The April 1968 General Conference had some amazing talks. Including a dire warning from Ezra Taft Benson about a crisis the United States faces due to moral decay that would lead to socialism and risk the end of our freedoms. (Click HERE to read that entire talk)! But it also contains many other amazing quotes!
I hope you enjoy this sixth installment of quotes from my studies of the General Conference Archives (If you want to read prior installments click HERE). For the first installment and an explanation of the Conference Archives see “55+ Powerful Quotes From My Study of the Oct. 1970 General Conference” To read this conference report PDF from the Church History Catalog click HERE, for the Archive.org PDF (with speech-to-text, click here). I hope you enjoy these quotes from my studies. But more than enjoy them, I hope they serve as a starting point for your own study of the Apr. 1968 General Conference! Use the page number and the above links to access the full talks. Enjoy!
44+ Profound Quotes From My Study of the Apr. 1968 General Conference
“That the spirit of man passes triumphantly through the portals of death into everlasting life is one of the glorious messages given by Christ, our Redeemer. To him this earthly career is but a day, and its closing but the setting of life’s sun; death, but a sleep, is followed by a glorious awakening in the morning of an eternal realm. When Mary and Martha saw their brother only as a corpse in the dark and silent tomb, Christ saw him still a living being. This fact he expressed in just two words: “Lazarus sleepeth.” (See John 11:11.)”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 5
“True honesty takes into account the claims of God as well as those of man; it renders to God the things that are God’s, as well as to man the things that are man’s.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 8
“My testimony of the risen Lord is just as real as Thomas’, who said to the resurrected Christ when he appeared to his disciples: “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28) I know that he lives. He is God made manifest in the flesh.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 9
“I know that he will confer with his servants who seek him in humility and in righteousness. I know because I have heard his voice, and I have received his guidance in matters pertaining to his kingdom here on earth.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 9
“If any of you who are here present prefer, when you get on the other side, to be a servant and perhaps go into the terrestrial kingdom, you will have that privilege. You do not have to keep other commandments. You do not need to pay your tithing; you do not even have to be baptized for the remission of your sins, if you want to go into those other kingdoms. But if you want to go into the presence of God and dwell in the celestial kingdom and see the glories of exaltation, then you must live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. We must pray to keep humble, to draw nearer to our Father in heaven, that we might be in closer communion with him.”
Joseph Fielding Smith
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 11
“We must learn to be truthful, obedient, sincere, having the willingness to walk by every commandment the Lord has given.”
Joseph Fielding Smith
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 11
“One way to develop patience and to make it a positive force is to carefully plan our activities and set realistic objectives and goals. Sound planning requires meditation, patience, and prayer”
Franklin D. Richards
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 13
“Salvation is not found in a book, any book, neither the Book of Mormon nor the Bible. Salvation is in Christ; it comes because of his atoning sacrifice; his is the only name given under heaven whereby man can be saved. Salvation comes by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of his Son.”
Bruce R. McConkie
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 19 (To read his whole talk “The Keystone of Our Religion” click HERE)
“Man is the spiritual offspring of heavenly parents, privileged through righteous living to come to this world, to be born of earthly parents, and to be blessed with a mortal body.”
Henry D. Taylor
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 31
“People who look to government for ‘security’ are seeking that which has never been granted to human kind. Man was promised his living by the sweat of his brow, and where he wastes his substance he will want in spite of all human devices to render it otherwise. Nowhere in her system does nature offer security to anyone or anything. Nature’s way is the law of change and succession, or replacement and fulfillment; but never the unalterable, the fixed or the guaranteed. It is defeatism in the individuals to seek security in living, a misunderstanding of the function of life itself.
It was not so that the pioneers of this land lived, when there were few governments to do things for them. They met the wilderness on its own terms, and pushed it back. Men and women worked together to found their homes, raise their children, and wrest a competence from what the land had to offer them. They helped one another. They had time for worship, and they knew that over man there was God. Our age is a pioneering one, and to each are offered widening chances of development. It is a neglect of self-improvement to seek security without having earned it, to attempt to reap without having sown. No government can produce what people don’t in themselves create.” (“Security —A Mirage!” Life Line, Oct. 31, 1964.)
As quoted by Henry D. Taylor
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 31
“We love peace,” said President David O. McKay, “but not peace at any price. There is a peace more destructive of the manhood of living man than war is destructive of the body. ‘Chains are worse than bayonets.'” (The Improvement Era, June 1955, p. 395.)
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 33
“Christmas is less a day of victory than Easter, for the story that begins then is incomplete until it is crowned by the announcement, ‘The Lord is risen.’”
James A. Cullimore
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 36
“There is joy on this great occasion. Old grudges disappear, feuds are forgotten, and love flows from heart to heart at Christmastime.”
James A. Cullimore
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 37
“The only formula for peace is contained in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Alma Sonne
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 40
“The gospel is the covenant which the Lord has made with men for their salvation and exaltation. It embraces all the rights, power, and authority to save and exalt the human family. It is definite in all of its commitments. It must not be perverted or modified to suit the convenience, or to satisfy the whims and the sophistries of false teachers and others who seek to evade its responsibilities.”
Alma Sonne
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 41
“No people can maintain freedom unless their political institutions are founded upon faith in God and belief in the existence of moral law. God has endowed, men with certain inalienable rights, and no legislature and no majority, however great, may morally limit or destroy these. The function of government is to protect life, liberty, and property, and anything more or less than this is usurpation and oppression.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 49 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“The Constitution of the United States was prepared and adopted by courageous men acting under inspiration from the Almighty. It is a solemn contract between the peoples of the states of this nation that all officers of government are under duty to obey. The eternal moral laws expressed therein must be adhered to or individual liberty will perish. It is the responsibility of government to punish crime and provide for the administration of justice and to protect the right and control of property. But today these basic principles and concepts are being flaunted, disregarded, and challenged, even by men in high places. Through the exercise of political expediency, the government is condoning the breakdown of law and order.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 49 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“I do not believe the greatest threat to our future is from bombs or guided missiles. I do not think our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care, when the spiritual forces that make us wish to be right and noble die in the hearts of men, when we disregard the importance of law and order.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 50 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“Great nations are never conquered from outside unless they are rotten inside. Our greatest national problem today is erosion, not the erosion of the soil, but erosion of the national morality—erosion of traditional enforcement of law and order.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 50 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“There must be a renewal of the spirit of our forefathers, an appreciation of the American way of life, a strengthening of muscle and sinew and the character of the nation. America needs guts as well as guns. National character is the core of national defense.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 52 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“We can never survive unless our young people understand and appreciate our American system, which has given more of the good things of life than any other system in the world—unless they have a dedication that exceeds the dedication of the enemy. Character must become important in this country again. The old essentials of honesty, self-respect, loyalty, and support for law and order must be taught the younger generation.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 52 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“Our priceless heritage is threatened today as never before in our lifetime: from without by the forces of Godless Communism, and at home by our complacency and by the insidious forces of the Socialist-Communist conspiracy, with the help of those who would abandon the ancient landmarks set by our fathers and take us down the road to destruction”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 53 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“As American citizens who love freedom, we must return to a respect for national morality—respect for law and order. There is no other way of safety for us and our posterity. The hour is late; the time is short. We must begin now, in earnest, and invite God’s blessings on our efforts.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 53 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“The United States should be a bastion of real freedom. We should not support the world’s greatest evil, the Godless, Socialist-Communist conspiracy that seeks to destroy all we hold dear as a great Christian nation and to promote insidiously the breakdown of law and order and the erosion of our morality.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 54 (For the entire talk see “Ezra Taft Benson: A Time of Crisis in America Rights“)
“We are his children, worthy of love, and we have in us the capacity to love. We must learn to love even as we are loved by him.”
Marion D. Hanks
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 59
“God can solve our problems — and he will do so if we turn to him in humility and faith. However, let us not suppose that a few feeble prayers will be sufficient to call down his aid. It will take more than halfhearted supplications to save us.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 62
“Do you pay tithes? I’m sure you pay your taxes. Do you render unto God that which already was his own? I’m sure that Caesar never fails to get his portion. What of God?”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 75
“We have the witness which enters into the heart of each of us, the living testimony given by the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us not fail to bear that witness. And, too, let us not fail to make it possible for the witness to be borne through the warming love of friendship.”
S. Dilworth Young
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 85
“We ought to seek counsel also from the prophets of the past, and the counsel God has given … Often the answers we are seeking are already there … The counsel of the past is not to be ignored.”
Richard L. Evans
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 87
“If you want your answers to these longings of the human soul, you must come to the Church to get it. Only true religion can satisfy the yearning soul.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 92
“God’s plan, God’s purpose, is the perfection of humanity. He does care; he does love his children. He is not merely a blind force, not an abstract power, but a living, personal God.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 92
“Wisdom is the right application of knowledge, and true education — the education for which the Church stands — is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and Godlike character.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 93-94
“It is not enough to believe the gospel; it must also be understood, if we wish to live it.”
Lowell L. Bennion
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 98
“True education seeks to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love. It seeks to make men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life.” (Era, Vol. 70 [September 1967], p. 3.)
David O. McKay as quoted by Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 105
“Keep in mind always that the true purpose of life, both here and hereafter, is to seek the joy of eternal progression”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 105
“As the glory of God is intelligence, man can only share that glory through continuing education of the whole man.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 105
“God grant that Latter-day Saints may strive to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and will be found in the forefront of those who recognize the inherent dignity and worth of every human being who walks this earth, regardless of his race, color, or creed.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 105
“The war which began in heaven and has been going on ever since — a war in which the immortal souls of the children of men are at stake — is about to reach a climactic point.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 106
“Alcoholism is one disease which no one needs to have. The only sure way to be free of it is to never take a drink.”
N. Eldon Tanner
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 112
“Today we are treading the path those nations trod. We have been industrious. We have become wealthy. We are going through a period of corruption and decay. Around the corner we shall encounter ruin if we continue our present course. Admittedly, this is not an inspiring forecast. I make it not because I like it but because I know that it is true.”
N. Eldon Tanner
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 114
“Everyone talks about the new morality. Any departure from God’s moral code is unapproved in his sight. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His plan for our happiness is no different. It too is unchangeable. On this premise, there may be a new immorality advocated by deceitful men, but there can never be a new morality.”
Robert L. Simpson
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 119
“One might in reverence refer to the temple as the ‘university of the Lord.’”
ElRay L. Christiansen
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 134
“We as parents must come to understand and appreciate that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but the robe of responsibility.”
A. Theodore Tuttle
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 136
“Some of us wait until some special opportunity is given to us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet the duty devolves upon each of us to proclaim that good news every day of our lives. We proclaim it in our acts — in the home, in business, in social circles, in politics; indeed, everywhere that we mingle with men we have the responsibility resting upon us to give the good news to the people of the world.”
David O. McKay
CR, Apr. 1968, pp. 145
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