Rufus K. Hardy

First Council of the Seventy (October 6, 1934 – March 7, 1945)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1943 General Conference
  • The Government and Growth of the Church
    • “I am fully aware that we perhaps are the best paid board of directors that God has on earth, and if each one of us were asked, nothing could be given Him which in the slightest degree could compare with the compensation which God has given him for the unselfish labor and interest he has shown in God’s great work.”
    • “One after another of the brethren received that answer, and they all went forth to do God’s bidding and to receive God’s commendation, and from that start, to the present time, the Church has grown through this great and marvelous system of missionary activity unequaled anywhere.”
• April 1943 General Conference
  • Labor in the Kingdom
    • “This Priesthood is referred to as “being without father, without mother, and without descent, and has neither beginning of days or end of life.” Each of us is called with a peculiar calling, each in his respective calling to do vastly different things. Every appointment and calling in the Priesthood is of such importance that all of the time devoted by each man to his designated sphere, in close application to his work, will not begin to encompass the greatness and eternal decrees of God.”
    • “And, yet, I am sure, my brethren, that we zealous and energetic laborers in the work of God are tempted at times to exaggerate our own importance, to accomplish personal ambitions, but we should adopt the humble attitude of standing still “to see the glory of the Lord pass by” this would accomplish a great deal more. We grow despondent with what we think is delay, forgetting momentarily that since the very beginning of time God has planned and wrought with patience, and has seen afar the very time in which we now find ourselves.”
• October 1942 General Conference
  • Preserve and Keep the Souls of Men
    • “That which God has made He desired protected and kept. Even so every declaration that we have in our sacred history handed down to us by tradition bears this same record and this same declaration: preserve and keep and save the souls of men.”
• April 1942 General Conference
  • Out of Small Things
    • “You know, I have been struck with this thought, that in all of the history of religion, in all of the Bible stories and all the stories of the Book of Mormon, God’s advent among men commenced with small beginnings.”
• October 1941 General Conference
  • Building up the Kingdom
    • “When I read of the sorrow and distress that is abroad upon the earth today I hold as the most precious gift God may give to me, my citizenship in these United States, this blessed land of Joseph. My heart is poured out in constant gratitude for this glorious Gospel upon which we are feasting here today. But for it I should not be here, and perhaps should not have had earthly tabernacle. In humble gratitude I thank my Heavenly Father that I was born a generation removed from the terrible onslaught made by Satan to destroy this work in its inception, and that those heroes who preceded me so discouraged the Evil One, by their holy faith and devotion, that there came a lull in the persecution, and in that lull I was born. I think I have in my veins some of the blood of those who suffered and were tempted, so I have obtained my physical persecution in an easy way. But come what will, I hope I may never deny that knowledge which is in my heart today.”
    • “So in this rocky fastness, and in this great desert land of ours, God established this Church. To our forefathers be the glory. I want to say to you that there came to them, if not angelic inferences, help, sustaining power. It was the power, at least, of God, that made them continue on in what they did, until we find ourselves as we are today.”
• April 1941 General Conference
  • The Work in a Time of War
    • “God has said some things in prophecies concerning this. All this evil is done in order that some may acquire that which they do not possess or rightfully claim. To each and every child born upon this earth God gave a portion of it. It has been bestowed upon him by right of heirship from Adam.”
    • “Let all of us draw in from our wanderings and distress of mind, and rely upon God and what He has promised.”
• October 1940 General Conference
  • Agency
    • “God has also given unto each of us the one and only tool by which we might gain honor and success and exaltation, or on the other hand, misery and disgrace and absolute degradation. Now, that tool is the free agency of man to choose between right and wrong.”
    • “I feel that we should never imagine that we have seen the light at one time, and it becomes therefore unnecessary for us constantly to strive to glimpse those flashes from heaven that are coming to us, as they did in the past. I would that we might open the windows of our souls and receive that light which God desires to give and is giving to his people.”
• April 1940 General Conference
  • A Better Class of Missionary
    • “God, our Heavenly Father, chose to give to you and to me the choicest soul He had—His Only Begotten-—to lead the great missionary work of the earth and be the pattern for us to follow. These men and women, our stake missionaries, are meeting up and down the highways and the byways of our own cities and towns the finer people, the better class, those who need and seek instruction, and we need that better type of missionary; not only one who is trained, but one who is willing and desires to go forth and do that which God would have him do. I am sure that our work will be made much plainer and much more happiness will result if we are given that kind of missionary.”
• October 1939 General Conference
  • Faster and Further
    • “I believe that if we would adhere a little closer to the declarations of this restored Gospel, and the words of God which have come to us, not forgetting the first principles of this Gospel, we would go very much faster and farther.”
• April 1939 General Conference
  • The Book of Mormon
    • “I believe there is no other book that can be profitably studied by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints particularly, and by the world in general, that would do as much good and bring the same conviction to the hearts of the people of this great world of ours, as the Book of Mormon.”
• October 1937 General Conference
  • Conference Reflections
    • “Even so in life, as we must go through life with the individuality which God has given us—we cannot barter it or give it to another—on into death we carry that individuality and there we shall be judged according to the things that we have done here upon this earth by the individuality which God gave us.”
    • “We must remember that man has within himself apparently two things which are opposed: perfect independence and, at the same time, perfect union and cohesion with a few or with many members of a body such as is this; that on down through this earth life of ours and eternal life we may march and walk retaining, at the same time, our own individuality.”
• April 1937 General Conference
  • The Magnitude of the Work
    • “I am astounded constantly at the magnitude of this great work of ours. I cannot help but think to what ends of the earth it has not gone and to what corners it has not penetrated. Realizing all this there yet comes into my heart and my soul this conviction : That perhaps never again will I look upon a scene as impressive as the one I beheld last night —eight thousand or more men in this building attending the Priesthood meeting, and all dedicated and set apart for God’s work.”
    • “Surely this Church is not too small to reach to every corner of the earth, and of a surety the earth is not too big to listen to and feel the thrill of conviction from the teachings of the restoration of the Gospel which can and will emanate from the voices of our missionary brethren and sisters throughout all the earth, as well as in the stakes of Zion at home.”
• October 1936 General Conference
  • May God Direct Our Steps
    • “And, so, as I cast my eyes over this great congregation and think of the things that have transpired, the things which today are transpiring, and the things which in the future will transpire, I feel sure that this prophecy was not directed to the individual, but rather to the collective horde of mankind upon the earth. Surely and truly this people should be a people filled with gratitude and praise unto God our Eternal Father for the mercies and the blessings which have come unto them. We have had evidence of God’s handiwork in all we have been hearing, and even in these past two weeks I personally think, at least to me, has come another testimony of this Gospel, which in no other way could have come.”
• April 1936 General Conference
  • Inheritors of the Work
    • “It is a strange thing that having come in poverty and toil and in trial into these valleys, our fathers, even as did the Lord Jesus Christ, passed through a period of suffering, trial, tribulation and preparation for the work which was to come to their children, even to us.”
    • “It is plain to see that we as a people, blessed as we are by our Heavenly Father, should be the people to lead out in all noble, praiseworthy enterprises. We should be the people who can and will conquer depression. We should be by our faith and by our love and by our industry trained and taught to do those things that bring happiness and joy into the hearts of mankind.”
• October 1935 General Conference
  • Obedience
    • “God has always been a jealous God, blessing those who relied upon him and who paid attention to the commandments which he, through his servants, throughout all ages of the world has given.”
    • “I think there is nothing that can not be accomplished by this people, and that will not be accomplished by them, if, however, we will but put our trust in God, if we will but go back to the old principles which were given us by our leaders from the very commencement, when that great man, Brigham Young, taught us to be frugal, to work, to strive, and that the glory and the honor of honest work was godly in its nature.”
• April 1935 General Conference
  • Worship Christ
    • “Let us continuously bear this message to all the world, in humility, in meekness, and in faith, relying upon the Lord, that he may bless us, that this work may grow, and spread, and increase; that the missionary effort which is being put forth in every nook and corner of this earth shall be prospered abundantly”

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