The power of God which is work, creative work, as I have defined it, is the foundation stone of salvation, temporally, spiritually, and mentally. The cornerstone on which this great republic rests is that of work and free enterprise. Should the cornerstone deteriorate, the national structure will collapse. The cornerstone must be strengthened and reinforced by greater endeavor, for there is now resting upon this nation a burden of debt the like of which the world has never known before, stupendous beyond the imagination and comprehension of the average mind; and its liquidation, if it is liquidated according to just and honest principles, can only be accomplished through the application of godly power, namely, work on the part of its citizens. This statement is sustained by an excerpt taken from a bulletin published by the Tax Foundation in New York City:

The relation between average earning power and the average debt load on the individual is significant. A large part of the debt is held by banks, insurance companies, and other savings and investment institutions. The future welfare of millions of people depends on the continued solvency of these institutions and that depends on maintaining the value of their assets, including government bonds. But the value of the government bonds depends on the labor and earnings of the people and on their capacity to provide enough taxes to pay the interest and redeem the principal of the debt.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Debt; Economics

A Nation Blessed “Whose God Is The Lord”

May a kind Providence give us the vision and courage necessary to stem these dangerous trends. We need, as we need no other thing, a nationwide repentance of our sins. Never before have we needed the blessings of Almighty God more than today. We need his divine favor in the halls of government, in our homes, in the factories and shops, on the farms and on the battlefields of the world.

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Christianity

When foundation principles are discarded, then shifting, vagrant, opportunistic substitutes for principles take control and precisely because they are opportunistic they must shift with the vagaries of changing popular moods. Stability—a steady march forward toward a fixed goal—no longer is found.

It is for us to stand by the tried and proved principles of religion and the tried and proved governmental principles which have so blessed our land.

Source: Elder Albert E. Bowen
General Conference, October 1944

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

Divine Guidance Necessary In Civil Government

There is a certain disposition among a good many people, and some of our own faith are not entirely free from it, to criticize any pulpit utterance which dwells on major current issues. There are those among us who suspect insidious political intent, if, from the pulpit, even so much as mention of government is made, but religion is of no value whatsoever if it deals only in platitudinous generalities.

We are the children of God, literally. That being the case, God’s word should be uppermost in our minds in trying to bring about worth-while government. Until we as a people in particular, and the sons and daughters of God in general, realize that our civil governments will be failures so long as they are not based upon divine guidance, so long will we continue to have strife, conflict, and bloodshed.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Morality

The other day one of our young men, in most vitriolic language, was denouncing the bureaucracy of our present government, and someone asked him, to his great embarrassment, what a bureaucrat was, and he did not have the slightest idea, but in his home he had heard bureaucrats denounced. Now, that sort of uncritical denunciation is foolish.

It behooves us, as men holding the Priesthood, to examine governmental procedures and if those procedures result in the general good, if those procedures are compatible with the Gospel, the Lord’s word, it is our business to foster them, and if necessary fight for them, just as it is our business to examine governmental procedures, and where we find them out of harmony with the Lord’s word, to fight against them, no matter what high- sounding names those procedures may be given.

Brethren, let us not be discouraged because we are what is called a minority. What is a minority? The Latin has a motto, multum in parvo: “Much in small space.” In the field of biochemistry it has been proved that one part of adrenalin—one of the endocrine secretions—in 100,000 parts of water, will cause certain live tissue to react. In statistical terms that one part in 100,000 is a minority.

Jesus of Nazareth, in terms of the census, was a pitiful, almost a ridiculous, minority; but Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, is the greatest power we know, before whom ultimately every knee shall bow. Let us not be discouraged by the specious argument that we are of relatively little moment because we are a minority.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Education; Responsibility

Power In The Priesthood

We have the Priesthood of Almighty God, and if we are righteous and magnify it, and exercise it, there is no limit to what we can accomplish in the way of good, no matter how great are the mere numbers arrayed against us.

I pray that we may magnify the Priesthood, that we may have vision, that we may not be led astray by mere names, that we shall be able intelligently to examine governmental procedures, and that bringing our judgment to the matter of government, we shall have wisdom and unusual discernment in selecting men for office who will stand for government that is compatible with the gospel.

I have not heard of it, but I hope that in some of our international conferences the men who are our leaders are big enough to get down on their knees and ask for divine guidance. I have not heard that it was done at Casablanca; I have not heard that it was done at Washington; I have not heard that it was done in Quebec. It may have been. I hope it was. But when we can have men who realize that the solution to our problems must be in terms of the word of the Lord, then shall we have just government; then can we fight a just battle.

Source: Elder Joseph F. Smith
General Conference, October 1943

Topics: Christianity; Leadership; Responsibility; Voting

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalms 33:12) So said the Psalmist. This saying it would be well for the people of America to remember.

Source: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference, April 1943

Topics: Christianity

Duty Of Church Members To Be Leaders

There is still a tendency amongst us to place our hope and confidence for economic security in governmental and other welfare agencies rather than in our own industry. We have no business being carried away by the false panaceas of the world. We are the members of the Church of Christ. The Church and its members are to be leaders—not leaners—in the solution of the problems which confront us. We of the Church possess the “everlasting covenant, even the fulness of the gospel” (D.& C. 66:2), which is to be our guide in resolving all issues. On this subject the Lord hath thus spoken:

I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it, and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me. (D. & C. 45:9)

Source: Elder Marion G. Romney
General Conference, April 1943

Topics: Leadership

Joseph Smith was among the first American religionists to declare the Constitution of the United States came into being because God suffered its establishment. Read the words of the Lord to the Prophet Joseph found in section 101, verse 77:

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.

May I be permitted to digress long enough to say that any member of this Church or any citizen of this great republic that advocates the idea that the Constitution of the United States should be relegated to the past is on dangerous ground, for such a proposition destroys one of the fundamentals upon which true religion and democratic government are founded, namely the principle of free agency. Free agency, so far as the Church of Jesus Christ is concerned, is the foundation upon which the whole Gospel plan was formulated in the pre-existent world.

Source: Elder Joseph L. Wirthlin
General Conference, April 1943

Topics: America, Heritage; Free Agency

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