Topic: Government, Downfall, Matches 12 quotes.

Present day difficulties and perplexities call for individual as well as cooperative effort. To paraphrase Lord Nelson’s famous statement: Now is the time for every man to accept responsibility and to do his duty.

We are today living through one of the really crucial periods of the world’s history, writes the Assistant Secretary of State. Everywhere about us is prodigious change. Old institutions, old beliefs, old ideals are going fast. In this revolution of thought and life, new conceptions and beliefs born of Communism, of Fascism, of state totalitarianism, are competing relentlessly with the older conceptions which we thought were fundamental. The future is literally in our making.

It is a time of disillusionment, of loss of faith, of bitter pessimism. We seem to be slipping backward in the long march of progress. We are in danger of losing part of the precious heritage for which our ancestors fought and gave their lives. Human liberty, democracy, parliamentary government, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, tolerance, faith these in important parts of the world have ceased to exist. Autocracy and dictatorship are demanding men’s allegiance. Political institutions are cracking ominously. Democratic government is fighting for its life. Our whole capitalistic system is under fire. . . .

Even today millions of men are wandering the streets of our great industrial cities, hungry and unable, through no fault of their own, to find work. We are still forced to mortgage unborn generations to care for present want. In the midst of abundance the world is multiplying poverty.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, April 1938

Topics: Freedom, Loss of; Government, Downfall

My brethren and sisters, I have studied the history of the past. I know the story of the rise and fall of Rome, of Babylon, of Egypt, and of other great nations, and the one outstanding thing that brought that about was the corruption of the officials who were placed in charge of affairs of state. I do not wish to continue to quote scripture in order to demonstrate that we are living in a time when the Lord has said that these very things shall exist. But he has warned us against them. He has declared the destiny of this nation and of all other nations. I wish simply to say that if they are to persist, if they continue, it will be when the people return to the Lord God of heaven and in justice and righteousness serve him, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. And if this shall fail these very elements that have resulted in the destruction of the civilizations of the past, if they shall be permitted by us to persist, will eventually bring to us perplexity, confusion and final chaos.

Source: President Anthony W. Ivins
General Conference, October 1930

Topics: Government, Downfall; Responsibility

It is only by the help of the Spirit of the Almighty that will bring us to the point where justice and righteousness can at least approximately be approached. We have had contentions in our own nation during the recent months of railroad strikes, coal strikes, and other contentions that have threatened the very existence of our government; and also there have grown up in our nation, secret organizations, combinations of men, no doubt desiring to protect their own selfsh interests, even though those interests should conflict with the strict principles of justice. Some of these organizations like the Ku Klux Klan have undertaken to administer what they call justice, independent of Constitutional law, and the rights of men, and they have taken the law into their own hands and have dealt with certain people in a way which can only result in disorder, turmoil, strife, and in the breaking down of Constitutional law. For these Secret organizations undertake to administer punishment upon men and women, irrespective of the laws of the land.

Source: Elder Charles W. Nibley
General Conference, October 1922

Topics: Freedom, Threats to; Government, Downfall

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