April 1936 General Conference

This video is the recording of the first general Conference over the radio. On this recording are multiple sermons from prominent members of the church. Since the talks are so short, I will be transcribing all of them here. I will also transcribe how the program was presented on air, which is something I usually do not do. 

​Church of the Air Broadcast 

At 10:50 a. m. Conference proceedings were interrupted to prepare for the Church of the Air broadcast which commenced promptly at 11:00. This program, presented on the Columbia Broadcasting System’s regularly scheduled Church of the Air series, was released by more than seventy important network stations throughout the United States and Canada and was carried by short wave to Europe and other countries. The radio announcer was Richard L. Evans.

The program opened with the Choir and congregation joining in the singing of the hymn, “How Firm a Foundation.”

​President David O. Kay

Second Counselor in the First Presidency

Happiness and Strength of Character found in Losing Self for the Good of Others 

All mankind desire happiness. Many also strive sincerely to make the most and best of themselves. Surprisingly few, however, realize that a sure guide to such achievement may be found in the following declaration by Jesus of Nazareth: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

A Significant Principle

This significant passage contains a secret more worthy of possession than fame or dominion, something more valuable than all the wealth of the world.

It is a principle the application of which promises to supplant discouragement and gloom with hope and gladness; to fill life with contentment and peace everlasting. This being true its acceptance would indeed be a boon today to this distracted, depression-ridden world. Why, then, do men and nations ignore a thing so precious?
Is the truth in the paradoxical statement, losing one’s life to find it, so elusive that mankind cannot grasp it? Or is it so in conflict with the struggle for existence that men consider it impractical?
Even so, the fact remains that He who is “The Way, the Truth and the Life” has herein set forth an immutable law, obedience to which will ameliorate those social and economic conditions in which “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”
Specifically stated, this law is, “We live our lives most completely when we strive to make the world better and happier.” The law of pure nature, survival of the fittest, is, self-preservation at the sacrifice of all else; but in contrast to this the law of true spiritual life is, deny self for the good of others.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts as fundamental this law of life. Faithful members thereof are convinced that only in its application can true happiness be found or a truly great character be developed; and they believe with Emerson that “character is higher than intellect—a great soul will be fit to live as well as to think.” To them, also, the safety and perpetuity of our nation depend upon the character-building, law-abiding individual.

Service to Others

Therefore, in the heart of every true Latter-day Saint the voice of the Lord is ever whispering this recorded revelation:

“Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God “And if it so be that you should labor all your days, and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy in the kingdom of my Father!”
With this end in view, 50,000 men and women, serving willingly without salary, offer every week to over 500,000 children and youth instruction and guidance in character-building and spiritual growth. In addition to this army of officers and teachers, 185,000 men ordained to the priesthood have accepted the obligation to devote their time and talents as far as possible to the scattering of sunshine, joy, and peace among their fellowmen.
In all such efforts these men and women are but actuated by the high ideals of the prophet of the 19th century who, exemplifying the teachings of Christ said, “If my life is of no value to my friends, it’s of no value to me.”
Never was there a time in the history of the world when the application of this principle was more needed. Therefore, let sincere men and women the world over unite in earnest effort to supplant feelings of selfishness, hatred, animosity, greed, by the law of service to others, and thereby promote the peace and happiness of mankind.

​President J. Rueben Clark Jr. 

First Counselor in the First Presidency

Faith, Belief, and Knowledge of this Church Concerning Jesus Christ

I wish to state the faith, the belief, and the knowledge of the Latter-day Saints regarding Jesus of Nazareth.

Christ, the Creator of the World

We accept literally the words of John concerning the Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Christ has declared in our own day: “I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn.”

We also accept John’s declaration that Jesus Christ was the Creator of the world, that “all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
We believe that in a great council in heaven held before the world was, Satan proposed one plan for creating and ruling the world and its progeny, and that Christ proposed another; that Satan’s plan was rejected, as taking away the agency of man, and Christ’s was accepted as keeping man’s agency.
We believe that in obedience to the Plan, Christ created the world and all that in it is, first spiritually, then temporally, and that in this work of creation he acted as one of the Great Trinity of three distinct personages, the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Personal Appearances to Man

We believe that following this creation, the Lord from time to time showed himself to man, either in person or in vision, or dream, or by speech, beginning even with Adam, and later to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Daniel, and others on the Eastern hemisphere, and to many prophets on the Western continents; that on this hemisphere, in one of the most glorious theophanies of all time, the Lord showed himself, before his birth, to the brother of Jared, the man of greatest faith to his time, saying: “Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood.” “Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh.”

Christ's Birth and Atonement

We believe that in the Meridian of Time, Mary the virgin gave birth to Jesus, the Only Begotten of the Father, in very deed and fact the Son of God; that Jesus was crucified upon the cross; that he was buried and lay in the tomb till the morning of the third day when he was verily resurrected from the dead—that is, his spirit and his body reunited and he rose from the tomb a perfect, glorified, living soul, that thus Christ atoned for Adam’s fall from which man is so redeemed, and that all men will by reason of that atonement be resurrected—that is, the body and the spirit of every person born into the world will at some time after death, and in the due course of the Lord, be reunited, thus fulfilling Paul’s saying: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

We believe that except for this atonement of Christ for the fall of Adam, man would, through all the eternities, have remained under the penalty of the mortal and spiritual death brought upon the human family by Adam.
We thus believe Christ to be in the full, true, and most literal sense, the Creator of the world, one of the Godhead, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the first fruits of the resurrection, the Redeemer of the world.

A Glorious Manifestation in this Dispensation 

We believe that some eighteen hundred years after the Son's death and resurrection, the Father and the Son, two glorified personages having human form, appeared to a boy fourteen years of age, even as the Lord came of old to the child Samuel in the Temple; that the Father, pointing to the Son said: “This is my beloved Son. Hear him and that the Son, responding to the lad’s inquiry as to which of the many sectarian creeds were right, told the lad that none of them was right, and that he should join none of them.

We believe that through the instrumentality of this same lad, Joseph Smith, grown to maturity, the Lord restored to earth the true Gospel and the priesthood of God which had been taken from the earth because of the transgressions of men.
Hundreds of thousands of Latter-day Saints, living and dead, have proclaimed their absolute knowledge of the truth of every declaration I have made; some of them have sealed their testimonies with a martyr’s blood. To the testimony of the humblest of all these, I wish in humility to add my own.
 
A vocal solo, “The Seer,” was sung by Harold H. Bennett.

President Heber J Grant

Fundamental Beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

In thinking seriously of the economic condition of the world, I am convinced without doubt, that a revelation in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, known as the Word of Wisdom, given by the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, to the Prophet Joseph Smith over one hundred years ago, would solve the economic problems not only of our country but of every other country, if it were obeyed by the people of the world.

For Our Temporal Salvation

This Word of Wisdom teaches the Latter-day Saints to refrain from the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquor, and part of it reads as follows:

To be sent greeting: not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days--
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation--
And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;
And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint
And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass them by, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

The Constitution should be maintained

Another thing that is needed is to maintain the Constitution of our country, and I now have pleasure in reading a declaration by Joseph Smith regarding the Constitution:

The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner; it is, to all those who are privileged with the sweets of liberty, like the cooling shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a weary and thirsty land. It
is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of the sun.

Governments and Laws in General

I read from a declaration of belief regarding governments and laws in general, adopted by unanimous vote of a general assembly of the Church over one hundred years ago:

We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.
We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life. ******
We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied.

The Proper Exercise of the Priesthood

The leading officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been accused of exercising unrighteous dominion, because of the priesthood they hold. Joseph Smith was sentenced by a court martial to be shot the following morning, and General Alexander W. Doniphan refused to carry out the order of his commanding general and said that it was cold-blooded murder. This frightened the general in command of the mob, who were expelling our people from the State of Missouri; so they imprisoned the prophet and others in Liberty jail, and while there he received from the Lord one of the most wonderful revelations ever given to our people, regarding the exercise of the Priesthood, and I have pleasure in quoting part of it:

We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
Hence many are called, but few are chosen.
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--
Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.
That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.
Let thy bowels also be full of charity toward all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

Quotes the Articles of Faith

I quote the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth articles of faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul: We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things.
I close my remarks by bearing my testimony to the world that I know, as I know that I live, that God lives, that Jesus Christ is his Son, the Redeemer of the world, who came to the earth with a divinely appointed mission to die on the cross for the sins of mankind. And I bear my testimony that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and the living God.
 
A duet, “An Angel from on High,” was sung by Ida M. Hepworth and Claudius Doty, the Choir and congregation joining in the chorus.
As the concluding number on the Church of the Air broadcast the congregation sang the hymn “Doxology,” an invitation having first been extended by the announcer to any of the radio audience who cared to do so to join in the singing of this hymn.