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(7/14/00)
"Surely, in the work of the Lord, it is what we do after we think we
have done enough that really counts with him, for that's when the
blessings flow." — "Following Christ To Victory," General Conference,
April 1979
(7/15/00)
"Yes, my brothers and sisters, sacrifice is just as integral a part of
the economy of God today as it has ever been. And sacrifice still
brings forth the blessings of heaven. Without it no blessings come
forth, although serving just to earn blessings is not right either.
The service should be rendered because we love the Lord and love his
children." — "Sacrifice Still Brings Forth Blessings," General
Conference, October 1971
(7/16/00)
"We are Christian and would like the whole world to know that.
Sometimes we are accused of not being Christian. Elder Marion D. Hanks
once said in General Conference, 'If you were accused of being
Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?' Accused of
being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, could you with good
conscience feel you were guilty of that high commendation?" — "The
Gospel," "BYU Speeches of the Year," 29 September 1985
(7/17/00)
"Repentance seems to be the most important experience we can have on
this earth to prepare for the Resurrection, because 'none but the
truly penitent are saved' (Alma 42:24)." — "Ensign," Nov. 1990
(October Conference) p. 76
(7/26/04)
"So the question of questions is: What makes people repent? As near as
I have been able to determine, once a person has sufficient faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ that he believes Christ has paid for his sins,
then he will repent. And it seems that very few, if any, will repent
until they believe this truth. Therefore, it is vital to teach the
truth about Jesus Christ as the literal son of God and our Lord and
Savior and Redeemer in order to bring souls to repentance. Faith in
Jesus Christ unto repentance is the saving power of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. (See Alma
34:16.)" - Hartman Rector Jr., "The
Resurrection," Ensign, November 1990, p. 76
(12/17/04)
"Ah! the light breaks. There is a record kept-and surely there is one.
One group is receiving its reward now; the other is laying it up in
heaven; and out of the books which are written and shall be written
shall the dead be judged. (See Rev.
20:12.) Then the Lord gives his word, which he cannot break, for
surely 'I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say.' (D&C
82:10; italics added.) And here is the Lord's promise: 'And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my
jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him.' (Mal.
3:17.) Surely, it is very difficult not to be partial to your
own son who is working for you, if he does a good job. I presume there
is nothing wrong in feeling that way about your own son. The Lord
seems to think not." - Hartman Rector Jr., "That
Ye
May Have Roots and Branches," Ensign, May 1983, p. 26-27
(2/10/05)
"In the fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord sets
forth the qualifications for the labors of the ministry. He says that
they are 'faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the
glory of God.' The faith, hope, charity, and love we know something
about. They are very important. But the eye single to the glory of God
is probably the most important of those qualifications. Generally
speaking, 'an eye single to the glory of God' means sacrifice. It
means that instead of endlessly doing what we want to do, we have to
do what the Lord wants us to do, but we have to do it in his way when
he wants us to do it. This, of course, is not the natural inclination
of man.
"We hear much in the world today about 'doing our own thing.' I doubt
that this is really new. I think it has been going on since the
beginning of time. Perhaps this is just a little different way of
saying it. Certainly Lucifer did his own thing, contrary to the will
of the Lord. Cain did his own thing, directly contrary to the counsel
of his Heavenly Father. They were not concerned with what the Lord
wanted them to do but rather only with what they wanted to do. Of
course this kind of action has never been very profitable measured in
terms of happiness, and happiness is the whole purpose for the
existence of man. The prophet Lehi's statement that 'men are, that
they might have joy' (2
Ne. 2:25) is all-inclusive." - Hartman Rector Jr., "Sacrifice
Still
Brings Forth Blessings," Ensign, Dec. 1971, p. 64
1/23/07
"If we are good, we will look for and find the good in others. It is
there. There is good in every man. In fact, I believe every man is
superior to every other man in some thing. If you look for it, you
will find it. But you can see only what you have eyes to see. It
depends solely on how good you are as to whether you see good or not."
- Hartman Rector, Jr., "Conference Report," October 1969,
Afternoon Meeting, p.76
9/23/07
"There is no such thing as something for nothing with the Lord.
Blessings come because of obedience to the law upon which they are
predicated (see D&C
130:21). The Lord requires sacrifice, meaning something above
and beyond the minimum. The Master spoke of the second mile and told
us to go there (see Matt.
5:41). Why? Because he wants to bless us. So he put all the
blessings in the second mile, but we must go where they are before we
get them." - Hartman Rector, Jr., "Following
Christ
to Victory," Ensign (CR), May 1979, p.29
7/18/09
“The
Lord doesn't seem to measure success in terms of attainment of
position or power or wealth. A prophet in the Book of Mormon (where,
by the way, the most succinct and unvarnished truths can be found)
said, ‘But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who
knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that
they might have joy.’ (2 Ne. 2:24-25.) If man is that he might have
joy, then success to the Lord must include the attainment of real joy.
On the basis of this definition, then, no one is really successful who
is not happy.
“If this be the Lord's definition, then there is precious little success in this world. Success in its practical application seems to be more a state of mind than anything else. Obviously, many people never make it because they are ungrateful. They are not thankful for what they have; therefore, they are unhappy and thus are not successful. I have never seen a happy person who was not thankful for what he had, to paraphrase the Prophet Joseph Smith, who stated that ‘doubt and faith cannot exist in the same person at the same time.’ (6th Lecture on Faith.) It is also doubtful that success and unhappiness can exist in the same person at the same time.” - Hartman Rector, Jr., “Success—A Journey or a Destination?,” Ensign (CR), July 1973, p. 57
9/18/09
“The
nicest thing we can do for a less-active member of the Church is to
reach out to them with love and tenderness and kindness and bring them
back into activity in the Church so that they can go to the temple,
which they must do to prepare for a glorious resurrection.” - Hartman
Rector, Jr., “The Resurrection,” Ensign (CR), November 1990, p. 76
10/18/09
“Sometimes we make excuses for ourselves, when we do what we should
not do or fall short of what we should have done. We use such
expressions as, ‘Oh! the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.’
With such rationalizations we insinuate that it is our physical body’s
fault that we sin. As a matter of fact, this is not true. In reality,
the physical body is the strongest part of us. Among other reasons, it
was given to us to help us overcome our addictions, bad habits, and
evil desires. The body is very obedient; generally speaking, it will
do exactly what the spirit tells it to do. So it is not the physical
body that we are struggling with; it is the spirit we must bring into
subjection.” - Hartman Rector, Jr.,
“Conference Report,” October 1970, Afternoon Meeting, p. 73
4/21/10
"If we were to search for the
best definition of what is contained in the gospel of Jesus
Christ, we could hardly do better than look to the Lord Jesus
Christ's definition of what his gospel is. We read from 3 Nephi
27, beginning with verse 13, 'Behold I have given unto you my
gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I
came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father
sent me.' [3 Ne. 27:13] I presume we—you and I—also came into this
world to do the will of the Father because our Father sent us,
too. We have not been sent to do precisely the same thing that
Jesus Christ was sent to do, but it is vitally important to us
that we also do the will of the Father." - Hartman
Rector, Jr., "The Gospel," Ensign (CR), November 1985, p. 74
8/28/12
How to perform positively? Easy:
eliminate all negative words and phrases from your vocabulary. Refuse
to think negatively, for as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.
23:7). Refuse also to speak negatively. Now you have become an
optimist rather than a pessimist. There is a big difference between an
optimist and a pessimist—one is positive, a believer; the other is
negative, a doubter. The optimist, as you probably know, is a person
who, when he wears out his shoes, just figures he’s back on his feet.
The pessimist says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” The optimist
says, “I’ll see it when I believe it.” - Hartman Rector, Jr., "Following
Christ to Victory," Ensign (CR) May 1979
8/28/13
The Lord doesn’t seem to measure success in terms of attainment of
position or power or wealth. A prophet in the Book of Mormon (where,
by the way, the most succinct and unvarnished truths can be found)
said, “But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who
knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that
they might have joy.” (2
Ne. 2:24–25.) If man is that he might have joy, then success to
the Lord must include the attainment of real joy. On the basis of this
definition, then, no one is really successful who is not happy. - Hartman
Rector, Jr., "Success—A
Journey or a Destination?" Ensign (CR) May 1973
10/4/13
God has solutions! There is only one real road to safety and that is
to hearken unto the voice of the prophet of God, because man in his
wisdom cannot solve the problems which he is facing today anymore than
he could when Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He said, “For the wisdom
of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh
the wise in their own craftiness.” (1
Cor. 3:19.) - Hartman Rector, Jr. "The
World's Greatest Need," Ensign (CR) November 1975
7/11/14
Mortality is, in reality, a very, very short period. It is literally a
snap of the fingers compared to an eternity. It is so short that we
can do it. We can prevail. Why, you can stand your foot in a vise for
a while if you know it’s going to be released soon. It is when you can
see no relief in sight that it becomes unbearable. Yes, earthly
probation is short compared to eternity, but so very much is riding on
how we handle the trials and temptations of the flesh. - Hartman
Rector, Jr., “The
Gospel,” Ensign (CR) November 1985
11/24/14
We are prone to say that we are waiting on the Lord to receive light
and truth when, as a matter of fact, the Lord is waiting on us—waiting
for us to get into condition so he can reveal the light we seek and so
desperately need. - Hartman Rector,
Jr., “Ignorance
is Expensive,” Ensign (CR) April 1971
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