Marriner W. Merrill

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (October 7, 1889 – February 6, 1906)

General Conference Addresses

• April 1903 General Conference
  • Marriage and Debt
    • “Do not go beyond your means to buy fine furniture. Better live in a cabin.”
• October 1902 General Conference
  • Continued Improvement Essential
    • “I testify to you, my brethren and sisters, that this is the work of the Lord It has done my soul good to hear the brethren testify that they knew thiswas the work of God. It is not our work, but the Lord has given us the privilege to take part in it.”
• April 1902 General Conference
  • Answers to Prayer
    • “The individual who will be humble all the day long and strive to keep the commandments of the Lord win never apostatize or become dissatisfied, but he or she will be preserved in the truth, and by and by will sit down in the mansions of the Father, to enjoy the blessings of eternal life.”
• October 1901 General Conference
  • Spiritual Manifestations
    • “It is not only the young people that are culpable, but you will find that the older ones sometimes require attention. They need to have somebody to instruct them and to see if they are walking day by day in the line of duty.”
• April 1901 General Conference
  • Evidence of Progress
    • “I will tell you what is needed in the whole Church, and that is, that every ward in the Church be labored with by the officials of the ward and o£ the Stake, that it may be said one year from now that every non-tithepayer in the Church has been converted. Somebody has to do this labor, why not the Presidency of the Stake and the High Council take it up and see what good they can accomplish the coming years.”
    • “That is the only way they can be settled. The High Council cannot do it; the Bishop’s court cannot do it. They may pass decisions, but does that settle it? There is only one way to settle it, and that is set forth in the scriptures: Go to thy brother, and between him and thee alone make reconciliation. Let us settle our difficulties ourselves, and let the High Council be employed in preaching the Gospel and in conversing by the fireside, just as our Elders do in the world.”
    • “I suppose we will always be just what we are, and if we make progress in ourselves, so much the better.”
    • “I think the best thing we can do is to make new resolutions in our hearts; and wherein we have failed in the past, let us try to make up for it in the future.”
• October 1900 General Conference
  • Consequences of Neglecting the People
    • “If we all did our duty the Church would be improved and the tithes and offerings would be increased. I understand they have increased; but they have not increased enough yet, because the Saints throughout the Church do not all pay their tithing.”
• April 1900 General Conference
  • Be Faithful
    • “Where people can retain their fellowship in the Church and not be cut off it certainly is a great blessing.”
    • “If we let the cares of the world envelop our minds to such an extent that we lose interest in the work of the Lord, we are in a pitiful condition.”
    • “When we get through with this short career of ours, and we look back upon our lives, if we have kept the commandments of God, what joy and satisfaction it will be to us.”
• October 1899 General Conference
  • None Are Exempt
    • “I want to bear testimony to you that the Lord has spoken to President Snow in relation to the law of tithing.”
    • “We want to begin to redeem ourselves; turn our faces to the Lord and intreat the Lord about our affairs. There is no wrong in going into our secret places and telling the Lord our circumstances, and if you will do this, you will find relief.”
    • “If you do not know it is true, it is because you have not sought as diligently as you ought to do. Every member of the Church may know that this is the work of God.”
  • Our Temple Work
    • “Now, brethren and sisters, do not forget this labor. Do not put it off until you are entirely ready, because, if you do, perhaps you will not get ready at all. Your way may be hedged up, for Satan is on the move and is looking into our affairs continually and he may hedge up our way, wherever the opportunity is afforded him, that we shall not be able to redeem our kindred dead.”
• April 1899 General Conference
  • A Profitable Course for Young People
    • “I know there is an idea growing up in the midst of the young people that they can not get married until they have as much as their father or their mother; they must have a nice home, well furnished before they can take a life partner. I believe this is wrong. I believe young people of a proper age ought to get married and they ought to depend upon themselves; and a young man should marry a young woman that is willing to put forth her efforts to help. Get a helpmeet; one that will help to make your advances in life; help to make you a home; help to sustain the family; and will do something for the good of the community. This would be my advice and my counsel to our young people.”
    • “People who earn their money know just exactly how it comes, and they know better how to save it.”
    • “Those that will listen, and turn their ears to the Lord will be on the right side bye and bye; when the sheep are separated from the goats, those who have listened to the whisperings of the Lord through His servants will be found on the right side; and they will be remembered and they will have said to them: “Come ye blessed of my Father, etc.” According to my education and experience in the Church, and according to the teachings I have had and the suggestions through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, there is no man, I don’t care what his standing is; he may be a president of a stake, or an apostle, no matter, he can not safely gainsay the counsel of the Priesthood.”
    • “In our secret places we should sit in judgment upon ourselves and ask ourselves such questions: How has been my course today; has it been approved of the Lord? We may know by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit whether or not our course has been approved by the Lord; and if we feel condemned, then we may know that there is something wrong with us. We want to be wise and prudent; want to be kind and good to one another; and learn to love one another; to love the Gospel and the work of God above everything else in the world.”
• October 1898 General Conference
  • Self Scrutiny
    • “We want to encourage faith, as was said this mourning; we want to instill that faith into our children and into the young people. I believe faith is increasing in the land, however, but we find it will be through our efforts, through our labors that faith will be increased in the minds of the people.”
    • “It is desirable that no unworthy people go into the sacred places—go into the house of the Lord. They would not wanit to go there themselves if they understood matters properly. It is not desirable to have unworthy people go.”
• April 1898 General Conference
  • Tithing and Missionaries
    • “We cannot always comprehend why he blesses some men above other men, but there is a purpose in it, and I am just as confident as I am that I am standing before you, that if the Latter-day Saints from this very day, will pay their tithes honestly and strictly, and cease to mortgage their homes, cease to incur obligations as individuals, and begin a system of retrenchment in all their homes, the Lord will prosper them and they will be free from debt — for is there a family in Israel that cannot retrench a little?”
    • “We do not want to send men out that are not honorable men. We want young men to go imbued with the spirit of this work, and we would like them to have a testimony from the Lord before they no and be nble to give a reason for the hope they have within them.”
    • “They go to teach the world; they do not go to be taught by the world. They go from Zion blessed under the hands of the servants of God, to teach the Gospel and to warn the world. Young men must remember that they are not sent abroad to be taught of the world, but we must be acquainted with some of the principles and doctrines of the Church, in order to set before the people thoew principles and doctrines that God has revealed for the salvation and redemption of the human family.”
  • Learning Languages and Temple Work
    • “If we can learn the language here at home, how much better it is than to spend months when you go abroad to learn the foreign language. You people that know the French language ought to cultivate it and not forget it, but practice, talk and read it. The Germans ought to read their language and have the children read it, and so with the Scandinavian people. They ought to have books and teach the children to read the language as well as to speak it. It is one thing to read it and another thing to speak it. It is not everybody that can speak it that can read It correctly. We ought to take these matters into consideration. I think we have time to devote to this important matter.”
    • “Now, I suppose there are people here in this congregation that have almost lived under the shadow of some Temple, and have done nothing. You are liable, as well as myself, to be called to the other side to meet your children and relatives that have died without the Gospel, and who will, no doubt—no question in my mind—receive the Gospel if we will give them the opportunity.”
• October 1897 General Conference
  • The Divine Origin of the Church
    • “I have always looked upon it as a very dangerous thing for a member of the Church to find fault with the servants of God, to criticise the actions of the Priesthood, because in my experience here with the people I have witnessed many, apparently good men and good women, turn away from the Church through indulging in this spirit of fault-finding and criticising the actions of the Priesthood.”
    • “As I said before, I know this work is true; and if I deny the work of the Lord, it will be because I get into the dark and lose the spirit of it. We are liable to do this. Hence it is not safe for a Latter-day Saint to forget his prayers, and to forget the Lord. We should make it the practice of our lives to entreat the Lord in the morning, and in the evening, and at midday, and have within our hearts the spirit of prayer.”
    • “Hence the importance, my brethren and sisters, of trying to cultivate the spirit of humility, of meekness, and of kindness, and attending to the labors, that pertain to us in the Gospel. There is something for everybody to do. We have all we can possibly do if we live the religion of Jesus Christ.”
    • “No man knoweth the things of tomorrow, unless God reveals them to him. We know the things of yesterday, if we have not forgotten them; but we do not know of the things of tomorrow. Hence the importance of all Latter-day Saints living according to the light that has been revealed to them.”
    • “The hands of the Elders of the Church have been placed upon our heads, and it has been said unto us, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and we have a right, if we have sincerely repented of our sins and turned unto the Lord with full purpose of heart, to a witness. My conviction is that no man need be without a testimony of this work, whether he be young or old. The Lord is no respecter of persons, and we may know for ourselves, for our private use and good.”
    • “We ought to sustain our Bishops, and not speak evil against them, or against the Counselors, or the Teachers, or the officers of the ward. Let not our tongues be found speaking evil against our brethren. It tends to darkness and to sin, and will lead whoever indulges in it out of the Church, unless he or she repents speedily. It is a dangerous thing to be found criticising the authorities of the Church—not that they are perfect men, because no man is perfect. It is possible that I may do wrong—that I may give some wrong counsel; but that can easily be corrected, because here are the living oracles of God, and they are worth more to the Latter-day Saints than all the Bibles, all the Books of Mormon and all the Books of Doctrine and Covenants that are written. The Bible is a good thing, the Book of Mormon is a good thing, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants is a good thing. They are the words of the Lord. But I say that the living oracles of the Church are worth more than all of them.”

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