Hyrum G. Smith

Patriarch to the Church (March 9, 1912 – February 4, 1932)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1931 General Conference
  • The Spirit
    • “The impression made by the Spirit that is for our guide in safety in the Church is always from a good spirit, the Spirit that proclaims and announces the truth, and the truth doesn’t need an alibi or crutches to support it.”
• April 1931 General Conference
  • Prayer
    • “I have heard little children pray, and almost immediately have seen the answers come. I have seen adults and older people pray with faith, and have seen immediate and soul-satisfying results. I am converted to the devotion and the practice of prayer.”
• October 1930 General Conference
  • The Work of the Lord
    • “There is nothing in all the world today more wonderful than the work of the Lord, especially the work which has been entrusted to the hands of the Latter-day Saints.”
    • “He will open up the way before you, that you may have a greater desire to share with others, and to prepare your sons and daughters to go upon missions in defense of his work, in a spirit of true unselfishness.”
• April 1930 General Conference
  • Blessings
    • “I bless all who are working in righteousness throughout the world, the honest in heart, the sick, the suffering, the destitute. I pray God to provide their needs and to give them faith to hear and to heed the teachings of his servants. My heart is filled with humility and with blessings for all who deserve them.”
• April 1929 General Conference
  • The Day of Ephraim
    • “And so today we are discovering, through the kindness and mercy of the Lord, that his promises are being fulfilled and that his blessings are being received by those who are observing his laws and keeping his commandments.”
• April 1926 General Conference
  • Magnify Your Calling
    • “It sometimes takes a little courage on the part of young men in the Church, as well as some of the elderly men also, to go forward and use their powers Which the Lord has given them, but unless we do use and magnify them I am impressed that they will be of little or no value to us. It is a wonderful sensation to witness in yourselves the power of God, the power to do and say things that are beyond your own physical and mental strength.”
    • “In my mind one of the greatest blessings that can come to a man, is to function in the holy Priesthood, to fulfil his duty in assisting to bring about the purposes of the Lord in the earth.”
    • “Those who are willing to seek and to learn and to take advantage of their opportunities, are the ones to whom the Lord is very merciful, and whom he will strengthen against the temptations of the adversary.”
• October 1925 General Conference
  • Remember to Pray
    • “I want to promise you, my brethren and sisters, that though he is alive and in waiting for the weaknesses and follies of the people, that if you will observe the teachings of your faithful parents, that if you will observe the teachings of the elders in Israel, if you will observe the laws of nature and the words of wisdom, as they have been taught unto you from the beginning of this Church, since they were revealed to us, that the God of heaven will give you power every day of your lives to defend yourselves, that you may keep yourselves worthy of the blessings that the Lord has in store for you, and that you will have power to triumph over these barriers, to live and enjoy this happy, wonderful testimony that God lives, that he is the giver of life, that he forgives sins, that he gives you power to overcome weaknesses, that he will spare your lives in usefulness, that he will bless the labor of your hands temporally and spiritually, that he will give you understanding through the quickening of your minds and your desires and your ability to see and to understand. I have faith that the God of heaven will hear your prayers and answer you, he will remember you in mercy and bless you beyond your power to appreciate your blessings.”
• April 1925 General Conference
  • Live For Your Blessings
    • “I regret to say that too many of us fail to call upon the Lord or his servants until we are in distress, as the song which has been sung has reminded us that we call upon the Lord in our distress. How much more pleased the Lord would be if we would go to him in our gratitude, when we are showered with blessings, in our health and in our vigor and in our usefulness, rather than go in distress and sorrow, at the eleventh hour of our distress, perhaps!”
• October 1924 General Conference
  • Honesty
    • “No Latter-day Saint can receive the blessings of the Lord without honesty. We must be honest with ourselves, honest with our neighbors, honest with our God, and then we are entitled to his blessings, to the confidence of our neighbors, to the confidence and fellowship of those who are arovmd us.”
• April 1924 General Conference
  • Patriarchal Blessings
    • “It is not their purpose to come to you, particularly, but it is your privilege to go to them; they are authorized to act for you, and it is my faith and my testimony to you brethren and sisters, that they are humble and pure enough to act in their calling, and give unto you the blessings of the Lord, and not entirely the blessings of men.”
• October 1923 General Conference
  • Service in the Church
    • “Whether the service required of us be small or great, may the Lord find us in our places and prepared to serve and labor to bring about his glorious purposes.”
• April 1923 General Conference
  • Testimonies
    • “I rejoice in the blessing of our agency that when we are moved by the spirit of truth, and our testimonies are so enlarged within us that we are directed along the lines of conduct and action which bring us in keeping and in touch with many glorious privileges and blessings.”
• October 1922 General Conference
  • The Lord’s Blessings
    • “I take the liberty, my brethren and sisters, as an officer in the Church, to acknowledge the hand of God in his blessings to us and to this people; not only in the few things which I have mentioned, but in the many,, many things, even in the detail of our work, in the different responsibilities that come to us who are called to carry on the Lord’s work. I acknowledge his hand in the many blessings which he has placed at our very doors.”
    • “There isn’t the slightest kind of a blessing, neither small nor great of any kind, that you or I may receive or do receive except we obey tlie law upon which that blessing is predicated.”
    • “What a noble thing it is in us, when we discover that we have done wrong, to do our duty, and correct that wrong.”
• April 1922 General Conference
  • Ten Years
    • “Therefore, my brethren and sisters, as kinsmen in the house of Joseph, descendants of his chosen son, let us be true to our birthright—valiant workers in this great cause of righteousness and be prepared to administer the promised blessings.”
    • “No matter how great or how small the blessing we desire, we must first learn the law upon which that blessing is predicated, and then, in obedience to that law, we must work for our blessings.”
• October 1921 General Conference
  • Joseph
    • “I testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that the work which was entrusted into the hands of Joseph the Prophet, in these the last days, is to be a literal type. In other words, it is the actual restoration of this great plan of redemption which will not only save the house of Joseph, not only to save you and mie who are here, representatives of that great family in Israel through our lineage and our obedience, but, it will save all who come in from the lands surrounding us, from the nations of the world, who render obedience unto the laws that govern it.”
• April 1921 General Conference
  • Beware of Extremes
    • “It is natural for many of us to follow extremes, or to look for extremes. There is always danger in extremes. Therefore, I say, beware of extremes, beware of extremes.”
    • “Now, to make myself plain, it is the right of every faithful member of the Church to receive a written blessing for his guide, either at the hands of a stake patriarch or at the hands of the presiding patriarch, who are authorized to pronounce and seal blessings by the laying on of hands, which is an ordinance in the Church.”
    • “I have often wondered out of the hundreds and hundreds of promises that have been written and made by the patriarchs, how many of those wonderful promises the Lord will be able to make come true. I am astonished at the testimonies of the Latter-day Saints as they come back, declaring that those promises have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled all over the Church; and I am grateful to be permitted to officiate in this sacred work.”
• October 1920 General Conference
  • Blessings
    • “I would like to admonish my brethren and sisters to think of one another when we pray in our homes, think of those who need the blessings of the Lord.”
• April 1920 General Conference
  • Prayer
    • “So, let me admonish you, my brethren and sisters, to observe the counsels given in these revelations, for they are the words of the Lord unto us today regarding this principle which will give us power and favor with our heavenly Father, in battling with the powers of darkness, that we may triumph and secure the blessings prepared for the sons and daughters of God.”
    • “I admonish my brethren and sisters to be more prayerful in the future than they have been in the past, and to be more diligent in teaching their children to pray, that we may triumph in the end over the powers of darkness, and be permitted to join in this glorious work with our Prophet on the other side and with all other prophets of God.”
• June 1919 General Conference
  • Joseph F. Smith
    • “His kindness toward me was so manifest, I could not help but love him. I was always happy while in his presence, and I never had that feeling of timidity or desire to withdraw from him. There seemed to be power in his spirit that drew me toward him rather than repelled me from him. I love his memory, and look upon his testimony and his works as those of a prophet of the Lord, as those of one who was among the leading prophets and presidents of the Church in all the world.”
• October 1918 General Conference
  • A Prayer for the World
    • “I know that our Father in heaven is kind and merciful unto us, and that he, like all natural fathers, is grieved when he hears his children cry in distress. He is also grieved when he sees his children suffering because of their sins or their weaknesses. Our Father in heaven, like our fathers in the flesh, loves to see our purity and our good lives, our good examples; he loves to see us grow in good and in doing good.”
    • “Now. he does not say how soon that forgiveness shall come, but does make it plain that he will forgive those who repent and keep the commandments of the Lord.”
• April 1918 General Conference
  • Simple Things
    • “There are many who say, “What a simple thing it is to go down into the water to be baptized,” but it is the gateway to the kingdom of God when performed by proper authority, and there is no other way for us to enter that gate. A simple thing to be baptized for another that he might live again!”
• October 1917 General Conference
  • Doing our Duty
    • “It is our duty to work out the mission given us, that the time may come when no one shall be in bondage one to another, and that liberty and freedom shall come to all flesh.”
• April 1917 General Conference
  • Our Little Ones
    • “There are many of our Latter-day Saint mothers who have mourned the loss of their little children, and many mothers have felt that they themselves had committed some great sin, else their little ones would not be taken from them. Now, to such mothers let me say, do not accuse the Lord of taking your little ones from you, nor feel that you have committed any great sin, that those little ones are taken from you, because the Lord loves little children and he will not treat them unkindly, nor without mercy, for through the blood of his atonement they shall come forth in the morning of the resurrection with his Saints, and they shall be glorified according to the works they would have accomplished in the earth had they lived.”
    • “The Lord loves those who keep his commandments, those who obey him and render faith like unto that of little children; and those who are obedient to his commandments will receive his greatest love, and his greatest blessings.”
• April 1916 General Conference
  • Obtain the Blessings of the Temple
    • “This conduct on the part of many of our young people, to marry outside the Temples, or to marry those not of their own faith is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord. I counsel my brothers and sisters, particularly those who are born and raised in the Church, to avail themselves of the blessings of the House of the Lord ; and, if they are not now prepared to do this, that they humble themselves and repent, and prepare to live worthy of the teachings of their faithful parents.”
    • “Some of those who possess bright minds have invented and manufactured apparatus with which they can send the human voice across the continent, or ocean, thousands of miles, even without the use of wires, but yet individuals of such intellectual ability do not humble themselves sufficiently to admit that in the human mind there is an apparatus which has the power, if operated in obedience to the laws of God, to send the human voice into the heavens.”
• April 1914 General Conference
  • Labor in Zion
    • “I know that the Lord is pleased with those who work, not only for themselves but for others. I rejoice in having the privilege to do my part in the work of salvation.”
    • “I would like to exhort the youth of Zion to follow more closely in the footsteps of these men and women who have gone before us, who have diligently labored, and truly have eaten their bread by the sweat of their brow, who have incessantly toiled in these valleys of the mountains, and have cleared away the roughness thereof, so that their children are now rejoicing in the productive gardens, and beauties of these valleys, and the fruits of the land. I would like to exhort the younger people that when we are gathering and garnering the fruits that we are now enjoying, that we will not forget the Lord, nor our parents,—those who have so toiled for us that these blessings have been made comparatively easy.”
• October 1913 General Conference
  • Rise Above Weakness
    • “I rejoice in the testimony of the Gospel. I know that this is the work of the Lord, and that He has intrusted it unto us. It is our duty to deliver it unto the world. It has been given unto us freely, and freely we give it unto them; and as the different individuals all over the world accept the Gospel,—without regard to race, nationality, or creed—and live according to its teachings, they join with us in the love which is common to all faithful Latter-day Saints.”
    • “You know, brethren and sisters, that we are not of the world. We have come out of the world, therefore we are different from the world; these worldly things that we are prone to adopt in our lives, we have been warned to leave alone; and where they have taken possession of us, and we look upon them as weaknesses, from a spiritual and progressive standpoint, they should be overcome.”
    • “Let us rise above our weaknesses by commencing today to live better lives. It is a simple thing to commence, but it takes faith to endure to the end.”
• October 1912 General Conference
  • Follow the Prophets
    • “I do hope, and pray, that the young people especially will take the advice of those who are older, and not go into by and forbidden paths, and partake of the evils that exist in our midst, by following bad examples set before us by those who are not of us. Let us look to our leaders, those who hold the Holy Priesthood, and take their advice, and, in the spirit of humility and prayer, I feel sure that if we take this admonition we shall not go astray spiritually, but be raised up by the power of the Lord and made equal to the responsibilities as they come to us from our fathers.”

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