Samuel O. Bennion

First Council of the Seventy (April 6, 1933 – March 8, 1945)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1944 General Conference
  • Spiritual Crops
    • “The plan of God is here to fertilize the spiritual fields of the Church. As the land has produced more since the membership of the Church began to till it, as it has grown richer under careful supervision, so will the strength of the children of men grow through the powerful influence of God, and our people will carry off victoriously the plan of God, for this is His work. It will never fail. It does not make any difference to me what men think about Mormonism, or what they think about this Church. I mingle among them; I have done so for many years—many of them are fine men, good men. There are good men in the Church and out of the Church, and when we find out what they are good for, they should be put to use. But even though they may not recognize it, there is a Power guiding this people to high destiny and even now they have become, as the Prophet Joseph said they would, a “mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.””
• October 1943 General Conference
  • Missionary Work
    • “This work with our youth is closely allied to our larger obligation—missionary work. There is nothing like it in all the world. As the blood is the life of the flesh, so is missionary work the life of this Church, and if you take it away, there is no Church.”
• April 1943 General Conference
  • The Strength of the Church
    • “I am sure an influence for good is being felt. The strength of this Church, brethren, does not rest upon the number of people in the Church, nor in the educational stand that it occupies, nor in its wealth; but is vested in the quality of its membership and in the individual testimony of its members. The desire to give of themselves for the good of others, to think and speak without fear, under the direction and power of God, and to live as they feel they should live, setting the right kind of example —this is the stfength of the Church.”
• October 1942 General Conference
  • Walking in Righteousness
    • “Men who have it in their hearts to keep the commandments of God, will keep them.”
    • “We are here writing our history. We write it every day and there can be no change. As we write it, that is the way it will be. We write it by our lives.”
• April 1942 General Conference
  • A Short Testimony
    • “I trust that when we return to our homes again, that we will remember our Father’s work, that we will be about our Father’s business, that we will encourage the leadership of the quorums of the Priesthood to meet together and to appoint members of the quorums to visit the inactive of the members of the Priesthood who do not attend to their Church obligations. They are good men, and if only we can just get them to become active in their work we would be doing a fine and good service. Those men are in our midst and many are fine characters and are at work in some position or another. Many hold positions of trust that are worth while, so far as our civic and business life are concerned. If we could just get these men to participate with us I think it would be a marvelous thing.”
• October 1941 General Conference
  • The Plan of Salvation
    • “The plan of salvation has been outlined carefully for us. There is not a man or a woman who holds membership in this Church but who knows in his heart, with all the surety that can be crowded into a mind and heart, that the Lord appeared to Joseph Smith; that that boy received the revelations that he said he did, and the visitation of the Father and the Son; and that he was so filled with the power of God that he carried with him that influence so long as he lived in the earth. He left his testirriony, he left the written word, he gave to the children of men so much doctrine that as long as the earth stands they will not be able to consume or understand it all, for those principles were pertaining to eternal life, as well as here. This is the preparatory state.”
• April 1941 General Conference
  • Mortality
    • “It is a mistake for men and women to believe, as many are taught in the world, that when we pass away we will go immediately into the presence of the Lord, there to remain. It is not so written, but it is written that we shall go into that spirit world, and that the life that we have lived, the knowledge that we have acquired, will be with us there, and shall be with us and for us in that life where we shall go.”
    • “My brethren and sisters, let us look well to the habits we form. If they are evil habits, and if we do not repent of them and put them from us, they become a great part of us and it is not easy to shake them off or to forget them. It is not easy for men and women to get away from the vices of sin. The drinking of alcohol, for example, leads them into terrible conditions, often into destruction. That same principle will apply to every habit or form of sin that a man or a woman may acquire here in mortality.”
• October 1940 General Conference
  • Gathering of Israel
    • “We pray constantly for our missionaries who go abroad, that they may search out the honest in heart, but we little think about those in our midst who have been moved upon by the spirit and power of God to come into this land where they may receive the blessings that are theirs by right.”
• April 1940 General Conference
  • Witnesses
    • “We are now living in the time of the restitution of all things. The Gospel has been restored to the earth, together with the power by which its ordinances are to be administered. If all things were to be restored, then this principle of witnesses must likewise be restored, so that in our day men may receive the testimony of eyewitnesses of the Lord and His work.”
• October 1939 General Conference
  • Repentance
    • “That what this world needs today are men of character and integrity, men possessed of brotherly love, and faith in the all-wise Providence who is obviously working out his designs in the earth; men who are willing to do right for right’s sake, with due regard for others.”
    • “Repentance from sin is the foundation of true manhood. It ennobles the soul, and takes bitterness from the heart, placing man in greater harmony with his Creator.”
• April 1939 General Conference
  • Leadership
    • “The majority of the people desire that which is good. Generally they are willing to do right, if they are properly directed.”
    • “If we are to do so we must learn that the first element of true leadership is faith in God and obedience to his principles. This truth has been recognized all down the ages. We are all familiar with the example of Saul who lost his position as a leader and king of Israel because of his failure to obey the command of the Lord as given through Samuel the prophet.”
    • “If we collectively grow in our obedience to God’s commands and increase our activity in his Church, we shall be in better position to teach the Gospel to all the world, and to teach more impressively because of the kind of lives we live.”
• October 1938 General Conference
  • Kept My Pledge
    • “I was in the ministry long enough to see young men fill missions, go home, be married, and send me their sons and daughters. I saw fine improvement in them. I know that the training the father and mother received in the mission field was carried over and was evidenced in that boy and girl who came to me. I found faith among the sons and daughters of God at home. I found the fathers and mothers who had provided the means for the missionaries to accomplish their work and to develop into faithful servants of the Lord had in their hearts the spirit and integrity of Latter-day Saints. Many of them were not heard of, many of them lived their quiet lives, but they contributed of their means and of all they had for the preaching of the Gospel.”
• April 1938 General Conference
  • Power of Example
    • “Men and women who have a knowledge of the Gospel, who know what it means to have lived before they came into this world, who have taken a part in the plans of our Eternal Father, are brought face to face with the fact frequently that we are only continuing the plan that our Eternal Father taught us even before the foundation of this earth was laid.”
    • “The power of example is a marvelous thing. It probably is stronger than precept. If this great body of men and women go back home again and set an example that is in harmony with the revelations of the Lord and the impressions they receive from time to time it will have much to do with the correcting of many of the misuses of our time that bring sin and sorrow to thousands of people.”
• October 1937 General Conference
  • The Example of Christ
    • “In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we find a newness of life, as it was in the days of the Master. Men and women come into a new way of thinking.”
    • “There will always be contention in the world and among the nations of the earth, until we can come to a unity of the faith. Peace, I think, shall never come to this world until the Son of Man comes again, for nation shall rise against nation, wars shall occur, and famine shall be a part of the history of the world. But to those who keep the commandments of God, their paths will be made easy, compared to the ways of those who do not. They shall not forfeit anything that may be for their good. Trials often are for our good and should be endured by all. Trials make men realize more fully the responsibilities they owe to one another.”
• April 1937 General Conference
  • The Restoration
    • “He instituted again the true interpretation of repentance from sin that has been stressed here this morning by President Grant. He brought into the world again the ordinance of baptism by immersion. He revealed unto the children of men the truth that there should verily be one Lord and one faith and one baptism, one God, the Father of us all. This is indeed the great plan by which the children of men may work and accomplish the things that they came forth to do, when they came from the presence of our Eternal Father into this world.”
    • “So this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been established with apostles and prophets, and they are here for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, until all men shall come to a unity of the faith.”
• October 1936 General Conference
  • Great Men and Women
    • “I think we knew the plan that was to be brought about in this earth. There were great men and undoubtedly great women in the spirit world, who were selected, and ordained to take part in the work to be accomplished for the salvation of men. In that pre-mortal state men and women enjoyed free agency. They enjoyed the gift of intelligence and had the power to choose their course, and through faith and works they achieved success. They were known unto the Lord, and they grew and developed in character under the leadership and under the planning of God. They were to be prophets when they came into the world. They were to be leaders of men.”
    • “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is making history—marvelous history in this dispensation; the leadership of the Church has been inspired; they have been prepared for the emergencies that they have had to meet, and will have to meet.”
• April 1936 General Conference
  • Being Firm
    • “The Lord can do his work only as men and women will apply themselves; he does it through his servants in the earth; he directs his work through all the members of the Church who are willing to serve.”
    • “These men are not swerved when the winds of adversity blow; they know how to weather the storm. We find them always solidly and squarely established in the revelations of God our Father; while, on the other hand, those who yield to temptation, who will not keep the commandments of God, are shaken as a reed in water, and many fall, because their foundation is not secure.”
• October 1935 General Conference
  • Investigate the Truth
    • “I am sure that our Eternal Father is pleased with all those who support him in the establishment of his purposes in the earth. His revelations are not understood so fully perhaps as they might be, but I think that the majority of men and women in the Church are giving attention to his plan and are endeavoring to conform their lives to it.”
    • “It is true that men and women will not observe the things the Lord wants them to do as fully as they might. Temptation is on every hand. There are many things to lead men and women and boys and girls astray, but the Lord’s plan will prevail, for his word is sure and certain, and men will finally comprehend the plan that has been inaugurated by him.”
    • “We do not expect that we are going to be perfect here in mortality, but we hope to go on to perfection, to overcome our weaknesses, to be lenient and kind to each other, and to stand for the thing that we know is right and try our very best to get others to think along the same line.”
• April 1935 General Conference
  • The Church Has the Gospel
    • “In my experience in life I have not been able to find that anyone has had the right to change the plan established by the Savior during his ministry, and restored in our day.”
    • “I have never found anything in all ‘history that fills these requirements as does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It gives to every man and woman who enters it the same opportunity regardless of where they live or where they come from. It is for all and no one has any right over the other. It teaches us the plan of our great Redeemer ; it acquaints us with the history of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and those who have followed him.”
• October 1934 General Conference
  • The Principles and Values of the Church are Eternal
    • “I am sure that this is the work of the Lord. There is not any question in my mind concerning the truth of his great revelation and his organization in these the last days. We are not so sure of the things of this world. The mediums of exchange that are used everywhere may change. They may lose their value entirely. Principles may prove to be valueless in the management of nations. But the plan of God, our Eternal Father, will not change. The great institution that he established through his Son, in the days of the Prophet, over a hundred years ago, will not change.”
    • “We can afford to be charitable in every way. We can afford to be kind and to be diligent. We can extend every courtesy to others who have not received the light that has come to us in this day.”
    • “While here in mortality we enter into business, into commercial relationships with men, but there is a right way to do it. God never i intended that it should be done in a dishonest way, any more than he intended that men should be untruthful.”
    • “The exchanges of this world and their values may pass away in a night and be of no more use to us, but the things that God revealed for the benefit of his children shall always be useful, as long as the earth stands, and in the eternities to come, forever and forever.”
• April 1934 General Conference
  • Report of his Missions
    • “I think that Lucifer will fight with more vigor from now on than he has ever fought before, but so will God our Eternal Father. The battle that was begun in that world from which we came is still going on. The men and women who fought for the principles of right before the foundations of this earth were laid have been in the earth in the past and are today, carrying on under the leadership of Jesus Christ our Lord. They are fighting for the right, for the establishment of God’s work and to bring about the plan that he intended should be accomplished when he sent his children into the world.”
• October 1933 General Conference
  • Choosing to Work
    • “Agents unto themselves! That gives us to understand that we have the principle of free agency in us. We can do or not do. We can read, we can work, or we can neglect our work. The power is within us. The Lord appointed men to carry on his work. He led them in the path whereby they might gain a testimony and might know and understand his work; but the freedom of choice is left with his sons and with his daughters.”
    • “There never was a time during my period of service when there were better opportunities than now afforded, in the preaching of the Gospel, both at home and abroad. There never was a time when leadership was more needed than now, in every phase of man’s existence. The people are looking for men to lead them. They are disturbed and heartsick because of disappointment. They are not fed the bread of life. They don’t understand it. They live and they die without any hope, because they have not had opportunities which will enable them to receive the blessings of God, our Father, that they are entitled to. I feel that it is our duty to a very great extent to provide this spiritual food.”
    • “I know full well that we shall live again. I know that the Lord revealed all that the Prophet Joseph said he revealed to him. I know that when we sing, “Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah,” that Jesus did anoint him a prophet and seer, and that he blessed him to open this the last dispensation, and that “kings shall extol him and nations revere.” This will be brought more forcibly to the attention of the world from now on than ever before.”
• April 1933 General Conference
  • Declaring our Duty
    • “I believe, too, that we learned this Gospel plan before we came into the world ; that we participated in the great program that the Lord arranged for the benefit of his children when they should come upon the earth. And men endowed with the spirit which responds to that plan are yet scattered among the nations of the earth, waiting for the Gospel to reach them.”
    • “We have a hundred years of history which must stand out as an assurance to all honorable men that no body of people could operate or live as long as this Church has done and make the progress that it has made in the world if it were not divinely guided and inspired. Its doctrines have never been successfully assailed.”
    • “I believe that I owe it to men everywhere to do all that I can to lead them back into the path of duty.”
    • “There can be no failure at all on the part of the Lord’s work, if men and women will do their part. I have faith and confidence in the people of this Church and in the priesthood. I am sure that they are men of God, and that he is training them for the great events that are to take place in the further establishment of his work. I am not at all worried over the success of this Church. I know that if we will do our part, if we will be true to him in the calling whereunto we have been called, our eternal Father can accomplish his purposes much faster than otherwise.”

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