Hartman Rector Jr.

First Quorum of the Seventy (April 6, 1968 – October 1, 1994)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1994 General Conference
  • Endure to the End in Charity
    • “As most of you are aware, I am a convert to the Church, having been baptized in Tokyo, Japan, back in 1952 while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict. I was born and reared in Missouri, where much of the early history of this church took place. But I had never heard anything about the Mormon church. I was looking for the truth, and although I had read the Bible and believed that Jesus Christ had lived on the earth and had been resurrected, yet I had so many unanswered questions—questions such as: Why doesn’t God speak to man today as he did anciently when the Bible was being written? How can Jesus be his own father and the Holy Ghost too? Why did Jesus have to be baptized when he had no sin? Where was I before I was born, and where do I go when I die? How can just believing in Christ save me when I haven’t kept God’s Ten Commandments?”
    • “You see, there is a difference between stopping sinning and repentance. In the first instance we are still guilty; in the second we are free of the sin and guilt. People stop sinning all the time because they are afraid they will get AIDS or die of lung cancer or some other reason, but they do not get rid of their sins. That can happen only when a nonmember follows Jesus Christ down into the waters of baptism, then comes forth and receives the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by priesthood authority. That’s how we get clean before the Lord.”
    • “We must be nice. If we’re not nice, I don’t think we’re going to make it. In other words, we must have charity, which is really love plus sacrifice.”
• October 1990 General Conference
  • The Resurrection
    • “It seems, then, there is good news and bad news about the resurrection. The good news is that everyone will be resurrected. All will live again! And all who have been righteous (have repented) will still be righteous. The bad news is that he that is filthy (which means the devil and those who have chosen to associate with him) shall be filthy still. Others will receive a lesser glory than the celestial because they have not repented while in the flesh. Therefore, in the resurrection men will be judged. Judgment tells how well we have kept the commandments in the flesh.”
    • “So the question of questions is: What makes people repent? As near as I have been able to determine, once a person has sufficient faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that he believes Christ has paid for his sins, then he will repent. And it seems that very few, if any, will repent until they believe this truth. Therefore, it is vital to teach the truth about Jesus Christ as the literal son of God and our Lord and Savior and Redeemer in order to bring souls to repentance. Faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance is the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
    • “The nicest gift a father can give to his children is to love their mother and be true to her. Conversely, the nicest gift that a mother can give her children is to love their father and be true to him. Why is this such a nice gift? Well, basically, it assures the children that they will never have to choose between their parents.”
    • “If you are not keeping the Sabbath day holy, repent and start doing it. If you are not truthful, repent and start telling the truth. If you are not honoring your parents, repent and start honoring your parents. If you are worshipping false gods—such as football, baseball, golf, tennis, or money or technology or automobiles or houses or gold or silver—and you can tell what a man worships by what he does on Sunday—repent and start worshipping the true and living God, the maker of heaven and earth and all things that in them are.”
• October 1985 General Conference
  • The Gospel
    • “When we understand this, it is easy to love our Redeemer. His sacrifice demonstrates infinite love for us; it begets infinite love in us for him who gave his life as a ransom for all.”
• April 1983 General Conference
  • That Ye May Have Roots and Branches
    • “Obedience to the commandments of the Lord, including the important commandment of tithing, brings many blessings. We do not always know how the Lord will bless us.”
    • “It is a fact that we even look better when we pay tithing. There is a happiness that comes into the heart of the tithe payer that even reflects in his countenance.”
• April 1981 General Conference
  • Turning the Hearts
    • “How glorious to live upon the earth at this time and have part in the grand work of rearing the Lord’s house in nations around the world so the saving ordinances of the gospel and the ties that bind eternal families may be made available to all the children of the earth!”
• April 1979 General Conference
  • Following Christ to Victory
    • “As the scriptures are searched, the life of Christ seems to resolve into a great success formula.”
    • “Surely we must believe in a thing before we can desire it. And God does grant unto men according to their desire. If the desire is strong enough, performance is assured.”
    • “Conceit is the weirdest disease in the world. It makes everyone sick except the one who has it.”
    • “In a crisis the optimist takes action; the pessimist takes a seat. The Lord has given sufficient evidence to convince me that if you don’t do it, you really didn’t want it.”
    • “The Master spoke of the “second mile” and told us to go there. Why? Because he wants to bless us. So he put all the blessings in the second mile, but we must go where they are before we get them.”
    • “Surely, in the work of the Lord, it is what we do after we think we have done enough that really counts with him, for that’s when the blessings flow.”
    • “If you would have a blessing from the Lord, put something upon the altar. Make the sacrifice.”
• October 1976 General Conference
  • A Gospel of Conversion
    • “Surely the gospel does make good men better and women and children better than they have ever been before.”
• October 1975 General Conference
  • The World’s Greatest Need
    • “As long as we in America have the mistaken idea that because we are born we have everything coming to us without effort, Americans cannot solve this problem.”
• April 1975 General Conference
  • The Roots of Mormonism
    • “The magic is not in the program; it is in the theology. We can help them set up the programs, but we cannot guarantee them success.”
    • “The real secret of the success of the Lord’s program here on earth, or anywhere else for that matter, is sacrifice.”
• April 1974 General Conference
  • The Strength of Testimony
    • “Testimony is vitally important, but men are not saved by virtue of their testimony alone, although it is the beginning of real spiritual progress.”
    • “Faith is based on knowledge; it is a hope in that which is not seen which is true. Testimony is revealed knowledge.”
    • “When we are converted, we sustain and follow the Lord’s anointed servants; we find ourselves in agreement with them. This is one of the real marks of conversion.”
    • “The kingdom of God is a winner. Isn’t it great to be part of a winner? Don’t you love a winner? I do. I confess I hate to lose. I think I’m the worst loser in all the world. I don’t believe in it. Some say it matters not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. Don’t you believe it; it makes a lot of difference whether you win or not. We came to this earth to win, and we will win if we stick with the Lord, because the Lord is not going to lose. He can’t lose. The kingdom is a winner, and when we do it his way, we will win with him.”
• October 1973 General Conference
  • You Shall Receive the Spirit
    • “This indicates that the Lord will select those who are to act for him. No one is authorized to take this authority or honor to himself; rather, an authorized servant of the Lord will ordain them or set them apart to a specific assignment, and it will be known that the authorizing agent has such authority because he will have been regularly ordained to his position by the heads of the Church.”
    • “We are not called to preach the philosophies of men mingled with scripture or our own ideas or the mysteries of the kingdom, nor are we called to bring forth new doctrine. The president of the Church will do that.”
    • “Surely obedience is the first law of heaven. We are given to understand that there will be no disobedience in the celestial kingdom. It is therefore vitally important that we keep the commandments with exactness and not just “almost.””
    • “It is true that the Spirit giveth direction. It is the Spirit that carries conviction to the hearts of those who are honest.”
    • “Those who are called to serve must let the Lord run his church.”
• April 1973 General Conference
  • Success—A Journey or a Destination?
    • “If man is that he might have joy, then success to the Lord must include the attainment of real joy. On the basis of this definition, then, no one is really successful who is not happy.”
    • “Generally speaking, we are unhappy because we are dissatisfied, and this because we pursue after things that cannot make us happy, even if we obtain them.”
• October 1972 General Conference
  • Live above the Law to Be Free
    • “Oh, yes, it is good to be loyal to your employer, or your friends, or your family. Loyalty is akin to honesty; and if you are not honest, you are really not much good. You are no good to yourself because you lie to yourself. This is called rationalization, but it is really just lying. You are no good to your friends because they cannot trust you. You are no good to the Lord because he cannot use you—unless, of course, it would be as a bad example. If you make a mistake, all is not lost. You can always be used as a bad example.”
    • “In this day and time, following the living prophet is the only way that we can follow the Lord God and do his will. You can’t do it by quoting the dead prophets or ignoring or throwing rocks at the living prophets.”
• April 1972 General Conference
  • Our Witness to the World
    • “We are not Protestants, because we are not protesting against any person or group or organization. We have no quarrel with other churches. We do not write tracts nor propaganda against other churches, and we never will, because we are not in the business of tearing down men’s faith and belief, but rather of building it up.”
• October 1971 General Conference
  • Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings
    • “From this it is apparent that sacrifice, no matter how disagreeable it may be, is absolutely vital, for it is the only means the Lord has provided for his children to gain the faith and assurance necessary to successfully return to his presence in condition to enjoy eternal life.”
• April 1971 General Conference
  • Ignorance Is Expensive
    • “Ignorance is expensive; in fact, it is the most expensive commodity we know anything about. Certainly we make many mistakes through ignorance.”
    • “In fact, we can neither teach nor learn gospel truths without the Holy Ghost.”
• October 1970 General Conference
  • Repentance Makes Us Free
    • “The word life means that the spirit is at home in the physical body. Death, on the other hand, means that the spirit has departed the physical body. When death occurs or when the spirit leaves the physical body, the physical body decays and returns to the dust whence it came. However, the spirit continues to exist in another realm called “the spirit world” and still maintains its form and shape and identity.”
    • “Sometimes we make excuses for ourselves, when we do what we should not do or fall short of what we should have done. We use such expressions as, “Oh! the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” With such rationalizations we insinuate that it is completely our physical body’s fault that we sin. In my opinion, this is not true. I believe the physical body is a very strong part of us and is of great benefit to us. Among other reasons, it was given to us to help us overcome our addictions, bad habits, and evil desires. The body is very obedient; generally speaking, it will do exactly what the spirit tells it to do. So it is not the physical body that we are struggling with; it is the spirit we must bring into subjection.”
    • “Our Heavenly Father wants us to be free; he doesn’t want us to be in bondage to our appetites and passions. Therefore, he has given us commandments that are only calculated to make us free. And he tells us that all of his commandments are spiritual. Never at any time has he given a commandment that is not spiritual. Even the Word of Wisdom is a spiritual commandment in that it primarily affects our spirits, and certainly it does.”
    • “Oh yes, it is possible to repent in the spirit world, although we are given to understand that it is much more difficult to repent there because we will not have our physical bodies to help us. Also an integral part of repentance is that we must make restitution. This means that if you have stolen five dollars, you have to return five dollars to the person whom you have robbed. This may be very difficult to do in the spirit world. You can also understand then why murder and adultery or fornication are such grievous sins; how can you make restitution? Virtue once gone cannot be replaced. Neither can a life be restored.”
    • “If the Lord cannot save a man in his sins, neither can he force a man to repent.”
• April 1970 General Conference
  • From Weakness to Strength
    • “On the one hand, man wants to keep the commandments of God and serve his fellowman; on the other, he can’t forget what he wants to do for himself. He wants to pay his tithing, but he keeps thinking about what he could buy himself with the money. If he stops considering what he could buy with the Lord’s money, the temptations will cease to exist. When he stops feeding the evil desire, it dies. But of course, what usually happens is that we feed the evil desire just enough to keep it alive and so we keep ourselves in constant turmoil.”
    • “We call them weaknesses—I don’t know why we don’t call them what they really are. Of course, we are really asking the Lord to forgive us of our sins. But somehow we don’t like to associate ourselves with sin, so we call them weaknesses. As a matter of fact, we do have weaknesses. Every one of us has them, things that cause us to desire that which is not good for us.”
    • “Where do you suppose we get these weaknesses? If you pose this question to a group of Saints, it will astound you how many different answers you get to this particular question. Some will say that they are responsible for their own weaknesses; well, if you keep your weaknesses, that’s true, but that is not where they came from. Another will say weaknesses come from heredity or environment; in either instance, we are passing the responsibility to someone else, either our parents or our neighborhood. Both of these sources have great influence upon us, but they do not give us our weaknesses. Still another may blame Lucifer, the devil, for their weaknesses; surely he is always on the job, but this is not where we get our weaknesses, either.”
    • “So where do we get our weaknesses? We get them from the Lord; the Lord gives us weaknesses so we will be humble. This makes us teachable. Now don’t misunderstand me—the Lord is not responsible for the sin; he is only responsible for the weakness. It seems that all men have weaknesses in one form or another, character traits that make one more subject to a particular temptation than another.”
    • “So, if we have a weakness, we should not despair; we shouldn’t neglect it, but we shouldn’t worry about it. Rightly understood, it merely points out where the Lord expects us to excel.”
• October 1969 General Conference
  • God Loves Us
    • “I have often felt the reason we don’t understand God is because we are so unlike him. By that, I mean that even though man is like God physically, spiritually man is far from God. Fortunately, the Lord has given us specific direction and guidance to get us into condition so we grow closer to him spiritually also.”
    • “If we face facts, we will realize we are all afflicted with the same malady. It is the root cause of all the problems and suffering in the world, both collectively and individually, and has always been. What is this cause? It is a very simple, one-word answer—selfishness. I use this word in its broadest sense, which includes greed and covetousness. We are selfish, and selfishness is not like God.”
    • “I don’t know why God loves us, but I believe the scriptures give us a clue. God doesn’t love us because we are good. God loves us because he is good. God is good and so he loves us, and those who are the best love the best. It appears that only if you are good do you receive a reward for loving. The Lord requires us to love those who don’t deserve it.”
    • “I have seen this godlike quality of unselfish love in all the best men I have known or read about. Jesus wept over those who rejected him and prayed for those who crucified him.”
    • “Only as we live in obedience to these commandments will we be able to know real love for others and real joy ourselves.”
• October 1968 General Conference
  • The Motives for Right
    • “If reason or motive is so important and the Lord requires it of all of us, then every man should examine his motives lest they be found wanting at the last day.”
    • “My young friends who were true to their covenants because they loved the Lord couldn’t get too far away for his influence to reach them. He is always there.”
    • “The man who performs righteous acts for an erroneous reason lulls himself into a false sense of security. He feels that the acts themselves will save him. But when the rain descends and the flood comes and the wind blows and beats on the house, it falls because it does not have the correct foundation.”
    • “Love of the Lord becomes absolutely vital to salvation, because it forms the foundation of our motives for righteousness.”

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