Adam S. Bennion

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (April 9, 1953 – February 11, 1958)

General Conference Addresses

• April 1957 General Conference
  • What Is Distinctive about Mormonism?
    • “I love to read to inquirers after truth those masterful and moving and inspired messages such as are found in the Doctrine and Covenants.”
    • “We declare to the world that the priesthood, long lost, has been restored in this the last great dispensation, the authority to act in the name of God given us through the laying on of hands by messengers out of heaven. And that is a contribution.”
    • “So often in discussions men get lost as between faith and grace and works. It is clear that our redemption is made possible by the grace of our Lord and Savior, but it is inconceivable that the greatest gift of God to man can be realized without effort. Such an idea runs counter to the scripture and to every experience we have in life. It squares with reason that when we have done all that we can in and of ourselves then God sublimates our efforts through his mercy.”
• October 1956 General Conference
  • What the Gospel Does for People!
    • “I think I caught the pulse of their feeling, and all the time I have been impressed with this thought: “What the gospel does for people!” To me it is tremendous. You can argue against a passage, but you cannot argue against a life. There is an argument against a theory, but there is no argument against kindliness and goodness.”
    • “The gospel humbles a man; it mellows him; it gladdens him; it motivates him; it sustains him; it redeems him; and it exalts him.”
• April 1956 General Conference
  • Bonds-Series F
    • “Live as you would have your children live.”
    • “You can invest in faith, my brothers and sisters, and it pays rich dividends, rich beyond any of the bonds I know.”
• October 1955 General Conference
  • The Faith Which Impels to Action
    • “As I pondered the meaning of an anchor, I was impressed that faith is that anchor. It is a wonderful thing to be anchored to the truth of Almighty God through faith which bids us to know that he lives. But faith is more than an anchor.”
• April 1955 General Conference
  • “Men Are, That They Might Have Joy”
    • “I think sometimes we let the negative aspects, the disciplinary aspects, the prohibitive aspects crowd out the teaching of the joys of the gospel. I wish we might center our thinking a little while today in the joys of living the gospel, not as an obligation but as a privilege—one of the richest privileges in life.”
    • “Happiness seems to center in a kind of contentment born of good fortune or of some fortuitous circumstance. But joy reveals a certain spiritual exaltation.”
    • “How may we aspire to this thing called the joy of living? We cannot buy it; it is not for sale in the market place, nor can you go out to cultivate it directly. At best it seems to be a sort of by-product. It is an end result achieved from worthy performance.”
    • “Someone has said, “Happy is the man who has work he loves to do,” but somebody else has added the basic fundamental thought, “Happy is the man who loves the work he has to do.””
• April 1954 General Conference
  • The Modern Challenge
    • “As you read the history of the pioneers, it becomes increasingly clear with every page that you read, that they endured adversity and hardship. They could stand persecution; they could bear up under abuse; they could recover from the infliction of all kinds of harmful hatreds. That record is clear. The question before our generation is: Can we and our children endure prosperity and ease?”
    • “In living our lives let us never forget that the deeds of our fathers and mothers are theirs, not ours, that their works cannot be counted to our glory; that we can claim no excellence and no place, because of what they did; that we must rise by our own labor, and that labor failing we shall fall. We claim no honor, no reward, no respect, nor special position or recognition, no credit because of what our fathers were or what they wrought. We stand upon our own feet in our own shoes.”
• October 1953 General Conference
  • Come Unto Jesus
    • “Life was never meant to be a holiday. It has its problems and its perplexities and its crises. When we are children, we turn to our parents for sustaining help. Growing into maturity, we turn to our fellow men and our leaders. All my life I have turned to one other source—a source which I want to commend to you. You have had it. I hope you will keep it always and cherish it.”
    • “That were enough for any man, but as Latter-day Saints we have two other witnesses which I needn’t take the time to expand. If anybody in all the world should appreciate the Master of mankind, it ought to be Latter-day Saints. Here we have in our Book of Mormon the account of his appearance to those people who had left the Old World six hundred years before he was born, with a remnant who had gone far earlier, how he appeared to them, and the glory of it all is that he appeared after he had been resurrected.”
    • “We have his record in the gospels. We have his visitation in Third Nephi. And our Church rests upon the fact that he has come to declare the everlasting gospel to us in our day and to restore it. I give you my witness that he has so restored it. I join with these brethren here, the honor of whose association I have from week to week, in that testimony. New among them, I bear you witness they are strong men; they are men of God, and you can with full heart sustain them.”
• April 1953 General Conference
  • A New Call
    • “These men who constitute the General Authorities of the Church I have known and have worked with, and I honor and sustain them all. The members of the Twelve, and the Assistants, and the Presiding Bishopric, and all others called to these high positions—I love them. I can only hope in my heart that they will find it in theirs to sustain me as I sustain them.”
    • “I have said I love this Church and its people. I love the Lord. My life is anchored to the testimony that I have that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I glory in my membership in a Church which was instituted through revelation, and I testify to you today that the Prophet Joseph Smith and all of his successors, men of God, have been inspired to build this great institution.”

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