I am very grateful today that prayer has played such an important part in the establishment of this great nation. To every Latter-day Saint this nation has a prophetic history. Ancient American prophets predicted the coming forth of this nation and the establishment of the Constitution of this land. You can read in that sacred volume, the Book of Mormon, prophecies made centuries before this nation was established regarding the coming of Columbus and the Pilgrim fathers. Ancient prophets said these would humble themselves before the Lord. I have always been very grateful in reading the official records to find that they did humble themselves before the Lord; that their first official act in coming to these shores was to go on to their knees in humble gratitude and thanksgiving to the Lord.

The Founding Fathers, in order that their new experiment make sense, had to turn to religion, had to turn to the scriptures, had to turn to the prophecies the Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount. Then when the time came for the establishment of the Constitution and when the time came for them to issue their Declaration of Independence, a sacred document issued in white heat on the anvil of defiance, they appealed to the Almighty, both at the opening of that document and at its closing. They spoke of eternal truths. They spoke of the fact that men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, about which President Clark spoke so beautifully last evening.