Oscar A. Kirkham

First Council of the Seventy (October 5, 1941 – March 10, 1958)

General Conference Addresses

• April 1957 General Conference
  • On Missions and Marriage
    • “For these lovely experiences for our youth, I humbly pray. There is much that can be said for the Latter-day Saint Church program. It has been blessed and inspired of the Lord. As you have listened this day, the day before, and the day before that, your meditations have been enriching. The Lord has been talking to you.”
• October 1956 General Conference
  • Keep The Sabbath Day Holy
    • “Through the years one commandment has been intensified because of my travel in many lands, and my association with many people, to make it really part of my life. I recite briefly the fourth commandment: Keep the Sabbath day holy.”
    • “On the Sabbath day every person shall attend religious meetings; fast, if desired, but always fast on the day designated as fast day; partake of the Sacrament, another opportunity, with all its great teachings; bear testimony of the Lord’s truth and goodness. I call your attention especially to the next: Make right any misunderstandings with your fellow men. Do all things with singleness of heart toward the divine purpose of the Sabbath day. It then becomes a day of blessing, rejoicing, and prayer. When this is done, life-giving satisfaction comes from a Sabbath well kept.”
    • “Latter-day Saints of today often face the question: “Are we expected to observe the Sabbath day in the spirit in which the original commandment was given, or have changing conditions modified and liberalized our living so that we may engage in some activities which in the past have been banned?” To every Latter-day Saint the answer is: Keep the Sabbath day holy.”
• April 1956 General Conference
  • Walk in Truth
    • “The four standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Have you read them? Do we know what they are? I often think of the inspiration and help that has come to me as I have read the word of the Lord.”
• April 1955 General Conference
  • No Greater Joy
    • “The greatest gift that can come to a boy, as I review the humble experiences of my own life, is that he may have good guidance, that he may sense a faith in God, and enjoy the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and hold worthily the Holy Priesthood.”
    • “The greatest gift that comes to us in early life is to be guided in simple truths, and to do the will of our Heavenly Father.”
• October 1954 General Conference
  • As We Labor We Are Blessed
    • “May I note other great attributes of the Latter-day Saint people: A great heritage, a humble, noble leadership; an all-participating membership. My, how we should thrill.”
• April 1954 General Conference
  • Live and Love the Gospel
    • “Live and enjoy the gospel. Live it, you have often heard, but also enjoy it. Reflect it in your life to the man who lives over the fence, works in the office, in the shop, wherever you may go. Reflect the joy and the happiness of living it. The man and the woman who live the gospel of Jesus Christ are our greatest exponents. They are our greatest missionaries.”
    • “Yes, to live and enjoy the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ in that moment when we need it so badly, when life calls us to a great task at a deciding moment, may we be prepared by good living to speak freely and frankly to the Lord and enjoy his holy blessings.”
    • “It is not quite complete unless we give to someone that which God has graciously given to us. Share the blessings.”
• October 1953 General Conference
  • Boy Scouts
    • “As youth goes, so will civilization go. Thus we must safeguard their future with noble example on the part of worthy parents and leadership, with devoted personal attention; then our civilization will continue to progress.”
• April 1953 General Conference
  • He Went About Doing Good
    • “May we help someone in need. May we stand for the truth and right. May we have courage for prayer.”
• October 1952 General Conference
  • To My Son—Seek Ye the Lord
    • “What a glorious thing it is to be sufficiently humble, to live sufficiently worthy that one may speak and perform and bless and grow in the name of the Lord!”
• April 1952 General Conference
  • Now Is the Day of Our Salvation
    • “This one step we can take today, tomorrow, and the next day: Daily, prayerfully, read the word of God.”
• October 1951 General Conference
  • Three Great Words
    • “Brethren and sisters, everywhere the world is hungry for the word of God. The call has gone forth. Rally to that call. I love the testimony of Heber C. Kimball. When the Prophet went down the aisle in the Kirtland Temple and said to him, “Heber, the Lord wants you to open up the mission in England,” he replied: “Oh, but my tongue is stammering. My family is in want.” But he went, and fifteen hundred were baptized in the first eight months by Heber C. Kimball.”
• October 1950 General Conference
  • Stand up and Be Counted with the Lord
    • “Well, these opportunities are also ours. Just over the fence from where we live is someone waiting to hear us speak the word. Consider the way we accept our opportunities in citizenship. Yes, I appeal to every Latter-day Saint: Vote—it’s one of the high privileges of your American citizenship. Bear your testimony every opportunity that comes to you. “Stand up and be counted with the Lord.””
• April 1950 General Conference
  • Except the Lord Build the House
    • “Yes, except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build it. And when we think of the great purposes of our Heavenly Father in the destinies of men and nations and our humble part, we must be patient, we must have faith. God grant to us that working faith that you and I can participate in daily.”
• October 1949 General Conference
  • Look Up at the Spires
    • “I appeal to you, do not neglect your duty to youth but have faith in them. They may look like brown bulbs today, but they will be prize winners tomorrow. They are marching into the greatest world and are the greatest generation, in my humble opinion, that the world has ever seen. That is my faith. I only wish that I might march with them and be a lad of twelve years.”
• April 1949 General Conference
  • Preparing Missionaries
    • “We must start somewhere down the line with little fellows, in our preparation for this missionary service. It is unfair to your boy to have him called suddenly, not having had your guidance and care in his preparation for missionary service.”
• October 1948 General Conference
  • God Preserve Us
    • “Yes, may God preserve ever among us, throughout the earth, men who know the right and have the courage to stand for it, and may ever preserve the dignity of personality, and the strength of the voice of the people.”
• April 1948 General Conference
  • Be What You Say
    • “I am extremely grateful for the privileges that have come to me during my last calling in the Church. I have had the opportunity under assignment of going to Europe, Canada, and Mexico as well as traveling in many of the states of the United States. Today I would like to express appreciation for a number of simple incidents that have come to me recently. They may seem to you simple things on an occasion like this when great, profound doctrines are being taught, but to me these simple incidents have been deeply impressive, for constantly they have said to me,”
• October 1947 General Conference
  • Boy Scouts
    • “This Church has ever been deeply interested in youth. In its beginning God put full trust in a boy, and he became the leader of this dispensation. It was young men, largely, who fought their way into the beginnings of this great western land. We must be deeply concerned with youth. Our hope lies here. The after years of life set us so fast in habits. If but one generation would truly devote itself to the oncoming generation and give of itself to the youth of the land, what great things might be wrought!”
• April 1947 General Conference
  • Family Prayer
    • “May there be children there to play with them. May there be family prayer held unafraid. Let the children pray. When they lift the photo from the mantle and say, “Does this happen to be your son?” may you have the high privilege of saying, “Yes, he’s our ambassador. He’s out in the world preaching the gospel.” Then when they leave your home, the memory of these things will linger with them when all else is forgotten.”
• April 1946 General Conference
  • The Gospel’s Teachings
    • “Where we, in our community life, are living in accordance to the gospel’s teachings, there we have a lovely social order; there is a lovely neighborhood: there is that lovely companionship of friends, true friends, where they come to us and we go to them, in the hour of need.”
• October 1945 General Conference
  • The Work of the Church
    • “God help us to live our religion and catch the inspiration of, carrying it abroad, for the greatest blessing will come back to us in so serving.”
• April 1945 General Conference
  • Missionary Work
    • “I pray that the Lord will bless us abundantly for the work that I feel is just ahead. The great missionary work that is coming to us —I feel confident in my own thinking, in my own praying that God has a great work before us to perform in our missionary service.”
• October 1944 General Conference
  • Humble Suggestions
    • “I can testify to you brethren, myself, that because of a bad stomach I have said unkind words. When I am not feeling physically fit, I have not been at my best, in kindness and in efficiency. So I appeal to you tonight, and from my life I bear testimony that I know if I keep at it, as I strive to do every day, something tol keep myself physically fit, I am helping myself so that I can give better service, and I am also more susceptible to the spirit of inspiration and help from on high.”
    • “I suggest that you read, every day fifteen to thirty minutes .on some gospel theme. Get the habit, it will help you wonderfully; it will color the whole day. Your meditations will be upon the glorious things of our Heavenly Father. Then when the hour comes, and you ask for the inspiration of God, the Holy Ghost will quicken your memory, and the beautiful things from your reading will come to you and help and bless you.”
    • “I am asking that every day as priesthood leaders this spirit of service go forward in our lives, that we might feel the gospel in action, doing some simple, kindly act.”
    • “Every day doing that good act somehow expands the heart, and we feel the things we teach.”
• April 1944 General Conference
  • Have Faith in the Youth
    • “I wonder if it is fair to say it is juvenile delinquency. Maybe it’s juvenile judge and father delinquency. Maybe that’s the truth. Of course some are delinquent, but I want to appeal to you to have faith in them.”
    • “We must learn to live together and face truth and speak it as God gives us light.”
• October 1943 General Conference
  • Prepare for Missionary Work
    • “To have faith in God and a testimony of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith—these great truths hold the secret of abiding peace.”
    • “How humble, prayerful, and thoughtful we should be as we face this great task, this opportunity to do so much good.”
• April 1943 General Conference
  • This is a Great Time
    • “I want to join with that spirit. I do not want to feel that this is just another war and that the thing will be repeated over and over. I want to lend my faith with the youth of this day that this job shall be faced and faced right. And I appeal to you brethren to join in that faith. Give them that uplift. Give them that true hope as I sincerely feel it for there shall be a new day. The young man who wrote the music to this song, the words that I have just read, wrote that famous Seventh Symphony, the greatest piece of realistic music that has ever been written, according to the world’s critics, and it had its birth and its writings at the siege of Leningrad. And that is only in one field. If you dare to step over into science, yes, into many other fields, you would see a great world in the making.”
    • “The greatest question of our time is not Communism vs. Individualism—not Europe vs. America—not even the East vs. the West. It is whether man can bear to live without God.”
    • “A great trust is placed upon this body of Priesthood. We who are here this night, more than any other group in all the world, must answer that hunger. We must fulfill that word of the Lord.”
• October 1942 General Conference
  • Seed Corn
    • “Among the many things which we may do, I suggest—A greater and deeper sincerity among us—we who are called to lead.”
    • “May we preserve and train these youth for their great destiny. And if we do our part sincerely, humbly, and aggressively, lo, the Lord will work the miracles with us and our hearts shall be filled with courage and joy.”
• April 1942 General Conference
  • A New Calling
    • “When the First Presidency of the Church set me apart, I asked President Grant if he had any official word for me, any instruction. He said: “Yes, Oscar. Express yourself freely in council. Say what you have to say, freely, but when a decision is made, line up.” I will tell you that those are words of wisdom. In my opinion that is democracy in its very essence.”

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