Charles W. Nibley

Second Counselor in the First Presidency (May 28, 1925 – December 11, 1931)
Presiding Bishop (December 4, 1907 – May 28, 1925)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1931 General Conference
  • Selfishness
    • “I do not know, I haven’t the wisdom to understand, how we can take people who are still so selfish that they cannot part with ten per cent and make them so that they will part with all, being assured that they will share equally with all.”
• April 1931 General Conference
  • A Famine of the Word
    • “People are hungering for the word of God. A perfect famine exists, and this Church is the agency by twhich that can be supplied, and the only agency in all the world that can supply it. We are somewhat derelict in our duty in respect to this matter.”
• October 1930 General Conference
  • Help the Poor
    • “However, we can help to solve our own little affairs by keeping the commandments of the Lord, by being kind to each other, by considering our neighbors. My brother, my sister, I have sympathy, and we should have sympathy, and do have, I am sure.”
• April 1930 General Conference
  • The Sixth of April
    • “I say again that it is my individual opinion—we have no revelation for it—that the Prophet Joseph Smith received his first manifestation on the sixth day of April. It was the greatest vision ever given to mortal man ; for both the Father and the Son plainly manifested themselves before his eyes and spoke to him. I believe that that was on the sixth day of April, and I believe, although I have no warrant in revelation for it, that the sixth day of April is the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
• October 1929 General Conference
  • The Poor
    • “So the gospel in this day as was the case in the days of the Savior, is preached to the poor. The poor have the gospel preached to them, and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The poor, I want to tell you, have built up this Church. The poor are more faithful in devotion to the Church than are the rich, or those who are comparatively rich.”
• April 1929 General Conference
  • Light and Truth
    • “Science has pretty nearly banished a behef in the devil from among thinking people. Irreligious people of the world tell us “that was good enough to frighten children with, a hundred years ago or five hundred year ago; but there is no such power or influence in the world, at all.” But they wall not tell us, and it cannot be said, that evil does not exist. The origin of evil has been discussed by thinkers of the world for many hundreds of years; but evil is still here, the spirit of evil that which tempts us and leads us away from righteousness. That is here, whether it be of the devil or not; call it devil or satan, or just a general influence extant all over the world. The spirit of good is here, too; the spirit of righteousness is here; it is existant over the entire earth, and I suppose in the universe everywhere.”
• October 1928 General Conference
  • Peace is Coming
    • “People are beginning to learn after all that the material alone is not sufficient, and that they must turn unto God.”
    • “We have letters coming to us in the President’s office concerning mining and mines, and among others, “dream” mines. Too many of our people, after thirty or forty years experience, are still foolish enough to invest money in “dream” mines. If there is any man here or anywhere who will tell me that a “dream” mine has ever made money or is a success financially I would like to be informed of it. I have never heard of it.”
• April 1928 General Conference
  • The Church Stands Alone
    • “In 1820 there was no divinely organized Church of Jesus Christ, with power and authority of the priesthood, on this earth. The organization of the Church did not take effect until some ten years later—April 6th, 1830. From the time of John the Revelator up to 1820, we affirm, we make the positive declaration, we are convinced in our hearts and souls, for we have had it revealed unto us by the power of the Holy Ghost, that there was no organized Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth, with the authority of the priesthood to take a man down into the water and baptize him, that his sins might be remitted, or to lay hands upon his head and confirm him a member, and confer upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost. So that this Church stands alone with respect to that.”
• October 1927 General Conference
  • Means Are Necessary
    • “Prayers are necessary, preaching is necessary, but it takes work, it takes means to build up the kingdom of God.”
• April 1927 General Conference
  • Faith and Priesthood
    • “That is the power that leads and governs this Church if the people want to know it. That is what brings you here; that is what holds you together. That is what impels us to go on missions and give of our lives to the work.”
• October 1926 General Conference
  • Restoration
    • “The Lord Jesus himself ordained those three men, and they came, as I have read, and conferred the holy apostleship upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. So here is divine authority to act in the name of the Lord. Our claim is that the authority of the Priesthood has been conferred upon men and given to this Church which is the Church of Christ. It is not given to the nation. But the nation has had divine guidance, as I have said. Individuals not of our Church may have divine guidance; but divine’ authority, to act in the name of the Lord, to baptize, to lay on hands, to say: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” as the apostles of old said, and then to have them receive it, that is a different proposition.”
• April 1926 General Conference
  • Church Finances
    • “Such men as I have mentioned, therefore, who are devoting their entire time to the Church, receive an allowance, though a very meagre one in comparison to what is usually allowed men of that kind in other walks of life. There are men on this stand, and throughout the Church, who, by devoting their entire time to their own affairs, could double or treble or quadruple the small allowance that is given them by the Church for their support.”
    • “There is the spirit of this work, there is the spirit that makes this thing go, that holds me and holds you—the real spirit of sacrifice. Willing to go on missions? Yes, anxious to go, to let everybody know that God has spoken, that we have the knowledge of God, the testimony of it, the same Christ our Lord that was crucified, whose resurrection the people in all the world are celebrating today.”
• Octor 1925 General Conference
  • Invest Wisely
    • “And this is not only the case in coal mines; we have communications come to the president’s office sometimes about “dream” mines. Some brother or sister has dreamed about a mine located in a certain place, and it is a sure thing, because it has been “revealed.” Well, now, don’t take any stock in such “revelations,” they will not “pan out.” You will only be disappointed. Save your means and use them wisely. If we have means, and we owe any debts, our first duty is to pay our debts.”
• April 1925 General Conference
  • The Constitution
    • “The Book of Mormon tells us that so long as the people of this nation are willing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the God of this land, or as the ruler of this nation, so long shall his mercies be extended unto them. Notwithstanding the weaknesses of our people, and of other people, I believe that today there is a greater desire in the minds of millions of people of this nation to acknowledge God and to acknowledge Jesus Christ and to live righteous lives than there has ever been before. While in some ways wickedness may be increasing, yet there is an earnest desire in the hearts of millions of people in this nation to acknowledge God and serve him.”
• October 1924 General Conference
  • Tithing
    • “I believe in this vision of Nephi; that he saw our people scattered in small communities all over the face of the earth. The Church of God is permanent. We must build these churches. I have said all along that this Church can spend its money to no better advantage than in building meeting-houses in which the people may gather together and worship, for this establishes the Church and lends permanency to its operations.”
• April 1924 General Conference
  • Follow Counsel
    • “This Church has the gospel of Jesus Christ and according to St. Paul that system, that gospel is the perfect law of liberty, more perfect than anything else that has ever been devised, and I am thankful for that. I am grateful for this nation, for the privilege of living in this great nation, and that we are a part of it where there is more liberty for, and a better understanding of, human rights, and more of the respectful deference and tolerance for the views of others, religious Views, views of different questions, more of tolerance I say, in this nation than in any other nation under the sun.”
    • “Cleanliness is next to godliness. In fact, I think you will never get any great amount of godliness till you first get cleanliness.”
    • “You can always spend your money tomorrow; don’t forget that. It will be good tomorrow. Keep it in your pocket today and then wait until tomorrow again.”
• October 1923 General Conference
  • Compulsion
    • “The “Mormon” Church, as an organization, stands for peace. It was organized by the Prince of Peace, himself. It will subdue the world through the process of peace—not force.”
    • “There is no force, in this sense, in the gospel of Jesus Christ; no compulsion whatever. Every man and every woman is absolutely free—free to do as they please with respect to the Church; to live in it ; to obey its principles and pay tithes or not, as they please, but they are persuaded and constrained by the power of the Spirit of the Lord; they are grateful to be impelled by a spirit which comes from God, and which teaches them to yield willing obedience to the righteousness of its principles.”
• April 1923 General Conference
  • Stick to the Farm
    • “How many children are there who are taught the habits of thrift and saving in these days; taught to deny themselves? Why, they don’t know what self denial is.”
    • “Teach them to be saving, to stick to the land. Teach the girls what girls should be taught. I don’t care how much money we have, the girls should be taught how to work and earn their living; how to make a batch of good bread; how to make a bowl of good soup; what to do with baby when it has the colic.”
• October 1922 General Conference
  • Agency
    • “Now, whenever any man enters any organization, secret or otherwise, that takes from him a certain degree of that free agency to choose between right and wrong, and makes of him a servant, to do as he is told in certain matters, quite irrespective of the righteousness or justice of the case, or of the right or wrong of the case, then that man surrenders that much of his free agency which he ought not under any circumstances to surrender.”
• April 1922 General Conference
  • The Danger Within
    • “The danger is not from without, but from within, as the Book of Mormon plainly points out from secret combinations of men giving their first allegiance to their secret combination. That is the danger for after awhile these combinations will be contending one against the other until anarchy is apt to prevail, crime becomes rampant and danger to the existence of our government with its glorious Constitution is great, unless the people turn unto the Lord and seek Him.”
• October 1921 General Conference
  • The Power of Godliness
    • “I do not need to ask Latter-day Saints, which is the way? They are not groping blindly for the way of life, for the path that leadeth to eternal life. They have found it. They know it. They have it. In the world, where they have not this konwledge of God, nor the key of it, nor the power that goes with it, they are more or less groping for the way. They have lost the way; they are feeling their way, doing good, no doubt, many, many millions trying to do good, and will do good, seeking the way of life, and yet, sometimes, when the truth is placed before even those who are good people and doing good, as was remarked here the other day, they cannot accept it because the sacrifice seems too great.”
• April 1921 General Conference
  • Sacrifice
    • “The best lessons that I ever had, came through those hardships and through being compelled to practice the strictest economy and thrift, such as our children nowadays don’t know anything about. In those days, it seems to me, we were more willing to render service and to sacrifice for the Church than we are today.”
• October 1920 General Conference
  • Consecration
    • “The time will come when the law of consecration will be in force and instead of the Church being in business in a small way, it will be in business in the greatest possible way, because it will control all our means. That is what it is here for. That is what it will accomplish ultimately, but now we are not able, we are not far enough along to even consecrate ten per cent as tithing, so we need not clamor for the united order, or the law of consecration, not yet, until more of us—and I include myself in that number—until more of us are able to accomplish the consecration of ten per cent of what he gives us. So I raise my voice in protest against this criticism about the Church being in business, this or the other. As the years roll on it will be ten times more in business than it is now. The very thing that is criticised is largely what gives it power and influence in the world.”
• April 1920 General Conference
  • The Fruits of Mormonism
    • “I will say that this truth this gospel truth, is making its way in the world’ and thinking people here and there, men whose opinions are worth having, the judgment of one of whom, as Hamlet says, must in our opinion outweigh a whole theatre of others, such men begin to think and realize that there is a force, a potency, a power and a virility in “Mormonism,” a life-giving spirit that we do not find anywhere else.”
• October 1919 General Conference
  • Allegiance
    • “We ought to save while we have abundance. It is a foolish person who spends all he has, and who does not save.”
    • “If instead of crowding into so many picture shows a week, if we would only stay home a night or two a week and read the Bible or the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine and Covenants to our families, we would be spending our time in a more profitable way and also saving our money.”
    • “To serve the Lord acceptably, my allegiance to him must be undivided. My purpose must be single.”
• June 1919 General Conference
  • Tribute to Pres. Smith
    • “From courage to tenderness—for the bravest are the tenderest always—what nobleness- and grandeur of character may we not expect between these two angles.”
    • “In a way he was my guiding star. I did not worship him—I worship only God, and that I try to do faithfully —but he was more like unto God, the most godlike man that I ever knew in all my life.”
  • Knowledge of God
    • “If I were asked to state what is the greatest need of the world today, I would answer in these words: The knowledge of God.”
    • “The key of that knowledge of God rests with you. Men may think they know him; men may try to understand him; but by and with the organizations of this Church and through the authority of the holy priesthood, the power of godliness is manifested to men in the flesh; but without this priesthood —so says this league and covenant —”without this priesthood and the ordinances of the gospel, the power of godliness is not made manifest to men in the flesh.” You have that knowledge. Shall we not share it, shall we not do something and say something to spread this truth abroad? We sirig and repeat the song, that we are willing to do; but how much am I doing? Not much. Doing may be according to my years and* strength and ability, what I am called to do; but I am making no particular sacrifice.”
    • “The Church has helped me infinitely more than I will ever be able to help it.”
• October 1918 General Conference
  • The Spirit Blesses the World
    • “The Lord has manifested by the power of the Spirit the truth of his work, and that with this work he has conferred upon this Church divine authority, given to his priesthood. He has conferred upon it authority to act in his name so that vvdienever an elder of this Church shall take a man down into the water and baptize him be does it by the authority of God and that ordinance is recognized by God the Eternal Father. And when the elders lay hands upon him and say unto him, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” he receives the Holy Ghost. That divine authority is here and it is nowhere else in all the world than here.”
• October 1917 General Conference
  • Practical Sermons
    • “We read that the fellow who parts quickly with his money is not very wise. The fool and his money do not stick together very long; they are soon parted, and all these promoters, so many of them coming around now in this year of your greatest prosperity, to separate you from your money. Well, don’t you let them do it.”
    • “Let us have more of community singing, congregational singing. Let us sing songs of Zion. They carry with them a spirit and an influence, not only in “Mormon” meetings, but in others, that cannot be found anywhere else, and they thrill the soul as nothing else will touch it and thrill it.”
• April 1917 General Conference
  • Perilous Times
    • “It is liberty on one hand, or the death of liberty on the other. To my mind this contention has seemed to be the contention of the ages. The fight that has been going on for the last three hundred years or more which has won for us our precious heritage of liberty, now lies in the balance.”
    • “In the very beginning, his purpose was to give liberty to all his children. That purpose will not fail.”
• October 1916 General Conference
  • Prudence
    • “I give it to you as the best advice to myself and to you all; that there never was so good a time to get out of debt as right now.”
    • “Let me remind you also to pay your debts and obligations to the Lord. We owe him something and we don’t settle these obligations, many of us, quite as strictly as we should. I know we are a mighty good people, the best in the world, good bishops, good presidents, good, faithful workers, good sisters in the Relief Societies, and in the other organizations. No better class of men and women in all the world than they. None any purer or more virtuous, or more honorable, or more desirous of doing good, or more desirous, of helping their neighbors, of blessing and being blessed, than these same Latter-day Saints. Let us remember the Lord with our tithes and offerings and not be niggardly about it.”
• April 1916 General Conference
  • Loyalty
    • “If I am loyal to the truth and to the right in all things; then I must be at all points acceptable to God.”
    • “I use that word “Mormon” as applied to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so that it may be more widely known, if possible, that this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, makes for the best citizenship in all the world. The very teaching of my Church, my religion, the counsel of those who are over me, the revelations of Jesus Christ to me, impel me to the best citizenship, to be “loyal to the true and the right,” and that there shall be no hyphen connected with the “Mormonism” and citizenship of any one who is connected with it.”
• October 1915 General Conference
  • Embracing All Good
    • “We ought not to be blamed or censured by our brethren of the outside because our system is better than theirs. Neither ought we to be praised particularly because it is so much better, but we should give praise to the Lord because it is so much more efficient, so much more helpful, so much more strong in doing things, in accomplishing results.”
    • “But when it comes to matters of religion, and organization of churches and so on, I repeat again they have the verv best that man could devise, but here is something better, and I have shown you a few of the things that the Lord has added, which they have not got. In addition we have the spirit of the thing, the life-giving power, the Holy Ghost, they have not that, that has not been given to them.”
• April 1914 General Conference
  • Mormonism is not Easy
    • “The Gospel is something that partakes of the spirit of helpfulness, rendering assistance in some way or other, even though it be through sacrifice, to those whom we are associated with, and to those to whom we are sent; but we ought not to forget this further fact that this Gospel is an exacting religion. It demands of me and you that we shall prepare ourselves, and that we shall work out our salvation. In the scheme of things, it is not appointed in the principles of the Gospel that man can be saved except by his own exertion. The tendency today in the world is to make religion easy for everybody.”
    • “The Lord helps those, and only those, who help themselves. He can’t help a man who won’t help himself. A man who will not say, “Yes, I am willing to go down into the waters of baptism,” but refuses to go, the Lord can’t help that man any further on that principle. He must help himself.”
• October 1913 General Conference
  • Sustain the Saints
    • “Let me add another word, also. The Lord is showering His blessings upon the Latter-day Saints in rich abundance. The earth is wonderfully productive this season, in all of our settlements, and all the products of the field, farm and range are bringing fairly good prices. In the midst of all these blessings none of us should forget the obligations that we are under to sustain the Church of God with the means, or part of it, that He puts into our possession.”
• April 1911 General Conference
  • If Ever There Was a Time
    • “Man is a being who must believe. Belief, says a distinguished writer, is great and life giving. So long as he is sincere in his beliefs, and in his worship, such belief and worship will, to a very great extent, shape and control his life. But when he is trying to believe something which has grown to be unbelievable, his worship then becomes an insincerity and hollow mockery. So we see throughout the land that the churches, instead of being reasonably well filled, are practically empty. Men and women do not take interest in religious matters. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and have a form of godliness which, in the main, is an insincerity and is attended to for form’s sake only.”
    • “When I heard some of these brethren of the apostles preaching, if ever there was a time, in the history of the world, when there was need for special witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ that time is today. Never so much as today.”
    • “We believe in education; but some of us send our children away from home to be educated, and many of them come back seemingly determined to claim relationship with the apes rather than with the angels.”
• October 1909 General Conference
  • Patriotism
    • “That being enacted into law and becoming the law of the country, then the liberty that all these people had been fighting for was granted to our country, and became an accomplished fact. Now, when that was accomplished, God Almighty, in His own way, sends forth what? A more perfect law of liberty and righteousness, more perfect than the Constitution of the country itself, in the bringing forth of His Church in these last days, in raising up the Prophet Joseph Smith as He did and instructing him how to prepare this wonderful organization, with the Priesthood of the Son of God as its governing power.”
    • “No man will be put to death by this Church because he does not believe its doctrines—even if it were possible under the law that they could be compelled in any way. You can’t maintain the rights and authority of the Priesthood in that way. You can believe what you please, of course, this liberty exists. Anyone can establish a Church. Doctor Eliot? Yes, just as much right, under the law, as any man—just exactly—and nobody will say him nay. He hasn’t any authority from God Almighty to bestow the Priesthood—that is a very different proposition; he does not claim it; neither do the other churches, except one, claim it. But Mormonism claims it; this church claims it.”
• April 1909 General Conference
  • The Works of the Church
    • “The work is good; and if you can’t understand the doctrine, there is the work, and it speaks for itself.”
    • “I say that all these things, and many more that I have not time to mention—are good for there are many good works that could be mentioned. This is not theory, it is not doctrine alone, it is works, and they are grood and they should entitle us to something more than abuse.”
• October 1906 General Conference
  • Peace in the Church
    • “There is a feeling of safety, of peace, in this community that I find nowhere else in the world. Not only do we who are Latter-day Saints find it so, but others who are not of us appreciate to some extent this feeling of security and safety.”

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