The Oct. 1963 General Conference was packed with prophetic counsel. From Boyd K. Packer speaking of the importance of Fatherhood to Spencer W. Kimball, who warned of the threats against motherhood. Delbert L. Staply warned of the United States repeating the mistakes of biblical Israel and facing the same disastrous consequences. And Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of the importance of the Home, and building upon the gospel of Jesus Christ! Just a fantastic conference!
I hope you enjoy this fifteenth 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 Oct. 1963 General Conference! Use the page number and the above links to access the full talks. Enjoy!
55+ Quotes Full of Prophetic Counsel From My Study of the Oct. 1963 General Conference
“Freedom of speech, freedom of action within boundaries that do not infringe upon the liberty of others are man’s inherent right—divine gifts ‘essential to human dignity and human happiness.'”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 5
“Every temptation that comes to you and me comes in one of three forms:
(1) A temptation of the appetite or passion;
(2) A yielding to pride, fashion, or vanity;
(3) A desire for worldly riches or power and dominion over lands or earthly possessions of men.”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 pp. 7-8
“The Church teaches that life here is probationary. It is man’s duty to become the master, not the slave of nature. His appetites are to be controlled and used for the benefit of his health and the prolongation of his life—his passions mastered and controlled for the happiness and blessing of others.”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 8
“Let us ever keep in mind that life is largely what we make it, and that the Savior of men has marked clearly and plainly just how joy and peace may be obtained. It is in the gospel of Jesus Christ and adherence thereto.”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 9
“The actions of its members in no way altered the truth of Mormonism.”
Ezra T. Benson as quoted by Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 15
“It is from within the Church that the greatest hindrance comes. And so, it seems, it has been. Now the question arises, will we stick with the kingdom and can we avoid being deceived?”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 15
“It was the struggle over free agency that divided us before we came here; it may well be the struggle over the same principle which will deceive and divide us again.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 16
“[Doctrine and Covenants] Section 134, verse 2, states that government should hold inviolate the rights and control of property. This makes important reading in a day when government controls are increasing and people are losing the right to control their own property.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 17
“Other officers in the kingdom have fallen but never the Presidents. Keep your eye on the captain is still good counsel. The words of a living prophet must, and ever will take precedence.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 17
“Let us not be deceived in the sifting days ahead. Let us rally together on principle behind the prophet as guided by the promptings of the Spirit.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 19
“We should continue to speak out for freedom and against socialism and communism … We should continue to come to the aid of patriots, programs and organizations which are trying to save our Constitution through every legal and moral means possible.”
Ezra Taft Benson
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 19
“What a difference the placing of words makes. The love of power or the power of love — worlds apart!”
John Longden
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 31
“Of course, there are some mothers who must work out to support their children, but let every working mother honestly weigh the matter and be sure the Lord approves before she rushes her babies off to the nursery, her children off to school, her husband off to work, and herself off to her employment. Let her be certain that she is not rationalizing herself away from her children merely to provide for them greater material things. Let her analyze well before she permits her precious ones to come home to an empty house where their plaintive cry, ‘Mother,’ finds no loving answer.”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 35
“Children need security, special love, and to be wanted.”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 35
“A child is happy if he feels that he is wanted and enjoyed by his parents. He needs to feel that his parents will be there, especially in a crisis.”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 36
“Always in the Church, people have been admonished to marry in the House of the Lord, to establish homes, and bear and rear children in righteousness.”
Belle S. Spafford as quoted by Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 37
“Are music and dancing lessons and camps and clothes justified when it may mean the sacrifice of the home and mother on the altar of employment?”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 37
“If fathers would give themselves to their families and mothers come home from employment and high society to conserve the smaller incomes and to be real mothers, then the word delinquency would cease to terrify us.”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 40
“May we organize our homes, discipline our children, and create nations of homes such as our Heavenly Father has planned, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen”
Spencer W. Kimball
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 40
“This is the only gospel, through obedience, to which men can obtain membership in the Church and kingdom of God here upon this earth.”
LeGrand Richards
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 58
“Our message is to acquaint every lover of truth with this marvelous work and a wonder or the everlasting gospel brought back to this earth by holy messengers sent from heaven in our day.”
LeGrand Richards
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 57
“On March 29, 1960, a youth conference was held in Washington, at the call of President Eisenhower. Some seven thousand delegates from all over the United States attended that conference. President Marion D. Hanks of the First Council of the Seventy of this Church was asked to give the keynote address at that conference, and as he sat down, the man conducting the same made this statement: ‘As I sat here, I reflected that Mr. Hanks comes from people that were driven from our region of the country because of the things they believed and suffered bitter persecution for their ideals; that went finally to the far reaches of the country where they thought themselves away from all this. Now we have invited a leader of that people to come here to talk to us of the same ideals and principles for which we drove them away.’”
LeGrand Richards
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 59
“Mormonism has outlived its persecutors and outlasted most of its critics and with good reason. It is the most truly American of all America’s religions. Its founders, its miracles, its holy books, its prophets, its martyrs, and its spirit grew out of American soil. Across America from coast to coast are the credentials of its faith, and it is in America that it has built its holy city and its sacred state.”
Marcus Bach as quoted by LeGrand Richards
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 59
“What price is too great for the blessings of exaltation and eternal life, and what is there in this world that is more precious than the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
Eldred G. Smith
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 61
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as quoted by Eldred G. Smith
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 62
“The responsibilities of fatherhood cannot be delegated to social agencies, nor even to the Church.”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 63
“One cannot, I repeat, escape the obligation of fatherhood. The father who neglects his son may suffer the condemnation that the Lord placed upon the Prophet Eli when he said: ‘For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.’ (1 Sam. 3:13.)”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 63
“Give careful, prayerful, conscious thought and consideration to your family. Do not bury your life in merely providing a living. Many men play the role of fatherhood just by ear. They only react to what is, rather than to strive with conscious, prayerful effort for what ought to be.”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 63
“A boy is not born to know that his father loves him. He must be told and shown and shown and told a thousand times or more. A father must be wise and patient, but most of all he must be consistent, and his expectations must be reasonable.”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 63
“It is my testimony that the word ‘father’ in the scriptures means father; that we have a child-parent relationship with God; that we were created in his image; that we are his children, and each one of us, particularly those who hold the priesthood, will one day have to answer to him.”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 64
“The late President George Albert Smith once lay critically ill. Those close to him despaired of his life. He later recorded: ‘One day, under these conditions, I lost consciousness of my surroundings and thought I had passed to the other side. I found myself standing with my back to a large beautiful lake, facing a great forest of trees. There was no one in sight, and there was no boat upon the lake or any other visible means to indicate how I might have arrived there. I realized, or seemed to realize, that I had finished my work in mortality and had gone home. I began to look around, to see if I could not find someone . . . soon I found a trail through the woods which seemed to have been used very little, and which was almost obscured by grass. I followed this trail, and after I had walked for some time and had traveled a considerable distance through the forest, I saw a man coming toward me. I became aware that he was a very large man, and I hurried my steps to reach him, because I recognized him as my grandfather . . .” (I say parenthetically here that his grandfather was George A. Smith, First Counselor to President Brigham Young.)
President Smith continues: ‘I remember how happy I was to see him coming. I had been given his name and had always been proud of it. When grandfather came within a few feet of me, he stopped. His stopping was an invitation for me to stop. Then—and this I would like the . . . people never to forget—he looked at me very earnestly and said: ‘I would like to know what you have done with my name.’ Everything I had ever done passed before me as though it were a flying picture on a screen—everything I had done. Quickly this vivid retrospect came down to the very time I was standing there. My whole life had passed before me. I smiled and looked at my grandfather and said: ‘I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed.’ He stepped forward and took me in his arms, and as he did so, I became conscious again of my earthly surroundings. My pillow was as wet as though water had been poured on it—wet with tears of gratitude that I could answer unashamed.’”
Boyd K. Packer
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 64
“The lambs and the sheep are hungry for the bread of life, for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can show our love by following the prophet of God, ‘by every member being a missionary’ to bring one or more souls into the Church each year.”
Bernard p. Brockbank
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 66
“It is great to have a prophet. Have you followed the prophet?”
Bernard p. Brockbank
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 66
“To every faithful member of the Church will come opportunities to serve in some capacity… If we would meet the Savior’s standard for greatness, we will readily and humbly accept the callings that come and become servants in the house of the Lord.”
Henry D. Taylor
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 71
“Each one of us must live with himself throughout eternity, and each one is now working on the kind of man he must live with throughout eternity. Let us determine for ourselves the kind of man our eternal companion is to be. I say now is the time to act: It is neither too early nor too late.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 86
“History rests on the shoulders of those who accepted the challenge of difficulties and drove through to victory in spite of everything”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 87
“Fatherhood is next to Godhood, and therefore it takes a lifetime to become a good father.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 87
“It is doubtful if [Christ’s] divinity, his power, and his leadership were ever challenged with such audacity and ferocity as they are being challenged now. Never in history have the common people of the world felt the need of divine leadership as they feel it in this bewildered world. There never was a time which needed him more, as false ideologies and scientific miracles are leading the world to the brink of annihilation.”
Hugh B. Brown
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 94
“If wickedness prevails and wicked men rule, then we will be as other nations. We will stand alone without the guiding influence and power of God to sustain us in time of trouble and in meeting the challenge and threat of internal and external Satanic ideologies, also the evil designs and intrigues of men and nations.”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 114
So important is this latter-day gentile nation established by God that he required the land to be redeemed by the shedding of blood. The blood of the Revolutionary patriots was freely spilled upon the field of battle to insure independence… The Civil War resulted in the death and misery of many souls, and thus for the second time the land was redeemed by the shedding of blood.”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 113
“The Constitution of the United States is to this gentile nation what the Ten Commandments were and still are to the nation of Israel.”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 114
“Israel’s persistence in disobedience and wickedness destroyed them as a nation. This fact stands as a warning to us. What happened to the nation of Israel can happen to this nation also if we as a people in this chosen land fail to obey the laws and the counsels of God.”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 114
“It will be profitable to all of us in the light of the promises and warnings to this nation to read again the biblical history of the nation of Israel. It will help us avoid the pitfalls which befell them.”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 114
“I earnestly pray that we shall always stand firm and stedfast and immovable in upholding and sustaining the Constitution of this favored land. May we also selectively and wisely choose those who are equally valiant and patriotic to represent us in the top echelons of government”
Delbert L. Stapley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 114
“It requires no moral courage to drift with the multitude or to run with the ‘pack,’ so to speak. The real test is in choosing and pursuing the right, even though it appears that in so doing, one is alone.”
ElRay L. Christiansen
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 115
“There is only one cure for the world. It is not in political parties. It is not in the philosophies of men. There is only one cure for the evils of this world, and for the broken hearts of men and women, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the living of that faith by obedience to the commandments of the Lord our God. There is nothing that can compare with it. There is no other answer. It is obedience to Christ, or it is dissolution.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 122
there is only one voice in all the world that can bear testimony to these groping nations that Jesus is the Christ. I mean only one voice of authority, and that is the voice of the Latter-day Saints. We are the only authoritative voice declaring to the world that Jesus is the Christ.
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 122
“We know that God lives because our prophets have seen him and talked with him. We know that Jesus is the Christ because our prophets have communed with him, and we know that he lives because of the testimony of the Holy Ghost that burns within us.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 122
“How strong a voice can you raise? How strong a testimony can you bear? Your testimony is no stronger than your obedience. I wonder how much your testimony has been watered down by your disobedience even in little things here or there.”
Mark E. Petersen
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 122
“The duty of every father in Israel — every man who has a son or daughter. Let us make our homes places in which the Spirit of God will be pleased to dwell.”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 124
“The responsibility with us now is to carry the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our homes. Do not break them up through divorce. Make good your promises in the temple, hold them sacred and be true to every covenant. This is every father’s responsibility.”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 124
“Our homes are the seedbeds of faith in Christ our Lord”
David O. McKay
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 124
“The question that confronts us is, Where shall we begin? …it must begin with recognition of God as our Eternal Father, of our relationship to Him as His children, with communication with Him in recognition of His sovereign position, and with daily supplication for His guidance in our affairs.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 128
“A return to the old pattern of prayer, family prayer in the homes of the people, is one of the simple medicines that would check the dread disease that is eroding the fiber of our character. We could not expect a miracle in a day, but in a generation we would have a miracle.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 128
“A generation or two ago family prayer in the homes of Christian people throughout the world was as much a part of the day’s activity as were the meals. As that practice has diminished, our moral decay has ensued. I fear that as the quality of our housing has improved, the spirit of our homes has deteriorated.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 128
“I feel satisfied that there is no adequate substitute for the morning and evening practice of kneeling together before the Lord — father, mother, and children.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 128
“I know of nothing that will ease family tensions, that in a subtle way will bring about that respect for parents which leads to obedience, that will effect a spirit of repentance which will largely erase the blight of broken homes, than will praying together, verbally confessing our weaknesses before the Lord, and invoking the blessings of the Lord upon the home and those who dwell there.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 PP. 128-129
“I know of no better way to inculcate love for country than for parents to pray before their children for the land in which we live, invoking the blessings of the Almighty upon it that it may be preserved in liberty and in peace.”
Gordon B. Hinkley
CR, Oct. 1963 p. 129
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