"To such laws as those holy church have recorded, and preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to give credence; for so is, or so says the Common Law, or law of the land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are founded; that is to say, the Common Law, or the law of the land common to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime, law of gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit authority in the special or local cases belonging to them.  The evidence of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books and writings, in like manner as our common law itself is known, the text of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings.  And if it appears, from their ancient books, writings and records, that the bishop, in this case, according to the rules prescribed by these authorities, has done what an ordinary would have done in such case, then we should adjudge it good, otherwise not."

-John Prisot

     Concerning the period of the Creation as recorded in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the bible, it reads, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."  Genesis 2:1-2
 
     To elaborate on the 7 days of Creation, the apostle Peter in the New Testament taught "...be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."  2 Peter 3:8
 
If 1 day with God is 1,000 earth-years and 1 year is 365 days then -
 
365 God days or 1 God year is 365,000 earth-years;
 
1,000 God years is 365,000,000 earth years;
 
7,000 God years is 2,555,000,000 earth years.
 
     Returning to Peter's teachings, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."  In the second part of Peters statement, the 7,000 God-years can then be considered 7 days.
 
    In addition to this the Times and Seasons teaches:  "When the house of Israel begin to come into the glorious mysteries of the kingdom, and find that Jesus Christ, whose goings forth, as the prophets said, have been from of old, from eternity; and that eternity, agreeably to the records found in the catacombs of Egypt, has been going on in this system, (not this world) almost two thousand five hundred and fifty five millions of years; and to know at the same time, that deists, geologists and others are trying to prove that matter must have existed hundreds of thousands of years; -it almost tempts the flesh to fly to God, or muster faith like Enoch to be translated and see and know as we are seen and known!" (Times and Seasons vol. 5, pg 758)

     "In the first thousand years, was witnessed the fall of man; the building up of Zion, when Enoch with all his people, walked with God three hundred and sixty five years on earth, and then were taken up into heaven.
     In the second thousand years, the world was deluged with a flood for its wickedness; the tower was built that man might go to heaven; the language was confounded; the earth divided into continents and oceans; the people scattered upon the face of the whole earth; and America was peopled by the Jaredites.
     In the third thousand years, Pharaoh and his host were swallowed up in the Red Sea; Israel, the chosen of the Lord, was overshadowed by his glory in a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night; and the building of the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem.
     In the fourth thousand years, the ten tribes of Israel were led away captive out of the land of Canaan, and taken to a place by the hand of the Lord that has not yet been discovered by the Gentiles; the Jaredites were destroyed because of their wickedness; Lehi was guided by the matchless power of God to this continent.
     In the fifth thousand years, the Savior of the world was born, crucified, and rose again from the dead; and most of the apostles were slain for preaching the gospel; and Jerusalem was destroyed.
     In the sixth thousand years, America, the land of liberty, choice above all others, was settled by the Gentiles; the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ came forth in the Book of Mormon, the Church established, and the gathering of the saints, commenced, preparatory to the second coming of their Lord, that in the seventh thousand years the earth may rest."

-The Evening and the Morning Star

Article II Section I of the United States Constitution provides the manner in which the executive power of the United States is to be granted to a President and Vice President.  "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress."
     Each state is granted two Senators.  The House of Representatives is allocated by a process known as "reapportionment" based on population changes as recorded each decade by the Census. 
     A slate of Electors representing the number of Representatives and Senators of each state then vote based on the popular vote of that state.  For example the state of Maryland has two Senators and eight Representatives which gives the state of Maryland a total of ten electoral votes.  When the general population of the state of Maryland vote for the President of the United States the majority vote for that candidate is the person the Electors cast their vote for.
     The Electoral College protects against voter fraud on a national level.  It is almost impossible on a national level to completely stop or abolish voter fraud.  The Electoral College process keeps voter fraud in check.  For example the largest cities within the nation tend to sway for a particular political party.  Voter Fraud would increase and be practiced and encouraged within certain areas of the nation if the Electors of the Electoral College were forced to cast their vote for the candidate that won the national level popular vote.  The Electoral College reduces the impact of voter fraud within the Nation.  
     James Wilson (1742-1798), delegate from Pennsylvania and member of the Constitutional Convention concerning the Electoral process stated, "By it we avoid corruption; and we are little exposed to the lesser evils of party intrigue...  The Constitution, with the same view, has directed, that the day on which the electors shall give their votes shall be the same throughout the United States...  With this regulation, it will not be easy to corrupt the electors, and there will be little time or opportunities for tumult or intrigue."     

     We have fallen upon other times than the church of God ever saw before; times in which the same amount of religious and moral influence which once availed to advance the cause of Christ will not enable it to hold its own.  The intellect of man, wakened up to new activity, has burst the chains that bound it, and the barriers that confined it, and with ten-fold means of influence, is going forth in its mightness to agitate society.  Old foundations are broken, and principles and maxims are undergoing a thorough and perilous revision, and that too upon a mighty scale.

-The Evening and the Morning Star

     Mr. Darwin, and a kindred school of modern philosophers, would fain try to impress upon us their theory of evolution, and would have us believe we are descendants from, and only a little in advance of our ancestor, the monkey; and that other inferior grades of animals are aspiring to become monkeys; they fail to demonstrate their theories, simply because they are not demonstratable.
     Where do you find any species except man endowed with the capacity of subduing the earth and controlling the elements upon it?  Moses tells us that God said unto man, have thou dominion over the earth and subdue it, and exercise dominion over all the lesser species of animal life, and over the fruits and herbs which shall be given to you for meat.  Has any other branch of the animal kingdom done this?  When man is first ushered into being, he seems more helpless than the calf or the goat, but in his progress and development he exhibits the power of the Gods; he seizes the elements, and commands them into form and shape to suit his convenience, and to serve his purposes; not only does his superior intelligence cause the king of beasts, and all branches of the animal kingdom, to crouch beneath him, but every element found to exist is at his service; by reason of this divinity in him, in its exercise and development, he chains the lightning, and makes it his servant to flash his thoughts or mandates over the earth; he touches the steam and makes it a motive power to waft him over land and sea.  He makes all the elements within his reach subserve his purposes, and he invents the means by which he controls and handles them.  I use the word "invent" because it suits the pride and vanity of a man a little better; but the more appropriate term, I should say is, inspiration, for no great truth was ever revealed to man that was not an inspiration.

-Erastus Snow

     As the influence of the sun upon the earth; or the light of the moon upon the blackness of night; so is hope to the soul.  It is hope that enkindles the spirits when dimmed by disappointments, and chilled by the cold touch of despair.  It is the boon of heaven to man, and serves as a faithful pilot to guide him through the dark avenues of life, nor ever shrink from the parts assigned it.  Mankind are all inspired by this kind soother of anxious toil - it is coeval with our creation, and as lasting as our existence.  In childhood it amuses; in youth it encourages and animates; in manhood it promises greater preferments and more eminent distinctions; and in the declivity of life, it strengthens and supports - it strews roses on our path way to the tomb, and although the pleasures and allurements of earth may cheat, hope still clings to us with enthusiastic fondness; nor does it wane with the decline of our existence, 'but travels through nor quits us when we die.'  Sweet harbinger of joy!  Life without thee, were a world without light - a deathlike song - a frightful dream!  Where could we flee in adversity but to thee!  When sorrow and sadness pour upon us like a mighty deluge  - when grief corrodes within the breast - when cares perplex the mind, and disappointments bring their train of melancholy, or despair fixes her talons deep upon the heart; it is hope alone that can light up the dark paths of life, and bear us up from shrinking under the heavy hand of affliction.  A well founded hope presents the future illuminated by its own unfading radiance; it refers us to a nobler world than this - to the beautiful shores of immortality; and when the last convulsive throb of nature ceases to beat within the breast, hope with radiant finger points to realms of ever lasting felicity and joys unspeakable.

-The Evening and the Morning Star

     Truth, is the glory of time, and the daughter of eternity; a title of the highest grace, and a note of divine nature; she is the life of religion, the light of love, the grace of wit, and the crown of wisdom; she is the beauty of valor, the brightness of honor, the blessing of reason, and the joy of faith; her truth is pure gold, her time right precious, her word is most glorious; her escence is in God, and her dwelling with his servants; her will in his wisdom, and her work to his glory; she is honored in love, and graced in constancy; in patience admired, and in charity beloved; she is the angel's worship, the virgin's fame, the saints bliss, and the martyr's crown; she is the king's greatness, and his council's goodness; his subjects peace and his kingdom's praise:  her heart never faints, her tongue never trips, her hand never fails, and her faith never fears:  her church is without schism, her city without fraud, her court without vanity, and her kingdom without villany.  In sum, so infinite is her excellence in the construction of all sense; that I will thus only conclude in the wonder of her worth; she is the nature of perfection in the perfection of nature, where God in Christ shews the glory of Christianity.

-The Evening and Morning Star

     The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

     Our nation was founded on prayer, it was preserved by prayer, and we need prayer again.  I plead with you this evening to pray for this country, for our leaders, for our people and for the families that live in this great nation founded by God.  Remember, this country was established and preserved by our founding fathers who repeatedly acknowledged the hand of God through prayer.

-Pres. M. Russell Ballard

     "The apostasy of the Gentiles is a subject, that I believe, is no where disputed in all the professing world - It is acknowledged by all, that the present generation of religious Gentiles is in a state of confusion and distraction:  the cry of heresy, delusion, false prophet, and false christ, which is every where sounded in our land, is testimony to the point, and not only to the point, but is conclusive also, that this generation have departed from the principles of the true faith, and are led by false spirits, and teach one another doctrines which are not according to godliness."

-Messenger and Advocate

     "Every contraceptive act is necessarily contralife.  A couple...in choosing contraception as a means to further a good...necessarily reject a new life.  They imagine that a new person will come to be, and they effectively will that he or she never be.  That will is a contralife will.  Therefore, each and every contraceptive act is necessarily contralife.  The contraceptive acts seeks to impede the beginning of the life of a possible person."

-Anthony McCarthy

     "There is a record in the Talmud of a heretical sect of Jews, called Melchizedekians, who frequented Hebron to worship the body (consult the spirit?) of Adam which was buried in the cave of Machpelah.  In fact, these Melchizedekians, though considered heretics, may have been adherents of a purer undistorted form of worship."

     Man was created to dress the earth, and to cultivate his mind, and glorify God.  It, therefore, cannot be amis for us, at this early period, to urge the disciples of our Lord, to study to shew themselves approved in all things.  For, when a disciple, educated, ever as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel, is guided by the Holy Spirit, he not only edifies his fellow beings correctly, but he improves his faculties agreeable to the will of God.

-The Evening and Morning Star

     As every instrument and every bodily member subserves some partial end, that is to say, some special action, so the whole body must be destined to minister to some plenary sphere of action.  Thus the saw is made for sawing, for sawing is a function, and not sawing for the saw.  Similarly, the body too must somehow or other be made for the soul, and each part of it for some subordinate function, to which it is adapted.

-Aristotle

     Occasionally we extract some of the signs of the times, that those that watch for such appearances, as one evidence that the hour of redemption is near, may not look in vain.  With a confidence unshaken in the promises of the Lord, they can look, forward to the time of their redemption, notwithstanding every nation will have its calamities, and every year its troubles, until the consumption decreed shall make a full end of the wicked.  Although calamity shall cover the mocker, and the scorner be consumed; though the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; though the voice of the Lord goes forth in the whirlwind, in the earthquake, in the tempest, in the thunder, and in the lightning, unto the nations, to warn them to repent, until in his wrath, they are cut off, happy will that man be, who has obeyed the gospel, and put his trust in God, and walked by faith and held out unto the end.

-The Evening and Morning Star

     For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forests, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.  Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire.

2 Nephi 19:18-19

     The incomparable excellency which is in the sacred Scriptures, will fully appear, if we consider the matters contained in them under this threefold capacity.  1. As matters of divine revelation.  2. As a rule of life.  3. As containing that covenant of grace which relates to man's eternal happiness.

     "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see Him as He is."

     God, then, the God of the Bible, ...the person who manifested Himself to Israel...is an individual, a personality, and He made man in His image and His likeness.  Now, if we are the children of God, and if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we can upon that reasoning understand something about what God is like, for there is an eternal principle in heaven and on earth, that every seed begets of its kind, every seed brings forth in its own likeness and character.  The seed of an apple, when it is reproduced, brings forth an apple, and so with a pear, and so with a plum, and so with all the varieties of the vegetable kingdom.  It is the same with all the varieties of the animal kingdom. 
     We do not find any radical change from one species to another.  It is an eternal principle that every seed produces its own kind, not another kind.  And as we are the children of God, we can follow out the idea and perceive what God our Father is, the Being who is the progenitor of our spiritual existence, the being from whom we have sprang.  We being the seed of God, that Being is a personality, an individual, a being in some respects like us, or rather we are made in His image.
     "Man also is spirit," we are told in the revelations of God...Man, the real man, is a spirit, an individual that dwells in a body, a spiritual person clothed upon with earth; a being who will live when the earth goes back to mother dust.  Man's spirit, then, is an individual, a personality, and the spirit is in the likeness and shape of the body which it inhabits.  When the spirit goes out of the body which we now see with our natural eyes.  Spirits living in the flesh, unless operated upon abnormally by some spiritual beings.  A spirit can see spirit.  Spirit ministers to spirit; and when the spirit goes out of the body that spirit can see other spirits, beings of the same character and nature, and we shall find when we have emerged from this body, that we will be in the company of a great many persons like ourselves; and if we should have the experience that the Prophet Joseph had when the mob took him and tore his flesh with their nails, and tried to poison him with a vial of some corrosive substance, if our spirits should be separated from our bodies as his was, we, like him, could look at our bodies and see that they are in form like our living spiritual realities.

-Charles W. Penrose
    

     There are not a few honest enquiring persons, who wish to learn the truth of the Book of Mormon.  To put them in possession of such testimony as may lead to truth, is our duty, and, after stating that this Book contains a record of that branch of the tribe of Joseph which was separated from his brethren, according to the 49th chapter of Genesis, we say read the 37th chapter of Ezekiel and if the Stick of Ephraim, therein mentioned does not mean the Book of Mormon what does it mean?  Isaiah has information, which, if rightly understood, ought to wake the world; the Lord says he will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder, and who dare dispute the Lord?
     Independent of Bible proof on the subject before us, we have the remains of towns, cities, forts etc., which silently declare to the beholder:  We were built by a civilized people.
     As man cannot trust in man, we request all that wish the truth on this great subject, to enquire of the Lord, who will always answer the pure in heart.

-The Evening and the Morning Star

     The purchasing power of earned wages of the worker is greatly diminished by deficit spending, taxation, and the Federal Reserve flooding the market with bills.  The freedom of the worker only stems from a sound currency that provides the greatest purchasing power for their earned money.  A strong dollar promotes liberty.  A weak dollar takes away the liberty of the people and oppresses them.

     "Manifestly nothing is more vital to our supremacy as a nation and to the beneficent purpose of our Government than a sound and stable currency.  Its exposure to degradation should at once arouse to activity the most enlightened statesmanship, and the danger of depreciation in the purchasing power of the wages paid to toil should furnish the strongest incentive to prompt and conservative precaution."

-President Grover Cleveland

     The holders of God's priesthood who are faithful share in the fellowship of foreordination, being called, Alma said, "according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works."  (Alma 13:3.)  You, youth and young adults of the Church, come to this life not only trailing traits and talents from your premortal experience, but you also come having manifested good works in that same earlier experience - from which there is a carry-over commitment.
     You have come to blend capacity and opportunity.  You have come to see fulfilled and to help fulfill certain prophecies.  All of you who have been called to holy callings, according to Alma, are called on account of your faith, here and before.  The special daughters of Zion share in this same unfolding drama, for we can neither succeed without them nor go anywhere in the world to come -  anywhere that really matters - without them.  Believe, therefore, not only in the promises concerning the Church, but in the promises concerning you, individually.

-Neal A. Maxwell

     There is a theory put forth by Mr. Darwin, and others, that is the school of modern philosophers, which is termed in late years, the theory of Evolution, that man in our present state upon the earth, is but the sequence and outgrowth of steady advancement from the lowest order of creation, till the present type of man, and that we have advanced step by step from the lowest order of creation till at last man has been formed upon the earth in our present sphere of action; in short, that our great-grandfathers were apes and monkeys.  And how much satisfaction these philosophers have in the contemplation of their grandfather monkeys, we are left to conjecture; but such are the theories put forth by some of our modern philosophers.  But we find nothing on the earth, or in the earth, nor under the earth, that indicates that any of these monkeys or apes, or any other orders of creation below man have ever accomplished any great exploits.  So far as the history of this earth is known, whether written or unwritten, or whether written in volumes of books, whether engraven upon metallic plates, or whether found impressed in rocks, neither geologists, nor any other scientists have ever been able to show us any great exploits of any of these inferior grades of being to indicate that there was any such vitality in them, as to develop in their future progress, the present order of beings we call man.  But if there is any truth in the history given us by Moses this being we call man, is only God in embryo.  And Moses tells us that the Creator conversed with this man whom he called Adam, consisting of male and female.  He conversed with them, showed himself to them, spoke with them at different times, gave them instructions, gave them his law, visited them repeatedly in their new home, in the place we call the Garden of Eden, the garden that the Lord planted for man- eastward in Eden.  And after he was driven out from the face of his Creator, from the Garden, and the vail was drawn between him and his Creator, yet from time to time God was wont to draw aside that vail and show himself, and we not only find that Adam and Eve had frequent intercourse with their Creator and talked with him personally as we talk with our children and they with us; but we find many of Adam's descendants obtained like privileges of seeing their Creator, and speaking with him, receiving instruction from him.  Enoch, the seventh from Adam, it was said walked with God, and enjoyed this privilege for three hundred years.  From time to time the vail was drawn aside, and whenever he desired, and it was expedient to receive instructions and counsels from his Father and Creator he enjoyed this privilege, and the Father came and showed himself to him and spoke with him.  The same may be said of Noah and of Abraham, who conversed with him, and the Scriptures tell us, furthermore, that Abraham killed the fatted calf, and prepared savory meat for a meal, and set before him and he ate with him.

-Erastus Snow