Melvin J. Ballard April 1933

Elder Melvin J. Ballard has been a recurring character on this blog, so I wanted one of 2026's first general conference talks to be from him. In this one, he talks about the importance of the church.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard

Of the Qurom of the Twelve Apostles

I desire, my brethren and sisters, to read two short extracts from a revelation of the Lord, given one hundred years ago to the Church. The first is from the eighty-sixth section:

"Therefore, thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom the priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers —

"For ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God —

"Therefore your life and the priesthood have remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage until the restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began.

"Therefore, blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel. The Lord hath said it."

The other is from the one hundred fifteenth section, an address of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Church:

"Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations;

"And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defence, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth."

The Highest Percentage of Growth

We were all made glad, a few weeks ago, to learn from President Hoover's Social Welfare Committee, which had been studying the social trends of the United States, that covering a period of some twenty-seven years this Church has made the greatest progress of any church in America, with a growth of 290 per cent. There is not another one that approaches us. We are glad for that, and particularly to know that this is taking place in the age of the world's greatest enlightenment. But we are more interested in the quality of men and women this Church has produced than in the numbers. Numbers have never meant very much in the past, and they may not mean much in the future, but quality is everything.

A New Day

We are approaching, in my humble judgment, a new day in the history of the Church. I thought of it some few months ago while going through the Northern States Mission. I had the first opportunity in my life of visiting Kirtland, the first city the Latter-day Saints built. As we went through the wonderful temple where the marvelous manifestations were made to Joseph, in the visit of those holy messengers who delivered to him divine keys of authority, I thought of the things that had occurred in the hundred years that had passed, and saw ever an objective before the Church — the struggle to maintain themselves, to find new homes, the flight across the plains, the battle with the wilderness here, eking out an existence, fighting our common enemies. There was always something before us that seemed to center our attention, worthy of every effort.

And now we have reached, I say, a new day, in my judgment. Having been through the days of immigration and migration, and of struggle to maintain ourselves, having won at least the right to exist, we have reached the day of demonstration, when indeed, in the language of this revelation, we are to arise and shine and show forth a standard, a pattern to the world, a world that has been humbled. A world that was proud and haughty, finding itself almost independent of God, has been brought to its knees, so to speak.

Our Time of Opportunity

In my own experience in traveling about in various sections of this country, recently I have noticed a disposition to listen as never before to anyone who has any light, any inspiration or any help. Truly we have reached the time when the wisdom of the wise has perished, and the understanding of the prudent is hid. God designed that this Church should not be ignored, neither set in a corner, but he has shaped and fashioned the destinies of the world until they will be brought to receive his message. He is now looking to the Latter-day Saints to show by their lives, by their conduct, that there is power and strength in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to meet and to solve every problem.

For the first time in the history of this world, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has an opportunity. I recognize that Christianity had many virtues, many of the teachings of Christ that influenced their lives ; but as the Lord himself declared to Joseph Smith a hundred years ago, they had the form of religion but not the power thereof. They were helpless to meet and cope with these conditions.

The true Gospel of Jesus Christ has never been tested. It is now receiving its opportunity, and a world that is willing to listen, through the very circumstances through which we have passed, will be willing to pay heed and attention as never before, not only to what we say — that is not the important thing, for the most powerful sermons we have ever preached are the sermons of our lives.

An Ensign to the World

So as we listened to the address of our President, who made an appeal to the Latter-day Saints to live up to these high Gospel standards as contained in the Word of Wisdom, in my heart I said : "Oh, if the youth of the Church could catch the vision the Lord had in giving this revelation, and not merely want to yield obedience to what the President of the Church requires of them in order to be obedient to him, but get a vision of it !" It is the place the Lord has for them. What is that place? To set a pattern, to be an ensign, character builders who will attract the attention of the world if we will only live up to these standards.

In listening to the address that he made — an appeal f or honesty — I said in my heart: "Oh, that the Latter-day Saints could still adhere to the standards of their fathers, when they made all with whom they came in contact acknowledge that a Mormon's word was as good as his bond!"

My brethren and sisters, in this time of trouble and strife, when men and women are being swept off their feet and are in many instances taking the law into their own hands, here is an opportunity for Latter-day Saints to show their superior quality in their willingness to honor and obey and sustain the law and let it take its course, and not become Bolshevik ourselves. Shall we cry and become rebellious?

The Courage of our Fathers

I thought of it while in Kirtland. What a sacrifice it must have meant to those brethren to leave that wonderful temple, wonderful even today, their homes, their all! But did they quit and cry about it? No. They went across the country to Independence, started to build again. Driven from Independence, in the central part of Missouri, they started to lay the foundation of another temple over in Nauvoo, where they had accomplished wonders in the building of a city of some twenty thousand people. Twenty thousand people in Nauvoo when Chicago, which this year is celebrating its hundredth anniversary, was a village of 4,620 souls. Yet they had to leave it all. Stripped and peeled, they crossed the great deserts and came into these mountains. Were they quitters? No. Though everything was taken from them, there was in them the strength and courage to meet disaster after disaster. They stood like beaten anvils, with their faith unbroken.

Virility and Strength in the Gospel

Shall we, their children, show the white feather now? Suppose through our own mistakes we have lost some of our property, some of the advantages, that we thought we had, some of our money, shall we become sour and bitter, and rail against the providences of God? Or shall we, like our fathers, profit by our mistakes and build again, even though we lost it all ? I believe we will rise to the occasion. We are at a time when we are going to demonstrate to the world the virility, the power and the strength that are in the real Gospel of Jesus Christ, to meet and solve all these problems no matter what they are.

In Support of the Constitution

I believe that it is the destiny of the Latter-day Saints to support the Constitution of the United States. The Prophet Joseph Smith is alleged to have said — and I believe he did say it — that the day would come when the Constitution would hang as by a thread. But he saw that the thread did not break, thank the Lord, and that the Latter-day Saints would become a balance of power, with others, to preserve that Constitution. If there is — and there is one part of the Constitution hanging as by a thread today — where do the Latter-day Saints belong? Their place is to rally to the support of that Constitution, and maintain it and defend it and support it by their lives and by their vote. Let us not disappoint God nor his prophet. Our place is fixed.

A Better Day

Now, brethren and sisters, we have been three years getting down into the bottom — if we are at the bottom — of this depression. Have we patience to work on out? Suppose it takes three years longer to get out of it, are you willing to be patient that long? I believe you are. Though it may take that length of time, if there shall come to us hope and faith and courage we can work out, and we shall. We are in the birth pangs of a glorious day. God's purposes are going forward in the earth. Everything is working towards a better day. There is hope ahead, and especially for the Latter-day Saints.

God bless you, my brethren and sisters. Let us carry home with us the spirit of this conference, that we may renew our faith, and with courage dispel pessimism, increase optimism, and look to our glorious opportunity to arise and shine in a practical way, in the payment of our tithes. Yes, I promise you, in the name of the Lord, that if you will do these things that you have been asked to do at this conference — keep the Word of Wisdom, pay your tithes and offerings now, in a time when it will be hard for some of you to pay your tithing — I promise you deliverance, for the secret of succeeding comes from doing the right thing at the right time and in the right way, and God will show you the way. He will never desert you if you do not desert him.

God help us to be true to him, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.