Much has been said during this conference relative to law and order. It seems to me that the Latter-day Saints have been taught from their youth that the Constitution of the United States, and that great document of human rights, the Declaration of Independence, were written by men inspired of our heavenly father. Mr. Babson said recently, “The United States of America at the present time is blessed with everything except religion.” I feel that not only as a nation, but sometimes as a people, the thing we need most is a return to simple faith in God our Father. We need in our home-lives more of the Spirit of God to lead and guide us. We need to have more family prayer. We need to pray in the spirit and meaning of the word.

Source: Elder Henry A. Gardner
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Righteousness

The theme of this conference has been, obey the law. Some of us know enough to obey the law, for we appreciate that through obedience to law we are blessed. There are others who feel that it is proper to obey the law when there is danger in breaking the law of being caught and punished; some who obey the law when it is convenient; for that reason, it is necessary that we should have peace officers to protect those who are peace-loving, just and honest. When men cultivate the Spirit of God, when they learn to love God, when they can put out of their souls and their very lives, the spirit of selfishness, covetousness and envy, then will the need of peace officers be lessened and perhaps done away. But as long as individuals are seeking their own ends, regardless of the effect of their actions upon the peace and safety of others, we cannot hope for that condition which God has promised to come through our obedience to his laws. As long as that condition exists, it will be necessary to have peace officers and armes.

Source: Elder David A. Smith
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Law, Respect For

God bless the people, God bless our country. Instill in the hearts of the American people a greater love, if possible, in the future than in the past, of the great Constitution of this land. I feel in my soul that the time will never come in all the history of the world, be it short or be it long, that this people will deny that the Constitution of the United States came from God himself through men raised up for the purpose of establishing it and building upon it the greatest nation on earth. God be with us, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Source: Elder Reed Smoot
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Freedom, Loss of

A Warning Voice Against Evil

It is pleasing to know that the Latter-day Saints are loyal, as a people, to the Government, to the Constitution, and that they observe the law. Moreover, it is well to have our attention called to the duties and responsibilities that are ours as members of the Church, and to have the warning voice raised, from time to time, against the evils that prevail in the world that we may be prepared to resist them.

Source: Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference, October 1927

Topics: Law, Respect For; Responsibility

Recall the new star that announced the birth at Bethlehem? It was in its precise orbit long before it so shone. We are likewise placed in human orbits to illuminate. Divine correlation functions not only in the cosmos but on this planet, too. After all, the Book of Mormon plates were not buried in Belgium, only to have Joseph Smith born centuries later in distant Bombay.

The raising up of that constellation of “wise” Founding Fathers to produce America’s remarkable Constitution, whose rights and protection belong to “every man,” was not a random thing either (see D&C 101:77-78, 80). One historian called our Founding Fathers “the most remarkable generation of public men in the history of the United States or perhaps of any other nation” (Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Birth of the Nation [1968], 245). Another historian added, “It would be invaluable if we could know what produced this burst of talent from a base of only two and a half million inhabitants” (Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam [1984], 18).

Source: Elder Neal A. Maxwell
General Conference, October 2002

Topics: America, History

Speaking of philosophy, I must tell another little story, for I was almost buried up in it while I was in Paris. I was walking about one day in the Jardin des Plantes—a splendid garden. There they had a sort of exceedingly light cake; it was so thin and light that you could blow it away, and you could eat all day of it, and never be satisfied. Somebody asked me what the name of that was. I said, I don’t know the proper name, but in the absence of one, I can give it a name—I will call it philosophy, or fried froth, which you like. It is so light you can blow it away, eat it all day, and at night be as far from being satisfied as when you began.

There are a great many false principles in the world, and as I said before, whether you examine their religion, their philosophy, their politics, or their national policy, you will find it a mess of complete baby work, there is nothing substantial about it, nothing to take hold of.

Source: John Taylor
Journal of Discourses, Vol.1, p.27, August 22, 1852

Topics: Principles

The mission of Orson Hyde is well known to the Latter-day Saints; how, under very great difficulties, trials and hardships, he made his way to Jerusalem, went to the summit of the Mount of Olives,and there wrote out a prayer that God put into his heart, dedicating the land of Palestine for the return of the Jews, and for the renewal of their national existence. That prayer—and it is a most wonderful prayer—has been published many times in our periodicals. It is published also in the History of the Church, which is derived chiefly from the office journal of the Prophet Joseph. Orson Hyde, returning from his mission when in Alexandria, also wrote to the Millennial Star of the then current date and there made a rather wonderful prediction. He said in substance that it was by political power that Judah had been broken and scattered abroad, and that it would be by the exercise of political power that Judah would be restored; and furthermore he declared that England would be the leading national power that would befriend Judah, and aid him in the re-establishment of his people in the land of Palestine. This was published in the Millennial Star of 1842, and may be found by those curious enough to seek for he source of this information.

Source: Elder Brigham H. Roberts
General Conference, April 1927

Topics: Politics

There has been ushered into the world a new force in history, and this was accomplished a hundred years ago by a barefoot boy, a child, who hardly had enough to eat, but who had linked his life with God’s. His name was Joseph Smith. He was the “Mormon” prophet, the prophet of this new dispensation, and was born at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was a new age of the world’s history. The government of the United States had been organized. The common man had come into his own. The government under which we live had acclaimed for the first time in all history that man is endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The constitution of the United States had written large: “We, the people”! It was the common man who was speaking, the man upon whose shoulders rested the great work of the new age. So this new prophet come at an opportune time, for a new age had come; a new age for the extending of the message of Christ Jesus our Lord was to be usherd in.

Source: Elder Levi Edgar Young
General Conference, April 1927

Topics: America, History

In the time of our peace and prosperity, we may be tempted to be indulgent with ourselves. All over the world, I believe there is a growing spirit, even in the hearts of many leaders, to become careless, to become more or less accustomed to the new order of things that obtain. This, after all, is most threatening to the life, to the peace of the people and to the stability of even governments themselves.

Source: Elder Melvin J. Ballard
General Conference, April 1927

Topics: Self Control

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