Matthias F. Cowley

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (October 7, 1897 – October 28, 1905)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1903 General Conference
  • Teach Your Children
    • “I believe that the great cause, possibly in about nine cases out of ten, of the transgression of our children, and the cause of skepticism in some instances, is not that they naturally drift away, but because they have been neglected; we have not sat down and talked to them. “We have got to establish the order of heaven in our families, in the spirit of prayer and supplication, and must teach our children the principles of divine truth.”
  • Duties of the Saints
    • “I almost shudder sometimes when I hoar men say they have made great sacrifices for the Gospel’s sake. Have we made any sacrifice for the Gospel’s sake? Is it a sacrifice for a man to lay aside his sins? Is it a sacrifice for a man who is addicted to tobacco, to lay it aside? or addicted to liquor, to repent of that evil? or addicted to profanity, to lay that aside and honor the name of Deity? or a violator of the Sabbath day, or guilty of any vice, to lay that aside and purify himself by obedience to the laws of God? Why, it is no more of a sacrifice to the immortal spirit of man than it is to wash our bodies when they are unclean.”
• October 1902 General Conference
  • Resolving Disputes
    • “I do not believe that the Presidency of the Church are under any obligation to do those things that ought to be done by the local authority, and I do not knew that they have any promise of being blessed of the Lord in doing work that ought to be done by the Bishops and presidents of stakes.”
• April 1902 General Conference
  • Be An Example
    • “While God has established this work, and He is pleased with it because it is His work, we ought not to lose sight of the fact that He is not pleased with every individual in it, only to the extent that that individual conforms his life to the principles and spirit of this Gospel.”
  • Repentance
    • “I want to say to you that the most important doctrine to be taught to the people, both among the Latter-day Saints, and those who are not Latter-day Saints, is the doctrine of repentance.”
• October 1901 General Conference
  • A Holy Work
    • “We may talk about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; we may talk about becoming as the Father is now (which is within the possibility of the Gospel); but it is almost absolute folly to talk about such glorious things unless we have faith to quit smoking a cigarette or an old pipe, and to cease breaking the Sabbath day or profaning the name of Deity.”
• April 1901 General Conference
  • United in Love
    • “Some brethren have been very neglectful of their duties. Others have manifested an incapacity to perform the duties of their respective offices in the holy Priesthood. It is necessary that this should be rectified.”
    • “Every man and woman should esteem the work of God first and foremost. I have always had a joy in my heart that this was the work of the Lord.”
    • “I know that some Bishoprics do not labor as unitedly as they ought to do; and the reason is because they do not enjoy the spirit of their calling to the extent that they should, and that is the result of their not getting together and holding council meetings.”
    • “No Latter-day Saint has any right or title to the fellowship of the Spirit of God if he entertains an acrimonious spirit against any living man or woman.”
• October 1900 General Conference
  • The Mind and Will of the Lord
    • “There should be an absolute unity throughout the Church. And this unity can only be brought about by a common enjoyment of the Holy Ghost.”
    • “No Latter-day Saint bearing the Holy Priesthood ought to go to any place without the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”
    • “We ought to be prophets, and we ought to seek the mind and will of the Lord on every subject that arises.”
    • “You show me a man who is constantly engaged in prayer and supplication, and I will point to you a man that does not have to be preached to in regard to the subject of tithing; he does not have to be urged to send his children to Sunday school, and to get his boys into the quorums of the Lesser Priesthood.”
    • “I have seen not only the hand of the Lord, but the hand of the adversary working its way among the Latter-day Saints. Satan is seeking to divide them and to poison their minds in regard to the authorities of the Church and the leaders in the various Stakes of Zion.”
    • “The more the truth is assailed the more of the Holy Ghost they enjoy in defending it.”
    • “I want to learn the truth. I want to be controlled by the truth. I want my heart to be in the work of God. I do not want to have any political or financial interest which would make the work of God secondary.”
• April 1900 General Conference
  • Continuous Revelation
    • “I wish to bear my testimony that flesh and blood never did, because it never could, reveal unto man the identity of the Son of God, or make plain to the understanding of the children of men the things of God in any respect; and if it required a revelation for the Apostle Peter to bear witness that Jesus was the Christ, it will require revelation for every man and woman in every dispensation of the Gospel, to bear the same testimony.”
    • “When I see any lack of confidence on the part of our people in the wisdom of the Prophet of God and his associates, I am impressed with the fact that we are lacking in that faith which belongs to the work of God.”
• October 1899 General Conference
  • Demonstrating Faith
    • “It is the duty of the Latter-day Saints to take to themselves that portion of the word of God which Is applicable unto them, or which they have not fully exemplified by their conduct and lives heretofore, and make a distinct and personal application of the same to themselves in the future.”
  • The Sphere and Regulation of Temporal Affairs
    • “The trouble with us is to a certain extent, we are Latter-day Saints religiously, but Gentiles financially. We are not controlled in the business affairs of life by that spirit of the Gospel which blesses and sanctifies all temporal transactions and makes them spiritual in the sight of God.”
• April 1899 General Conference
  • Prophetic Gift of Joseph Smith
    • “We may say that when He did not have a prophet upon the earth He was not doing anything, so far as the great plan of salvation is concerned; that is, the ordinances of that plan were not being administered, and He was not communicating His will to His children respecting the plan of redemption. However, His hand was manifest in the progress and in the enlightenment of the world, and in the extension of human liberty.”
    • “There is a very great responsibility resting upon the authorities of the Church. I feel that it is an immense responsibility to be a servant of God. I feel my unworthiness in occupying such a position among the Saints of God, and I cannot occupy it unless I am sustained by the Almighty.”
  • Covenants
    • “I wish to say to the Elders of Israel that when they are called upon to bear testimony, or preach the Gospel at home or abroad, they are forbidden to do so, except through the prayer of faith, they receive the spirit of God and preach by the power of that spirit.”
• October 1898 General Conference
  • Divine Authority
    • “The work of God in this generation has been established just as literally as it was anciently. The brethren who have been called to preside over this Church have been selected by the Spirit of revelation.”
    • “Education is not alone to be obtained from books and in universities, colleges and in seminaries of learning. There is an education that comes through the revelations of the Spirit of God to man that is higher than every other class of education, and compared with which all other systems of education sink into insignificance.”
• April 1898 General Conference
  • Mutual Improvement
    • “It is by compliance with the simple and plain obligations that the Gospel enjoins upon us that we are entitled to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and to establish us against every influence that may be brought to bear to destroy our faith and to turn us aside from the path which leads to eternal life.”
    • “Judgments begin at the house of the Lord. Let us, therefore, repent of our sins, repent of our folly, of our pride, of our hypocrisy, our inconsistency and our selfrighteousness in sitting in judgment upon others, while in our own hearts there are faults and in our own eyes there are many beams.”
• October 1897 General Conference
  • A New Call
    • “I recognize the fact that there is no amount of profession or pretension which satisfies the injunctions of the Gospel and that which goes to constitute the characteristics of a true Latter-day Saint. It requires that we shall square our lives by the precepts of the Gospel and the commandments which have been delivered unto us by the authority of God in this dispensation.”
  • Operation of the Holy Spirit
    • “Would any man with intelligence and honesty dare to attribute narrow-mindedness to the Latter-day Saints? I think not. The Latter-day Saints are not afraid to come in contact with the world in every form. They are not so narrow but what they are willing to receive truth wherever it can be found.”
    • “How essential it is that the young men and the young women of Zion should enjoy the companionship of the Holy Spirit, the importance of which cannot be spoken, it cannot be fully realized. And to enjoy that spirit, we should understand another principle, and that is that to possess it we must harmonize our lives, our daily walk and conversation with certain requirements that the Lord has made of us. It is one thing to receive the Holy Spirit; it is another thing to keep it constantly with us.”
    • “We never can isolate the principles of the Gospel, and expect by the mere outward acceptance of that principle, to enjoy the blessing which is attached to it. No man has received a remission of sins by baptism alone. No man has received the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands alone.”
    • “I want to impress upon the youth that to enjoy this Spirit, we must not only receive it by the ordinances of the Gospel, but we must take a course in life that we can keep it constantly with us. The Spirit of the Lord will not associate with evil in any form.”
    • “No man, no matter what may be his natural attainments, if he does not enjoy the Spirit of the living God, if his life is not circumspect, squared by the principles and doctrines of the Son of God, is a well educated Latter-day Saint, he does not enjoy the true light, he is not a safe man to follow.”
    • “No man has a monopoly on the work of God. No man can sin with impunity. No man can turn aside from the path of rectitude, without meeting the consequences which are specified in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior.”
    • “Remember this, that while men may become educated in the world, they may become powerful physically, they may become powerful mentally, but until they are educated spiritually and the moral properties of their natures are reached and touched and cultivated, the soul is not educated, for the spirit and the body is the soul of man.”

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