Rulon S. Wells – Gospel Study

Rulon S. Wells

First Council of the Seventy (April 5, 1893 – May 7, 1941)

General Conference Addresses

April 1941 General Conference
- The Plan of Salvation
  - “No man can ever say that he did an evil thing because he had to do it, for if he had to do it there would be no evil in it; but if he does it with the consent of his own mind, then and then only can it be called “committing sin.” The same thing will apply to doing good. They are good deeds only when they are done willingly.”
  - “Force will never convert the human mind; this can be done only in the exercise of our free agency and not otherwise.”
October 1940 General Conference
- Exaltation
  - “How could we ever be saved, how could we ever be exalted, unless we should have the benefit of this earth life experience, and be in attendance and ready to learn in God’s great school which He has established for the education and benefit and blessing of His children?”
April 1940 General Conference
- Learning at the Feet of Prophets
  - “I bear testimony that this is the work of the Lord and I uphold and sustain this work and the men who have been chosen to stand at the head. How I have admired their administration, and how I do admire President Grant and his counselors and our file leaders who are now leading the affairs of this Church! How I do admire the wonderful work that is being carried on by these men of God! I do more than admire them ; I love them with a love unfeigned, and I know that they are true servants of God.”
October 1939 General Conference
- Loyal to the Kingdom
  - “Let there be no member of this Church who does not feel in his heart, “I’m going to be loyal and true to my Church for it is the Church and Kingdom of God.” I endorse with all my heart the remarks that I have heard.”
October 1938 General Conference
- God’s Covenant
  - “Here, then, is a very comprehensive and satisfying explanation of the everlasting covenant—first made in heaven before the world was made and then established on the earth in each dispensation of God’s providence beginning with Adam after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden.”
April 1938 General Conference
- The Problem of Sin
  - “Are God’s purposes failing simply because sin and iniquity continue to exist among us? Nay, not so. This is an individual fight against sin.”
  - “There is no virtue in doing good under compulsion and likewise there is no vice in doing evil under compulsion.”
October 1937 General Conference
- The Book of Moses
  - “There will be many of Abraham’s seed who, on account of their wickedness, will be cast out, and still many others who are not of his lineage who by reason of their obedience will be grafted into the Olive tree and become known as the children of Abraham.”
April 1937 General Conference
- Obedience
  - “Obedience to the will of God is the law of heaven—a necessary condition. Any deviation from his will would create confusion, disorder and disaster, and heaven would not be heaven if his will did not prevail.”
  - “The equilibrium of heaven must also be maintained and upheld by strict obedience to the will of God.”
October 1936 General Conference
- Faith, Repentance and Charity
  - “People who devote their whole lives in hoping for the things that are evil may know it is their faith that is guiding them. So we should be careful what we hope for. Faith is a wonderful principle.”
  - “We are endowed with our own free agency, without this there could be no progress. There is no compulsion. To choose the good is faith—to reject the evil is repentance.”
  - “The biggest thing in all the world, then, is charity. We must not confuse that with what we call almsgiving. Almsgiving is very truly a part of charity and I might say a very important part of it, but charity goes far beyond that. It means to give all that we have and all that we are, our whole being, and even life.”
April 1936 General Conference
- The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
  - “Why should there be opposition to the will of God? Because light has come into the world and with that light comes responsibility, the free agency of man, because we had to choose between good and evil, having partaken of the fruit of the tree that bears that name. How could Ave choose between good and evil if it were all good? Hence the necessity for opposition to the will of God, and the devil came also and lured them away from God, and they broke the law of heaven.”
October 1935 General Conference
- The Drama of Life
  - “The Lord is proving us, and to what end? That we might inherit eternal life, for we are living in this last dispensation, and shortly the curtain will fall and what then? What shall become of us? Where shall we be? Some will be exalted into the celestial kingdom of God. Some will be in the terrestrial kingdom; others in the telestial kingdom. A few, I hope very few, shall fail utterly and be numbered among the sons of perdition.”
April 1935 General Conference
- Knowledge of Good and Evil
  - “What could the knowledge of good and evil avail us if we were not free to choose and how could we choose without that knowledge? There is no virtue in doing good under compulsion; and likewise there is no vice in doing evil under compulsion, and without knowledge of good and evil there could be no sin; for where there is no law, there can be no condemnation. Now, these two things must work together for the perfecting of mankind.”
  - “Having our free agency and a knowledge of good and evil might be a simple affair if there were no opposing winds; but the devil came also with all his temptations, allurements and deceptive lies to entice men to sin and lead them away from God, for as already stated, there must needs be opposition and hence our problem is to exercise our free agency in choosing between good and evil which we are able to do by reason of the knowledge we have.”
October 1934 General Conference
- Agency
  - “There are two methods by which the Lord endeavors to save his people and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. One of these methods is based upon fear and the other upon love. Both are good and the Lord employs them both.”
  - “We have the privilege of choosing. If we choose to do right, it will lead to our salvation, very true. But, if we exercise that freedom of will and that free agency in doing evil it will just as surely lead to our damnation.”
April 1934 General Conference
- Light and Knowledge
  - “God uses scientists and philosophers, inventors and discoverers—for they are also his servants —in bringing secular truth to light; but he also uses his servants, the prophets, in bringing spiritual truth to light.”
  - “There never was a time when genuine faith and sincere repentance would not bring a blessing and a change for better in one’s life. There never can be a time when these principles will not bring progress and advancement.”
October 1933 General Conference
- Faith and Repentance
  - “Free agency is God’s plan. Men must in the exercise of their own agency choose between good and evil if they would make progress.”
  - “Scripture comes not by the will of man.”
  - “We say that faith without works is dead. We do not mean a living faith without works is dead. There could not be a living faith under those conditions. Only a faith that manifests itself in works of obedience has within itself the power of God to the salvation of his children.”
April 1933 General Conference
- Obedience
  - “The Lord has given commandments many, and disobedience to them brings punishment and penalty. In these matters the element of fear is brought to bear, but he has also made wonderful promises unto those who render obedience to the will of the Lord, not so much out of the sense of fear of the consequences, but with the love of God in their hearts and the desire to be in harmony with him.”
  - “Is there anyone who would like to see the civil law done away with? Our whole system of jurisprudence is based upon the law of fear, and penalties are prescribed according to the gravity of the offense. Penitentiaries and prisons are built for their punishment, and the hangman’s noose and the electric chair are prescribed for those who are guilty of capital offenses. Such is the need of these things and they are all essential for the welfare of mankind.”
  - “Let us abide that law and endeavor from time to time to sanctify our souls from all unrighteousness, for we may rest assured that the destiny of this earth, is to be sanctified from all unrighteousness, therefore it must be under the inhabitants thereof.”
October 1932 General Conference
- Except Ye Repent
  - “This universal law of practicing repentance from sin is a principle of progress, of eliminating sin and sanctifying our hearts from all unrighteousness. Let no one think that he has no further need of this saving principle of repentance from sin.”
  - “We have need to apply these principles, for the simple reason that there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and it is incumbent upon us to eschew the things that are evil, and that is an obligation that has rested upon mankind from the very day that our first parents partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and our minds were awakened to a sense of what is right and wrong.”
April 1932 General Conference
- God is no Respector of Persons
  - “Neither is he a respecter of persons, but this process of choosing the great and the good in order to carry out the divine purpose was predicated on their faithfulness and did not begin here, but before we came to the earth ; and these were chosen for their integrity and because they were valiant for the truth in order to carry out his divine purpose.”
October 1931 General Conference
- Counterfeits
  - “We are in attendance at God’s Great School—a school of experience in bodies of flesh and bones—the earth life school with all of its potentialities for development and growth. And when we emerge from this great school and are called hence, let us hope that we will have so far advanced in our education and training that we may receive our diplomas, and then, that suitable commencement exercises may also be given.”
  - “The attributes that we have inherited are all good—there are no bad ones, but we may pervert, distort and counterfeit them until they appear as vices.”
  - “Don’t despise the pure gold of religion because the devil makes a counterfeit of it in hypocrisy. Be religious but don’t be a hypocrite.”
April 1931 General Conference
- The Creation and Light
  - “In other words, he is the resurrection and the life. Here we also learn that the redemption of the soul which is the resurrection from the dead is through him who quickeneth all things, or in other words, it is through him who is “the light which is in all things which giveth life to all things, Which is the Jaw toy which all things are governed, even the power of God,” as I have already quoted from Section 88, of the Doctrine and Covenants; or as John states it: “In him was life and the life was the light of men;” and as we read further in the. Doctrine and Covenants, he is also the light of the sun, the moon and the stars and the earth upon which we stand and is the power thereof by which they were made; and when we look out upon this beautiful world and behold the splendor of the starry heavens, the morning and the evening red, the different forms and colors of the clouds and particularly at this time of the year when we see the swelling of the clouds, the unfolding of the leaves, the (blossoms and the flowers and all nature bursting into life, we may know from these numerous quotations which I have read from the revealed word that all this is through him who was in the beginning with the Father, even the Lord, our Savior, the Redeemer of mankind.”
October 1930 General Conference
- Our Duties in the Restoration
  - “The Lord has commanded that we shall pray without ceasing. Does he really mean that? Most assuredly he does. The Lord gives us no commandment that he does not mean. Of course he does not intend that we shall always be on our knees nor unceasingly speaking words of prayer, and yet he does intend that we shall pray without ceasing.”
  - “The real prayer, the true prayer is a condition of the heart. When we bow the knee and offer up our verbal petitions, we are giving expression to prayer and this should be done at frequent intervals, every morning and every night, but the prayer itself is in the heart and must be constant and unceasing.”
  - “Prayer is a daily exercise in the fundamental principles of the Gospel. It is practicing faith, drawing nigh unto God that God may draw nigh unto you; it is practicing repentance, for when you turn to God of necessity you ‘turn away from evil.”
  - “Let me ask: Do you love yourself because you are good? Not so! The meaner a man is the more he loves himself. And that’s exactly what makes him so mean.”
April 1930 General Conference
- Freedom
  - “We live not because a government has given us the privilege to live; we live because God gave us life. We are free not because any government has given us our liberty—we are free not because we have received that power and that right from any human source; we are free because God made us free.”
  - “We sometimes boast of being in the land of the free, the heme of the brave. Nevertheless, we are not free until we have overcome evil—until we liberate ourselves from the bondage of sin.”
October 1929 General Conference
- Three Virtues
  - “These three to which I refer are faith, hope and charity. Whether they be virtues or vices depends upon the form they take. If they assume their natural and hence divine form they are virtues, but if they are perverted or counterfeited then they become vices. Some people regard faith as a weakness, a positive vice. To believe everything you hear, how foolish! They have simply mistaken credulity, the devil’s counterfeit, for faith; they are not alike. Credulity is no more like faith than lust, another devilish counterfeit, is like love.”
April 1929 General Conference
- Education
  - “The greatest work of the Almighty is to educate his children.”
  - “What is the basis of such morality as may be found among atheists? Not the fear of God for they say there is none. What then ? Let me answer that question: It is the fear of Man. Society imposes penalties upon evil doers. Jails and penitentiaries are built for them. So if they desire to mingle in society and avoid the penalties they must maintain a certain degree of morality and decency; but those whose morality is built upon this foundation say to themselves: “If the law does not forbid (and there are many evils which the law does not forbid) or if we can only gratify our evil desires without being found out, then we may carry on, without compunction, to our hearts content.” What a miserable basis upon which to build the moral life—the fear of man ! How foolish! “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” But when a man fears God and has an abiding faith in him, he knows that his all-seeing eye will penetrate into the deepest recesses of the heart—he knows that God will find him out. Then we may well say: “Be not afraid of the face of man but fear God and keep his commandments.””
  - “The apparent conflict, and let me say it is only apparent, between religion and science, arises from two definite causes. An imperfect knowledge of science on the one hand and an imperfect knowledge of religion off the other.”
October 1928 General Conference
- Great Blessings
  - “And then comes the climax of all blessings that will accrue to those who will comply with those conditions. It reads like this: “And thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion.” That is our salvation, that is our exaltation, that is wherein we become like unto our Father in heaven, exercising divine power in having bestowed upon us a dominion; and it shall increase. This dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, “and without compulsory means it shall flow unto us forever and ever.” That is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
April 1928 General Conference
- The Plan of Salvation
  - “What is God’s work, of which we speak as this marvelous work and a wonder? It is the great plan of life and salvation. God created the heavens and the earth, and we look up into the starry heavens, with wonder and amazement at the grandeur and the glory of this universe in the midst of which we live. We see the blazing sun at noon-day and our hearts are thrilled with the wonder of it; and we learn of the motions of those heavenly bodies and our hearts are filled with amazement and wonder at the glory of this wonderful creation; and we ask the question, Whose work is this? We may read the answer in the opening verse of the Holy Scriptures: It is the work of God.”
  - “The all-important thing for the inhabitants of this world, then, is this, to believe on Him whom God did send, and reject the message of him whom God did not send but cast out of heaven.”
  - “To accept the plan of our Savior is to have faith. To reject the plan of the adversary, with all his sophistry, his false religion, his deception, his evil and all combined, to resent and resist that, and to turn away from it, is to overcome sin.”
October 1927 General Conference
- Sowing Seeds
  - “The soil that I have been endeavoring to cultivate is the soil of the human heart. It is sometimes an unwieldy soil, and full of hardness. It needs to be broken up and harrowed; it needs to be pulverized and softened before it is prepared to receive the seed. The seed that I have been planting has been the seed of faith. We do not call it farming; we call it sowing ihe seeds of faith—faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, that men shall believe that he is indeed the Son of God, who was chosen before the foundations of this earth were laid to create it and redeem it.”
April 1927 General Conference
- The Gospel is Working
  - “This gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has within it the power of God unto salvation, it is working upon those who have embraced it, who have received it, and the result is that this people are the best people on all the face of the earth.”
October 1926 General Conference
- God’s Hand in History
  - “Not always have the victories of great men been based upon the principles of righteousness; nevertheless the purposes of the Almighty cannot be defeated, for he overrules in all, and often “moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.””
April 1926 General Conference
- The Gift of the Holy Ghost
  - “There is only one way to know the things of God, and the Lord intends that his people shall receive that knowledge in his appointed way. There is only one way by which we may come to the knowledge of God; only one way in which we may know that Jesus is the Christ; only one way that we may know that Joseph Smith was a prophet sent of God, and it is within the reach of every member of this Church; and it is a shame unto them if they have not received it.”
  - “Every man that has the gift of the Holy Ghost, every woman, every boy and every girl who has the gift of the Holy Ghost and will keep it, just as sure as they live, they will be exalted in the celestial kingdom of God.”
  - “Sometimes I have heard young men who were about to depart into the mission field get up in the congregation in their own ward and say that they did not know that this is the work of God, but they believed it ; and they were going out ! I dislike to hear a young man say that ; I do not like to hear any Latter-day Saint say that. Do not say that. Why? Because you grieve the Spirit of God that is within you. You might as well say, “I haven’t received the gift of the Holy Ghost,” for that is exactly what it means when you say, “I haven’t the testimony of the truth of this work.” It is a confession that you haven’t the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God in you is continually crying out for utterance. Give it the opportunity, and when you do, you will find there will be a burning in your heart that will convince you that you speak the words of truth. You may not know when you rise on your feet exactly what you are going to say, but give the Spirit a chance, it will declare the truth that this is the work of God, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. That is what the Spirit wants to say to every child of God upon the face of the earth, because God knows that they need it.”
October 1925 General Conference
- Promises to Abraham and Joseph
  - “What greater privilege could a child of God desire than to be numbered among those whom God permitted to come through that lineage, that should bring into this world and preserve among the children of men a knowledge of the true and living God that they might be taught in his ways?”
April 1925 General Conference
- Foreign Language Saints
  - “Thus it will be apparent that the presiding authorities of the Church desire to make adequate provisions for these, our brethren and sisters, who like ourselves are of the House of Israel and have been converted through the labors of our missionaries, and our hearts should go out in love and sympathy for them and in appreciation of the peculair difficulties which they have to overcome by reason of their foreign tongue. And they should be made to feel that they “are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God.””
October 1924 General Conference
- Our Heritage
  - “It is to that day that I now refer, when Abraham was known to God as one of the great and noble ones; and when he came upon the earth the Lord still loved him and gave him a marvelous promise, and told him that through him and his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. We now live in a day when the descendants of that great patriarch are being gathered into the fold of Christ. We belong to one of the branches of that great family.”
April 1924 General Conference
- Seeking Truth
  - “The poet has told us that “distance lends enchantment to the view,” and so I think it is with reference to the faith of many men and women upon the face of the earth. The farther away and more remote they can locate their Supreme Being, the better satisfied they are; but when he reveals himself to man in the day and age in which we live, then they begin to deny him. When God manifested himself in the flesh in the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, God was made manifest. He came near unto men and only those who had in their hearts a love of God were willing to accept of him as in very deed the Son of God, the creator of heaven and earth. Mankind are in darkness to a very great extent in their search after God.”
October 1923 General Conference
- Saints
  - “The people who have been blessed by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost are called Latter-day Saints. What do we mean by Saint? We mean a sanctified being, or a holy being. Faith in God, repentance from sin, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin and the reception of the Holy Ghost will make them worthy of the name by which the Lord permits them to be called. Do we have that name because we are sanctified beings? Oh, no; but because we have started out right and are in the process of sanctifying ourselves and preparing ourselves to dwell in the presence of God. A sanctified being, a holy being, is one whose sins have been remitted, one who has been made holy by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
April 1923 General Conference
- Christmas and Easter
  - “But, be that as it may. it doesn’t make so much difference on what day we may choose to commemorate these important events that have taken place in the history of the world, in the coming of our Savior and in his glorious resurrection. But the all-important thing is this, that we do sense the importance of these events themselves, and that we have an abiding faith in their purport and believe with all our souls that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, and is therefore the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
  - “By whom then came this redemption? Not by you or me; oh, no, but through him who quickeneth all things—who causes the grass to grow and everything to bloom, and all this teeming life to be and live. He is the author of life itself; he is the resurrection and the life. Do you believe that? Latter-day Saints believe it. It is inscribed in their own hearts; it is in the faith that we have received through the restoration of the gospel and the witness of the Spirit that we have received by the laying on of hands.”
October 1922 General Conference
- Education
  - “And whatever enlightenment or understanding may have come to man be sure it came from the Great Fountain of all truth—from the Almighty that giveth him understanding; and this is true whether men admit it or not. Some there are who arrogate all the credit to themselves and their work—to perspiration not inspiration. Surely the inspiration of the Lord will come to those who work and study and endeavor with all their might to know the truth, and not to the indolent.”
  - “Education means development and growth. We are the children of God, and have inherited from him all of his divine attributes. The difference between him and us is this: he is educated, we are not, but having his attributes we are susceptible to receiving an education which means the development in us of his divine attributes. The injunction: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” is reasonable and within the limit of possibility, which would not be the case if we had not inherited all his attributes. These attributes though perfect in him are very imperfect in us, and are capable of being perverted or distorted and counterfeited and thus changed from virtue into vice. The development of the divine attributes and the rejection of the distorted and counterfeited ones is only another phase of repentance.”
  - “For example: Economy is a godlike attribute and in the economy of God there is no waste. What an abundant supply of water there is in the creation of this earth; three-fourths of its entire surface is covered with this element. It comes trickling down the mountain sides, springing forth from the canyons into the mountain streams, and thence into the rivers. It is often diverted onto arid lands, and causes them to bring forth rich harvests; and sometimes harnessed, lighting our cities with electric rays, setting in motion the machinery of the world, and again finding its way into the river beds and on out into the great ocean where it is caught up into the clouds through evaporation and wafted by the winds back into the mountains to begin anew its useful course. And yet, not a single drop is wasted. In the economy of God there is no waste. Yet how liberally and abundantly it is used. Contrast this divine attribute with the devil’s counterfeit—stinginess. Some people think they are economical when in reality they are merely stingy. How I despise a stingy man. Generosity is a noble attribute. The Lord loves a liberal giver. Its counterfeit is wastefulness and prodigality. Acquisitiveness is the power of accumulating and acquiring wealth. See what the Lord hath acquired, the earth is his and the fulness thereof, and the devil has his counterfeit of this noble attribute, we call it avarice ; it is one of the great causes of human suffering, it is the love of money, the root of all evil, thus we might continue the long list and show how praise becomes flattery, wisdom pedantry, pride, vanity; admiration is changed to envy and self esteem, a proper regard for one’s self, becomes egotism. How despicable ! The big I and the little you. Always, talking about oneself, and only interested in others when they are talking about him. The greatest of all attributes is love, the biggest thing in the world, the all including attribute; the love of God and our fellow man is the fulfilment of the law and the prophets. This is truly alone the complete remedy for all the evils of our day. And then, think of the devil’s counterfeit, lust, licentiousness. The holier the divine attribute the more contemptible its counterfeit.”
  - “Don’t despise the pure gold of religion simply because the devil has made a counterfeit of it in hypocrisy.”
April 1922 General Conference
- Repentance
  - “Let me say to Latter-day Saints, repent of your sins, be they great or be they small, accept the counsels that are given to us. from the presiding authorities of the Church, and if we have committed sin, be it great or small, let us turn to the Lord. If we have failed in the payment of our tithes and our offerings, if we have failed in the observance of the Word of Wisdom, let us repent and turn away from neglect of duty. If we have in any way offended the Lord or done aught amiss, let us turn to Him through repentance, and He will forgive and grant us His Holy Spirit that we may not lose its companionship, for we need that companionship every day of our lives that we may be prepared to meet the enemy wherever he may assail us.”
  - “Through the laying on of hands by a duly authorized servant of God the Holy Spirit is conferred upon us as a gift from God. This entitles us to its constant companionship, but only so long as we retain the remission of our sins, and this we may retain by virtue of our baptism, just so long as we continue in the good fight of faith, and if we endure unto the end of our lives then shall: we gain the victory over sin, notwithstanding our many weaknesses and shortcomings.”
October 1921 General Conference
- Good Citizenship
  - “If we have good government it is because the individual citizens are good. If we have a bad government it is because the individual citizens are bad. That applies not only to the nation at large, but to the state, to the county and to the city.”
  - “No citizen of this republic has the right to find fault with his government, unless he has exercised his power and his rights as one of those citizens, endeavoring to make the government what it ought to be.”
  - “Sin should not be permitted to go rampant when it is a violation of law, and every good citizen will see that he does his part to have wholesome laws passed, and that they are executed and administered as they should be, in the spirit of right and in opposition to wrong.”
April 1921 General Conference
- Eternal Life
  - “And let it be known that eternal life applies to those who are made perfect and not to any others, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God forever. We are living in this world and passing through a probationary period. These are the days of our probation, the days when we are to be tried to find out whether or not we will serve God or Mammon.”
  - “Eternal life, to our way of thinking, means the obtaining of celestial glory, and if we attain to that glory it will be. because we live according to the law of the celestial kingdom, and that means that we shall sanctify and purify our souls from all unrighteousness. It means that we are to follow Christ. His was a life of devotion, a blameless life, a life without sin, without corruption, without yielding to the power of the adversary. It therefore behooves us that we shall practice in our lives that great and fundamental principle, that saving principle of repentance from sin; for, unlike the Savior, we are sinners, and have need of repentance. It means that we shall give of our substance, and help those that are in need. It means that we are to place the kingdom of God before all other things. It means more than merely taking the initial steps of faith, repentance, and baptism, at the time of our admission into the Church. This, of course, is a good start—the right beginning, and through it we obtain the remission of sins and, by the laying on of hands, the companionship of God’s Holy Spirit. But it also means that we must continue to have faith in God, and have faith unto repentance, as long as we are not perfect in our lives, for the principle of repentance has been given to us that we might sanctify our hearts and purify our souls, and prepare ourselves to dwell in the presence of God, for that celestial glory, for that eternal life that has been promised to the faithful. But this we cannot do, unless we shall engage in the good fight of faith, resisting temptation in whatever form it may come, and not permitting ourselves to be led away by the allurements of wealth and its uses for greedy and selfish purposes.”
October 1920 General Conference
- Charity
  - “It devolves upon Latter-day Saints to cultivate the spirit of charity, good will and brotherly love toward the members of the household of faith, that we may be united, even as the heart and voice of one man, in all the things pertaining to the upbuilding of the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth; and inasmuch as we ourselves are not perfect, we should not be too eager to pass judgment upon those who perchance may be less perfect than ourselves.”
  - “Let no one think that because he may be in his outward life a little superior to some others, that he therefore is assured of his salvation and exaltation; he may be wanting in many virtues which may be hidden in the hearts of those whom he condemns.”
  - “Instead of being so ready to judge others let us sit in judgment upon ourselves.”
April 1920 General Conference
- The Plan of Salvation
  - “He who created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, as we read in Holy Writ, did not regard that work as the goal of his labors. That was merely a preliminary toward the accomplishment of his great and glorious work, that marvelous work and a wonder.”
  - “I believe in the vision that was given to the prophet, Joseph Smith. I have always believed it all my life. I find it more difficult not to believe it. The evidences are so complete that not one shadow of a doubt remains with me as to the truth of that great and glorious event.”
  - “Faith then is the gift of God—the assurance which we receive from him of all that is true ; it is listening to the still small voice of God. Then through our faith, which is the natural impulse, he has placed in every human heart, God is striving to bring us back into his presence, and will continue so to strive until we, shut him out by refusing to hearken to his voice, and, giving a more willing ear to the voice of the adversary of our souls, we fall into the ways of wickedness and sin.”
  - “Then let us live by faith and couple that faith with the works of obedience ; have faith in God and put your trust in him. Have faith in his servants and hearken to their counsel.”
October 1919 General Conference
- America
  - “The discovery of this, land—the promised land—the Land of Joseph, the Zion of latter days, and’ the’ establishment thereon of this government, a government deriving its powers from the consent of the governed, is so interwoven with the work of God that we are bound to recognize the inspiration of the Almighty in connection therewith.”
June 1919 General Conference
- Tribute to Joseph F. Smith
  - “When I think of the influence his ministry has had upon me and upon my life, and then contemplate his extensive labors in this community, I have wondered how many thousands have been thus filled with joy and with the testimony of the truth. And if it be true that when a man labors all his life and succeeds in saving- but one soul, great will be his joy with that soul in the kingdom of our Father, then what must be in store for this great man as he goes back into the kingdom of his Father, having labored nearly all his life in the ministry and brought so many souls unto the knowledge of the truth.”
October 1918 General Conference
- Army of the Lord
  - “It is essential that we should have the priesthood. We cannot do without it. The Church could not perform its labor without the priesthood, for this is the work of God and he has endowed his Church and his servants who hold the priesthood with power from on high giving them the right to officiate in his name, and he recognizes their official acts just precisely the same as if he had performed those acts himself.”
  - “And while our enlisted boys in khaki are fighting for civil liberty, let all the priesthood battle for the freedom of the soul against the arch enemy of God, who seeks to enslave the soul, the tyrant that vyould make us slaves indeed, putting us under the bondage of sin.”
April 1918 General Conference
- Liberty
  - “What are the things that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ stands for? It is to make men free, not free only by having possession of their civil rights, but to make them free indeed, free from that terrible bondage which is the bondage of sin—for we know that the whole world lieth in sin and under the bondage of sin. And the truth that has been revealed from heaven will make men free. And it is that truth that is being promulgated and proclaimed to all the world through the agency of the priesthood to which also reference has been made.”
  - “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because it wages war on sin and undertakes to relieve our Father’s children of the consequences of that sin.”
October 1917 General Conference
- The Work of God
  - “All men are subject to death. You cannot accomplish the immortality of your own soul, but that has been brought to pass through the atonement of Christ.”
April 1915 General Conference
- Remission of Sins
  - “Our missionaries labor, it has been said, without pay and without compensation. It seems to me, however, that this is a very great mistake, to say that they are not compensated for their work. It is my faith and belief that all who labor for Zion, her interests and welfare, both at home and abroad, are the best paid people in all the world. Their names are upon the payroll, and the Lord is their paymaster.”
October 1914 General Conference
- The Battle Against Sin
  - “My brethren and sisters, you and I are engaged in this struggle; we are fighting under the banner Christ; we are endeavoring to bring comfort and relief to those that are wounded and to those that have fallen upon the battlefield. Let us, be untiring in our efforts, then, to save the souls of our fellow men, of our brethren and sisters throughout the world, until peace be restored and established in all the world.”
April 1914 General Conference
- Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin
  - “We ought not to preach anything that we do not try to do, even though we may not completely succeed in coming to that degree of excellence.”
  - “We have our weaknesses and our imperfections, but we ought not to glory in them. We ought not to think that they are justified, or that we are justified in doing anything that is wrong. We are only in the right attitude when we are engaged in the fight against sin.”
  - “We ought to be engaged in fighting sin, at the same time being full of love and charity towards all men, whether they be sinners or not.”
  - “We may loathe and hate sin and yet be full of love and charity towards the sinner, just as we may loathe and despise disease and pain, and at the same time be full of love and charity towards those who are afflicted.”
April 1913 General Conference
- The Divine Organization
  - “These are some of the purposes for which this great organization was established, and some have said in regard to it that it was the most wonderful in all the world, excepting perhaps the German army. I recollect hearing one of the brethren make the remark, that they might just as well have said, when they were looking up in the canopy of heaven, that the sun is the most splendid orb in the universe, excepting perhaps the moon. Indeed this organization is of divine origin, and it has no parallel in all the world, even the Germany army does not compare with it.”
  - “It is necessary that our hearts should be loyal to God, that we should render obedience to Him, that we should put ourselves in complete harmony with the Divine mind and will. There is no one thing that you can say or do that will comply with this requirement. It is not enough that we should observe this commandment or that one, but we must devote all to the service of God, and be willing to obey His Divine mind and will and yield obedience thereto.”
  - “While none of us are perfect in our lives by any means, there are a great many weaknesses which we can and should overcome.”
October 1912 General Conference
- Freedom from Sin
  - “We read in the Scriptures that the whole world lieth in sin, and under the bondage of sin, so, as President Smith pointed out, the true freedom that men and women ought to seek is to be free from the bondage of sin.”
  - “A person cannot be free who does not restrain himself, who does not live under wholesome restriction. Only those are really free who have a control over themselves, and who live in a community where a wholesome restraint is held upon the conduct of their fellow men.”
  - “The success of this life is not measured at the end of it by what we have, but rather by what we are, and that is what we want to remember.”
April 1911 General Conference
- The Word of Wisdom
  - “It is my purpose, while endorsing it as the great law of health, to refer to it now from another standpoint. I believe that it is not only a law of health unto the people, but that it is the basis of our moral life.”
  - “The man who yields to the bowl will yield to other temptations.”
  - “The Word of Wisdom has always appealed to me from this standpoint as well as from the other. I believe that every one who obeys it, and avoids those things that are harmful to the body, will obtain spiritual, as well as physical, power; his intellect will improve, and his desire for good will be increased.”
October 1910 General Conference
- Repentance
  - “No man can know the things of God, but the Spirit of God can bear witness of their truth; and it is absolutely essential to every one who would know that this is indeed the work of God, beyond all question, that he shall obtain first the Spirit of God. As this Spirit will not and does not dwell in an unclean tabernacle, it follows that we must cleanse and purify our hearts by sincere faith in God, and repentance from sin. Every soul that will adopt this method and seek to obtain forgiveness of sin, from Him who alone can remit our sins, through the holy waters of baptism, he shall come to a knowledge of the truth.”
  - “If men and women could come to the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of God—whom to know is eternal life—without repentance of sin, without turning away from evil, without this cleansing process, what would be the result? Why, men would obtain that eternal life in their sins, and the next world would be no better than this. Repentance from sin is the gospel that we have received. This is the gospel of repentance, and it needs daily practice in order that we may perfect ourselves, going on to that perfection which will bring us to the complete knowledge of God.”
April 1910 General Conference
- Vigilance
  - “I wish to call attention to the fact, that the greatest amount of intellectual energy is necessary to overcome evil in all its various forms as it presents itself to mankind in general.”
  - “There is no undertaking so vast and so great as the obtaining of this self-control, and it is all a part of our religion. The Gospel takes hold of us exactly in this way, or it should do so.”
  - “We should indulge only in pure thoughts; do we endeavor at all times to reject the evil ones that are constantly presenting themselves to us?”
  - “We want to endeavor in every way to avoid evil thinking, because out of an evil thought comes an evil deed; and if we will take care of this part I think that the deeds will take care of themselves.”
October 1909 General Conference
- Seeking God
  - “In order for men to find out the true way, it is necessary that they shall be obedient unto the will of God, that they turn away from wickedness and sin, that the Spirit of the Lord may possess their souls and bring them to a knowledge of the truth and to a knowledge of God, for it is this knowledge of God that we understand to be eternal life, as was pointed out by Brother McKay: “This is eternal life, to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” But no man can obtain that knowledge of God through the wisdom of men. Men are unable to devise the plan by which the children of men may attain to that knowledge.”
  - “Men may endeavor by their sophistry and philosophy to find Him out, but they will fail. They may undertake, by logic and reason to uncover His hiding place, but they will not succeed only as they pass through the cleansing process of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Cherubim with flaming swords still guard the way to the tree of life and knowledge of God, whom to know is life eternal.”
April 1909 General Conference
- Serve God
  - “While we are recipients of that matchless love which comes from heaven, what are we going to do about it?”
  - “The sin of the world is ingratitude to God. Against none is the wrath of our heavenly Father kindled excepting those who so far forget Him, that they will not acknowledge Him in all things, that He is the Giver of all good, that we are dependent upon Him for all that we receive.”
  - “Then let us fight the good fight and keep the faith, rejecting evil at every turn, and never surrender. Every surrender is a service to the evil one. We cannot obtain permission at any time to serve the evil one; we ought not to have any such desire in our hearts.”
April 1908 General Conference
- Seeking to Know God
  - “There are two things that are required of all men who are formed and fashioned in the likeness of their great Creator; and these two things are these: one is to learn to know the will of God, and the other is to do it.”
  - “It behooves all those who have once planted their feet in the straight and narrow way, bv beginning to seek, that they might know the will of the Lord, to continue to walk therein, by the constant and continued exercise of this principle of faith.”
October 1907 General Conference
- Time and Money
  - “The great enemy to religion is this spirit of indifference. Men are prone to take advantage of the free agency which our heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, has given to every soul, and in taking this advantage they have misapplied that agency, in making a wrong use of the talents and ability with which our Father has endowed them.”
  - “Brethren and sisters, let us endeavor, as members of the Church of Christ, to devolp this conception of our obligations to our heavenly Father.”
April 1907 General Conference
- Repentance
  - “The one great reason why the world does not accept the message which is borne by the missionaries of this Church is because they are not willing to practice the principle of repentance. There seems to be a deep-seated feeling among people—I mean the higher class of people—that they have no need of repentance. And sometimes many of the Latter-day Saints appear to think similarly. The truth is, we all need repentance, day by day, in the common, ordinary walks of life. Repentance is a saving principle, and we will be saved through yielding obedience to that law. We are inspired to it through the faith we have in God our Eternal Father. Without repentance we cannot grow spiritually, we cannot advance.”
  - “Some people have an idea that if we become so religious that we must take the Lord into consideration in everything we do we will become so holy and so good that nobody can speak to us. People say, “Oh, he is altogether too good,” and he is referred to as “goody-goody”—as if it were possible for men to be too good.”
  - “A man cannot be too good. Can a man be too honest? No. Can a woman be too virtuous? No. Neither can anyone be too good. The trouble is, none of us are good enough.”
  - “We all have weaknesses, and we may confess them freely; it is good to do so. But we must not glory in our weaknesses.”
October 1906 General Conference
- Labor for Zion
  - “It matters not what you may be called to do, whether it be to preach this Gospel to the nations of the earth or to labor at home, God will reward you for your labor.”
  - “My brethren and sisters, let us labor for Zion; for you cannot do anything in the kingdom of God, magnifying your calling, enjoying the Spirit which issues forth from His divine presence, without having your sins remitted. And what a blessing that is!”
April 1906 General Conference
- Choosing Good or Evil
  - “We can choose the good and reject the evil, or we can choose the evil and reject the good. But to every one of us will come the momentous question, which shall we choose?”
- Seek Ye First
  - “It seems to me that the work we have to perform is worthy of our best efforts and utmost energies, and when we engage in it we ought to labor with all our might. Unfortunately, we find some who go at this work in a half-hearted way, who treat it slightingly, and do not cheerfully give their best energies and efforts, who are dilatory and neglectful of the labor that has been assigned to him or her. That kind of labor is not satisfactory to the Lord, and will not be rewarded by Him.”
October 1905 General Conference
- A Peculiar People
  - “I do wish to convey the idea that there has been an effect wrought upon this community as a direct result of our religion. It has opened the eyes of our understanding. It has caused us to look at life from an entirely diff-erent aspect. We have been enlightened by the power of the Holy Ghost that was conferred upon us when we entered into covenant with the Lord. The peculiarity that is more prominent with us than all others is the spirit of love. The spirit of the Gospel is the spirit of love, and there have been exhibitions of that love in the whole career of the Latter-day Saints.”
  - “Let us, my brethren and sisters, continue to be a peculiar people. Let our influence be felt wherever we go. Let it be said of us that we are indeed a peculiar people, in this, that the love of God abounds in our hearts, and that we seek to build one another up, not to tear down. When we come in contact with the world let them feel that we have no spirit of hatred toward them, no spirit to tear them down, but that in the depths of our hearts we desire to save their souls and to do them good.”
April 1905 General Conference
- Hated of the World
  - “It may not be very pleasant for us to contemplate the fact that the world do not like us. I regret that that is the condition. I do not, however, regret that I am identified with this people, nor have I any regrets for the Latter-day Saints themselves. No; it is the heritage of the saints to be hated of the world.”
  - “Let us not be discouraged or concerned about the ultimate triumph of this work; for God is at the helm, and He will lead us triumphantly into His rest. We have no cause to fear. Let them oppose this work as they will, they will utterly fail in every attempt.”
October 1904 General Conference
- Influences in the World
  - “Every man and woman must recognize the fact that we are surrounded by influences that are abroad in the world. There is one power and influence that is endeavoring to elevate and exalt mankind; it is the Spirit of God that issues forth from His presence, and is bestowed upon all those who diligently seek Him. If we lend a willing ear to the whisperings of the still small voice it will lead us to works of righteousness.”
  - “The way to obtain that knowledge, then, is to get the Spirit of God, because no man knoweth the things of God but by the Spirit of God that is in him.”
April 1904 General Conference
- Knowing the Truth
  - “I do not think it possible for us to pay too much attention to the importance of having an individual testimony of the Gospel. Every Latter-day Saint has the utmost need to know for himself that this is the work of the Lord, and to know that God has spoken again in this day and conferred upon men His divine authority.”
  - “We have just been told that no father or mother can reveal to their children the truthfulness of the Gospel. That is true; but there is a Father, whom we all adore, that can and will reveal it to us, if we will seek after it and do what is necessary to obtain it.”
  - “If we come to the knowledge of the truth it must be through the principle of revelation. We must know that God will listen to our prayers; and then when we have trials we can approach Him and ask of Him wisdom, with the full assurance that He will not upbraid or censure us, but will hearken to our prayers and answer them upon our heads.”
  - “When He requires us to love Him with all our hearts it means simply this: that we should love Him with all our life.”
  - “It seems to me, my brethren and sisters, that if we would keep that great commandment and love the Lord with all our hearts, then would our feet be planted in the paths of safety and then, let come what may, we are founded upon the rock and we will be able to stand.”
October 1903 General Conference
- Honesty
  - “With the honest man it is different; there is something in his character that manifests itself. Honesty oozes out of his very being. You can see in every act of his life that he is honest and upright. He does not do anything in a stealthy manner; it is not born in him, and It does not manifest itself in his daily life.”
  - “We learn to overcome our selfishness and greed for gain, inasmuch as we live according to the laws of the Gospel. That is what the Gospel will do for us. By observing those principles which our Father has revealed to us we are enabled to show the positive features of honesty, and not the negative features of dishonesty. We live above the law when we manifest honesty, integrity and virtue; these attributes are characteristics of Latter-day Saints. That is the effect the Gospel is having upon all those who are striving to live up to its divine teachings.”
April 1903 General Conference
- The Word of the Lord
  - “There are a great many different editions of the holy scriptures; which of these Bibles do you believe in? because in many particulars the translations are at variance, and do not always agree. There was inspiration in the putting in of that condition. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly; and when It has not been translated correctly, we do not believe in that.”
  - “In other words, we believe in learning the will of God through the proper channels, and then to do it. That is our creed, our faith.”
  - “How willing we ought to be, and how careful to overcome the difficulties that stand between us and the performance of our duty.”
April 1902 General Conference
- Magnifying your Calling
  - “When a man is ordained to the Priesthood, it matters not to what office, with that ordination comes a responsibility; and it were better for him that he never had received that ordination, unless he magnifies the calling whereunto he has been called.”
  - “Every man who has been endowed with a gift, whether it be the gift of intelligence, the gift of oratory, the gift of song, or any other gift, with that endowment comes responsibility, and he will be held accountable for every gift and talent that has been placed within his reach. And to whom much is given, from him much will be required.”
  - “We ought not to be glad to get out of the opportunity of going into the world to proclaim the Gospel message unto those who know not God.”
  - “When men give their hearts to gold, and worship mammon rather than God, then it is that it becomes the root of all evil, and leads men and women away from the paths of truth and righteousness into the paths of evil.”
- Profanity
  - “If this work will accomplish the purification of the Latter-day Saints and cause them to be better men and women and cause them to advance and grow in the knowledge of the things of God, what a great and marvelous work it is in very deed.”
  - “We ought to cultivate reverence among us, and whenever the name of the Lord is taken upon our lips it should be done in reverence and respect.”
  - “We, as a people, have entered into covenants with the Lord, have exercised faith in Him, have repented of our sins and have gone down into the waters of baptism, and for what purpose? That we might obtain a remission of sins, that we might be forgiven for all things that we may have done that was displeasing in the sight of God, that when we are summoned before the Great Judge of all we might stand faultless before Him. I want to bear testimony here today that it does not matter how many times we may have repented and been baptized, or whether we have been baptized at all, for when the time shall come, and we are brought up before the judgment bar of God, if we have indulged in the habit of profaning His holy name—I want to bear testimony that we will not be found guiltless when we stand before the judgment seat.”
  - “If we want to stand spotless before the throne of God, we must eradicate this evil from our midst and exercise all our power and influence to do so, that it may no longer be said, as some declare, that the Latter-day Saints are not reverential in using the names of Deity.”
October 1901 General Conference
- Foundation of Christ
  - “From this we learn concerning the solid foundation of the Church of Christ, of which we are members. It has been built upon the broad principle of revelation, by which we can know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living. God. I rejoice to know that there is a means of coming to a knowledge of God.”
  - “The impress of divinity is upon the work of Christ. He was the greatest Prophet that ever trod the earth.”
  - “When the Lord raised up the Prophet Joseph, he ushered in this great gathering dispensation. It was not an idle purpose; it was not merely for the amusement of mankind; but there was something grand to be accomplished Tiamely, the gathering of the house of Israel from all the nations of the earth, in fulfilment of those wonderful predictions uttered by many prophets who lived hundreds and even thousands of years ago.”
April 1899 General Conference
- Listening to the Prophets
  - “What does preaching amount to if it is not put into practice by the Latter-day Saints; if we do not profit by the instructions which we receive? Every one who has heard the voices of the prophets of God, the holy apostles, and the instructions they have given during this conference, and has not determined within himself to benefit by them, will receive no good from them.”
  - “We should learn to profit by these principes that have been revealed to us, for they are the power of God unto salvation. If we simply accept them with our minds, but do not practice them in our lives, they will not save us.”

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