JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
10th President of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
January 23, 1970 – July 2, 1972

Counselor in the First Presidency (October 29, 1965 – January 18, 1970)

President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (April 9, 1951 – January 23, 1970)

Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (April 7, 1910 – January 23, 1970)

General Conference Addresses

  • April 1972 General Conference
    • Counsel to the Saints and to the World
      • “These are the last days. They are days of trouble and sorrow and desolation. They are days when Satan dwells in the hearts of ungodly men, when iniquity abounds, and when the signs of the times are being shown forth.”
      • “Our hope for peace, for temporal and spiritual prosperity, and for an eventual inheritance in the kingdom of God is found only in and through the restored gospel.”
    • Eternal Keys and the Right to Preside
      • “May I now say—very plainly and very emphatically—that we have the holy priesthood and that the keys of the kingdom of God are here. They are found only in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
      • “Neither the President of the Church, nor the First Presidency, nor the united voice of the First Presidency and the Twelve will ever lead the Saints astray or send forth counsel to the world that is contrary to the mind and will of the Lord.”
      • “The Lord is with his people. The cause of righteousness shall prevail. Our cause is just, and the Lord will guide and direct us and bring us off triumphant in the end.”
    • A Prophet’s Blessing
      • “I pray that the Lord will bless all the members of the Church; and by virtue of the keys and power which I hold, I bless the Saints—those who dwell in the household of faith, those who love and seek the Lord.”
  • October 1971 General Conference
    • “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth”
      • “Our position is one of strength because it is founded on eternal truth. We need not fear the fiery darts of the adversary, nor be troubled by world conditions, as long as we walk in that light which a gracious Father has so abundantly shed forth upon us in this final gospel dispensation.”
      • “We believe that worship is far more than prayer and preaching and gospel performance. The supreme act of worship is to keep the commandments, to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God, to do ever those things that please him. It is one thing to give lip service to the Lord; it is quite another to respect and honor his will by following the example he has set for us.”
    • Blessings of the Priesthood
      • “We are under the responsibility not only of receiving this priesthood for our own benefit, but to bless and benefit those who are scattered upon all the face of the earth who are willing to repent and to receive the gospel; and we will take this message of salvation to all parts of the world. That is our responsibility.”
    • Let the Spirit of Oneness Prevail
      • “I have sought all my days to keep the commandments and do those things which will please the Lord, and I desire to bear testimony of his goodness to me and likewise his goodness to all his children who have made covenant to keep his commandments.”
  • April 1971 General Conference
    • Out of the Darkness
      • “We are engaged in the Lord’s work; this is his church; he is the author of the plan of salvation; it is his gospel which we have received by the opening of the heavens in this day; and our desire and whole purpose in life should be to believe the truths he has revealed and to conform our lives to them. No person in or out of the Church should believe any doctrine, advocate any practice, or support any cause that is not in harmony with the divine will. Our sole objective where the truths of salvation are concerned should be to find out what the Lord has revealed and then to believe and act accordingly.”
      • “Since the Lord has revealed his everlasting gospel anew to us in this day and has made The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the custodian and dispenser of its saving truths, I desire now to restate for the Church and for the world a few of those eternal principles which must be accepted by mankind if they will save themselves. Our knowledge of these simple and yet profound doctrines has come to us by revelation in this dispensation.”
      • “We announce that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on earth, the only place where men may come to learn the true doctrines of salvation and find the authority of the holy priesthood.”
    • Our Responsibilities As Priesthood Holders
      • “As the Lord’s agents we are bound by his law to do what he wants us to do regardless of personal feelings or worldly enticements. Of ourselves we have no message of salvation, no doctrine that must be accepted, no power to baptize or ordain or marry for eternity. All these things come from the Lord, and anything we do with reference to them is the result of delegated authority.”
      • “I call upon the Church and all its members to forsake the evils of the world. We must shun unchastity and every form of immorality as we would a plague. We must not dam up the wellsprings of life by preventing childbirth. We must not be guilty of unrighteous and evil acts of abortion.”
    • A Witness and a Blessing
      • “I am not unmindful that there are good and devout people among all sects, parties, and denominations, and they will be blessed and rewarded for all the good they do. But the fact remains that we alone have the fullness of those laws and ordinances which prepare men for the fullness of reward in the mansions above. And so we say to the good and noble, the upright and devout people everywhere: Keep all the good you have; cleave unto every true principle which is now yours; but come and partake of the further light and knowledge which that God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever is again pouring out upon his people.”
  • October 1970 General Conference
    • That the Fulness of My Gospel Might Be Proclaimed
      • “As agents of the Lord we are not called or authorized to teach the philosophies of the world or the speculative theories of our scientific age. Our mission is to preach the doctrines of salvation in plainness and simplicity as they are revealed and recorded in the scriptures.”
      • “In harmony with the spirit of these revelations, and with a heart full of love for all men, I ask the members of the Church to learn and live the gospel and to use their strength, energy, and means in proclaiming it to the world. We have received a commission from the Lord. He has given a divine mandate. He has commanded us to go forth with unwearying diligence and offer to his other children those saving truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
      • “Now may I say to all those who forsake the world and join the Church, and to all the members of the Church, that Church membership alone will not assure us of the full blessings of the gospel or guarantee us an entrance into the celestial kingdom. After baptism we must keep the commandments and endure to the end.”
    • The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood
      • “The priesthood held by man is the power and authority of God delegated to man on earth to act in all things for the salvation of mankind. Priesthood offices or callings are ministerial assignments to perform specially assigned service in the priesthood. And the way to magnify these callings is to do the work designed to be performed by those who hold the particular office involved.”
      • “It does not matter what office we hold as long as we are true and faithful to our obligations. One office is not greater than another, although for administrative reasons one priesthood holder may be called to preside over and direct the labors of another.”
    • With Thankful Hearts
      • “We have been set up as a free people by the power of our Eternal Father. The beauties and bounties of nature are ours, and we have these truths by obedience to which we can live lives that will be pleasing in his sight, that will give us peace and joy in this life, and assure us of an eternal and abundant life with him in his everlasting kingdom.”
  • April 1970 General Conference
    • Our Concern for All Our Father’s Children
      • “I think if all men knew and understood who they are, and were aware of the divine source from whence they came, and of the infinite potential that is part of their inheritance, they would have feelings of kindness and kinship for each other that would change their whole way of living and bring peace on earth.”
      • “Because God is our Father, we have a natural desire to love and serve him and to be worthy members of his family. We feel an obligation to do what he would have us do, to keep his commandments and live in harmony with the standards of his gospel—all of which are essential parts of true worship. And because all men are our brothers, we have a desire to love and bless and fellowship them—and this too we accept as an essential part of true worship. Thus everything we do in the Church centers around the divine law that we are to love and worship God and serve our fellowmen.”
    • Magnifying Our Callings in the Priesthood
      • “With all my heart I say to those who are keeping the commandments, who are serving faithfully in the Church, and who are working for the good and betterment of mankind generally, with all my heart I say: The Lord bless you; and you may rest assured that if you continue in the paths of truth and righteousness, he will welcome you into his eternal kingdom and give you an inheritance with the prophets and saints of all ages.”
      • “I do not care what office you hold in the Church—you may be an apostle, you may be a patriarch, a high priest, or anything else—but you cannot receive the fulness of the priesthood and the fulness of eternal reward unless you receive the ordinances of the house of the Lord; and when you receive these ordinances, the door is then open so you can obtain all the blessings which any man can gain.”
      • “I think we all know that the blessings of the priesthood are not confined to men alone. These blessings are also poured out upon our wives and daughters and upon all the faithful women of the Church. These good sisters can prepare themselves, by keeping the commandments and by serving in the Church, for the blessings of the house of the Lord. The Lord offers to his daughters every spiritual gift and blessing that can be obtained by his sons, for neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord.”
    • The Reins of Responsibility and Leadership
      • “I desire to say that no man of himself can lead this church. It is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; he is at the head. The Church bears his name, has his priesthood, administers his gospel, preaches his doctrine, and does his work.”
    • A Prayer for Peace
      • “I beseech a gracious Father to pour out his blessings upon all men, upon the young and old, upon those who have cause to mourn, upon the hungry and needy, upon those who are entrapped in unfortunate circumstances and unwholesome environments, and upon all who need aid, and help, and succor, and wisdom, and all those good and great things that only he can give.”
  • October 1969 General Conference
    • The Purpose of Man’s Mortal Existence
      • “He who sent his Only Begotten Son into the world, to accomplish the mission that he did, also sent every soul within the sound of my voice, and indeed every man and woman in the world, to accomplish a mission, and that mission cannot be accomplished by neglect, nor by indifference, nor can it be accomplished by ignorance.”
      • “Though the Lord should try me by withholding his blessings from me, that should make no difference to me. The point is, what is the law of the Lord? And if I know that law, it is my duty to obey it, though I suffer death in consequence.”
      • “How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude. I believe that one of the greatest sins of which the inhabitants of the earth are guilty today is the sin of ingratitude, the want of acknowledgment, on their part, of the Lord and his right to govern and control.”
  • April 1969 General Conference
    • Procrastination Is the Thief of Eternal Life
      • “Punishment is not easy to bear, especially when the conscience is troubled. Who could be happy in suffering, and all the while be thinking that the suffering had come because of a willful, or persistent, breaking of the commandments of God, when knowledge and counsel had been given to walk in righteousness? What will the sinner think in that day when he has learned repentance for willful rebellion, and realizes that the great suffering of our Lord in love made it unnecessary for him so to suffer if he had accepted Christ and his work?”
      • “Do you desire to enter into the celestial kingdom and receive eternal life? Then be willing to keep all of the commandments the Lord may give you. Baptism and confirmation are the ordinances by which we come into the kingdom of God. But these ordinances of themselves will not grant us a place of exaltation.”
      • “Our chief trouble is that we do not seek diligently. Our seeking is superficial; we seem to think the Lord is bound to hear us without our putting forth much effort. Let diligence and love be our guides, and we shall find the path of eternal life.”
  • October 1968 General Conference
    • The Kingdom of God is Eternal
      • “We carry to the world the olive branch of peace. We present to the world the law of the Lord, the truth, as it has been revealed in the latter days for the redemption of the dead and for the salvation of the living. We bear no malice nor ill will toward the children of men. The spirit of forgiveness pervades the hearts of the Saints, and they do not cherish a desire for or feeling of revenge toward their enemies. They say in their hearts, let the Lord judge between us and our enemies, as for us, we forgive them, and we bear no malice toward any. While it may be said, and it is in a measure true, that we are but a handful in comparison with our fellowmen in the world, yet we may be compared with the leaven of which the Savior spoke which will eventually leaven the whole world. Men must set aside their prejudices, personal desires, wishes, and preferences, and pay deference to the great cause of truth that is spreading abroad in the world.”
      • “The world will not listen to the testimony of men who tell them that the Lord lives and that he is able to reveal his will to man today. Those of the world cannot advance nor learn the ways of the Lord nor walk in his paths because they do not have the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
  • April 1968 General Conference
    • Be True and Faithful to Every Covenant
      • “Prayer is something that humbles the soul. It broadens our comprehension; it quickens the mind. It draws us nearer to our Father in heaven. We need his help; there is no question about that. We need the guidance of his Holy Spirit. We need to know what principles have been given to us by which we may come back into his presence. We need to have our minds quickened by the inspiration that comes from him; and for these reasons we pray to him, that he may help us to live so that we will know his truth and be able to walk in its light, that we may, through our faithfulness and our obedience, come back again into his presence.”
      • “When a man confesses that it is hard to keep the commandments of the Lord, he is making a sad confession: that he is a violator of the gospel law. Habits are easily formed. It is just as easy to form good habits as it is to form evil ones. Of course, it is not easy to tell the truth if you have been a confirmed liar. It is not easy to be honest if you have formed habits of dishonesty. A man finds it very difficult to pray if he has never prayed.”
      • “The man who does only those things in the Church which concern himself alone will never reach exaltation. For instance, the man who is willing to pray, to pay his tithes and offerings, and to attend to the ordinary duties which concern his own personal life, and nothing more, will never reach the goal of perfection.”
      • “Service must be given in behalf of others. We must extend the helping hand to the unfortunate, to those who have not heard the truth and are in spiritual darkness, to the needy, the oppressed. Are you failing? Let us think of the words of the poet, Will L. Thompson, as we think about being saviors on Mount Zion.”
  • October 1967 General Conference
    • Adam’s Role in Bringing Us Mortality
      • “One of these days, if I ever get to where I can speak to Mother Eve, I want to thank her for tempting Adam to partake of the fruit. He accepted the temptation, with the result that children came into this world. And when I kneel in prayer, I feel to thank Mother Eve, for if she hadn’t had that influence over Adam, and if Adam had done according to the commandment first given to him, they would still be in the Garden of Eden and we would not be here at all. We wouldn’t have come into this world. So the commentators made a great mistake when they put in the Bible at the top of page 3, as I think it is (it may not be the same page in every Bible), the statement “Man’s shameful fall.””
      • “We are in the mortal life to get an experience, a training, that we couldn’t get any other way. And in order to become gods, it is necessary for us to know something about pain, about sickness, and about the other things that we partake of in this school of mortality.”
  • April 1967 General Conference
    • The Functions of the Priesthood
      • “This Holy Priesthood which is eternal, is the authority which prevails in all the universe. The ordinances of the gospel are made valid through its power, and without it the knowledge of God could not be made manifest. It is by this authority and through the ordinances that man is able to know of God. Without the priesthood it would be impossible for man to gain the knowledge which would bring him into the presence of the Father. Is there any wonder, then, that the world, deprived of the priesthood, is in such spiritual darkness and confusion?”
    • He That Loveth Me
      • “Paul could not say that to those who had not made covenants. He could have told anybody anywhere that he was bought with a price, but he could not tell them that the Holy Ghost had been given to them, because it was not given except to members of the Church. But the fact remains that every soul upon the face of the earth was bought with a price —Jew and Gentile, the heathen, the atheist. No matter where a man lives or what he believes or the circumstances under which he lives, he was bought and paid for with a price, a price that was paid by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he was the only one who could pay it. No one else was ever born into this world who could pay this price.”
      • “And from what were we bought? Before I answer that question, I want to say something else. I have heard people say, and members of the Church too, “I have a right to do as I please.” My answer is: No, you do not. You haven’t any right at all to do just as you please. There is only one right that you have, and that is to do just what I read to you: keep the commandments of Jesus Christ. He has a perfect right to tell us so. We have no right to refuse. I do not care who the man is; I do not care where he lives, or what he is —when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented to him, he has no right to refuse to receive it. He has the privilege. He is not compelled to receive it, because our Father in heaven has given to everyone of us, in the Church and out, the gift of free agency. That free agency gives us the privilege to accept and be loyal to our Lord’s commandments, but it has never given us the right to reject them. Every man who rejects the commandments of our Father in heaven is rebellious.”
      • “Can I help loving him? No, I cannot. Do you love him? Then keep his commandments. If you do not, you will have to answer for them yourselves.”
  • October 1966 General Conference
    • Judgments of the Lord to Pour Forth
      • “Let it be remembered that the Fall was not the terrible thing which too many good people believe it to have been and which is proclaimed quite generally in the so-called Christian world. It is customary for many religious teachers in the world to refer to the Fall as “man’s shameful fall,” and it is so recorded in the King James translation of the Bible. However, the Fall was an essential part of man’s mortal probation. It is a mistaken notion that prevails quite generally in the world that Adam and Eve would have lived in a world of ease, with their posterity, free from temptation and sin, if that fruit had not been taken. The fact is very clear, nevertheless, that had Adam and Eve not partaken, the great gift of mortality would not have come to them. Moreover, they would have had no posterity, and the great commandment given to them by the Lord would not have been fulfilled. The divine truth is that Adam and Eve were expected to do the very thing that they did. All of this was part of the divine plan.”
    • Your Priesthood Responsibilities
      • “All men who assume authority but who have not been properly called will have to answer for their acts in the day of judgment. Nothing that they perform in the name of the Lord is valid, for it lacks the stamp of divine authority. To deceive and lead others to believe that unauthorized acts are valid when performed in the name of the Lord is a grievous sin in the sight of God.”
      • “It is our duty to save the world. That is our mission, insofar as they will listen unto us and receive our testimony. All those who reject the testimony of the elders of Israel will be held responsible and will have to give an accounting for their stewardship, just as we will have to give an accounting of our stewardship as elders and teachers of the people.”
      • “The world today is torn asunder. Evil is rampant upon the face of the earth. The members of the Church need to be humble and prayerful and diligent.”
  • April 1966 General Conference
    • The Signs of the Lord’s Coming
      • “At no time in the history of the world has it been more necessary for the children of men to repent. We boast of our advanced civilization, of the great knowledge and wisdom with which we are possessed; but in and through it all, the love of God is forgotten! The Lord, as well as Elijah, gave us warning, as did also Joseph Smith.”
    • No Exaltation Without the Priesthood
      • “Put a man off by himself, where he could communicate with none of his fellow beings or receive aid from them, and he would perish miserably. It is a mistake for us to draw within ourselves as does a snail into its shell. No man has been given the priesthood as an ornament only. He is expected to use it in behalf of the salvation of others.”
      • “This means that the man who accepts the priesthood also accepts the responsibilities that go with it. He promises that he will give service and make himself approved. If he breaks this covenant—for it is a covenant—then he will have to stand among those who do not exercise priesthood; he cannot stand among those who are approved. Let every man who holds the priesthood understand that he cannot enter into exaltation without the priesthood. If he refuses to use that priesthood when it is conferred upon him he will not be found worthy to hold it in that day when men are rewarded according to their works.”
      • “Every member of the Church should try to find some church duty to perform. Never refuse to serve. When a presiding officer asks your help, be glad to accept and give the best you have to that labor. The Lord expects this of us, and we are under covenant to do so. This course brings joy and peace, and at the same time those who serve receive the greatest blessing. The teacher gains more than the one taught; the blessing returned to us when we accept a call to work in the Church is far greater than the blessing we can impart to others. He who refuses to perform any labor or shirks responsibility when it is given him in the Church is in grave danger of losing the guidance of the Spirit. Eventually he becomes lukewarm and indifferent to all duties, and, like the plant that is not cultivated and watered, he shrivels up and dies a spiritual death.”
  • October 1965 General Conference
    • The Blessings of Eternal Glory
      • “Since the kingdom of God is built upon the foundation of marriage and the unity of the family circle, there can be no satisfaction where the family circle is broken. Every soul is entitled to the right to come into this world in a legitimate way—in the way the Father has willed that souls should come. Whosoever takes a course contrary to this is guilty of an almost irreparable crime. Is there any wonder, then, that the Lord places the violation of this covenant of marriage and the loss of virtue as second only to the shedding of innocent blood?”
      • “The demand for personal purity is made by the Church upon both men and women equally. There is no double standard of judgment.”
      • “When young people marry and refuse to fulfill this commandment given in the beginning of the world, and just as much in force today, they rob themselves of the greatest eternal blessing. If the love of the world and the wicked practices of the world mean more to a man and a woman than to keep the commandment of the Lord in this respect, then they are shutting themselves off from the eternal blessing of increase. Those who willfully and maliciously design to break this important commandment shall be damned. They cannot have the Spirit of the Lord. Small families are the rule today. Husbands and wives refuse to take upon themselves the responsibilities of family life. Many of them do not care to be bothered with children. Yet this commandment given to Adam has never been abrogated or set aside. If we refuse to live by the covenants we make, especially in the house of the Lord, then we cannot receive the blessings of those covenants in eternity. If the responsibilities of parenthood are willfully avoided here, then how can the Lord bestow upon the guilty the blessings of eternal increase? It cannot be, and they shall be denied such blessings.”
  • April 1965 General Conference
    • The Divine Family
      • “Marriage, if performed by divine authority, is to last forever. In the temples of the Lord men and women are married with an everlasting covenant. Children are born to them in this covenant to be theirs forever and therefore the family union was intended to endure forever.”
      • “If a man and his wife were earnestly and faithfully observing all the ordinances and principles of the gospel, there could not arise any cause for divorce. The joy and happiness pertaining to the marriage relationship would grow sweeter, and husband and wife would become more and more attached to each other as the days go by. Not only would the husband love the wife and the wife the husband, but children born to them would live in an atmosphere of love and harmony. The love of each for the others would not be impaired, and moreover the love of all towards our Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ would be more firmly rooted in their souls.”
  • October 1964 General Conference
    • Gratitude for the Restoration of the Truth
      • “There is a strange doctrine in the world concerning the resurrection even among those who believe there will be a reuniting of the spirit and body, which is to the effect that only the righteous will come forth to receive rewards of exaltation. This, however, is a misunderstanding. Through the atonement wrought by the Son of God, our Savior, the resurrection is a complete restoration of all things mortal, even of this earth itself on which we stand.”
  • April 1964 General Conference
    • Chastity—Fundamental to Our Civilization
      • “This mortal life is just an essential part of our eternal existence. We came here to be tested and proved by coming in contact with evil as well as the good. It is necessary that we be tempted and tried, but the Eternal Father did not leave us helpless in the midst of evil. From the very beginning the plan of salvation was presented to our first parents. They taught these principles to their children. It is necessary, however, that we have trials and temptations, as well as the divine commandments. Therefore the Father has permitted Satan and his hosts to tempt us, but by the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord and the commandments given through revelation, we are prepared to make our choice. If we do evil, we have been promised that we will be punished, if we do good, we will receive the eternal reward of righteousness. Every soul has been given the gift of free agency. It is essential that we learn both good and evil and thus resist and overcome the evil. If we live righteously there will come eternal salvation and exaltation in the kingdom of God.”
      • “Today it is a common sight, even on the streets of the cities of the Latter-day Saints, to see women dressed in pants and suits similar to those worn by men. We are forced to declare that this is not a lovely sight. Moreover, it is also frequently the case at parties and places of entertainment that women are arrayed in what I think they call full or party dress, thus exposing a part of the body which should be sacred and not exposed.”
  • October 1963 General Conference
    • Study, Pray, Obey
      • “In order that this prophecy may be fulfilled, many members of the Church will need to repent and be more diligent in the study of the scriptures and in their prayers and obedience to the laws and commandments of the gospel. If they fail to do these things they will be cut off from the presence of the Lord in that great day when he shall descend as Lord of lords and King of kings to take his place and sit on his throne to rule and reign.”
      • “Today we are troubled by evil-designing persons who are endeavoring with all their power to destroy the testimonies of members of the Church, and many members of the Church are in danger because of lack of understanding and because they have not sought the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. Every baptized member of the Church receives the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands. This, however, will not save them unless they continue in the spirit of light and truth. Therefore it is a commandment from the Lord that members of the Church should be diligent in their activities and study of the fundamental truths of the gospel as it has been revealed. The Spirit of the Lord will not continue to strive with the indifferent, with the wayward and the rebellious who fail to live within the light of divine truth. It is the privilege of every baptized person to have an abiding testimony of the restoration of the gospel, but this testimony will grow dim and eventually disappear unless we are constantly receiving spiritual good through study, obedience, and diligent seeking to know and understand the truth.”
  • April 1963 General Conference
    • The Sabbath Day
      • “The Lord has decided the matter for Latter-day Saints, as I think he did to former-day Saints, and Sunday is our Sabbath.”
      • “Brethren and sisters, all I want to say is that the Lord has set the time for our Sabbath by revelation. We know which day we should worship. We should follow it, and we should be true and faithful, and I think we should support those who likewise observe that day.”
      • “Now on Sunday in Salt Lake City there will be a wonderful ball game played by two of the great teams. There will be, I am positive, members of the Church who will go to the ball park instead of to their Sacrament meetings. Our duty is to serve the Lord and to remember him and the covenants that we have made.”
  • October 1962 General Conference
    • Book of Mormon Critics Refuted
      • “We had a campaign a short time ago in which we asked the members of the priesthood to read the Book of Mormon. It seems to me when we know the history whence the Book of Mormon came and how it came, no member of this Church could rest satisfied until he or she had read it from cover to cover—not once, but many times.”
      • “Now, there are some religious organizations who have centered their attack largely upon the Book of Mormon. They go into the homes of members of the Church and point out to them what they consider to be errors or changes or additions to what was given in the first publication. If anybody has published a book he knows that the first thing that stares him in the face the moment it comes off the press is some glaring error. We have never claimed that in the beginning there were not some errors which the Prophet corrected, but they were very, very few. But some of these complaints or charges are against certain writings that appear, and in the limited time that I have I wish to refer to two of these accusations.”
  • April 1962 General Conference
    • An Anchor to Our Souls
      • “I was trained at my mother’s knee to love the Prophet Joseph Smith and to love my Redeemer. I never knew my Grandmother Smith. I have always regretted that, because she was one of the most noble women who ever lived, but I did know her good sister, my Aunt Mercy Thompson, and as a boy I used to go and visit her in her home and sit at her knee, where she told me stories about the Prophet Joseph Smith, and oh, how grateful I am for that experience.”
      • “When a person turns from the truth through wickedness, that Spirit does not follow him and departs, and in the stead thereof comes the spirit of error, the spirit of disobedience, the spirit of wickedness, the spirit of eternal destruction.”
  • October 1961 General Conference
    • The Book of Mormon, a Divine Record
      • “Now the Lord has placed us on probation as members of the Church. He has given us the Book of Mormon, which is the lesser part, to build up our faith through our obedience to the counsels which it contains, and when we ourselves, members of the Church, are willing to keep the commandments as they have been given to us and show our faith as the Nephites did for a short period of time, then the Lord is ready to bring forth the other record and give it to us, but we are not ready now to receive it. Why? Because we have not lived up to the requirements in this probationary state in the reading of the record which had been given to us and in following its counsels.”
      • “Brethren, teach the men who hold the priesthood in their quorums. Teach the members of the Church in their meetings, and also when you visit them in their homes as ward teachers. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, teach them to read and study in faith and prayer the revelations the Lord has given us that we may not be deceived and led astray by false teachers.”
      • “We have false teachers among us. We have apostates among us who are endeavoring to tear down and destroy the kingdom of God, and they are disturbing a great many members of the Church. Why? Because they haven’t the faith nor the background in knowledge to resist these false teachers and their false doctrines.”
  • April 1961 General Conference
    • The Eternity of Temple Marriage
      • “Now, if there is ever a divorce between a man and a woman married in the temple for time and all eternity, it is because they, one or the other or both, have violated the covenants that they made at the altar of the Lord, otherwise they could not separate, and the Lord never intended that a man and a woman be separated in death, but that this marriage was one for eternity.”
      • “It is only because of transgression on the part of the wife or of the husband, or perhaps on the part of both, when a couple has been married in the temple of the Lord, and then separate. If they were true to their covenants, to the obligations that they have made to each other at the altar in the house of the Lord, they could not separate, and if they have children, they are not only committing a crime against themselves, but they are harming those children and robbing them of blessings that they were born entitled to receive.”
  • October 1960 General Conference
    • Cry Repentance
      • “I know of nothing that is more important or necessary at this time than to cry repentance, even among the Latter-day Saints, and I call upon them as well as upon those who are not members of the Church, to heed these words of our Redeemer. Now he has stated definitely that no unclean thing can enter his presence. Only those who prove themselves faithful and have washed their garments in his blood through their faith and their repentance—none others shall find the kingdom of God.”
      • “Our bodies must be clean. Our thinking must be clean. We must have in our hearts the desire to serve the Lord and keep his commandments; to remember our prayers, and in humility seek the counsels that come through the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. That will bring to us our salvation, and we will never get salvation through the violation of the covenants and commandments which will bring to us eternal life.”
  • April 1960 General Conference
    • Joseph Smith’s First Prayer
      • “If he had come out of the woods saying he had seen a vision, had it been untrue never would he have thought of separating Father and Son, nor would he have ever thought of having the Father introduce the Son and for him to put his question to the Son to receive his answer. He never could have thought of it; for that was the farthest thing from the ideas existing in the world in the year 1820.”
      • “Do I love the Prophet Joseph Smith? Yes, I do, as my father did before me. I love him because he was the servant of God and because of the restoration of the gospel and because of the benefits and blessings that have come to me and mine, and to you and yours, through the blessings that were bestowed upon this man and those who were associated with him in the restoration of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times.”
  • October 1959 General Conference
    • The Value of the Gospel
      • “Now if we have the right spirit, that is what we are going to do. If there is any doctrine or principle connected with the teachings of the Church that we do not understand, then let us get on our knees. Let us go before the Lord in the spirit of prayer, of humility, and ask that our minds might be enlightened that we may understand. This Church is not teaching false doctrine. All the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith are absolutely true. They are given for our salvation, for our knowledge, for our understanding, that we may draw nearer and nearer to our Father in heaven, and be found worthy before him and eventually have the privilege of coming into his presence, there to be crowned as sons and daughters of God, receiving the fulness of his kingdom.”
  • April 1959 General Conference
    • Temple Work
      • “The Lord is just, and he has made it clear that the time will come when every soul shall have an opportunity to hear the truth. That does not mean that every soul has the opportunity or will have that opportunity in this mortal world. Millions have died without that opportunity. It has been no fault of theirs, but the fault lies with their fathers before them, who turned away from the truth which truth was given in the beginning to Adam who was commanded to teach these things to his children. The scriptures say that Adam did teach these things to his children but that they loved Satan more than they loved God, and Satan came among them and said, “I, too, am a son of God, believe it not, and they believed it not and from that time forth men became carnal, sensual and devilish,” and so darkness spread over the face of the earth.”
      • “I have no idea in my mind that every soul that has lived upon the face of the earth, who has died and gone to the spirit world, is going to repent and receive the gospel. There will be many that will not do that. Our scriptures point to that fact. They are not going to receive the gospel in the spirit world, when their souls are full of bitterness and hate towards the truth, but they have a right to have it taught to them.”
      • “Now, brethren, these are our responsibilities, and the Lord requires this work at our hands. The Church has gone to great expense endeavoring to gather the records of the dead, and I want to say to you, has been very, very successful in that labor to gather in the records of your ancestors so that we could go into the temples of the Lord and perform these labors for them so that all who are willing to repent and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ may be brought into his kingdom and into that great family of God, which is both in heaven and on earth.”
  • October 1958 General Conference
    • Seek Ye Earnestly
      • “Baptism and confirmation into the Church do not necessarily insure our exaltation in the kingdom of God. They do, provided we are true and faithful to every covenant and obligation required of us in the commandments of our Eternal Father. It is he who endures to the end that will be saved, and there is a danger that confronts us through the temptations of the adversary if we yield to those temptations that we may lose it all. The greatest punishment that can come to any individual in this world is punishment that will come to those who have received the light and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who have passed through the waters of baptism, who have hands laid upon their heads for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then turn away from the truth, for the Lord will not hold them guiltless.”
      • “I think I am safe in saying that no man can become a Son of Perdition until he has known the light. Those who have never received the light are not to become Sons of Perdition. They will be punished if they rebel against God They will have to pay the price of their sinning, but it is only those who have the light through the priesthood and through the power of God and through their membership in the Church who will be banished forever from his influence into outer darkness to dwell with the devil and his angels.”
  • April 1958 General Conference
    • Entrusted to Our Care…the Youth of Israel
      • “Let us try humbly to keep our families intact, to keep them under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, trained in the principles of the gospel that they may grow up in righteousness and truth. I think the Lord requires that at our hands.”
  • April 1957 General Conference
    • The Sabbath—a Day of Rest
      • “The Lord cannot forgive us when we know better and we violate his commandments. He has given unto us a law, a commandment, saying that we are to accept the words of the Lord as he has revealed them unto us. We have no right to transgress this law or any one of the other laws that are so fundamental to our exaltation, and how can the members of the Church expect to receive salvation and exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God, and show contempt for his sacred commandments?”
      • “Now, my good brethren and sisters, when you go home from this conference, you cannot go home and say, “The Brethren have praised us for our well-doing; they have commended us because we have come into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” We cannot say this when we remember our shortcomings in regard to the keeping of some of these commandments which the Lord has given us, and which pertain to his celestial kingdom.”
      • “We must stop violating the Sabbath day. We must stop the violation of other commandments, should we be violating them, and I promise you that if you will observe the Sabbath day, you who are opening your stores on the Sabbath day, if you will close them and tend to the duties that the Lord has given to you, and keep his commandments, that you will prosper and he will bless you more abundantly, for he has made that promise, than you will be blessed by showing your contempt for the commandments which he has given unto us.”
  • October 1956 General Conference
    • They Bear Witness
      • “All those who have heard of the Book of Mormon, all those who have read it, have had the opportunity to read the testimonies of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who bore solemn testimony to the truth of this record, that is, of its being revealed. If they refuse to read (and yet their attention has been called to this fact, that the Lord has spoken, that he has given into the hands of the world today the record of those people who lived anciently) and they turn away and reject it, they will have to answer for it before the Judgment seat of God. And wo be unto those who take it upon themselves to fight these revelations.”
  • April 1956 General Conference
    • A Testimony
      • “I realize, because I discover it, that there is commotion not only among men, but also in the elements pertaining to this earth; that they too are becoming angry. The judgments of the Almighty are being poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth by earthquakes, by flood, by famine and pestilence, and in many other ways, and all of these are signs that have been given by our Lord Jesus Christ to convince men upon the face of the earth that his coming is near, even at our doors.”
    • Significance of the Atonement
      • “The atonement by which men are redeemed, was made by one without blemish and without spot. He had to be one who had life in himself, and therefore all power over death. No mortal man could make the atonement. Moreover, the atonement had to be made by the shedding of blood, for blood is the vitalizing force of the mortal body.”
  • October 1955 General Conference
    • Tour of Asia
      • “Now I want to say to you mothers, particularly, fathers, too, who have sons in the mission field in any of these Eastern countries—(Well, we have no missionaries in some of these places yet.) If your sons are called to go to the Far East to labor among the Japanese people, the Korean people, the people on these islands of the Far Pacific, do not feel disappointed. Do not feel sorry and wish that they had been appointed to some European country or somewhere within the borders of the United States or the South Pacific. These people in these lands who have joined the Church are just as good as we are. Those people in those Far East countries are human beings, with like feelings and passions. They can love and they can hate just as you and I may love and hate. When they receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are just as good as we are.”
  • April 1955 General Conference
    • The Way to Eternal Life
      • “The only truth that makes us free is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
      • “To know the way to eternal life is far more important than all the learning that the world can give. We find that in the sacred principles which have been revealed for the last time, and in these ordinances which are being performed for the last time—that is, in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times—for the gospel will never be restored again. It has been restored to remain. The Lord has ordained his servants, and has given them authority to execute his laws, to preach his gospel, to cry repentance, to call upon men to humble themselves and receive these fundamental principles of eternal life.”
  • October 1954 General Conference
    • and if Ye Receive Not the Spirit Ye Shall Not Teach
      • “It makes no difference who the teacher is, if he teaches false doctrine, if he teaches that which has been condemned by the Lord, that is contrary to what is written in the revelations given to the Church, then he should not teach.”
  • April 1954 General Conference
    • The Field Is White
      • “There is a great responsibility resting upon the members of the Church, both men and women, to proclaim the words of eternal life, but more especially upon these men who have accepted the priesthood with a promise that they would be true and faithful and would magnify their callings, and in the verse that I have read the Lord proclaims this fact: that if we fail in the duties that are assigned to us and refuse to accept the responsibilities which come from that priesthood, that we ourselves are in danger of losing our own salvation. It is a great responsibility resting upon each of us to proclaim this truth to a benighted world. I say benighted because for hundreds of years they have been without the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord and the proper understanding of the things which are written in the scriptures. They have not had a correct understanding of the nature of God, not until the Prophet Joseph Smith came to reveal it.”
      • “I wish the Lord could have said, and I wish he could say it today, that this is the only Church upon the face of the earth with which he is well pleased considering this Church individually. That he cannot say, but if we would humble ourselves, if those who are wayward and indifferent, who have received the testimony of the truth would repent, and if every man and every woman and child who is old enough to understand would turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart and honor and serve him as we are commanded to do, the Lord would be able to say it.”
  • October 1953 General Conference
    • Our Advocate and Our Mediator
      • “Now suppose the Prophet had come back from the woods and had said the Father and the Son appeared to him, and the Father had said, “Joseph, what do you want?” and when he asked the question and told him what he wanted, the Father had answered him; then we would know that the story of the Prophet could not be true. All revelation comes through Jesus Christ. I have not time to go into the scriptures and give you references for that, but that is the fact. He it was who led Israel.”
  • April 1953 General Conference
    • Missionaries Labor to Fulfil Promise
      • “Our missionaries go forth. No power has been able to stay their hands. It has been tried. Great efforts were made in the very beginning when there was only a handful of missionaries, but the progress of this work could not be stopped. It cannot be stopped now. It must and will go forth that the inhabitants of the earth may have the opportunity of repenting of their sins and receive the remission of their sins and come into the Church and kingdom of God, before these final destructions come upon the wicked, for they have been promised.”
  • October 1952 General Conference
    • Be Not Deceived
      • “I am inclined to think, while that is true, we are not a studious people, that as members of the Church we have not taken advantage of our opportunities to learn, to make ourselves acquainted with the plan of salvation, the commandments of the Lord pertaining to our exaltation. We have not considered the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price as thoroughly as we should have done, and that is also true of the Bible.”
      • “We have the right to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, but we can’t have that guidance if we wilfully refuse to consider the revelations that have been given to help us to understand and to guide us in the light and truth of the everlasting gospel. We can’t hope to have that guidance when we refuse to consider these great revelations which mean so much to us both temporally and spiritually. Now if we find ourselves in this condition of unbelief or unwillingness to seek for the light and the knowledge which the Lord has placed within our reach, then we are liable or in danger of being deceived by evil spirits, the doctrines of devils, and the teachings of men. And when these false influences are presented before us, we will not have the distinguishing understanding by which we can segregate them and know that they are not of the Lord. And so we may become prey unto the ungodly, to the vicious, to the cunning, to the craftiness of men.”
      • “I have in my pocket here an invitation sent to me personally; it may be many of you have received one that was sent to you personally, inviting me to attend one of the churches to make myself familiar with the doctrines. Now the man who sent this had a perfect right to send it. He has a right to send this to you and to give you that invitation, but do you have faith enough, knowledge enough of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you would not be deceived if you should accept the invitation, and go and listen to the doctrines of the church to which this man belongs? Do you know the truth?”
  • April 1952 General Conference
    • Fulfilment of Prophecy
      • “Our duty is to keep the commandments of the Lord, to walk uprightly, to defend every principle of truth, to sustain and uphold the Constitution of this great country, to remember the Declaration of Independence, for, as we heard this morning from our President, upon these principles our country was based. They stand at the foundation, the cornerstones of the liberty that our fathers fought for, and which brought to pass according to the word of the Lord, the redemption of this land by the shedding of blood.”
  • October 1951 General Conference
    • Marriage for Eternity
      • “But the Lord very definitely has declared that marriage is an eternal principle. That is recorded in our scriptures, in the Bible. I call your attention to the fact that the very first marriage on the face of this earth was performed by the Lord, and it was not for time only because there was no time. That was declared, and that ceremony given, to a couple who were not subject to death. Therefore, marriage was not intended to come to an end. And after the Fall, when Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, the Lord did not say that they should return to the dust, and their bodies should remain, but he gave them the promise of the resurrection; nor did he say to them that this marriage that was performed for eternity, if you please, would come to an end.”
      • “Now I want to plead to my good brethren and sisters, good members of the Church, to go to the temple to be married for time and all eternity. I want to plead with those who have been to the temple and have been so married to be faithful and true to their covenants and their obligations, for in the House of the Lord they have made solemn covenants and have taken upon themselves before God, angels, and witnesses, obligations that sometimes are broken.”
      • “When divorce comes to those who are married in the temple, it has come because they have violated the covenants and the obligations they have taken upon themselves to be true to each other, true to God, true to the Church. If they will continue to live in that faithfulness, if they will have love in their hearts for each other, respect each other’s rights and not one attempt to take an advantage unduly of the other but have the proper consideration, there will be no failures. When the separation comes, as I say, too frequently, it is because of violation of the covenants and obligations of this sacred and holy ceremony.”
  • April 1951 General Conference
    • Knock, and It shall Be Opened unto You
      • “If we lack that understanding, we have no one to blame but ourselves. I had perfect confidence in the sayings of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; and when he says, “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth,” I am just as sure that every member of this Church may know within himself or herself that God lives, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that this is his work which he has established. We have no excuse whatever for not knowing and having the absolute faith and confidence in this restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our duty to know.”
      • “It is the right of every baptized member in this Church to know for himself by the revelations of the Spirit of the Lord that all that I have said in regard to the establishment of this work is absolutely true. There is no reason in the world why any soul should not know where to find the truth. If he will only humble himself and seek in the spirit of humility and faith, going to the Lord just as the Prophet Joseph Smith went to the Lord to find the truth, he will find it. There’s no doubt about it.”
    • Fellowship, Unity and Love
      • “Every individual radiates some influence. Our influence should be for good, for the building up of the kingdom of God. We should have no other purpose, only to bring to pass this great work and see it established in the earth as the Lord would have it.”
      • “I think the greatest crime in all this world is to lead men and women, the children of God, away from the true principles. We see in the world today philosophies of various kinds, tending to destroy faith, faith in God, faith in the principles of the gospel. What a dreadful thing that is.”
  • October 1950 General Conference
    • Keep the Commandments
      • “We do not believe that salvation comes from lip service, merely a confession with our lips that Jesus is the Christ. It comes through obedience to every principle and eternal truth pertaining to our exaltation.”
      • “We are not going to be saved in the kingdom of God just because our names are on the records of the Church. It will require more than that. We will have to have our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and if they are written in the Lamb’s book of Life then it is an evidence we have kept the commandments. Every soul who will not keep those commandments shall have his name blotted out of that book.”
  • April 1950 General Conference
    • Founded in the Wisdom of God
      • “Now I tell you it is time the people of the United States were waking up with the understanding that if they don’t save the Constitution from the dangers that threaten it, we will have a change of government.”
    • The Records of the Church
      • “Now brethren, will you look into these matters in your stakes and see that this record is kept up to date? This is the way we are keeping the record of the Church. It is most valuable; it is absolutely necessary, and we ask you for your help, for your support in these matters, that we may have our records up to date, kept neatly, written in permanent ink, or upon the typewriter with a permanent ribbon, and in a manner that it can be preserved eternally.”
  • October 1949 General Conference
    • A Testimony of the Truth
      • “I am just as firmly convinced that this Book of Mormon from which I have read is the word of God and was revealed, as Joseph Smith declared it was revealed, as I am that I stand here looking into your faces. Every soul on the face of the earth who has intelligence enough to understand may know that truth. How can he know it? All he has to do is to follow the formula that was given by the Lord himself when he declared to the Jews that they who would do the will of his Father should know of the doctrine, whether it was of God or whether he spoke of himself. My witness to all the world is that this book is true. I have read it many, many times. I have not read it enough. It still contains truths that I still may seek and find, for I have not mastered it, but I know it is true.”
      • “Every man who rejects this record, who rejects the testimony of Joseph Smith, who declares him to be a false prophet and this book a fraud, who has had this testimony which it contains given unto him, will stand before the judgment seat of God condemned, because the truth was laid before him. He had the opportunity to hear and receive, and in rejecting it he has placed himself in disfavor with his Father in heaven.”
  • April 1949 General Conference
    • Sacredness of the Eternal Marriage Covenant
      • “I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, there never could be a divorce in this Church if the husband and wife were keeping the commandments of God.”
      • “And within the week, my attention was called to another case similar to this, where a man and a woman married in the temple for time and all eternity have tired of each other. They have raised a family. Now he wants to go his way, and she wants to go her way. But they want to be friends. There are no hard feelings between them. They have just got tired. They want a change. Do they have the spirit of the gospel in their hearts? I say to you, no, or they would not be tired of each other. That could not follow. They got tired of living the principles of eternal truth. A man would not get tired of his wife if he had the love of God in his heart. A woman would not get tired of her husband if she had in her heart the love of God, that first of all commandments.”
  • October 1948 General Conference
    • Keeping the Commandments of God
      • “The family is the unit in the kingdom of God. That we believe, and if we are fortunate enough, through the keeping of the commandments of the Lord, to go back and re-enter the celestial kingdom to dwell with him, we will find that we are his sons and his daughters, that he is in very deed our Father.”
  • April 1948 General Conference
    • Elijah’s Mission to the World
      • “But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them; and herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah.”
      • “The Saints have not too much time to save and redeem their dead, and gather together their living relatives, that they may be saved also, before the earth will be smitten, and the consumption decreed falls upon the world.”
  • October 1947 General Conference
    • The Sin of Ingratitude
      • “We get into the habit of thinking, I suppose, that his great suffering was when he was nailed to the cross by his hands and his feet and was left there to suffer until he died. As excruciating as that pain was, that was not the greatest suffering that he had to undergo, for in some way which I cannot understand, but which I accept on faith, and which you must accept on faith, he carried on his back the burden of the sins of the whole world. It is hard enough for me to carry my own sins. How is it with you? And yet he had to carry the sins of the whole world, as our Savior and the Redeemer of a fallen world, and so great was his suffering before he ever went to the cross, we are informed, that blood oozed from the pores of his body and he prayed to his Father that the cup might pass if it were possible, but not being possible he was willing to drink.”
      • “Now, he has asked us to keep his commandments. He says they are not grievous and there are so many of us who are not willing to do it. I am speaking now generally of the people of the earth. We are not willing to do it. That certainly is ingratitude. We are ungrateful. Every member of this Church that violates the Sabbath day, that is not honest in the paying of his tithing, that will not keep the Word of Wisdom, that willfully violates any of the other commandments the Lord has given us, is ungrateful to the Son of God and when ungrateful to the Son of God is ungrateful to the Father who sent him. If our Savior would do so much for us, how in the world is it that we are not willing to abide by his commandments which are not grievous, which do not cause us any suffering if we will only keep them? And yet, people break the Word of Wisdom; they refuse to attend to their duties as officers and members in the Church; many of them stay away from meetings the Lord has called upon them to support. They follow their own desires if they are in conflict with the commandments of the Lord.”
  • April 1947 General Conference
    • Keeping the Sabbath
      • “Now I have been thinking, as I have thought many times in the past, of this great legacy which is ours, the great blessings which have come to us, built upon the foundation of persecution, death, hardships, men and women laying down their lives that we might dwell in this land in peace and safety; and how do we feel today about it? Do we keep the Sabbath day holy? Do we pray? Are we grateful in our souls for all that has been done for us by these sturdy people who loved the truth and came here that they might worship God according to the dictates of their consciences? How do we feel? When I see reports of conditions in this state and surrounding states where Latter-day Saints dwell, the amount of liquor that is consumed and tobacco that is consumed, and tea and coffee and other things destructive of health, and contrary to the commandments of the Lord, when I see the people violating the Sabbath day and committing all other kinds of sins contrary to that which they have been taught, I wonder if the Lord is pleased with us.”
      • “If we don’t keep the Sabbath day holy, he may still be our God, but we may not be his people, for all the people of the earth are his, but we are a peculiar people, and by that we mean that we are different and should be different from the rest of the world because we are not of the world. We are in it. We are not of it.”
  • October 1946 General Conference
    • A Most Vital Principle—Marriage
      • “For every contract, every bond, every covenant that is made that is not according to the Lord’s will and commandment, and enforced by his law will of necessity come to an end. These young people who seem to be so happy now, when they rise in the resurrection, and find themselves in the condition in which they will find themselves, then there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, bitterness of soul, and they have brought it upon themselves because of their lack of faith and understanding of the gospel, and from, I am sorry to say, the encouragement they have received many times from their own parents.”
      • “I am quite satisfied in my own mind that the parents are not teaching their children in the home the importance of marriage as the Lord has revealed it. Out in the world they have a false notion about marriage, because they have not the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and they cannot understand and properly interpret the scriptures.”
  • April 1946 General Conference
    • The Field Is White Already to Harvest
      • “There is much more that I would like to present if time would permit. Let me call your attention to the fact that this world is not growing better. If I may be pardoned for the expression: We need not “kid” ourselves into thinking that this world is growing better. If so, then the prophecies have failed. This world today is full of wickedness. That wickedness is increasing. True, there are many righteous people scattered throughout the earth, and it is our duty to search them out and give unto them the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring them out of Babylon.”
      • “The Lord has placed upon us the responsibility to preach the gospel, but there is another great responsibility. I think some of our missionaries have had an idea that all we had to do was to make friends, and if they wanted to come in the Church, well and good, and the missionaries have not realized that they were under the obligation to leave a warning, and it is just as necessary that we warn the world as it is to declare the way of eternal life.”
  • October 1945 General Conference
    • Obligations of the Priesthood
      • “There are three great needs of a quorum. We believe that the work falls naturally into three divisions: first, the need to help every bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood to attain to the degree of economic independence and material well-being that will assure adequate food, clothing, fuel, housing, and other needs, physical and educational, for himself and family as well as spiritual; second, the need to establish a feeling of true brotherhood should characterize the work of priesthood quorums. There should be the endeavor to provide through the quorum activities, including socials and outings, the feeling of fellowship, faith, and love that shall meet all the needs of the membership; third, a need to search out the facts and make available all the information and statistics concerning the quorum and its members.”
      • “Then it follows that if we don’t serve him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength, if we’re not loyal to this calling which we have received, we are not going to be blameless when we stand before that judgment seat. It is a very serious thing to hold the priesthood. I wish when our young men were called and ordained, that is, recommended to be ordained to the office of elder in the Church, they could be impressed before they were ordained with the importance of the calling which they are about to receive.”
  • April 1945 General Conference
    • The Idler Shall Not Have Place in the Church
      • “So that is the counsel the Lord has given the Church today. And this is not merely to be applied to plowing fields, or to reaping and harvesting and engaging in industry, but it means likewise that a man should be industrious in spiritual things as well as in the temporalities by which he makes his living.”
      • “There should be no idlers in Zion. Even the poor who have to be assisted should be willing to do all in their power to earn their own living. Not one man or woman should be content to sit down and be fed, clothed, or housed without an exertion on his or her part to compensate for these privileges. All men and women should feel a degree of independence of character that would stimulate them to do something for a living and not be idle; for it is written that the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer in Zion and he shall not have place among us.”
  • October 1944 General Conference
    • Power of Repentance
      • “We have heard from quite a number of those who have spoken in this conference of the wickedness that prevails throughout the world, the wickedness among the boys who have gone into the armed forces of the country, the wickedness of the people who are not in those forces. We all know those things are true, that immorality is rampant, that drunkenness, and the filthy use of tobacco are weakening the constitutions of those who go out to fight, and these evils are also among those not in the armed forces. The world is full of evil.”
      • “So we cry for peace, we are asked to pray for peace, but who is willing to keep the commandments of the Lord that we might have peace? Now, you ask yourselves, you brethren: in your praying are you sincere? In your asking for peace, are you willing to keep the commandments of the Lord? Do you keep the Sabbath day holy? Do you pay your honest tithing? Do you attend to these other duties that have been mentioned here so many times?”
      • “When I think of the people of this country, or any other of these countries, asking the Lord for help, and at the same time ignoring every commandment that he has given them, I wonder how we can even hope for peace. We could have had peace long ago, and thousands of lives could have been saved, if the people had humbled themselves, and had been willing to keep the commandments of the Lord so he could fight their battles. But this they were not willing to do.”
  • April 1944 General Conference
    • Our Perpetual Debt
      • “Ingratitude is, I think, the most prevalent of all sins, and one of the greatest, because every soul who refuses to abide in the truth, who will not walk in the light and understanding of the commandments which Jesus Christ has given, is ungrateful. He came and gave His life to redeem us from transgression. He was nailed to a cross and His blood was shed. What for? That we might live, that we might receive the remission of our sins, that we might, through obedience to the principles of the gospel, come back again into the presence of God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ.”
      • “I have been bold enough to say (and I confess I would not be able to prove it, but I believe it), that we are not a praying people. I shall modify that to this extent, by saying too many of us do not pray. We do not get down on our knees, we do not humble ourselves, we do not go before the Lord with that contrite spirit as He would have us do, and as we have been taught to do.”
  • October 1943 General Conference
    • Of Dreams and Visions
      • “If I should say something which is contrary to that which is written in the standard works of the Church, and accepted by the Authorities of the Church and approved by the Church generally, no one is under obligation to accept it. Everything that I say and everything that any other person says must square itself with that which the Lord has revealed, or it should be rejected.”
      • “This ought to be clear enough for us all. If the Lord has a revelation or a commandment to give to His people, it is going to come from the head, and when someone else comes among the people professing to have revelations and to give commandments we can test that matter very readily. We do not have to go into any details or make an extended examination of the claims, there is no need of any investigation whatever, because the Lord has given us the key as a law to the Church by which we are to be governed.”
  • April 1943 General Conference
    • Blessed Is the Nation whose God Is the Lord
      • “It is true that a country cannot get ahead of its religion. The higher our ideals, the nearer we observe divine law, and the stronger are our spiritual forces. No Christian country can forsake the divinity of Jesus Christ and not suffer. In those lands in Europe where paganism has superseded the Christian ideals, there is bound to come decay and eventually, if there is no repentance, their former greatness will be forgotten.”
      • “Faith has not increased in the world, nor has righteousness, nor obedience to God. What the world needs today is to draw nearer to the Lord. We need more humble, abiding faith in our Redeemer, more love in our hearts for our Eternal Father and for our fellow men. Yes, this is a good time, a vital time—if we are to survive the forces of evil—for every man every man to forsake the paths of sin and turn unto the Lord who will abundantly pardon.”
  • October 1942 General Conference
    • A Short Testimony
      • “The world today is torn asunder. Evil is rampant upon the face of the earth. The members of the Church need to be humble and prayerful and diligent. We who have been called to these positions in the Priesthood have that responsibility upon our shoulders to teach and direct the members of the Church in righteousness.”
  • April 1942 General Conference
    • The Necessity of Working on Our Own Lineage
      • “It is our opportunity in this dispensation, and our privilege and duty to spend our time in searching out our dead. We are of the house of Israel. We learn that through revelation, and that being true, then we reach the conclusion unless we have been adopted through the gospel and were gentiles, that our ancestors were also of the house of Israel. In other words, the promise made to Abraham that through the scattering of his seed all nations would be blessed, has been fulfilled, and our lineage has come down generation after generation through the loins of Abraham and the loins of Israel. Therefore our fathers are more likely to receive the gospel if they did not hear it in this life, to receive it in the spirit world than are those whose descendants are not in the Church, and who refused to received the gospel here. It seems to me this is a logical conclusion.”
      • “When the Lord said the meek shall inherit the earth, He had reference to those who are willing to keep the commandments of the Lord in righteousness and thus receive exaltation.”
  • October 1941 General Conference
    • Ordinances and Repentance
      • “Every baptized person who has fully repented, who comes into the Church with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, has made a covenant to continue with that broken heart, with that contrite spirit, which means a repentant spirit. He makes a covenant that he will do that.”
      • “There should be no sin in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No man should attempt to excuse himself because he has this failing or that. If we have a failing, if we have a weakness, there is where we should concentrate, with a desire to overcome, until we master and conquer. If a man feels that it is hard for him to pay his tithing, then that is the thing he should do, until he learns to pay his tithing. If it is the Word of Wisdom, that is what he should do, until he learns to love that commandment.”
  • April 1941 General Conference
    • Marriage and Covenants
      • “Frequently I receive an invitation to attend a wedding. I look in the newspaper and I see the picture of a beautiful young lady, and the announcement made that she is going to be married, and perhaps, she being a member of the Church, she is going to marry also a member of the Church, but that the ceremony is going to be performed at the home of the bride, or at some other place selected by them, outside of the Temple of the Lord. While the invitation that comes to me no doubt is sent in the spirit of kindness, I always feel that I would rather not receive it, because I do not want to lend to a wedding of that kind even my presence, because I consider marriage, as the Lord has given it to the Church, one of the most vital and one of the most sacred principles that has ever been revealed. And when we violate that covenant, or refuse to enter into that covenant, we are transgressors of the law.”
      • “Those who are satisfied to receive a ceremony for time only, uniting them for this life, and are content with that, are ignorant of this fundamental principle of the Gospel and its consequences, or they are in rebellion against the commandments of the Lord.”
      • “It fills my heart with sadness when I see in the paper the name of a daughter or a son of members of this Church, and discover that she or he is going to have a ceremony and be married outside of the Temple of the Lord, because I realize what it means, that they are cutting themselves off from exaltation in the Kingdom of God.”
  • October 1940 General Conference
    • Safety in the Gospel
      • “We have the means of escape through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Will we escape? When I see, even among the Latter-day Saints the violation of the laws of the Lord, I fear and I tremble. I have been crying repentance among the Stakes of Zion for thirty years, calling upon the people to turn to the Lord, keep His commandments, observe the Sabbath Day, pay their honest tithing, do everything the Lord has commanded them to do, to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God. By doing this we shall escape the calamities.”
      • “I am going to repeat what I have said before, for which I have been severely criticized from certain quarters, that even in this country we have no grounds by which we may escape, no sure foundation upon which we can stand, and by which we may escape from the calamities and destruction and the plagues and the pestilences, and even the devouring fire by sword and by war, unless we repent and keep the commandments of the Lord, for it is written here in these revelations.”
  • April 1940 General Conference
    • Have the Holy Spirit As Your Guide
      • “Now, my good brethren and sisters, if we are humble, if we are diligent in the service of the Lord, if we seek to serve Him with an eye single to the glory of our Father in heaven, keeping in mind that He has asked for that service with a full heart, with all our might, with all our mind, and with all our strength, we will not go astray, we will not be seduced by evil spirits nor by the spirits of men, but we will be led and directed by the Spirit of God.”
      • “Now there are some of our people who are being deceived. Why? Because they lack knowledge, because they lack understanding, and because they are not in tune with the Holy Spirit, which they have a right to receive through their faithfulness and obedience.”
      • “We should go on our knees a little more and then we will have more faith. We need to be more humble in the service of the Lord. We need to spend less time in the criticism of those who preside.”
      • “The nearer we approach God, the better we endeavor to keep His commandments, the more we will search to know His will as it has been revealed, the less likely it will be for us to be led astray by every wind of doctrine, by these false spirits that lie in wait to deceive, and by the spirits of men, as the Lord has stated in the revelations which I have read to you. We will be protected, and we will have the power to understand, to segregate truth from error, we will walk in the light and we will not be deceived. Now the man who is dilatory, the man who is unfaithful, the man who is not willing to keep the commandments of the Lord in all things lays himself open to deception because the Spirit of the Lord is not with him to lead and direct him and to show him the way of truth and righteousness, and therefore some error comes along and he absorbs it because he cannot understand and realize the difference between truth and error.”
  • April 1939 General Conference
    • Knowledge, Intelligence, Wisdom
      • “The Prophet did say that a man cannot be saved in ignorance, but in ignorance of what? He said that a man could not be saved in ignorance of the saving principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not many of the great and the mighty, those who form and control the thoughts of the people of today, are going fa find salvation in the kingdom of God. Why? Because they have not found the way; they are not walking in the light of truth. They may have knowledge, but they lack intelligence. Intelligence is the light of truth, and we are informed that he who has intelligence or the light of truth will forsake that evil one. A man who has intelligence will worship God and repent of his sins; he will seek to know the will of God and follow it.”
  • October 1938 General Conference
    • Where Are We Going?
      • “Now, this is not the only evil; there are many others, but time will not permit me to speak of them. Brethren and sisters, where are we going? I think it is a disgrace to the State of Utah, the home of the Latter-day Saints, the home of Brigham Young, who gave the counsel the day after we came into this valley that we should observe the Sabbath day, and now today the authorities in State and city and village everywhere throw the doors open for the violation of the word of God. How many of us were guilty of being there? We have got to repent and turn from this evil lest the same troubles come upon us that came upon old Israel, as I have read them to you.”
  • April 1938 General Conference
    • Revelation to the Church
      • “Now, these stories of revelation, that are being circulated around, are of no consequence, except for rumor and silly talk by persons who have no authority. The fact of the matter is simply this: No man can enter into God’s rest until he will absorb the truth, in so far that all error, all falsehood, all misunderstanding and misstatement he will be able to sift thoroughly and dissolve, and know that it is error, and not truth.”
      • “When you know God’s truth, when you enter into God’s rest, you will not be hunting after revelations from Tom, Dick and Harry all over the world. You will not be following the will-o’-the-wisp of the vagaries of men and women who advance nonsense and their own ideas. When you know the truth you will abide in the truth, and the truth will make you free. It is only the truth that will free you from the errors of men and from the falsehoods and misrepresentations of the evil one, who lays in wait to deceive and to mislead the people of God from the paths of righteousness and truth.”
  • October 1937 General Conference
    • Our Duty to Honor Priesthood
      • “It is the duty of the Authorities of the Church to speak by inspiration and revelation. If the membership, or any part thereof, should fail to heed the warning or accept the counsel, the instruction which these men in authority give, and especially the one who holds the keys of authority, still it is the duty of these men to give that instruction, even though they may feel it will not be followed, and then the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of those who hear it, and if they refuse to receive it the sin is upon their own heads, and they will have to answer for it.”
  • April 1937 General Conference
    • Peace Has Departed
      • “Peace has departed from the world. The devil has power today over his own dominion. This is made manifest in the actions of men, in the distress among the nations, in the troubles that we see in all lands, including this land which was dedicated to liberty. There is no peace. Men’s hearts are failing them. Greed has the uppermost place in the hearts of men. Evil is made manifest on every side, and people are combining for their own selfish interests.”
      • “Because of our disobedience and our failure to keep the commandments of the Lord, the righteous, as in times past, may be called upon to suffer with the unrighteous among us. So I rejoiced in having the voice of warning raised. Are we keeping the Sabbath day holy, as Latter-day Saints, when the picture shows are filled every afternoon and evening, and that, too, in communities of Latter-day Saints; when the pleasure resorts are crowded on the Sabbath day; when we turn our attention to pleasure rather than to the worship of God? Do we have a claim upon his blessings, and are we entitled to have the angels of destruction pass us by, according to the promise that is given here, if we will keep the commandments of God? Are we doing it?”
  • October 1936 General Conference
    • Broadmindedness
      • “Satan is very “broadminded,” extremely so as long as he can get people to do evil and avoid the truth. He will teach any kind of theory, or principle, or doctrine, if it doesn’t conform to the fundamental things of life—the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is even willing to teach some truth if he can join that truth with error, and by teaching the error with the truth lead men astray. This is how broadminded he is, and that is how the apostasy came about in the primitive church.”
      • “Tolerance is not indulgence. I think sometimes the terms have been confused. We must not get so broadminded that we would throw over the fundamental things of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
  • April 1936 General Conference
    • Preparing for the Second Coming
      • “The day of the coming of the Lord is near. I do not know when. I am not looking, however, upon the coming of the Son of Man as I looked once upon the day when men would speak from city to city and throughout the land without the aid of wires, and would be heard, as something that may come in some far distant time, because I sincerely believe it will come in the very day when some of us who are here today will be living upon the face of the earth. That day is close at hand. It behooves us as Latter-day Saints to set our houses in order, to keep the commandments of God, to turn from evil to righteousness if it is necessary, and serve the Lord in humility and faith and prayer.”
  • October 1935 General Conference
    • Blessings Forfeited
      • “Moreover he says in this revelation that he would give unto us commandments not a few. I am not afraid of the commandments of the Lord. And he says that he would give us revelations in their time. I am not afraid of the revelations from him. I sometimes tremble about revelations from men, and commandments coming from men, but not from the Lord. And yet the Lord is holding back from us revelations and commandments pertaining to our welfare and salvation because we will not hearken unto that which has already been given.”
      • “I plead with you, my brethren and sisters, to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. This is one of the great Ten Commandments the Lord has given, and do not get the idea that this commandment was a part of the law of Moses which was done away in Christ. The Decalogue was older than Moses, it continued after Moses passed away. The Lord has reiterated these commandments, he has renewed them and commanded us in our day to observe them and keep them sacredly and holy, and therefore I plead with you.”
      • “We are not praying enough. We are not giving the attention to the commandments that we ought to give. We need repentance, and I plead with you, let us go forth in the spirit of humiliation and with the contrite spirit and the broken heart of which the Lord speaks in this revelation.”
  • April 1935 General Conference
    • Civilization
      • “There can be no true, perfect civilization where there is not faithful obedience to the commandments of God. When the dictionary says that civilization is relative progress, it may mean—I do not know—that there has been a gradual progression in matters of civilization from the beginning of time until now. If that is the meaning, then I cannot accept it as an historical truth.”
      • “I am, however, going to say this, boldly—The present world civilization shall not endure, for God has said it: It is bound to pass away. May I also say I care not how soon that comes.”
  • October 1934 General Conference
    • Read the Scriptures
      • “It is a sad thing, but true, that the world today, the so-called Christian world, does not stand fundamentally upon the mission of Jesus Christ and the revealed word of God. I grant you there are, scattered among those who profess the Christian faith, many who do have faith and do acknowledge Christ as the Son of God, but the tendency of the times is against it. The teachings of our day are against it. The theories of men are against it. I think I know what I am speaking about, because I have studied them.”
      • “And I do know that it is a requirement that is made of us, as members of this Church, to make ourselves familiar with that which the Lord has revealed, that we may not be led astray, for the Lord has said there are many spirits abroad in the land; some of them are the spirits of men, some are the spirits of devils; but he has given unto us his Spirit, if we will receive it, and that Spirit leads and directs in all truth. How are we going to walk in the truth if we do not know it?”
  • April 1934 General Conference
    • Record Keeping
      • “Today the Lord has spoken and has again given revelations to the Church, and is now giving revelations to the Church; in fact we have received more apparently than we are willing to keep, and yet the Lord is willing and ready to bless us with inspiration and knowledge and truth.”
      • “Now, brethren, I am appealing to the presidents of stakes and bishops to see that these records are properly kept. Let me say further that the choosing of a clerk and recorder is a very important thing. Sometimes we think that anybody can keep a record. It requires intelligence to do so. A man ought to have keen discernment, he ought to be able to segregate facts, he ought to be able to choose and record the things that are important and separate them from the things that are perhaps unimportant, and make a record of them. Our custom in recording is to take more than we need rather than less. We can always eliminate if something is recorded that we do not need, but it is sometimes a very difficult thing to find something that we have overlooked.”
  • October 1933 General Conference
    • The Duty of the Leaders of the Church
      • “I regret that any man if he claims membership in this Church would presume to close the mouth of the President of the Church. I feel that it is our duty to warn when we see dangers, and when we discover that there are members of the Church who do not seem to understand what course they should take. We have a perfect right to direct them. That is our duty.”
      • “That is our duty. When we see evil lurking, when we see dangers confronting the people, and especially the Latter-day Saints, it is our duty to raise the warning voice, and not only in behalf of the Latter-day Saints, but to warn all people, for our mission is one that is world-wide, and we should warn all men and give them the opportunity of repentance, of serving the Lord and keeping his commandments if they will. If they will not, then we have saved our souls. We are clear from the blood of this generation. That is our duty.”
      • “Men love darkness today rather than light, just as they did in the days of our Redeemer. They are blinded against truth and righteousness. They seek it not. Our mission is to proclaim it.”
  • April 1933 General Conference
    • Be Clean
      • “Now, we know that it is the plan and purpose of the Lord to bring to pass the immortality and the eternal life of all men. No matter whether they believe in him or not, no matter whether they are rebellious, or whether they receive the truth and walk in the light, all who have the privilege of this mortal life are to be redeemed, so we are informed, from death. All mortal souls are to receive the resurrection. All are redeemed from Adam’s transgression, as we are pleased to call it, through the mercy of Christ; because we are not responsible for that transgression; we do not have to pay the price.”
      • “I think enough of my body to want to keep it clean. I have been so trained. My comprehension of this Gospel, my study, all that pertains to the Gospel as I have learned it, teaches me that it is my duty to keep this body clean and unspotted from the contamination of this world.”
      • “The man who yields to every appetite and every desire of the flesh cannot receive exaltation, because he does not prepare himself for and make himself worthy of it.”
  • October 1932 General Conference
    • Selfishness and Greed
      • “The world today is full of selfishness, greed, the desire to possess. For many years we have been living extravagantly. Our wants have been supplied—not our needs alone, but our wants—and we have wanted much. Most of us have been able to obtain them, and now a time comes when we find ourselves somewhat curtailed, hedged around about, not having so many privileges, and our desires are not so fully granted, and so we begin to complain. But we should get rid of our selfishness and greed, our desire to possess that which is beyond the needs and blessings which are really ours.”
  • April 1932 General Conference
    • Temporal and Spiritual
      • “Our attention has been called to the fact during this Conference that we are living in perilous times. There is sin, there is distress everywhere and disregard of the commandments of the Lord. He has given us another commandment, and that is that we regard the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Who does it? Do the people of this nation? Do the people of other nations? I have been in some parts of this land where on the Sabbath day people worshipped, but here among us we find Babylon in all its glory, all its wickedness; and we are face to face with temptation, with sin, with enticement of various natures to lead us from the path of truth and from the worshipping of the true and the living God.”
      • “The Lord has pointed out in the revelations what we should do on the Sabbath day to keep this day holy. We should not go to picture shows, nor go to places of amusement, nor spend our time foolishly; but in thought and in reflection and in study, in consideration of the things of the kingdom of God. What more can be said? I leave these thoughts with you, fragmentary they are.”
  • October 1931 General Conference
    • Treasure the Words of the Scriptures
      • “Now remember, brethren and sisters, if you treasure up the word of the Lord, if you study these revelations, not merely those that are in the Doctrine and Covenants, but those that are in all the standard works of the Church, and you put into practice the commandments that are here found, you will not be deceived in these perilous times, but you shall have the spirit of discernment and you shall know the truth and shall know falsehood, for you shall have power to know the spirits of men and to understand the Spirit of the Lord.”
  • April 1931 General Conference
    • A House of Order
      • “We do not need to write to ask questions in regard to these things. We do not need to question them for a moment, because the Lord is not going to give a revelation to any high priest, any elder, or seventy, for this Church. It will come through the one who is so appointed. And if the Lord is not going to choose those who have standing in the quorums of the priesthood, you may be certainly assured that he is not going to choose some one who does not hold the priesthood at all. So our minds may be at rest in regard to matters of this kind.”
      • “I repeat: “And whoso treasureth up my word shall not be deceived.” Therefore let us go to with our might in the labor of this Church, and in the study and understanding of the (principles of the Gospel, these principles of light, and as we study them the Lord will reveal to us further light, until we shall receive the fulness, in due time, of the perfect day, and we shall not be under the necessity of being subject to doubt and seeking for advice when confronted by matters of this kind, because the Spirit of the Lord itself will teach us.”
  • October 1930 General Conference
    • Watchmen Upon the Towers
      • “We know that we have been guided by revelation and commandment from the Lord. With this light and knowledge before us, there is no place in the Church for the disobedient and the rebellious, the violator of the law. There is no place for those who do not have in their hearts a love of the truth and who remain unrepentant. When I say this I do not mean to convey the thought that we have no sympathy for the lawbreaker and no love for the unrepentant. It is our commission to go into all the world and cry repentance and endeavor to save the sinner; but if men will not repent who are in the Church, and if they will not be obedient to the teachings of the Church, then they are not entitled to membership. It is the duty of every member to be repentant, to be humble, to be willing to receive counsel, and to walk in the light as it has been revealed to us.”
      • “It is our duty to warn, to admonish, to teach, in righteousness, the Latter-day Saints and all peoples. I think we are under responsibility to warn the world and call the attention of the people to these predictions and cry among them repentance, and ask them to repent, that they too may receive the Gospel and thus escape from these calamities and tribulations which even now are being poured out upon the nations of the earth. The Lord has promised us that Zion may escape from this destruction and trouble if she will hearken to his commandments and walk in his statutes. But Zion will not escape unless she is willing to walk in humility and obedience. If we refuse to hearken to counsel, if we refuse to observe the laws of the Gospel and to live in humility, faith and love, then we will be visited “with sore affliction, with pestilence, with plague, with sword, with vengeance, with devouring fire.” Therefore, I feel it my duty to cry repentance and to warn the people.”
      • “The Lord has said that when he comes those who will not hearken to the voice of his servants, and more especially to the voice of Jesus Christ, our Lord, shall be cut off from among the people. There will be many among those in Zion and who belong to the Church, who shall be called upon to mourn and to lament, as did the Nephites of old, unless we turn with full purpose, to the worship of the Lord and the keeping of his commandments.”
  • April 1930 General Conference
    • A Testimony
      • “Unfortunately—at least unfortunately for Oliver Cowdery, who was called to this wonderful and responsible position, jointly associated with Joseph Smith holding all the authority and presidency in this dispensation—Oliver, in a spirit of rebellion and darkness, turned away. He lost his fellowship in the Church, the power of the priesthood was taken from him, and for a season he stood excommunicated from the Church. Fortunately he eventually overcame this spirit of darkness and humbly came back and received his membership in the Church, but never again was he privileged to receive the keys of power and authority which once were placed upon him.”
  • October 1929 General Conference
    • Duties of Watchmen
      • “No men anywhere in all the earth, no matter what their calling, hold responsibility equal to that which we have received, for we have had conferred upon us the priesthood of God. We are possessed of divine authority and have been set apart as his servants and watchmen upon the towers of Zion. Our duty is to teach, to guide and direct the members of the Church in the path of righteousness. Our duty is to set examples before the world, that they, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father in heaven, and have faith and confidence in us. It is our duty to warn all men and endeavor to teach them the truth, so that those who will not hearken may be left without excuse.”
      • “I know it is not pleasing to me when I attend a service and someone is called upon to speak who stands before the people and presents, though it be in a pleasing way, some platitudes, some philosophy of men, the ideas of those who today mould the thought of the world, but who in their own hearts have no faith in or love for Jesus Christ—or who discuss questions at variance with the fundamental principles of the gospel.”
      • “If a man fully realizes what it means when he partakes of the sacrament, that he covenants to take upon him the name of Jesus Christ and to always remember him and keep his commandments, and this vow is renewed week by week—do you think such a man will fail to pay his tithing? Do you think such a man will break the Sabbath day or disregard the Word of Wisdom? Do you think he will fail to be prayerful, and that he will not attend his quorum duties and other duties in the Church? It seems to me that such a thing as a violation of these sacred principles and duties is impossible when a man knows what it means to make such vows week by week unto the Lord and before the saints.”
  • April 1929 General Conference
    • A Critical Time
      • “The crime of ingratitude is one of the most prevalent and I might say at the same time one of the greatest with which mankind is afflicted. The more the Lord blesses us the less we love him. That is the way men show their gratitude unto the Lord for his mercies and his blessings towards them.”
      • “All things are in harmony with his laws. Everything in the universe obeys the law given unto it, so far as I know, except man. Everywhere you look you find law and order, the elements obeying the law given to them, true to- their calling. But man rebels, and in this thing man is less than the dust of the earth because he rejects the counsels of the Lord, and the greater the blessings he receives, (this because of his agency), the more willingly does he turn from the source of those blessings, feeling self-sufficient, and puts his faith and his trust in the arm of flesh rather than in God.”
  • October 1928 General Conference
    • Truth
      • “We are all dependent upon divine revelation to know the truth concerning the destiny of man. Man by searching cannot find out God without the divine direction. The mistake made by many who seek for truth through the channels of scientific research is that they depend solely upon their own natural ability to discover, without taking God into account and seeking for his direction.”
      • “The Lord has held in reserve for those who obey him this great blessing of the fulness of truth, and through obedience it is received and in no other way. So with all their searching, with all their delving into the earth and examining of the heavens, man cannot discover the fulness of truth without submission to the principles of the gospel and placing their lives in harmony with the Holy Spirit and walking in obedience to the commandments of the Lord. There is no other way in which all truth may be obtained. It is the destiny of those who keep the commandments of the Lord, through their obedience, to gain all truth. The Lord has spoken it.”
  • April 1928 General Conference
    • Teaching
      • “The matter of teaching is one of the greatest importance. We cannot estimate its value when it is properly done ; neither do we know the extent of the evil that may result if it is improperly done. Whether in the Church schools, the seminaries, auxiliary organizations; or in the Priesthood quorums, the greatest qualification required of a teacher is that he have faith in the principles of the gospel; that he believe in the principles of revealed truth as they have come through inspired prophets in our own day as well as in times of old; and that he shall exercise his privilege as a teacher in the spirit of prayer and faith.”
      • “A teacher should not be called primarily because of his schooling, or educational attainments, without taking into consideration his humility, his faith and his integrity to the cause of truth which he is supposed to represent. This training does not come through the study of science, art or literature, but through prayer and faith and the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord. It cannot be stated too forcefully that the man or the woman without faith in the gospel as it has been revealed in the day in which we live, should not teach.”
      • “In fact, if a choice is to be made, a soul already in the Church—one who is in the Covenant—is just a little dearer to the Father, if possible, than is one who is on the outside. Of course, the Lord is no respecter of persons, and all souls are precious in his sight, but he no doubt loves those who obey his voice and who are willing to walk in his truth, more than he does those who fail to do so.”
  • October 1927 General Conference
    • Perilous Times
      • “It seems to me as I reflect upon these things that it is perhaps a little more difficult for a man to be righteous today than it has been in some other periods of the world’s history. I think this because of modern conditions with all the temptations and evils that now confront us at every turn. If this is the case then Latter-day Saints should be just a little more prayerful, a little more diligent, and seek the Lord just a little more closely, that we might be kept free from all the evils that now prevail. The fact that we are baptized and have a standing in good fellowship in the Church will not insure for us our salvation. Evils may come upon us, for the Lord has said by way of warning, “Therefore, let the Church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation.””
  • April 1927 General Conference
    • The Last Days
      • “I heard President Wilford Woodruff make the statement, in this very spot where I now stand, at a conference of the Church, that these angels had been sent forth on their mission to reap down the earth, to tie in bundles the tares for the burning and to gather the Saints of God. I heard him make this statement on several occasions. Moreover he said from that time forth, and that was about the year 1894, earthquakes, pestilence, war, famine, plague, and other commotions among both men and the elements would increase and continue until the coming of Christ.”
      • “If we want exaltation, if we want the place which the Lord has prepared for those who are just and true, then we must be willing to walk in the full light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and keep all the commandments. We cannot say that some of them are small and insignificant and therefore the Lord will not care if we violate them.”
  • October 1926 General Conference
    • Where Much is Given
      • “I want to call your attention to this fact, that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have received the greater light and have made greater covenants to serve the Lord, are under the necessity of keeping those covenants and commandments in righteousness and humility. We are living in perilous times, notwithstanding the remarkable wonders and accumulated knowledge of the present age.”
      • “The man who has received the truth and yet will not walk in it deserves the greater condemnation.”
  • April 1926 General Conference
    • The First Fruits of the Resurrection
      • “In this way we receive an education that could not be obtained in any other way. So mortality came through the will of God, and through the fall of man death has passed upon all men. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ life is restored again and death is overcome and destroyed. Immortality and eternal life constitute the great work of the Father and the last enemy to be destroyed, we are informed, is death. When Christ has destroyed death by bringing to pass the resurrection of all mankind from the grave, he will have finished his work and then he will deliver up the kingdom to his Father.”
  • October 1925 General Conference
    • Eternal Life
      • “I know these things are true. I know that if we are obedient to the laws and principles of the gospel as they have been made known to us, if we will walk in righteousness and endure in faith that we shall obtain eternal life. This life will bring us back into the presence of God, there to dwell in the fullness of light, there to know our eternal Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Those who do not dwell there shall not know them, for they shall not be blessed with eternal life, which is God’s life, although they may be in possession of immortality, for all men will receive the gift of the resurrection through the atonement of Jesus Christ.”
      • “We are not saved now. I have stood on the street corners and heard men declaring that they are saved, because they have received religion and been converted. No man is saved as long as mortality endures, unless he is faithful to the end, and there is always a possibility, as I have read to you here, that men may fall from grace. So, it behooves us, as Latter-day Saints, to be faithful, to keep the commandments of the Lord, to walk in righteousness all the days of our lives. Thus through obedience to those commandments which are set forth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by continuance therein, we shall receive immortality, glory, eternal life, and dwell in the presence of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, where we shall truly know them.”
  • April 1925 General Conference
    • The Mission of Jesus Christ
      • “There is no virtue in doubt. The man who doubts concerning the principles of the gospel, the revelations of the Lord, the plan of salvation, is unfortunate. There is no reason for it, because as I have said, the key has been given unto us by which the door may be unlocked to knowledge so that men may say: “I know,” and all doubt is removed.”
      • “The term “Sacrifice” does not mean that we are to inflict punishment upon ourselves. It does not mean that we are to be persecuted, or to deprive ourselves of comforts and blessings; of mortal life, not in the least, but that we are willing to place upon the altar all things, even our lives, for the kingdom of God, and that we will accept in fulness all the principles of the gospel and put them into practice. Sacrifice of the world? Yes, if you want to call it such, and the things of the world, to a concentration of the mind and action upon the things of the kingdom of God, and therefore again I repeat that he who will do the will of the Father shall know of the doctrine.”
  • October 1924 General Conference
    • Truth
      • “Truth endures forever. It is always new, it grows brighter with use. We love it the more we come in contact with it, which is not the case with falsehood.”
      • “Men are departing from the well-worn paths, no matter how good they are, and feel that conservatism is a reproach; that it is the duty of man to do away with that which is old, or which has been established, and find something that is new. We stand practically alone in the world, yes, absolutely alone in the world, representing the truth of the living God, declaring to all men the principles of eternal truth which do not change. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not new in the sense in which the world looks upon things as being new, for it has endured through the ages, not merely since the days of the advent of the Son of God, but from the beginning of the world, for the plan of salvation was prepared for the benefit of man, and declared unto him in the beginning. These principles do not change, they cannot change, they must endure immutably through all time.”
  • April 1924 General Conference
    • True Christianity
      • “Tt may be true, as one divine stated, that the Christian Era is at an end, and the Church is in the course of dissolution, if he had reference to the so-called Christian churches of the day; because their doctrine is spurious, it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, but a man-made system. But Christianity, pure and undefiled, is not in the course of dissolution ; it is not dying out, it is becoming more firmly rooted in the earth, and must do so, and shall continue until it shall fill the earth, for so it has been predicted.”
  • October 1923 General Conference
    • Further Revelation
      • “We have not prepared ourselves yet to receive the things which were sealed, and which the prophet was not privileged to interpret and to publish—to our condemnation, to our shame, and to the condemnation of all the world. To our shame, I say, because we have not learned through our study, our faith and our perseverance, these lesser things which have been given and have been revealed, contained in the record now made manifest to us, known as the Book of Mormon. and it behooves us as Latter-day Saints to follow the counsels, the advice, and the teachings of the gospel as revealed in this record and in other records.”
  • April 1923 General Conference
    • The End of Creation
      • “I feel most assuredly that our Father in heaven is far more interested in a soul—one of his children—than it is possible for an earthly father to be in one of his children. His love for us is greater than can be the love of an earthly parent for his offspring.”
      • “I was asked by a brother one time if a man could be perfectly happy in the celestial kingdom if one of his children was not permitted to enter there. I told him that I supposed that any man who was so unfortunate as to have one of his children barred from the celestial kingdom would, of course, have feelings of sorrow because of that condition; and that is just the position our Father in heaven is in. (Not all of his children are worthy of celestial glory, and many are forced to suffer his wrath because of their transgressions, and this causes the Father and the whole heavens to have sorrow and to weep. The Lord works in accordance with natural law. Man must be redeemed according to law and his reward must be based on the law of justice. Because of this the Lord will not give unto men that which they do not merit, but shall reward all men according to their works.”
  • October 1922 General Conference
    • Do Right
      • “Any man or woman in this Church who violates the commandments, though it may be one of the least, is doing injury not merely to himself or to herself, but to the entire body of the Church. We individually have in our care and keeping the good name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and having that good name in our keeping, it is required of us that we walk circumspectly, that we be sincere in our conversation, in our deportment, in all that we do. A man may say that, if he violates one of these commandments which have been given to the Church, he is injuring only himself, but that is not the case, for he is doing an injury to the entire body of the people, because the world will judge the Church by the acts of the members.”
      • “I have no right to do wrong, and you have no right to do wrong, although we have our agency and the privilege of doing right or wrong as we may choose in and of ourselves; but we, as members of the Church, are under covenant and under commandment of the Lord to keep his law.”
      • “What right have we to claim membership, to call upon the Lord, and do not the things which he says? Therefore, if there are any among us who are violating even the least of the commandments of God and feel that they are justified in doing so, they are under condemnation.”
  • April 1922 General Conference
    • Fundamental Doctrine
      • “We believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer of the world. No Latter-day Saint can believe anything contrary to that. It is true that those who profess to be Christians, in large part at least, do not accept Him as the Redeemer, do not look upon Him as the Son of God, are not willing to believe that He died for the remission of sins, for the transgression of our first parents, and that we, through repentance, may come back into the presence of the Father; yet these doctrines are fundamental with the Latter-day Saints. No man shall see the kingdom of God unless he is willing to accept these truths.”
      • “There has been a great deal of discussion going on in certain parts, as to whether or not those of the telestial kingdom may advance into the terrestrial, and those of the terrestrial into the celestial, and whether eventually all men enter into the kingdom where God lives and Christ reigns. Why should we worry ourselves? Why should we argue? Why should we contend? Why should we discuss a matter of that kind? When we have come out of the world and have received the gospel in its fulness, we are candidates for celestial glory; nay, we are more than candidates, if we are faithful, for the Lord has given unto us the assurance that through our faithfulness, we shall enter into the celestial kingdom, and surely, no Latter-day Saint desires a place somewhere else, there to take a chance of some day being forgiven and having the opportunity of advancing and finally reaching the place where the righteous dwell.”
  • October 1921 General Conference
    • Jesus is the Christ
      • “Let it be uppermost in your minds, now and at all times, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who came into the world to lay down his life that we might live. That is the truth, and is fundamental. Upon that our faith is built. It can not be destroyed. We must adhere to this teaching in spite of the teachings of the world, and the notions of men; for this is paramount, this is essential to our salvation. The Lord redeemed us with his blood, he gave us salvation, provided—and there is this condition which we must not forget—that we will keep his commandments, and always remember him. If we will do that then we shall be saved, while the ideas and the foolishness of men, shall perish from the earth.”
      • “The reason that there is a lack of spirit and force in the religious teaching of the world is in part because they have tried to harmonize the Christian faith with the foolishness of men; and, of course, it will not harmonize with falsehood and with the doctrines of men. But we have received the light of the everlasting gospel. It is our salvation. Let us adhere to it, and worship the Lord and keep his commandments, as we have been instructed to do, in the name of his Son.”
  • April 1921 General Conference
    • Progression
      • “The Lord has not left us to wander; he has not left us alone in the world to grope in darkness, but the Church which he has founded is guided by the spirit of revelation, and the inspiration of the Lord rests upon those who stand at the head. They are not doing this work in their own name, they are not endeavoring to establish themselves, but to carry out the plan which the Lord has revealed, and to make known Unto the children of men the great desire of our Father, that all men may be saved through obedience to the gospel and receive a place and standing in his kingdom.”
      • “I believe in progression; we all believe in progression: and the Lord has not curtailed us in any respect, but we cannot substitute the ideas of men for that which the Lord has given, or the plan which he has adopted and revealed to us, by which we may be saved. For instance, there is no name other than that of Jesus Christ by which men shall be saved. Men may formulate plans and adopt theories and introduce strange works and gather and teach many peculiar doctrines, but this teaching is fundamental and from it we cannot depart, that all things are concentrated in and around the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Redeemer of the world.”
  • October 1920 General Conference
    • If Ye Love Me
      • “It would be a shame, after we have been gathered out in this manner, according to the predictions of the prophets of old, if now, because of prosperity, or for any other cause, we should let the adversary find a place in our hearts to destroy the truth and the love we should have, one for another; for we are indeed the disciples of the Lord. If we love him we will keep his commandments. No question about that. And should there be in Zion any who offend or who fail to keep the commandments of the Lord, then it is evidence sufficient that they do not love him.”
      • “What right have I to complain, or find fault, or endeavor to destroy the usefulness of my brother? It matters not what the occasion may be, why should I engender feelings in my heart of enmity for one that I am called upon and commanded by the Lord to treat as a brother? We are not merely friends; we are brothers and sisters, the children of God, who have come out, as I have said, from the world to enter into covenants, to observe his laws and to abide by all things which are given us by inspiration. We are commanded to love one another.”
      • “Some people, you know, are extremely progressive. They want a change in this and a change in that, and a change in the other thing, but the principles of the gospel never change. The principle of love is the same today that it was yesterday and will endure the same tomorrow, If I am not in harmony with that principle, which is a principle of eternal truth, then I am under condemnation before the Lord and have no fellowship with him.”
      • “If we are not in harmony with the Church and Kingdom of God in all things, and faithful in keeping the  commandments of the Lord, the time may come when we shall be removed, for the angels of heaven will take a hand and all that give offense, all things that are impure, unholy, and stand in the way of progress and advancement and the establishment of truth in the hearts of the people shall be removed.”
  • April 1920 General Conference
    • The Prophet Joseph Smith
      • “The Lord, in the former dispensation, sent a messenger to prepare the way before him, and in this dispensation it was just as necessary that a messenger be sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord and the establishment of the reign of peace. If Joseph Smith was not that man, then we must look for another. Now, I say to you, the issue is clear, the line is sharply drawn and there is no occasion for misunderstanding. Either Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and all that he claimed to be, or he was the greatest impostor this world has ever seen. There is no middle ground. You cannot say he was deceived, that he was mistaken, that he believed that he was called of God and thought that he had seen a vision of the Father and the Son but he was in error. He was all he claimed to be, or else he was a base deceiver.”
  • October 1919 General Conference
    • Zion
      • “There is constant need of warning, teaching and calling upon the people to remember the promises the Lord has made unto them; urging them, to be true and faithful in all things, to his holy word that none may go astray, nor falter, or be overcome and trodden down and be cast back again into the world, to partake of the sins of the world from whence they came. And so I feel that it is my mission to cry repentance and to call upon the people to serve the Lord.”
      • “Right from the beginning the Lord sent out the elders into the world, commanding them to call upon the people, saying. Repent, come unto Zion. Believe in my gospel and you shall have peace. Peace will come, of course, through righteousness, through justice, through the mercy of God, through the power which he will grant unto us by which our hearts will be touched and we will have love one for another. Now our duty is to declare these things among all people, call upon them to come unto Zion where the standard is set up—the standard of peace—and to receive of the blessings of the house of the Lord and the influence of his Holy Spirit which is here manifest.”
      • “Let us not sit down and feel in our hearts that all is well, that we can take our ease in Zion, that peace is here, that there is to be no more trouble, no more contention, no more strife no more war in the world. That we can not do in justice, but we must serve the Lord and we must keep his commandments, we must walk righteously before him as we have never done it before, and if we do not, then we shall be cut off from among the people and that would be a calamity.”
    • Prayer
      • “No man can retain the Spirit of the Lord, unless he prays. No man can have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, unless in his heart is found this spirit of prayer. We are commanded in the scriptures to seek the Lord, to praise his holy name, to labor diligently, that his spirit may abide with us.”
  • June 1919 General Conference
    • Changes in Life Must Come
      • “No man can preside in this Church in any capacity, without the consent of the people. The Lord has placed upon us the responsibility of sustaining by vote those who are called, to various positions of responsibility. No man, should the people decide to the contrary, could preside over any body of Latter-day Saints in this Church, and yet it is not the right of the people to nominate, to choose, for that is the right of the priesthood. The priesthood selects, under the inspiration of our Father in heaven, and then it is the duty of the Latter-day Saints, as they are assembled in conference, or other capacity, by the uplifted hand, to sustain or to reject; and I take it that no man has the right to raise his hand in opposition, or with contrary vote, unless he has a reason for doing so that would be valid if presented before those who stand at the head. In other words, I have no right to raise my hand in opposition to a man who is appointed to any position in this Church, simply because I may not like him, or because of some personal disagreement or feeling I may have, but only on the grounds that he is guilty of wrong doing, of transgression of the laws of the Church which would disqualify him for the position which he is called to hold. That is my understanding of it.”
  • October 1918 General Conference
    • Repentance
      • “When you find good sisters, or otherwise, and brethren, circulating revelations or manifestations which they themselves have received, you put it down that it is contrary to the law and the order of the Church and the doctrine the Lord has revealed.”
  • April 1918 General Conference
    • Blessings and Advantages of the Gospel
      • “I want to raise the warning voice to the Latter-day Saints and say to them that it is the will of the Lord, and I think I dare say so, that they should be more sober-minded as well as industrious, and should spend more time and give more attention to the thing’s of the kingdom of God and less to the things of the world and the seeking of pleasure in this hour of trouble. Before we are through I fear we will be sobered.”
  • October 1917 General Conference
    • The Things of God
      • “They may say I am incompetent. What do I care, as long as I know I have the truth?”
  • April 1917 General Conference
    • Genuine Faith
      • “It is our duty to seek the Lord, to obey his laws, to keep his commandments, to put away from us light-mindedness, foolishness, and the false theories, notions, and philosophies of the world, and to accept with fulness of heart and in humility these solemn, God-given principles which will bring unto us eternal life in the Celestial kingdom.”
  • October 1916 General Conference
    • Power and Purity
      • “The parents in Israel should protect their children, they should have a little more watchcare over them, they should pay a little more attention to them and train them a little more carefully in the principles of the gospel, both by precept and by example.”
  • April 1916 General Conference
    • Man’s Reason Needs the Spirit’s Guidance
      • “Reason is all right when intelligently used. There is not a principle of the gospel that will not appeal to the reason of man, for every principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is reasonable, clear and easily understood with the aid of the spirit of truth. But man cannot determine upon the strength of his own reason unaided by the Spirit of God the power and saving grace of the gospel principles, and expect to find out God.”
      • “It is the extreme of foolishness for a man to rise up and say, because those who have gone to the beyond have not appeared to him, therefore they have not returned, that no one has returned from the great beyond to prove we do go on and to teach such nonsense in his ignorance to the people, because it appeals to his reason. He never will receive such visitations and knowledge as long as he holds to such views, and rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of the world.”
      • “And why have they done this thing? Because the simple truth, which is understood by the Spirit of God and not understood and comprehended by the spirit of man, does not appeal to their reason.”
  • April 1915 General Conference
    • Prohibition
      • “And I wish to say to Brother John W. Hart, that while I am very much chagrined, humiliated and ashamed of the condition that prevails in the State of Utah, not because the people so willed it, I am proud to know that the State of Idaho and the State of Colorado and the State of Arizona, and the States of Washington and Oregon, in this Rocky Mountain region and the Pacific Coast have set an example that is worthy to be followed. And just one more word. The remark has been made that whispering is being indulged in to some extent by some of the people to the efifect, that the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not want prohibition, and I think I am in a position to say, that the authorities of the Church, the Presidency, and the Council of the Twelve, stand for temperance, and they do want such prohibition. Those who declare to the contrary, when they come to you, tell them that they speak that which is not true. And I think I know what I am talking about.”
    • Doctrines of the Gospel
      • “I believe in the doctrine of repentance from sin; that it is necessary for all men to repent. I accept the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins, by immersion in water, the ordinance being performed by one having authority to administer in the name of the Lord. I believe in the doctrine of laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which we are brought into communion with our Father in heaven and learn of His ways, that we may walk in His paths. I firmly believe in the doctrine of revelation and inspiration; the privilege of man to communicate, under proper conditions and circumstances, with the Lord. I believe in the principle of prayer, and that no man can come unto God without he has in his heart the spirit of prayer, by which he communicates with the Father. I believe in the salvation of the human family, and that it is the intention and desire of the Lord to save all His children, with the exception of a very few who will not be saved, who reject salvation against themselves because of their utter wickedness and sinning against the light.”
      • “I believe it is our solemn duty to love one another, to believe in each other, to have faith in each other, that it is our duty to overlook the faults and the failings of each other, and not to magnify them in our own eyes nor before the eyes of the world.”
      • “We should not be jealous one of another, nor angry with each other, and there should not arise in our hearts a feeling that we will not forgive one another our trespasses. There should be no feeling in the hearts of the children of God of unforgiveness against any man, no matter who he may be.”
      • “There is no place in Zion for the willful sinner. There is a place for the repentant sinner, for the man who turns away from iniquity and seeks for life eternal and the light of the Gospel. We should not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, any more than the Lord can do so, but walk uprightly and perfectly before the Lord. It is our duty to look after each other, to protect each other, to warn each other of dangers, to teach each other the principles of the Gospel of the kingdom, and to stand together with a united front against the sins of the world.”
  • October 1914 General Conference
    • Testimonies of Christ
      • “Could a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called to be a minister to the people—a Bishop of a ward, a President of a Stake, or one occupying a position in any other capacity—go forth among the people declaring that he did not believe-that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and denying His great and glorious mission in the world, and hold his position? No! Because it is in opposition to the very foundation of Christianity. It is contrary to the Gospel and teachings of the Redeemer of the world. It contradicts His entire life, and ministry and is destructive of faith in His name. Any officer in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who should put forth such a declaration would very soon be relieved of his responsibility.”
      • “It is no wonder, however, that blind teachers will hold to these ideas, for they are without the Spirit of God, and therefore, I suppose, we can afford to be charitable unto them and pity them.”
      • “We accept Jesus as the Redeemer of the world. We know, as it was testified to us this morning, that He revealed Himself in this dispensation. We are not dependent upon the testimonies of these ancient worthies, who lived in His day and conversed with Him in His ministry, and to whom He appeared after His resurrection. We have witnesses who have lived in our own day, who have seen Him, who knew that He lives and have testified to us and to the world of this fact. We know their testimonies are true. Joseph Smith was not left alone to bear witness in this dispensation of the mission of Jesus Christ, for the Lord raised up other witnesses who, with the Prophet Joseph Smith, saw the Redeemer, received instruction from Him and beheld Him in the heavens sitting on the right hand side of the Father surrounded by the holy angels.”
  • April 1914 General Conference
    • The Saints Shouldn’t Need Admonishment
      • “We are advancing, we are gaining in knowledge, in wisdom, and in power. This is as it should be, and as it will always be in the church and kingdom of our Father; for there must be progression, there must be advancement. Knowledge will be poured down upon this people and the Lord will make known unto us from time to time, through revelation, and the spirit of inspiration, many things that are for our good, when we are prepared and ready to receive them.”
      • “It ought not be necessary for the teachers to come into my home to teach me the law of tithing. It should not be necessary for them to come to me and my family and teach us the word of wisdom. It should not be necessary for them to call upon us to teach us the necessity of prayer, or of fasting, or any other of these simple and fundamental principles of the Gospel. We ought to know enough from what we have constantly been taught and the knowledge we have from our natural understanding of the scriptures as we are guided by the Spirit of the Lord, to do these things without being taught or commanded more than to follow the general commandment as it is written in the scriptures. While it is necessary, of course, that the teachers visit in the homes of the people, to see that there is no iniquity in the Church, no back-biting, fault finding, no envy, no strife, and that all the members do their duty, yet I say we should so live that when they come to us to teach us, we can tell them with a clear conscience that we are performing these labors and accepting these principles with an eye single to the glory of God. I feel this to be our duty as members in the Church.”
      • “We ought to so prepare ourselves through study and through faith, through observance of the law of the Gospel, through attendance at meetings and the magnifying of our callings generally, to know what the Lord expects at out hands without the necessity of someone telling us.”
      • “We should be faithful, we should have knowledge, we should have understanding and be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and walk uprightly and justly before the Lord, and keep the commandments as they have been given to us.”
  • October 1913 General Conference
    • Living Consistent with the Gospel
      • “We should feel to rejoice in such teachings as we receive in this dispensation; teachings that are uplifting and will make us better not only as members of the Church but better as citizens in the community. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is not uplifting. There never was and never will be advice given to the Latter-day Saints from their leaders that will not be for their good, for our leaders have but one desire, and that is the salvation of the people, both temporally and spiritually.”
      • “We are not walking in darkness. We are not led by blind leaders who have taken to themselves authority and prerogatives which do not belong to them; but we are led by and directed through the spirit of inspiration, and it behooves each one of us as members of the Church to heed the warning voice and follow the instruction that is given at our conferences.”
      • “I believe, further, that the Latter-day Saints are the only people who are consistent in their belief, and practice. We accept Jesus as the Redeemer of the world without qualification, and that is not done generally in the world, among those who profess to believe in Him and call themselves Christians. Even among many ministers who affix to their names the title of reverend, He is not accepted as the Redeemer of mankind. They are not consistent, because they do not teach and they do not practice the principles that have been set forth by the Savior, and which are recorded in the scriptures. Men stand up before the people in the congregations of the so-called Christian communities, and declare that they do not accept Christ as the Redeemer of the world. They teach the people that they do not believe in the resurrection from the dead. They do not even accept the eternal resurrection of the Christ. They do not believe that He came into the world to take upon Him the sins of the world and redeem us from our sins. They scoff at the idea that He had power to offer Himself a sacrifice for the sins of others. They deny the miracles that the Savior performed, and say they do not believe in them. They call themselves progressive, and declare that they have received greater light, greater understanding, greater development through their researches, through their study and their own wisdom, by which they have come to the conclusion that these things recorded in the scriptures are fables, and were written in a day when the people were inclined to believe and accept as miracles things which did not and could not occur. I am just simple enough in my belief to accept that which is recorded in the scriptures. I believe it with all my heart. I know that Jesus is the Christ, that He did come into the world to redeem the world from sin, and that men through acceptance of the principles of the Gospel—those principles which were taught at the opening of our conference—will receive a reward and an exaltation in the kingdom of our God.”
      • “There need be no idlers among us. We have heard all of these things, and we should remember them and put them into practice, so far as our duties are concerned as members of the Church. The blessings of the Gospel will not come unto us if we disregard our duties and break the commandments of the Lord, we will not be blessed if we refuse to listen to the priesthood and will not follow the instructions that are given to us from time to time.”
      • “I do not mean to say that we ought not to associate at any time with those not of our faith, for there are many good people who have not embraced the Gospel. We are not required to avoid them, for our mission in the world is with them, to convert them to the truth if we can. Rut we need not be partakers of the sins of the world; we need not follow the- foolish fashions of the world. We need not corrupt ourselves because many in the world are corrupt. We have received better things. We are walking in the knowledge and the understanding of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and are entitled to that inspiration which will warn us of danger and guide us in the path of duty, and give us power to resist and overcome evil.”
  • October 1912 General Conference
    • Prophecies Fulfilled
      • “In my travels among the people, I have seen, in part at least, the fulfillment of the words of the Lord. I have seen where the water has been increased, where the deserts have been made to blossom; pools of water have sprung forth, and barren places had become fruitful fields. This has been through the activity and industry of the Latter-day Saints and the blessings of the Lord which have attended them. I feel that we should honor the Lord, and sing praises unto him, be true and faithful to our covenants, honor the priesthood, love the Lord our God, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, giving him all the honor the praise and the glory for the blessings he has poured out upon us as Latter-day Saints; for they are many, and will be continued, as we know, from day to day if we are faithful.”
    • The Church is Guided by a Prophet
      • “There has never been a time since the restoration of the Gospel when we have not had a prophet, some one to lead us, to direct us, to teach us the commandments of God that we might walk in the straight and narrow path. We are not without leaders; and the time shall never come when the Lord will not find some one that He can trust; in whom He has confidence, and who will be qualified to stand to represent Him among the people. This is my testimony and I rejoice in its truth. I do not feel that because the Prophet was taken and the Patriarch; because President Young was taken, or President Taylor and other leaders were taken, that the time has come when we have not an inspired leader to teach us the truth. The time will never come when we will not be able to put confidence and exercise faith in the teachings and in the instruction of those who lead us. I am satisfied of this for I know the promises of the Lord are sure.”
      • “Therefore, we must put our faith in those whom the Lord hath called, if we want to have a standing before the Lord, and none of us desire, if we have the proper spirit, to be cut of? from among the people. But this punishment will befall those who do not prove faithful and will not pay that heed or give that attention to the counsel of those who are called and appointed and inspired of the Lord to teach and direct us in all things.”
  • April 1912 General Conference
    • The Gospel is Applicable to All
      • “Many who have assembled to do homage unto Him do not accept Him as the Redeemer of the world; but with us there is no reservation; He is indeed the only begotten Son of God, and through His grace, and the grace of His Father, hath redeemed us from sin on condition of our repentance.”
      • “The laws of that kingdom are that a man must believe; he must have faith in the Lord; he must repent of his sins; he must receive a remission of sins through the water of baptism, and have hands laid upon his head for the gift of the Holy Ghost, by one who is empowered, having authority to officiate in these ordinances and then he must endure to the end, keeping the laws and the commandments given unto us by our Heavenly Father, otherwise he will lose his reward. Faith is not enough to save us. Our faith must be coupled with works, with good deeds, with a prayerful heart, and with the desire to magnify our callings before the Lord, laboring diligently all the days of our lives for the benefit of our fellow-men, bringing them unto repentance.”
      • “Our mission is twofold, to save all the living who will believe, and to warn all who reject the truth; that they may be left without excuse and to redeem the dead from their sins, or at least put the means within their hands, which were denied them in this life and of which they can partake in the spirit, that they also might receive salvation as well as we.”
      • “I trust that we will have enough love for the gospel of Jesus Christ, enough appreciation for the great atonement that was made for us, and sufficient love in our hearts for our fellowmen that we will desire their salvation as well as our own.”
  • October 1911 General Conference
    • Salvation for the Dead
      • “It is our duty to save the world. That is our mission, in so far as they will listen unto us and receive our testimony. All those who reject the testimony of the Elders of Israel will be held responsible, and will have to give an accounting for their stewardship, just as we will give an accounting of our stewardship as Elders and teachers of the people.”
      • “All, even down to the end of time, shall receive salvation who will repent of their sins and come unto the Lord with a desire to keep His commandments and serve Him and obey Him in all things. They are heirs of the celestial kingdom.”
      • “It is, however, our duty to save the world, the dead as well as the living. We are saving the living who will repent by preaching the gospel among the nations and gathering out the children of Israel, the honest in heart. We are saving the dead by going into the house of the Lord and performing these ceremonies—baptism, the laying on of hands, confirmation, and such other things as the Lord requires at our hands, in their behalf.”
      • “We cannot be saved and exalted in the kingdom of God unless we have within our hearts the desire to do this work and perform it, so far as it is within our power on behalf of our dead.”
  • April 1911 General Conference
    • Blessed Are They Who Obey When They Hear the Truth
      • “What does it profit us in assembling together to hear the words of the Lord as they may be given unto us from His servants, if we go back to our homes and forget all that we have heard?”
      • “No commandment, at any time, has He given us, that was not for our comfort and blessing. They are not given merely to please the Lord, but to make us better men and women, and worthy of salvation and exaltation in His kingdom.”
      • “The time will come, just as sure as we live, that there will be a separation between the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who will not keep the law of the Lord will deny the faith, for He will withdraw His Spirit from them if they do not repent, after laboring with them and doing all that is possible to keep them in the line of duty. He will withdraw His spirit from them and they will be left unto themselves. They must take one side or the other, for this separation must surely come. Let us see to it that we are numbered with the children of the Lord.”
    • The Greatest Event in the Modern World
      • “It would be a sorry day for any nation, where the gospel is being preached, should it conclude to drive the elders of the Church from its borders and deny them the right to preach the gospel among the people. The elders insure peace unto the nations, so long as they will hear the message of salvation and will protect and defend the truth. When the time comes that the nations will cast the elders out, and no longer receive their testimony, but “bow to Satan’s thrall,” as we heard in the anthem this afternoon, woe be unto them.”
      • “The Jews, in due time will be established in their own land, and the Lord will come, according to His promise, unto His people in the hour of their distress, and will deliver them from their enemies. Then will they look upon Him and discover His wounds and shall say: “What are these wounds in Thine hands.” And He shall answer them: “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” Then will they fall down and worship Him as their Redeemer —the Son of God.”
  • October 1910 General Conference
    • The Sin of Criticizing or Fault Finding
      • “It is a serious thing for any member of this Church to raise his voice against the priesthood, or to hold the priesthood in disrespect; for the Lord will not hold such guiltless; so He has promised, and He will fulfill.”
      • “It seems to be the heritage of the ungodly, of the bigoted, and of those who love iniquity, to sit in judgment and to place themselves as dictators, saying what shall be done and what shall be said by the authorities of the Church. They accuse the brethren of all manner of iniquity, dissimulation, falsehood, and try to cause a division between them and the people over whom they preside. They take unto themselves the prerogative of saying what shall and what shall not be the doctrine of the Church, what shall and what shall not be the government of the Church, when it concerns them not at all. But it is not of this class particularly that I desire to refer, but to those members of the Church who have entered into the waters of baptism and have made covenants before the Lord, that they will observe His laws and respect His priesthood, who have been persuaded, or who are in danger of being persuaded, by such characters. Occasionally, when a man has himself committed sin and has lost the spirit of the gospel, he will raise his voice against the actions of the authorities who preside over the Church; he will call them in question, sit in judgment upon them and condemn them. I wish to raise a warning voice to all such who hold membership in the Church, and say unto them, that they had better repent and turn unto the Lord, lest His judgments come upon them, lest they lose the faith and be turned from the truth.”
      • “The statement is often made by the enemies of the people, and we hear it upon the streets of this city, from time to time, that there is no revelation in the Church, I say to you that there is revelation in the Church. The Lord not only blesses the men who stand at the head and hold the keys of the kingdom, but He also blesses every faithful individual with the spirit of inspiration. He gives His people revelation for their own guidance, wherein they keep His commandments and serve Him. That is a blessing promised, and within their power to receive. We are blest with revelation; the Church is built upon that foundation. All the revelations given do not have to be written. The inspiration may come to the brethren, stating what shall be done, or what shall not be done, as the Lord directs them.”
      • “Whenever you find a man who spends his time abusing his neighbors, trying to tear down other people, you put it down that that man is not possessed of the Spirit of the Lord. But when a man tries to build up, when he tries to show you a better way, even though he be deceived, you may know that he is honest ; but never the man who tries to tear you to pieces, who tries to destroy, without offering you something better in return. Never is such a man honest.”

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