifting and inspiring promises that could possibly be made to mortal man.”
  - “I would rather die in poverty knowing that my family could testify that, to the best of the ability with which God had endowed me, I had observed his laws and kept his commandments, and by my example, had proclaimed the gospel, than to have all the wealth of the world.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “I know of nothing that I have enjoyed more in our conference than the brief testimonies of the men who stand at the head of the various stakes of Zion. There was a burning power in those testimonies of their individual knowledge regarding the divinity of this work. It is that personal knowledge, that still, small voice of revelation coming to every honest, prayerful soul, in answer to prayer, which gives the power to this Church. Without this individual testimony, coming as it does to men and women all over the world when they hear this gospel and supplicate God for his spirit, we would not be what we are today—a united people, one in heart and soul, one with God and one with our Savior.”
October 1924 General Conference
- Opening Discourse
  - “This Church is, as I read to you it should be, a marvelous work and a wonder. There is nothing like it in all the world, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God established it, and is the head of it; because Jesus Christ manifested himself to the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery, and to others; and because God, in answer to prayer, has given to people all over the wide world where the Gospel has gone, an individual knowledge and testimony regarding the divinity of the work in which we are engaged.”
April 1924 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I know of nothing for which we, as Latter-day Saints, should be more grateful than the absolute knowledge that every Latter-day Saints has, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, the Son of the living God. All over the world today, even among professed Christians, there is a lack of faith in the divinity of the Savior.”
  - “There is too much neglect in having communion with God on the part of many of the Latter-day Saints. I feel a joy and a happiness every day of my life in communicating with my Maker, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer.”
- Closing Address
  - “Many men say: “If I could only see an angel, if I could only hear an angel proclaim something, that would cause me to be faithful all the days of my life!” It had no effect upon these men that were not serving the Lord, and it would have no effect today.”
October 1923 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “Above all it is the desire of the Presidency of the Church and the General Authorities that the Latter-day Saints may grow in the light, the knowledge, and the testimony of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has been restored to the earth again, through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith. While we rejoice in the material prosperity of the people, we rejoice more in the growth of faith and knowledge and the love of God and a desire to serve him on their part.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “Latter-day Saints realize, know and comprehend that one of the greatest duties devolving upon them is to gain knowledge, and to study and get information out of good books.”
April 1923 General Conference
- Opening Remarks
  - “Every Latter-day Saint should have a desire, above all other things, that his life should proclaim the Truth, and that his life should be a teacher of the Truth, not only to the world, but especially to his own family.”
October 1922 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I believe that every Latter-day Saint who has any idea in his or her heart that some law has been passed that is not a righteous law, after it has been fought out in the courts and has been decided, whatever the decision may be, by the highest tribunal of our great and glorious country, the Supreme Court of the United States, that it is his duty to obey such law. I believe that every Latter-day Saint—and by the way no man is a Latter-day Saint who drinks whisky—but any “Mormon” who drinks whisky today knows that he is in condemnation before the Lord Almighty, whether he is the one who bought the whisky, or whether he is simply a partaker of it. I believe that every Latter-day’ Saint owes it to himself to uphold and sustain what is known as the cigarette law, and I believe that we as a people should know by the announcement of every man who is to be elected to the legislature, that he will stand for that law, and if he will not so announce himself, if his opponent, no matter what his politics may be, will stand for that law, that we ought to bury our politics and vote for the man favoring the retaining and enforcing of the cigarette law.”
  - “Politics reminds me very much of the measles. The measles don’t hurt much if you will take a little saffron tea or something else to keep them on the surface, but if they once set in on you, they turn your hide yellow and sometimes make you cross-eyed. So do not let politics set in on you. I believe absolutely in the best men for office. I believe in honest, upright, good men being chose to occupy places and positions in the state and in the Church.”
  - “I was preaching one night with the late President John Henry Smith, in the opera house in Phoenix. The legislature was in session. Hearing that two of the “Mormon” apostles were there, some of the members of the legislature waited on us and said they had arranged to hire the opera house, and they would agree to fill it if we would condescend to preach. Well, we usually hire our own hall and condescend to preach to empty benches ; so, of course, we condescended, and were delighted with the opportunity. One of the good sisters who came down from Mesa was sitting behind a man while I was preaching, and she heard him say, with emphasis, that I was an earnest preacher. Pretty soon, with that emphasis again, he said I was a good preacher, and finally once more with emphasis he said: “That man believes (with emphasis) every word he is saying.” I ask no greater compliment.”
- Closing Address
  - “We are a nation—small nation, so to speak—of preachers, but the greatest and the most wonderful preacher among the Latter-day Saints is the man or the woman who lives the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Show me thy faith by thy works” is the thing that counts. James said that he would show his faith by his works, and that faith without works is dead. It is like the body without the spirit, and you know that needs to be buried very soon after the spirit departs, or it becomes obnoxious. It is by our works, our diligence, our faithfulness, our energy, that we can preach this gospel, and the people of the world are beginning to recognize, to know and to comprehend the fact that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by the Latter-day Saints, are good fruits.”
April 1922 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I am delighted to say that within the last week, I have placed an order for a suit of clothes from goods made at the Knight Woolen factory. Go thou and do likewise. I am delighted to say that I am standing in shoes that are made here at home. Go thou and do likewise. We sing, “We thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days,” but many of us ought to put a postscript on it, “Provided he doesn’t guide us to do something that we do not want to do.””
- Closing Address
  - “The head of the health department, Dr. Beatty, has requested me to say to the Latter-day Saints that there are more injurious ingredients in coca-cola than there are in coffee, and particularly when some of the good people say: “Give me the double shot.” I say to the Latter-day Saints, and it is my right to say it—because you have sung, since this conference started (whether you meant it or not, I am not saying)— “We thank Thee, O God, for a prophet.” Now, if you mean it—I am not going to give any command, but I will ask it as a personal, individual favor to me, to let coca-cola alone. There are plenty of other things you can get at the soda fountains without drinking that which is injurious. The Lord does not want you to use any drug that creates an appetite for itself.”
October 1921 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “In these hard times financially, I want to repeat to the Latter-day Saints my firm belief that God our heavenly Father prospers and blesses and gives wisdom to those men and to those women who are strictly honest with him in the payment of their tithing. I believe that when a man is in financial difficulty, the best way to get out of that difficulty (and I speak from personal experience, because I believe that more than once in my life I have been in the financial mud as deep as almost anybody) is to be absolutely honest with the Lord, and never to allow1 a dollar to come into our hands without the Lord receiving ten per cent of it. The Lord does not need your money or mine. Compliance with the law of tithing and donations for ward meetinghouses, stake houses, academies, temples, missionary work and these various needs, are all for our good. They are but lessons that we are learning which will qualify and prepare us to become more godlike and to be fitted to go back into the presence of our heavenly Father.”
  - “Let us be charitable in these hard times. Let us not oppress our brothers who may be owing us a little, if we can possibly avoid it. Let us be hopeful and cheerful and happy. Why, we are in a magnificent condition in comparison with the time when the crickets were destroying the crops of our fathers and mothers. We are in a magnificent condition in comparison with the early days when people went around bare-footed, when they had one suit of clothes, when they had one pound of butter in a whole year, as some of us did in our houses. Let us study economy, let us be kind and charitable, and above all, let us serve God with full purpose of heart, be honest in our tithes and offerings, liberal in doing these things with our means that shall be for the benefit and uplift of God’s kingdom.”
- Closing Address
  - “Since our last meeting here, in general conference, one of the most faithful and best beloved, and most remarkable workers in the Church among our sisters, has passed away, the late Emmeline B. Wells, who lives in the hearts and memory of the people. She bore testimony to the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, from my earliest recollection until she passed away, some ninety-odd years of age, with a power, a force, and a spirit that I have seldom heard from the lips of any person. I rejoice that she had the opportunity of traveling over the stakes of Zion, from Canada to Mexico, and in many foreign lands, in attending many gatherings of noted women in the world, at home in these United States and abroad. Wherever she went she bore that testimony and, by the integrity of her heart, by the wonderful and splendid intellect that she had, and above all, by the burning testimony of the divinity of this work, in which we as Latter-day Saints are engaged, she made friends for this people among all those with whom she came in contact.”
April 1921 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I would rejoice beyond all the power which God has given me to express my feelings, if the Latter-day Saints could express their opinions in times of political campaigns without animosity, without vindictiveness, that they could simply proclaim those principles in which they believe, without indulging in personalities.”
- Closing Address
  - “That is what I said; that is what I mean. The idea that any man claiming to believe the teachings of this revelation saying that he has today the right to perform plural marriages, is utterly absurd. We have cut such men off from the Church.”
  - “But I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that no man upon the face of the earth has any right or any authority to perform a plural marriage, and there are no plural marriages today in the Church of Christ, because no human being has the right to perform them. Therefore, any person pretending to have that right is attempting to exercise an authority that he does not have, and therefore he does not perform a marriage and there is no marriage covenant when such ceremonies are performed.”
October 1920 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I am anxious to see the Latter-day Saints devoted to the work of God above everything else in the world; and I have never been so pained in my life as I have been during the past few months over the conditions—political, financial, and otherwise—that we find among the people. The spirit of bitterness that seems to exist in the hearts of some true, faithful and honest Latter-day Saints, because of their difference of ideas and opinions on business matters and political matters is very painful to me. I do hope and pray, with all my heart, that the Spirit of the Lord may come to the Latter-day Saints in great abundance; that this spirit of almost hatred and animosity, that seems to be existing today among the people may disappear.”
  - “Certainly Latter-day Saints ought to be as liberal in their judgments, as the cold law of the land; and certainly every man ought to be considered innocent in the estimation of the Latter-day Saints—particularly if that man is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has devoted his life for the up-building of God’s kingdom until such time as he has what is known as “his day in court.” We can afford, I believe, to be as liberal as the cold law itself.”
  - “I beg every Latter-day Saint to cultivate the spirit of charity, of long-suffering, and brotherly love. I say to all Latter-day Saints: Keep the commandments of God. That is my keynote speech, just those few words: Keep the commandments of God. Read the psalm that tells you not to fret your soul about the sinner. It is a magnificent psalm to read. I thought some of reading it here to this congregation, but I have read so much that I am afraid you will get tired of the reading. Keep the commandments of the Lord. Be honest with God. Never fail to pay an honest tithing to the Lord, on every dollar that comes into your hands. “Oh but,” says one, “the Church does not need it.” You are right; you are correct. The Church does not need it, but the man who has made covenant with the living God to keep his commandments, and then does not keep them, he needs it. A man who is not honest with the Lord should repent and be honest with the Lord, and then the windows of heaven shall open and God will pour down upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints blessings, if they are financially honest with the Lord. Observe the Word of Wisdom. Never indulge in those things that the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, has told us are not good for man.”
- Testimony of the Patriarch Hyrum Smith
  - “No mortal man who ever lived in this Church desired more to do good than did Hyrum Smith, the patriarch. I have it from the lips of my own sainted mother, that of all the men she was acquainted with in her girlhood days in Nauvoo, she admired Hyrum Smith most for his absolute integrity and devotion to God, and his loyalty to the prophet of God. And God honored that man by allowing to come from his loins the late beloved President Joseph F. Smith. The devil, through his emissaries, thought to destroy this Church by having them kill the prophet and the patriarch; but the son of the patriarch lived to be the Prophet of the living God, and his great-grandson sits here today as the Presiding Patriarch of the Church. Nothing can be done by the people of the world to retard the progress of the work of God. Murder and all that has been done against the Latter-day Saints has had no effect whatever. The work of God has gone steadily on from the day that the Church was organized with only six members.”
April 1920 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “I believe that it is the absolute right of men to combine together for their protection, for their advancement, for their welfare in unions, but as stated here, I deprecate the idea of their undertaking to dictate to those who will not join them. I believe this is all I desire to say upon that subject.”
  - “While our reputation has been bad, this reputation has come to us, how? Because of the lies, as a rule, by men who have been excommunicated from this Church. No loyal, patriotic American citizen wants the people of our country to be judged by the Benedict Arnolds that the country has produced; but the men of America desire that our country shall be judged by its achievements, by the men who have been loyal to that God-inspired instrument, the Constitution of our country. All we ask of any people upon the face of the earth is that they shall judge the Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, the prophet of the living God. by the record that he made in the few short years that he stood at the head of the Church.”
October 1919 General Conference
- Opening Address
  - “The trouble with a great many people is, they are not willing to pay the price; they are not willing to make the fight for success in the battle of life.”
  - “If there is any home in all the Church that does not have the Era, it simply shows that the people there are lacking in faith, that they think more of two dollars than they do of getting communications from the authorities of the Church, and important sermons, things which are of more value than the things of this world. You know there are a great many people who hold up copper cents in front of their eyes and hide dollars, and there are a great many who keep two dollars in their pockets and hide hundreds of dollars of inspiration and knowledge of great value to them through all time, and which will be of value to them in the great eternity to come.”
  - “No man can do that which is dishonest, or break laws of his country and be a true Latter-day Saint. No nation and no leaders of nations can do wrong, and break their obligations, but what they are just as much under condemnation before God and man as the other individual who does wrong. Truth will prevail.”
- On the League of Nations
  - “I regret exceedingly that in political controversies men seem to lack that courtesy and that respect for their opponents that I believe all Latter-day Saints ought to have. I have never yet heard a Democrat make a political speech that I felt was fair to the Republicans. Being a Democrat, I shall not say anything about what I think of the speeches of Republicans regarding Democrats. It is a strange thing—but they say that “Love is blind,” and some people have added, “and can’t smell.” I have sometimes thought that both statements were true.”
- Closing Remarks
  - “It was revealed to me there, sitting alone in the Navajo Indian Reservation, that I had done nothing to entitle me to the great honor of being an apostle, except that I had kept my life pure and sweet. It was revealed to me there that a council was held in heaven, exactly the same as we hold councils here. Matters were discussed, and there was presented the question of filling the two vacancies existing in the quorum of the Twelve Apostles ; that the conference had adjourned, and those two vacancies remained and ought to be filled. The question was: “Whom shall we call, in sending a revelation to fill those vacancies?” My father, Jedediah M. Grant, who died when I was a baby, only nine days old, asked God, our heavenly Father, that his son, Heber J. Grant, be called as an apostle, and Joseph Smith, the Prophet of this last dispensation, the man who, as a child, communed with God, our Father—who had communed with Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and was told by the Savior of the world to join none of the churches then extant, as they had all gone astray, and that he should be the instrument in the hands of God to restore the gospel again to the earth—that great Latter-day Prophet joined in the request made by my father, and the revelation was sent calling me to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
June 1919 General Conference
- Called to Be President
  - “We can do nothing, as recorded in that revelation, only as we exercise love and charity and kindness—love unfeigned. With the help of the Lord that is exactly how I shall administer, to the best of my ability, the priesthood of God that has come to me.”
  - “I have the testimonies from George Romney, from my mother, from other relatives of mine and from scores of people, that, upon the day when Sidney Rigdon endeavored to steal the Church of Christ and to become the leader, God manifested to the people upon that occasion, by the transfiguration of Brigham Young—so that he appeared as Joseph Smith, so that he spoke as Joseph Smith—and thereby the testimony came to the Saints that Brigham Young was the man to succeed Joseph Smith the Prophet of God.”
- Closing Address
  - “I have received a lot of anonymous letters, since I became President of the Church, telling me a great many things that people would like me to announce here, positions they would like me to take, etc., to all of which I shall pay no attention. Any person who wishes to write me a letter and give me pointers should not be afraid to sign his name.”
October 1918 General Conference
- Testimony
  - “I had perhaps gone one mile when in the kind providences of the Lord it was manifested to me perfectly so far as my intelligence is concerned—I did not see heaven, I did not see a council held there, but like Lehi of old, I seemed to see, and my very being was so saturated with the information that I received, as I stopped my animal and sat there and communed with heaven, that I am as absolutely convinced of the information that came to me upon that occasion as though the voice of God had spoken the words to me. It was manifested to me there and then as I sat there and wept for joy that it was not because of any particular intelligence that I possessed, that it was not because of any knowledge that I possessed more than a testimony of the gospel, that it was not because of my wisdom, that I had been called to be one of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ in this last dispensation, but it was because the prophet of God, the man who was the chosen instrument in the hands of the living God of establishing again upon the earth the plan of life and salvation, Joseph Smith, desired that I be called, and that my father, Jedediah M. Grant, who gave his life for the gospel, while one of the presidency of the Church, a counselor to President Brigham Young, and who had been dead for nearly twenty-six years, desired that his son should be a member of the Council of the Twelve. It was manifested to me that the prophet and my father were able to bestow upon me the apostleship because of their faithfulness, inasmuch as I had lived a clean life, that now it remained for me to make a success or a failure of that calling.”
April 1918 General Conference
- War with Germany
  - “May the Lord help us who know the Truth to go on proclaiming it, and bringing people to a knowledge of the Redeemer, and teaching them to love their fellow men instead of robbing and killing them, is my prayer and desire.”
October 1917 General Conference
- Being Faithful
  - “I rejoice in knowing that all the Latter-day Saints with whom I have come in contact for thirty-five years, who have been tithe-payers, who have been observers of the Word of Wisdom, who have attended their fast and sacrament meetings, who have attended to their prayers and have supplicated God for the guidance of his Spirit, have just as an abiding testimony and as firm a knowledge and conviction of the divinity of this work, and of the inspiration which has attended the men who have presided over it, as I possess.”
April 1917 General Conference
- Missionary Work
  - “I want to bear witness that the gift of tongues, and the gift of healing, and the inspiration of Almighty God have accompanied the proclamation of this gospel all over the wide world. The evidences, the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ, have accompanied the preaching of it in every land and in every clime.”
October 1916 General Conference
- Plan of Life and Salvation
  - “If we have faith, and love, we will pay our tithing; we will keep the word of wisdom; if we have diligence, we will labor for the spread of the gospel at home and abroad.”
April 1916 General Conference
- Word of Wisdom
  - “May the Lord help us in keeping our sons from becoming “useless, soulless, worthless things,” is my prayer.”
- Intoxicants
  - “May God help us to keep His commandments, to live the lives of Latter-day Saints, that we may be worthy of an exaltation in His Kingdom, is my prayer and desire.”
April 1915 General Conference
- Righteous Living Essential to Salvation
  - “There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty. It is not a testimony, it is not marvelous manifestations, it is not knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, that it is the plan of salvation, it is not actually knowing that the Savior is the Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet, that will save you and me, but it is the keeping of the commandments of God. the living the life of a Latter-day Saint.”
October 1914 General Conference
- Gifts of the Gospel
  - “Knowledge is absolutely of no value, except to condemn us before God, unless we live up to that knowledge.”
April 1914 General Conference
- Prohibition
  - “With the intelligence with which God has endowed me, I believe, beyond the peradventure of a doubt. that more evil, suffering and crime has come into the world by the use of intoxicating liquors, and more misery has been brought into homes of the people, many, many times over, than was ever caused by slavery.”
- Word of Wisdom
  - “It is a serious thing for parents to set examples before their children contrary to the commandments of the Lord and instructions of His servants, no matter how insignificant they may think these commandments are.”
October 1913 General Conference
- Guiding the Saints
  - “Not only have you and I a faith which involves an eternity of future existence, but we have a knowledge of the divinity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which we have espoused, and it does involve an eternity of future existence, and we will have that existence in pleasure, in happiness, in joy, in association with all the good and the noble who have lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or we will be expelled from that company, according as we shall keep the commandments of God.”
April 1913 General Conference
- The Hymns
  - “I do not know any person who has once had a testimony of this gospel who has ever lost that testimony unless he first failed to do his duty and to keep the commandments of God.”
October 1912 General Conference
- Proclaiming Gospel Truths
  - “No matter what may be said again.st an individual, it has no effect upon that individual if it is false, and no man can say that any man who lives up to the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but what that man is a good citizen, that he is a good man, that he desires the welfare of his fellow men, and that his example is above reproach.”
  - “You and I cannot make any sacrifice for this gospel. Life eternal is the greatest of all of the gifts of God to man, therefore there is no labor that can be required of us whereby we can gain this greatest of all God’s blessings, that can be called a sacrifice.”
April 1912 General Conference
- No Compulsion Possible
  - “It can never hurt an honest man for a dishonest and lying man to accuse him of dishonesty.”
  - “Honest people cannot be satisfied with a dishonest religion. Honest, upright, and diligent people cannot have their hearts, their faces, and their very souls filled with joy, satisfaction and peace with that which is a delusion, a snare and a fraud. I tell you, my friends, that this Gospel of Jesus Christ brings joy, and peace, contentment, happiness, and satisfaction to every soul that has embraced it, and who obeys it.”
- The Father and the Son
  - “We are not dependent upon the testimony of men who lived many hundreds of years ago, but we have the testimony that is given to us from the Prophet Joseph Smith, and from Sidney Rigdon that they saw the Son, that they heard the voice declare from the heavens that He was the only Begotten of the Father, that by Him and of Him the worlds were created, and that He lives, for they saw Him.”
October 1911 General Conference
- Missionaries
  - “When a man has received the witness of the Holy Spirit, when a man has received the knowledge that this gospel is true, and he knows it, and he proclaims it, the whole world, not believing, cannot change the knowledge that he has.”
April 1911 General Conference
- Example of Righteousness
  - “One of the great testimonies, to me, of the divinity of the work in which you and I are engaged is the fact that those who have turned away from the truth, without one single, solitary exception that I can recall, have done so because they have failed to keep the commandments of God.”
October 1910 General Conference
- Spiritual Gifts
  - “The Holy Ghost, the power of God, is with all those that go forth to deliver this message, in every land and in every clime. The authority of God has been restored to the earth. We have it. God is with us. The Holy Ghost is with us.”
April 1910 General Conference
- Utah Manufactures
  - “If people ask for a certain brand of goods, the merchant is going to keep it, so it all comes back to the people. If the people ask for home-made goods, they will get them, because what the people want is what the merchant has to sell.”
October 1909 General Conference
- Vicious Stories
  - “There is no Latter-day Saint living who is keeping the commandments of God, but what the truth of Almighty God, revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, satisfies and inspires him. It satisfies all the yearnings of his heart; there is nothing to desire in time or eternity, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not give. This work has grown in the face of all opposition, in the face of all that has been said against it. In my judgment we are better, and we are doing more for the building up of the kingdom of God today, and living our religion better than ever before. I rejoice in this fact, and I rejoice in the peace and the happiness that each and every one, who is keeping the commandments of God, feels on every occasion.”
  - “Every Latter-day Saint who is loyal to the principles of the Gospel, is not seeking wealth; he is not asking himself the question, “What have I,” and “What can I gain?” The true Latter-day Saint is asking, “What can I do to better myself, to encourage those with whom I am associated, and to uplift the children of God?” That is the inspiration that comes to every Latter-day Saint who realizes the force of this Gospel that we have espoused.”
April 1909 General Conference
- Faithfulness and Peace
  - “Do we feel that, if we die, all is well? Are we living so that if the summons should come to us, that we are worthy to go back to our Heavenly Father, when we leave this earth, and be welcomed there? Are we so living that we are worthy of the blessings we have received?”
October 1908 General Conference
- Temperance
  - “No man stands up any straighter than he ought to stand, by keeping the commandments of God and urging the people to do the same.”
April 1908 General Conference
- Evidences of Increased Faith
  - “If there is any one thing more than another that is not calculated to inspire a speaker, it is the privilege of talking to empty benches. I have had that privilege, in years gone by, when speaking in the first meeting of our Conference. The gallery was not often opened, and the body of the house more than held the congregation, years ago. Therefore, I am very happy indeed to see this large gathering. To me it is an evidence of improvement among the Latter-day Saints; it indicates a growth of their faith, and of their interest in the teachings of the servants of the Lord.”
- Age No Excuse
  - “We must not judge a man by his relatives, because he can’t help them; they are crowded on to him. But, judge a man by the company he keeps, because he picks his own.”
October 1907 General Conference
- The Saving of Souls
  - “I ofttimes feel that it is necessary for us to stop and reflect, and spare time to read, study, and ponder upon the things of God; I know that it is necessary for me to do so.”
  - “Thank God we are not to be judged by the opinions of our fellows, but by the work that we do.”
April 1907 General Conference
- Vitally Important Questions
  - “What are the answers of every Latter-day Saint who goes out to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these questions? The answers are Yes! Yes! Yes! without a moment’s hesitation.”
October 1903 General Conference
- The Japanese Mission
  - “I regret I am not able to tell you that we have done something wonderful over in Japan. To be perfectly frank with you, I acknowledge I have accomplished very little indeed, as the president of that mission; and very little has been accomplished—so far as conversions are concerned—by the few Elders sent there to labor, or by the sisters who were with me.”
  - “I am willing to be utterly ruined financially, if that resulted from fulfilling the council and wishes of those whom God has placed to preside over me. This is the work of God.”
  - “Life eternal is what we are working for. Do not allow the wisdom, the riches or the education of the world, or anything else, to blind our eyes to the fact that this is God’s work.”
April 1902 General Conference
- The Japanese Mission
  - “I say to you, my friends, that I am happy to be here. All of the officers that have been chosen during my absence, my head and my heart have been pleased and satisfied with. It is a sorrow to me to come home and not receive the handshake of my beloved President Snow, whom I loved as dearly as life itself; but I rejoice that the son of one of the two martyrs for the cause presides over the Church of Christ.”
- The Spreading of the Work
  - “May God bless each and every one of us, that as we grow and increase we may grow in the knowledge of the Gospel, and that we shall have a determination to serve God and carry out in very deed the teachings of the Savior; to let our light so shine tnat men seeing our good works shall glorify God.”
- Teaching our Children
  - “I have learned the multiplication table, and so has my wife; but do you think I am big enough fool to believe that our children will be born with a knowledge of the multiplication table? I may know that the Gospel is true, and so may my wife; but I want to tell you that our children will not know that the Gospel is true, unless they study it and gain a testimony for themselves.”
April 1901 General Conference
- An Honest Friend
  - “I maintain that it is the duty of every Latter-day Saint to so order his life that every man will believe he is honest and sincere.”
- A Testimony Before His Mission
  - “I bear testimony to you today that God lives; that I know that Jesus is the Christ; that I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the true and living God; that I know that we will live forever if we keep the commandments of God.”
October 1900 General Conference
- What the Lord Requires
  - “There is therefore no excuse for the Latter-day Saint who does not keep the commandments of God. We cannot say that we do not know what our duties are, because they are so often and so forcibly brought to our minds by those who speak to us.”
  - “The day is gone by when the Lord will trifle with the Latter-day Saints. He has said that His Spirit shall not always strive with man.”
- Revelations Will Not Save the Receiver
  - “We cannot measure the work of God by the things of this world.”
  - “No amount of testimony, no amount of knowledge, even knowledge that this is God’s work, will ever save a man so that he will have his wives and his children, but the keeping of the commandments of God will entitle him to that blessing.”
April 1900 General Conference
- Individual Progress
  - “It is by the performance of the plain, simple, everyday duties that devolve upon us that we will grow in the spirit of God.”
  - “There are many non-tithe-payers among the Latter-day Saints, and many of them say that the reason they don’t pay tithing is because the tithing is not properly administered. Seeing, however, that they do not pay a dollar, it is none of their business how it is administered. But you will find that those who do not do their duty, are always complaining about somebody that does, and making excuses for themselves. I have never found a man who was keeping the commandments of God that had any criticism to offer concerning any administration of the affairs of the Church.”
  - “So it will be with those who do not keep the commandments of God. Angels may visit them, they may see visions, they may have dreams, they may even see the Son of God, and yet the Spirit of God will not burn in their hearts. But those who do the will of God, and live God-like lives, they will grow and increase in the testimony of the Gospel and in power and ability to do God’s will.”
- Learning to Sing
  - “I have but one object tonight in speaking and singing, and that is to encourage the young men and young ladies not to waste thirty or forty years of their lives before undertaking to sing.”
October 1899 General Conference
- Obedience
  - “As Latter-day Saints, let us have a desire to live lives of usefulness, and to be instruments in the hands of God of accomplishing much good.”
  - “That is the kind of faith to have. Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of God and then we know that we can win the battle, though we may be opposed by a man with his tens of thousands.”
  - “A man’s duty was to pay his debts to the Lord if he did not pay his debts to his fellowman.”
  - “Therefore, I say, shall I not fulfill the duties and obligations that I owe to my Creator and loving Parent before I fulfill my obligations to my fellowman. Has any man ever loaned me money because he loved me? No; he has loaned it to me because he wanted his interest. With the help of the Lord I propose to keep the commandments of the Lord, and then I do know that I shall De able to pay all that I owe; because I know that God blesses those who keep His commandments. I know that I never made a sacrifice of a financial nature in my life to help the advancement of God’s work, without being abundantly rewarded therefor.”
  - “If you desire the Spirit of God, be honest in keeping the commandments of God.”
  - “If you are not honest with God, you may prosper and you may be blessed with the things of this world, but they will crowd out from your heart the spirit of the Gospel; you will become covetous of your own means and lose the inspiration of Almighty God.”
April 1899 General Conference
- The Work of God Will Go Forth
  - “When I look around and see the mistakes that I have made, and those that my brethren make from time to time; when I realize how many of those who have been wonderfully blessed of the Lord have fallen by the wayside, it fills me with humility; it fills me with the spirit of meekness and with an earnest desire that I may ever seek to know the mind and the will of God and to keep His commandments rather than to follow out my own desires.”
  - “Never have I rejoiced more in my life, that my lot has been cast among the Latter-day Saints, that I have been born in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, than I did in mj\y recent visit to the East, when I came in contact with members of the Reorganized church. When I visited Kirtland, Ohio, and saw there the temple, and realized the fact that at the time it was erected by the Prophet Joseph and his brother, that it was a mighty work; when I considered the ordinances that aro being performed in our temples here in Utah; when I reflected that we have the Gospel in its fulness; when I thought that they have the temple but know not how to put it to any use; when I realized that they are absolutely devoid of the inspiration of God, I rejoiced that my lot had been, cast among the Later-day Saints.”
  - “We know that Joseph prophesied that the Latter-day Saints should be driven from city to city; that they should be driven from county to county; and that they should be driven from state to state; and finally, that they should be driven out of the confines of the United States to these Rocky Mountains and become a great, a prosperous, a mighty people. We know that this has been fulfilled to the letter. The Re-organized Church can lay no claims to being persecuted and driven from city to city, from county to county, from state to state, or of being driven to the Rocky Mountains. They have not become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Not only did Joseph Smith proclaim that the day should come when a city, a county, and a state should be arrayed against this people called Latter-day Saints, but he said, “the time shall come when the whole United States shall be arrayed against the Mormons;” and the day did come.”
October 1898 General Conference
- Necessity of Faith and Courage
  - “I realize that we all have our weaknesses, and that we do and say many things that are not pleasing in the sight of our Heavenly Father; but if we desire above all other things upon this earth to know the mind and will of God, and if we desire the strength of character, after we shall learn the mind and will of our Heavenly Father, to carry it out in our lives, I do know that God will help us, and that as we grow in years and in knowledge and in understanding- that we will grow also in the power and the ability to accomplish His will.”
  - “I believe when we determine within our hearts that by and with the blessings of God our Heavenly Father we will accomplish a certain labor, God gives the ability to accomplish that labor; but when we lay down, when we become discouraged, when we look at the top of the mountain and say it is impossible to climb to the summit, while we never make an effort it will never be accomplished.”
  - “We should have an ambition that no man shall do more for the onward advancement of God’s kingdom than we. As laborers in the different Stakes of Zion, standing as presidents of Stakes or as counselors to a president of a Stake, no man should allow any other member of that Stake to be a more honest tithe payer than he is. I say no man should preside over a Stake unless he is absolutely honest with God in paying his tithing. Why? Because he cannot conscientiously urge upon other people to be strictly honest. If we have been careless in this particular in the past, let us be careless no more. I say no man presiding over a Stake of Zion or over a ward should fail to pay his tithes, or should fail to observe the Word of Wisdom. Why? Because he is unable to stand up before a body of people and teach them by the demonstration of the spirit of God that they ought to obey these commandments from the Lord. This is our duty —to place ourselves in a position whereby when we stand up to teach the people, we can teach them by the inspiration of the spirit of God as it shall descend upon us; but if we are not observing the commandments of God, we can not with power, and with force, and with strength urge upon other people that they obey the commandments that we ourselves are failing to obey.”
  - “I say here today that I know the mantle of Joseph Smith fell upon the Prophet Brigham Young. I know it, and I am willing to meet the testimony that I bear. How do I know it? I know it because of my mother, a more honest woman than whom never lived, a more devoted Latter-day Saint can not be found; because she and scores of others have told me that they saw the Prophet Brigham Young when he spoke with the voice of Joseph Smith; when he looked like the prophet Joseph; and I know that these people are honest; and in addition to this I kniow by the inspiration of God to me that Brigham Young was a Prophet of God. I know that those that lost the spirit of God, that failed to follow the Prophet Brigham Young, have come to naught.”
April 1898 General Conference
- The Need of Inspiration
  - “It has ever been my desire in addressing the Latter-day Saints, that my mind might be lighted up with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I realize that, in teaching the people, unless the speaker is inspired of our Father in Heaven it is impossible to say anything that will be of benefit or worth to the Saints.”
  - “We sometimes meet people who say they would like to have witnessed the trials of the early Saints and taken a part in them, but I have no wish to nominate myself for a martyr. I tell you what I do desire; it is to be tested and tried only so far as is necessary to qualify me for the duties which have been imposed upon me, and to gain an exaltation in the presence of my Heavenly Father.”
  - “We are not ready and willing to keep the commandments of God, but we are ready and willing to carry out our own wishes. We do not ask what it is desired that we should do, but generally suit ourselves as to what we would like to do. Is this right? No, it is not. I feel that there is plenty of room for improvement, and we should improve.”
  - “A man will say, “I owe my neighbor and must pay him before I can settle my tithing.” Well, I know I owe lots of my neighbors, and they try to collect from me. But I owe God an honest tithing;- He has given me a testimony of Jesus and a hope of eternal life, and I intend to pay Him first and my neighbors afterwards. It is our duty to settle with the Lord first, and I intend to do it, with the help of Tny Heavenly Father. And I want to say to you, if you will be honest -with the Lord, paying your tithing and keeping His commandments, He will not only bless you with the light and inspiration of His Holy Spirit, but you will be blessed in dollars and cents, you will be enabled to pay your debts, and the Lord will pour out temporal blessings upon you in great abundance.”

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