Abraham O. Woodruff

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (October 7, 1897 – June 20, 1904)

General Conference Addresses

• April 1904 General Conference
  • The Faithful Are Valiant
    • “From time to time we may expect trouble and difficulty, because the Lord has decreed that He would have a tried people; that he would purify the gold in the fire, but that none of the gold should be lost. The dross would be consumed, and the gold should still remain.”
    • “We expect there will be opposition, but at the same time we confidently expect that God, in the future as in the past, will deliver us if we will only do our duty.”
• October 1903 General Conference
  • Era of Opportunity
    • “Our mission is not to go out for the sole purpose of seeing how many we can baptize. Our mission is to convert people, and we want to be sure they are converted before they are led into the waters of baptism.”
• October 1902 General Conference
  • The Hand of God
    • “May the blessings of the Lord be upon our brethren and sisters who have worn out their lives in fulfilling the missions whereunto they have been called to build up the great southern country and to live in the less desirable places. They are among the best people we have in the Church, and God has blessed them ana will bless them.”
  • Blessings in Disguise
    • “The Lord has commanded this people to forgive all men for their trespasses, and He would forgive whomsoever He would. Remember this in your troubles and difficulties in your dealings with your fellowmen.”
• April 1902 General Conference
  • All Who Know the Truth
    • “Everyone who has received a testimony that this work is of God is at perfect liberty to bear that testimony to his or her neighbors; and indeed, I feel that we will come under some degree of condemnation before God if we fail to do this.”
    • “No matter what authority a man may hold in this Church, it does not exalt him to that degree that he is justified in not forgiving the repentant and those who desire to do better, and who will come and supplicate for forgiveness.”
    • “An unforgiving spirit is by no means an evidence of strong character; it is quite the reverse.”
  • Training Children
    • “My brethren and sisters, if you cannot teach your children and bring them up in the knowledge of the Gospel in the spirit of kindness, as stated in the revelation In the Doctrine and Covenants, from which Elder Taylor has just read—if you cannot turn them from evil with the spirit of kindness and persuasion, and by reasoning with them, you cannot do it by force.”
    • “Ignorance is the mother of crime, and that if any one who has sinned knew the results of wrong-doing, they would not have done so with their eyes open.”
• October 1901 General Conference
  • Faith, Fasting, Prayer
    • “When we come together in our semi-annual conference, with the Spirit of God resting upon us, may we take a retrospective view of the preceding six months, and be able to discover that we have made some advancement, that we have benefitted some one, and that we are keeping pace with the work of God.”
  • A Glorious Work
    • “We should thank God for the light of the Gospel restored through the Prophet Joseph. It is of God, the Eternal Father. He did not speak of Himself; he only spoke as he was inspired and commanded of God.”
• April 1901 General Conference
  • Obedience and Diligence
    • “We too frequently quench the Spirit, and afterwards we feel condemned on account of our disobedience to it. In this way we drive the Spirit from us, and do not enjoy it in that degree which we would if we would always be obedient unto it.”
    • “Any man who has not enough of the Spirit of humility to be governed is not fit to govern. A man who cannot be led is not fit to lead.”
    • “We exercise our free agency as to whether we shall be members of this Church or not; but if we become members of the Church we must be obedient to the dictates of the Spirit and to him who holds the keys of this dispensation at the present time.”
• October 1900 General Conference
  • Individual Responsibility
    • “I thank the Lord for his goodness and for the blessings which this people are enjoying at the present time. The thing for us to do is to hold on to the end; not simply to go part of the way, but to go all the way, doing the will of our Father from day to day so far as it is made clear to us.”
    • “Only those receive a reward who pass through the hardships and the discouraging conditions and continue in the way of life unto the end. If we turn back any time before then, our labors have been in vain and we will not receive the reward.”
  • Saving Our Son and Daughters
    • “It is a great deal better or easier for us to do right and keep the commandments of the Lord when we are under good influences; and it is a great deal easier to do wrons: when we are under conditions of wrongdoing, or where others set the examples.”
• April 1900 General Conference
  • The True Church
    • “Thus it is very necessary that the brethren who hold the Priesthood and the sisters who are engaged in the different organizations of this Church should carry their responsibility and feel that there is an individual responsibility connected with this work which rests upon them, and that God will not justify them if they do not discharge their duties in their separate callings.”
    • “The Lord will not reward the drone, nor the slothful; He will not reward the unjust steward, the one who has not taken advantage of the opportunities God has placed within his grasp.”
• October 1899 General Conference
  • Advantages of Manual Labor
    • “The man who chooses a life of ease rather than one which will bring himself and his muscle in conflict with the sterility of the soil, does not develop within his heart the love of God as much as does the pioneer who goes forth with a desire to build up Zion materially.”
  • To Know the Truth
    • “Where they have not kept those commandments, God has poured out His judgments upon them for their disobedience. Every Latter-day Saint should be interested in the work of the Lord and seek to obtain for himself or herself a testimony concerning this work, for the evidences of its divinity are so abundant that if we strive to any degree at all to know of the truthfulness of this great latter-day work, we may know whether or not it is of God or of man.”
• April 1899 General Conference
  • Value of Inspired Counsel
    • “People ask counsel at times if they think they can get that which will be favorable to their own selfish desires; but if they thought they would get counsel which would be contrary to their own wishes, they would refrain from asking it.”
  • Holding True to That Which is Good
    • “I am glad to know that this is an individual work; that we have not to depend upon the testimony of Peter, of Paul, of Mark, or of Matthew, or any of those who lived in the days of Christ, to enjoy and have a testimony of this work.”
• April 1898 General Conference
  • The Holy Spirit
    • “Inactivity is death. Wherever there is a body of people upon the face of the earth that has nothing to do, that quorum or body will die spiritually. The Spirit of God will not be with men who are inactive. The Spirit of God is a spirit of progression. Therefore, my brethren and sisters, we can see the necessity of the work that these missionaries have been performing here at home.”
• October 1897 General Conference
  • A New Call
    • “I have sought to overcome my weaknesses; and in standing before you I realize that I stand before my God, stripped of everything which will hide any of the deeds of my life, and realize that I appear in His eyes in a different light to what I appear in your eyes.”
  • Force of a Good Example
    • “Still, sometime in their lives, the better part of man will crop out, and the teachings they have received by the fireside will come to them as a blessing and a support. We are all here to gain experience, as I understand this life. At the same time, how much evil, and how much suffering could be prevented if greater care were taken in preaching the principles of the Gospel at the fireside, and not depending on mere Sunday religion as much as we do.”
    • “And so it is, the prayers of our relatives and our loved ones, sustain us in any position. But when we return from abroad, perhaps we become negligent, and perhaps those who have been praying for us while abroad forget about us, and think it is not as important to pray for us at home as when we were away. But it is just as important. There are many temptations here in Zion with which we have to battle as well as when we are in the world, because evil will come unto us, but we do not need to give it a resting place in our lives.”

Other Talks

Articles in Church Publications

Other Publications and Resources