Topic: US Constitution, Matches 32 quotes.

Civil And Religious Laws Are Separate

The beginnings of it in this dispensation were had when Martin Luther struck from the people of the Old World the shackles which bound them to a policy by which the church sought to dominate the state and government in civil, as well as religious affairs—a thing which the Lord has told us is not his will, that we are responsible to him for our faith, for the morality and the righteousness of our lives. He has told us just as definitely that we are responsible to the civil law, so far as the control of our temporal affairs is concerned. What could be accomplished without the proper administration of civil law? There would be no protection for society, the weak would be subject to the power of the strong, to prevent all of which fundamental laws of our country have been enacted by wise men. How wisely the Constitutional law of our country has been framed! It provides for a legislative body to carefully study and enact the laws of our country. These men are not to execute the laws that they themselves make it—would be a dangerous thing—but an administrative department of government is provided, which is to execute and administer the law enacted by the legislative body. They are just laws. It may be that laws have been enacted which were in a sense undesirable. A way is provided by which they may be abrogated or amended, and that is the proper mode of procedure.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: US Constitution

Now, coming to our own land, our own Constitution, I think we hardly appreciate sufficiently what this Constitution means to us and to the work of the Lord. It is my belief that this Constitution, which the Lord declared he established, is for the benefit of all mankind. Verse 77, Section 101, reads as follows: “According to the laws and constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles.” Certainly, the fundamental, governing principles which the Lord has established on the earth under the name of the Constitution of the United States, were meant for all men, everywhere. These principles, with their accompanying freedom and liberty, are inseparably connected with our great latter-day work, it seems to me; for the Lord tells us that this freedom, this liberty, was brought about through the hands of wise men whom he raised up. Without this great Government of ours, this God-given Constittion, the gospel of Jesus Christ could never have found an abiding place in the earth. They are connected, correlated, interlocked one with the other; for the Constitution, like the gospel itself, is for the benefit of all flesh, for all mankind.

Source: Bishop Charles W. Nibley
General Conference, April 1925

Topics: US Constitution

Edmund Randolph of Virginia described the effort to deal with the issue at the Constitutional Convention:

“The general object was to produce a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origins, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.”

Source: Edmun Randolph

Topics: Democracy; US Constitution

When we look down one hundred years and see the origin of our Constitution, when we contemplate all its trials and triumphs, when we realize how completely the principles upon which it is based have met every national need and every national peril, how devoutly should we say with Franklin, ‘God governs in the affairs of men,’ and how solemn should be the thought that to us is delivered this ark of the people’s covenant and to us sealed with the test of a century. It has been found sufficient in the past, and it will be found sufficient in all the years to come, if American people are true to their sacred trust. Another centennial day will come, and millions yet unborn will inquire concerning our stewardship and the safety of the Constitution. God grant they may find it unimpaired; and as we rejoice to-day in the patriotism and devotion of those who lived one hundred years ago, so may those who follow us rejoice in our fidelity and love for Constitutional liberty.

Source: President Grover Cleveland
in Philadelphia at the centennial exercises in honor
of the drafting of the Constitution in 1887

Topics: America, Future; America, History; Responsibility; US Constitution

In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

Source: Thomas Jefferson

Topics: Government, Limited; US Constitution

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