I will call the attention of the congregation to a portion of the word
of God contained in the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St.
Matthew. [The speaker read the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 verses.]
I have read these passages of Scripture in order to dwell, this
afternoon, if the Lord will, and his Spirit shall so direct my mind,
upon the subject of marriage, and to show wherein the people called
Latter-day Saints differ in their views from other Christian
denominations in relation to this great and divine ordinance, and to
make such other remarks, not particularly connected with the subject,
as the Spirit of the Lord may direct.
First, however, before taking up this divine ordinance, it may be well
to state, in brief terms, some of the views of the Latter-day Saints
in regard to the doctrine which they have embraced. I shall endeavor
to be very brief on every point, in order to enumerate, as far as
possible, the variety of doctrines and principles which we have
embraced, that are peculiar to us as a people. I will commence by
saying, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not
grown out of the various religious societies that now exist, or that
have existed, in Christendom; neither has it grown out of any of their
institutions. Our Priesthood, our doctrine, our authority, the
organization of our Church, and everything connected therewith, have
been something revealed directly from the heavens. Perhaps you may
inquire—"Have you not been guided more or less in relation to these
principles by the book which is called the Bible?" I answer that, in
the organization of the kingdom of God on the earth in the nineteenth
century, we have been guided by direct revelation to us from heaven.
We do not profess that our doctrines and principles are entirely
distinct and something entirely different from those which are
recorded in the Bible, we are far from making any such profession; but
we believe that the same God who organized his kingdom in ancient
times, and revealed his will to the inhabitants of the earth, has
revealed, in these last days, principles in accordance with
those revealed in former times, and that he is a consistent Being, and
that he would not communicate a Gospel for the inhabitants of the
earth to observe in the 19th century that was not revealed and
understood in former ages. The same Gospel, therefore, which God has
revealed anew in our day, when compared with the Gospel contained in
the New Testament, is found to accord in every principle, and in all
its ordinances and institutions, with ancient Christianity.
This Church was organized on the 6th day of April, 1830. The very day
of the month on which it should be organized was pointed out by new
revelation; the officers that were placed in the Church were
appointed, and the names of many of them were given by new revelation.
The duties of these officers were also appointed by direct revelation
from heaven. God organized the Church with Apostles in it, the same as
he organized his ancient Church; he organized it with Revelators and
with Prophets, inspired from on high, the same as he organized the
ancient Christian Church. He commanded the people to believe in his
Son Jesus Christ, as the great Redeemer who died in the meridian of
time for the sins of mankind. He commanded, by new revelation, that we
should believe in the same Redeemer and in the same atonement; he
commanded us to repent of all our sins, forsake all unrighteousness,
cease to do evil and learn to do well, and to reform our lives in
every respect, the same as he commanded the people in the ancient
dispensation of the Gospel. By new revelation we were commanded to be
baptized by immersion in water, for the remission of our sins, the
same as he commanded the people in ancient times to attend to the same
divine ordinance. By new revelation, he commanded his servants the
Apostles, and those to whom he gave power and authority, to lay hands
on all baptized believers, and to confirm upon them the baptism of
fire and the Holy Ghost, the same as was practiced among the Saints in
ancient times. By new revelation the Lord promised that certain signs
should follow the believers among all nations, kindreds, tongues and
people to whom this Gospel should be sent. All that would believe, men
and women, were promised certain signs, among which I will name that
they should cast out devils, speak with new tongues, and if they
should take up serpents, or drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt
them, they should lay their hands upon the sick and they should
recover. The same promise was made by our Savior under the ancient
dispensation of the Gospel. He commanded his servants, in these days,
to go forth and preach to the Gentile nations first; and when we had
faithfully borne our testimony to them, and they were sufficiently
warned, then we were to turn to the scattered and dispersed remnants
of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, and preach the Gospel to
them. He commanded, by new revelation, that his servants should say
unto the inhabitants of all the earth that would believe, repent, be
baptized, and receive the Gospel of the Son of God, that they should
leave their respective nations, and gather together in one place,
which the Lord, by new revelation, should appoint.
All this was given by new revelation. Does it agree or disagree with
the Scriptures contained in the Bible? Judge ye for yourselves. Did
the ancient Christian Church have inspired Apostles, who had power to
call upon God and receive new reve lation from him? So does the
modern Christian Church, which God has reorganized on the earth; claim
to have the same officers, Apostles, not in name merely, but inspired
from heaven, to receive new revelations, as the ancient Apostles were.
Is there any disagreement, then, between the former pattern and the
latter-day pattern? Did the ancient Christian Church have a multitude
of inspired Prophets, men and women, who could prophesy concerning
future events? So the latter-day Christian Church, organized by new
revelation, has an abundance of Prophets and Prophetesses to whom the
future has been opened, and they foretell future events; hence there
is no disagreement between the ancient pattern and the latter-day
pattern. Did the Apostles lay on hands for the reception of the Holy
Ghost, and did the Spirit of God descend from the heavens, and fall
upon the baptized believers through the laying on of hands? So in the
latter days have the same blessings been given among all the nations
and people and kindreds and tongues, wherever this Gospel has been
preached. No difference, then, so far as this is concerned.
Did the ancient Christian Church have a great variety of members
possessing a variety of spiritual gifts? So does the latter-day
Christian Church believe in the same thing. Did any in the Christian
Church presume, in ancient times, to take unto themselves the
authority of the ministry, without being called of God by new
revelation? Never, no never! All were called by new revelation to
officiate in the various offices of the Church, after the same pattern
that Aaron was called. "No man," says Paul, "taketh this honor unto
himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron." Everybody knows,
from the history given, how Aaron was called by new revelation. Have
any among all the peoples and nations of the earth authority to
administer baptism? Yes. Who are they? Those who are called by new
revelation, and none else. Have any authority to administer the Lord's
Supper among all the Christian nations of the earth? Yes. Who are
they? Those to whom the Lord has spoken, whom the Lord has called as
he called Aaron. Have any Christian denominations who deny new
revelation, authority to administer this sacred ordinance? Not one
upon the face of the whole earth. Are ordinances, administered by
those who deny new revelation, accepted by the Most High? Not one of
them. Why? Because God does not sanction that which is not appointed
by him.
Perhaps some may inquire, if this does not cut off the Christian
Church from the face of the earth? I answer, it does, unless God has a
Christian Church with revelators and Prophets in it, and whose
officers are called by new revelation. Inquires one—"Do you mean to
say that we have had no true Christian Church on the earth for a great
many centuries?" I do mean to say this, unless there have been persons
authorized, according to the requirements of the holy Scriptures. If
we can find a Church anywhere on the face of the earth that has
Apostles in it, and revelators, and inspired men, then we have a true
Christian Church; but if we cannot find this, then we have no such
Church. If we can find a church that has the gifts and the signs
spoken of by the New Testament, we can find a true Christian Church;
but if we can't find such, we have no reason to believe that there is
such a Church on the earth. "But," says one, "we call ourselves
Christians." That is a very easy matter; but calling yourselves
Christians or Christian churches does not make you such. Inquires
one—"Is it not contrary to the Scriptures to suppose that the world
would be left for so many centuries without a Christian Church?" No;
it is in accordance with the Scriptures, for they foretell the
Apostasy, the falling away and the darkness that should reign over the
nations, and show that instead of having true teachers, men would heap
to themselves teachers without authority from God, uninspired men,
whose ears would be turned away from the truth unto fables. This great
apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the
Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until
now. A short time after the death of the last of the Apostles, the
Christian Church, what few of them remained, were persecuted from
mountain to mountain, from den to den, from one cave of the earth to
another, and from nation to nation until they were entirely
exterminated and rooted out of the earth. Well, what was left? An
apostate Christianity, a Christianity without revelators, without any
voice of God, without any Prophets to unfold the future, without
visions, without any communications from the heavens. Apostasy
succeeded the Christian Church and has borne rule over all the nations
of the earth; and these Scriptures have been fulfilled; for they say
that a certain power should arise, and make war with the Saints and
overcome them, and they should be given into the hands of that power.
But is our earth always to be left without the Church and kingdom of
God, and without Apostles, Prophets, or a voice from the heavens? No.
John saw in his vision on Patmos how the Gospel should again be
preached among the nations, after great Babylon should arise, after
she should persecute the Saints and destroy them from the earth, and
present her golden cup full of filthiness and abominations for all
nations to drink thereof.
After he had seen this, he saw how the Christian Church should again
return to the earth. In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation and
sixth verse, he says—"I saw another angel flying through the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on
the earth, unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the
hour of his judgment is come." And another angel followed this one
that had the Gospel, saying—"Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Why?
Because she hath made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of
her fornication.
Immediately after this the Son of Man was seen by John, sitting upon a
white cloud, coming in his glory and power to destroy the nations of
the earth. Here, then, were three great events portrayed by the
ancient Apostle John, which should take place just prior to and at the
time of the coming of the Son of Man. The Gospel is to be brought by
an angel. For whom? For all people. Now, if there had been any people,
nation, kindred, or tongue, in any part of the earth that had the
Gospel, and had the authority to administer its ordinances, there
would be no necessity for this angel's coming, all we would have had
to do, would be to hunt up that people, and there, among them, we
should have found Apostles, Prophets, revelators, and men having power
to call upon God, and get revelation; and then persons would be
called by new revelation to the ministry. But no such people existed,
and hence, when the angel brings the Gospel, it has to be preached to
all people, nations and tongues, under the whole heavens.
Now the Latter-day Saints have happened to live in the day when the
Lord has sent this angel, and when he has again established his
Church, and has commanded his servants to go forth, calling them by
name, to preach the Gospel to the people, without purse and scrip, to
organize his people among all nations and to say unto them—"Gather out
from all these nations unto one place." "But," says one, "what
does
this mean? Did the ancient Apostles and the ancient Christian Churches
gather?" I answer that the same doctrines which they taught are taught
in these days; yet when it comes to some of the great temporal
principles of salvation, God has varied in his plans in every
dispensation. To Noah a command was given to build an ark; that was
the way in which was to be effected the temporal salvation of all
believers in his day. Abraham was commanded to leave his country,
kindred and friends; that was a command of a very different character
to the one given in the dispensation of Noah. In the days of Moses,
another command was given quite different from that given to either
Noah or Abraham, and so on down. In the days of Jesus, so far as
temporal salvation was concerned, the believers were permitted to
remain at Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia and in all the countries wherever
the Christian Church was organized; there was no gathering in that
day. But the last dispensation is to be a dispensation of gathering
together of all of the people of God. It is spoken of by Paul in the
first chapter of his epistle to the Ephe sians, where it is said "that,
in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord will gather
together in one all that are in Christ, whether they be in the heavens
or upon the earth, that they may all be gathered in one."
Now if this angel who brought this Gospel from the heavens, and
commanded this Church to be organized, had left out this gathering
together in one, we would have had reason to suppose him to be an
impostor. Why? Because the great essential feature of the latter-day
dispensation was a gathering together in one of all things in Christ.
That is the reason why these vales are filled with inhabitants of
different nations and tongues; they have heard in different parts of
the earth the sound of the Gospel which God has brought to light in
these latter days by an angel; they heard the voice of the Lord
calling upon them to flee from Babylon, and to gather together in one,
and that is why they are here. This agrees with the testimony of John,
that, after the angel came, the Gospel should be preached to all
nations. He heard a great voice from heaven, saying—"Come out of her,
my people, lest ye be partakers of her sins and receive of her
plagues; for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath
remembered her iniquities." That voice, recollect, was not to be a
cunningly devised fable, got up by a certain number of divines or
theologians, according to their own wisdom; it was to be a voice from
heaven, a new revelation, commanding the people to do this. About a
hundred thousand of the Latter-day Saints, dwelling in this mountain
region, building up towns and cities for some four or five hundred
miles in extent, have heard the voice of the Lord from the heavens and
have gathered out. You have heard the proclamation, when the
latter-day kingdom was established, to take your lamps and go forth to
meet the Bridegroom. Instead of staying in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia, or among the islands of the sea, you have been commanded to
take your lamps and gather out; this is like the fish net that was
cast into the sea, and "gathered all kinds, both good and bad." "Do you
mean to say," says one, "that there are some gathered among you who
are bad?" Yes; if there were not the parable of our Savior would not
be fulfilled. But by and by there will be a sorting out, and the bad
will be cast away unto their own place, while the good will be
gathered into vessels and be saved.
This will be fulfilling the words of the Prophet Isaiah, in the 43rd
chapter—"I will gather them from the east, and from the west, I will
say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back. Bring my
sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even
every one that is called by my name." Says one—"Do you really
think
there will be no Christians left in the north, nor in the south, nor
in the east, nor in the west, but that everyone that is called by the
name of the Lord will be gathered in one?" Yes, that is what we
believe, and that is one of the peculiarities of what the world call
"Mormonism," we do not believe there will be a Christian left on the
whole face of the earth, but what will be gathered together. "Well,"
says one, "if that is true, if Isaiah told the truth about that, and
the day is at hand for his prophecy to be fulfilled, the nations will
truly be in an awful dilemma, when every Christian is gathered out." I
think they will, I think you draw a very correct conclusion.
Why does the Lord gather them out? As the Prophet Isaiah has said in
another place, he gathers them out to the mountains, and they say one
to another—"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the
house of the God of Jacob." What for? "That he may teach us of his
ways, and that we may walk in his paths." It seems, then, that the
Lord will have one people somewhere on the face of the earth, up in
some mountainous region, who are going to teach the nations his ways,
and how to walk in his paths.
Now, if we can find out where that mountain is where the Lord is going
to have a house built, and to which the nations shall gather, it will
be well for us to open our eyes and to see whether we are gathering
together to learn the ways of the Lord.
Perhaps you may enquire, "What peculiarities are to be taught in the
mountains different from what are taught abroad?" I answer,
undoubtedly there will be a great many; and among the rest is that of
marriage, and now we come to the words of our text. You may ask, "Do
you not marry here in the mountains, as we do in the East?" In reply,
I will say, in the first place, that marriage is a divine ordinance,
as you see by the words of my text—"What God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder." Now how does the Lord join together persons
in marriage? Does he ordain a justice of the peace, who avows himself
to be an infidel, and does not believe in God, or his Son Jesus
Christ, or in the Gospel of life and salvation? Has such a man the
authority of God to join the sexes together in marriage? Suppose that
such pronounce the marriage ceremony, what has the Lord to do with it?
Does the Lord inspire the infidel—one who has no faith nor con fidence in him, to join together the sexes in marriage? I think not.
But suppose we pass by the infidel who holds the authority of the
civil law to administer the ordinance of marriage, are there not many
persons among the Christian nations, who do believe in God and his Son
Jesus Christ, who are justices of the peace, and who have authority,
under the civil laws of the country, to administer the ordinance of
marriage? I answer—there are many who hold this authority under their
respective governments; we do not dispute this. The infidel I was
speaking of, who is a justice of the peace, has authority by the laws
of his State or county, to administer and officiate in the ceremony of
marriage. But God has nothing to do with it; it answers the ends of
the civil law, and that is as far as it goes.
Now suppose you take those persons who are not infidels, but who
profess to believe in God, and they hold authority, under their
various governments, to pronounce a man and woman husband and wife,
has the Lord anything to do with that? He has if he has appointed that
minister or justice of the peace; if he has given him a revelation
authorizing him to officiate in the ordinance of marriage, then he has
authority to do it, according to the mind and will of God. But on the
other hand, if God has said nothing to him, he has no divine
authority—and if he is a sectarian he is sure to reject all
revelation, unless it happens to be in the Bible, and the Bible calls
no man by name in the 19th century to officiate in marriage, neither
in baptism nor any of the ordinances of the Gospel—his faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ does not give him divine authority to administer the
ordinance of marriage. Nevertheless the individuals whom he marries
are mar ried according to the laws of the country, and the marriage is
legal so far as the laws of the country are concerned; but if God has
not spoken to those men, if he has not given them revelation
authorizing them to do this, their ceremony, so far as God is
concerned, would be just the same as though it was administered by a
heathen priest, just the same as though it was ministered by an
infidel, for God has nothing to do with it.
Who is it then, that the Lord joins together? It is those who are
married by one authorized of God to officiate in that sacred and holy
ordinance, and the Lord could not do this, without he gave new
revelation; hence you begin to understand what our views are as
Latter-day Saints in regard to the nature of marriage. Inquires
one—"Do you mean to say that there have been no marriages legal in the
sight of God for nearly seventeen hundred years past, among all the
nations?" Yes, that is what we say. Those old and middle-aged men, who
were married in the nations before they heard the sound of the Gospel,
were married legally according to the laws of man, and their marriages
will stand all the controversies of the law, and their children are
legal heirs to their property; but they are not joined together of the
Lord.
Now let us come to a marriage where the Lord officiates. It is
indirectly referred to here, in this 19th chapter of Matthew—"In the
beginning God made them male and female." And who officiated in the
first great marriage ceremony? It was the Lord. Probably, if there had
been any man on the earth at that time who held the keys, authority
and power, the Lord would not have come and officiated directly; but
inasmuch as the marriage was between the first pair who dwelt upon the earth, and there was nobody else to officiate, the Lord
took it in hand to officiate himself; and after he had formed the
woman he brought her to the man, and the man said—"This, now, is bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh, therefore she shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man."
Now let us inquire in regard to the perpetuity of this first marriage,
for all Christendom, and I do not know but all heathendom, have got
the curious idea into their heads that marriage pertains only to this
little speck of time called our present life, and that by and by the
grim monster Death will come along and part man and wife asunder, and
that is the end of the marriage union. Such is the idea of all
Christendom, and that is the way they marry; it is after this form
that justices of the peace, the professed ministers of the Gospel, and
all the judicial authorities of the various states, territories,
nations, countries and empires of the world have officiated in the
marriage ceremony—"I join you together," or, "I pronounce you
husband
and wife," as the case may be, "until death shall you part." Oh
indeed! It is a very short time to be married, is it not? We might die
in the course of a day or two after being married, then the contract
is run out, no more claim after that, according to their ideas. But
now, in relation to this first marriage between Adam and Eve, who were
they? Two immortal beings. What! Does God marry immortal beings? Yes.
We have no account of his coming officially to marry a couple of
mortal beings; I do not know that we have any such account anywhere.
But these two personages, Adam and Eve, were immortal. Says one—"I
never knew before that immortal beings were to be connected as
husbands and wives, I thought marriage pertained to mortality, and
until death should us part, and that was the end of it." I know that
we have had a great many erroneous ideas about baptism, about the
laying on of hands, about marriage, and about a great many things, all
of which came in consequence of the darkness that is spread over the
nations, since ancient Christianity was rooted out of the earth. Two
immortal beings—Adam the bridegroom, Eve the bride, stood up together,
and the Lord gave the bride to the bridegroom. For how long, I wonder?
If he had learned the ceremony of these Protestant and Catholic
denominations, he might have said—"I pronounce you husband and wife
until death shall separate you." No, I think he had never learned
that; death had not then come into our world; the forbidden fruit had
not been eaten then; there were no fallen beings then on the earth, no
mortality yet upon the face of our fair creation, but two immortal
beings who were capable of enduring to all ages of eternity were
united together in marriage.
This, then, was marriage for eternity, not for a little speck of time,
not for a hundred or a thousand years, not for a million years, but
for all eternity, to be as durable in its nature, action and effects
as the immortal beings themselves. "But," inquires one, "are you sure
that Adam and Eve were immortal?" I am; the Scriptures inform me that
by transgression sin came into the world, and death by sin. If sin had
not come into the world there would have been no death. "But, do you
really think that Adam and Eve would have been alive today?" Yes. Can
you reflect in your minds upon a period in the future, when they would
not be immortal, when they would be overcome? Can you point out the time when they would no longer be husband and wife? Never. When
did the Lord give the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, etc.?
He gave it to them as immortal beings. Supposing it had been possible
for Adam and Eve, before they fell, to have had children, what kind of
children would they have been? Would mortal children have descended
from immortality without any transgression? Would people of flesh and
blood and bones come into the world from immortal parents? No. We must
suppose, then, that when God said to Adam and Eve, "be fruitful and
multiply" that he spoke to them as beings that were not fallen.
Perhaps you may enquire, how long would they have multiplied and
fulfilled this commandment? I answer, as long as eternity endures. Can
you tell how long that will be? "Do you mean to say there would be no
end to their increase?" None at all. If they had fulfilled that great
commandment, and had multiplied their posterity, their children would
have been immortal, as well as the parents, and there never would have
been a period throughout all the endless ages of eternity but what
they would have continued to increase their children—their own sons
and daughters.
Perhaps you may say—"I really thought that mankind now, over the face
of the earth, were fulfilling that great first commandment." You have
been highly mistaken; we have not one of us fulfilled it. "Do you mean
to say that all these people here who have been married and have
multiplied sons and daughters throughout all this Territory, have not
been fulfilling the command given to Adam?" Not one pair of us, we
were not in a condition to do it; we shall be by and by, however, when
we get our immortal bodies, as Adam had his. But while we are here, we
are permitted to multiply—what? Poor, weak, pusillanimous, fallen,
sickly bodies, calculated to last at the longest, seventy, eighty, or
a hundred years, and then crumble back to their mother earth. Are you
going to substitute such an offspring as this to fulfill the great
first commandment that was given to immortal man? Oh no, the Lord will
accept no such substitution as this.
But how can we fulfil the commandment then? I will tell you how—be
married for all eternity, as your first parents were, and then, when
you come up in the morning of the first resurrection, and God again
restores to you your bodies, male and female, you can fulfil that
commandment that was given in the beginning, to the first immortal
pair.
Shall we continue to multiply through all eternity? Yes; there never
will be a time when those who are really married for eternity will
cease to multiply their species, not children subject to pain, disease
and death, but children of immortality. Millions on millions will be
multiplied, worlds without end, by each pair of immortal parents, and
their children will be as immortal as themselves. Then the commandment
will be fulfilled.
Perhaps some of you may say—"Your remarks explain a certain passage we
have often read, the 11th chapter of Paul's first epistle to the
Corinthians, and 11th verse, which says—'Neither is the man without
the woman in the Lord, neither is the woman without the man in the
Lord.' We never knew what that meant before, but it seems that you
Latter-day Saints have got a clue to it." It seems then that if we
wish to fulfil the object of our creation, and if we are truly in the
Lord, then we must go into the eternal worlds as married, not
for time; not by some justice of the peace that is an infidel; not by
a man that has no right to join us together under the revelation and
authority of the Most High; but we must be married for eternity by a
man who has the right to speak, being commanded of the Lord, holding
the keys of authority and power, who can say to the man and woman, I
pronounce you husband and wife for time and all eternity. Then you
will be married according to the pattern given; then you will have a
claim upon each other after death. But have married people, in the
nations, a claim upon each other after death? I mean those who have
not been married after the pattern and authority of heaven. By no
means. Their contracts are made only for a little space, some twenty,
thirty, fifty or seventy years, as the case may be, then death comes
along and the contract runs out; and when you come up in the
resurrection who are you? Have you any wife there? Oh, no. Why not?
Because you were not sealed or married, to each other by divine
authority, that is the reason. What position will you occupy? If you
have been pretty good people and have kept the commandments of God as
far as you understood them, and have done well in many respects, you
may have the opportunity of becoming angels; but there is quite a
difference between angels and those who have the privilege of endless
increase, and of being crowned as kings and priests in the eternal
worlds. Whom do you suppose you will reign over? Will you get somebody
else to multiply and spread forth their offspring, and then give that
offspring to you? Will you go to your neighbors and say—"Come, you
were married for eternity when you were back in yonder world and you
have come forth, having a claim to your wife or wives in the morning
of the resurrection. I did not attend to that matter while there, and
I was not married there according to the first pattern that was given
in the Bible, and inasmuch as I failed in doing this will you,
neighbor, give me part of your children? I should like to be a king,
and have some subjects to reign over, will you part with some of your
children?" "Oh no," says the neighbor, "if you neglected, in
yonder
world, the divine ordinances pertaining to the probation, you must
bear the loss, I cannot spare any of my children. They belong to me;
they are under my patriarchal government, they will be my kingdom and
I shall reign over my own offspring forever and ever."
What will this poor man do then? Why he will have to be an old
bachelor, if we may use the expression, and continue that way to all
ages of eternity. He will do for a servant, and they will have a great
many servants there. A man of God has a great kingdom, and his kingdom
spreads forth, and his subjects multiply like the stars of heaven, or
the sands upon the seashore, and he will naturally want some who have
bodies of flesh and bones to go and minister for certain purposes; and
those who have deprived themselves of the benefits of marriage for
eternity, will do first-rate for that, if they have been righteous
enough to get into a position where angels are.
There were some in the days of our Savior righteous enough for that,
but through the apostasy that had prevailed some three centuries
before he came, they had lost the authority of obtaining this higher
glory, and when Jesus spake to them about the resurrection of the
dead, he said—"In the resurrection they neither marry nor are
given in marriage." To whom was he talking? Not to the righteous, but
to some of the members of the pious denominations that happened to
exist in that day, that had in some measure lost the spirit of the
Lord. Such never having been married for eternity in this world could
rise no higher than angels in the next world; and if they became
righteous enough to become celestial angels, they would be servants
forever. Servants to whom? Those that are worthy to receive a kingdom
and a glory, that have attended to their ordinances and to the
commandments of God, and have been led by him in all things pertaining
to marriage as well as other things.
Let us now come to another item that grows out of marriage for
eternity. For instance, there are a great many in this congregation
who were married by the Gentile laws, by justices of the peace and
various other officers, in England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, and in
the various nations of Christendom. They come up here with their
wives, many of them just as good people as can be found anywhere on
the earth. Were they married by divine ordinances? Did God join them
together? No. Are they, therefore, to be condemned? No. Why not?
Because God did not send the word to them. When the word goes forth
from the Lord Almighty to a people, and light comes into a nation and
among a people, then comes condemnation if that light is rejected, but
not till then.
The word of the Lord told you to gather up here. What for? That you
might, among other things, be married according to the law of God. I
am endeavoring to tell you some of our peculiarities. We do believe
that every man who gathers up with the Saints, whether married by the
Gentile law or not, should be married by one holding divine authority
to officiate, and thus have the ordinance, the ministration sealed on
earth that it may be sealed in the heavens; then it will stand; but
everything that is not done by the authority of God will not stand,
but will be shaken; and when the day of the resurrection shall come,
it will only be that which God has appointed that will endure the
test. In that day, when they come up out of their graves, there will
be no chance for people to be married, any more than there will be for
them to be baptized. If people do not get baptized here in this life,
they will have no chance to be baptized there. And Jesus says, that if
you are not born of the water and of the spirit, you cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven, that is, into the highest kingdom, the
highest glory, the third heaven; you cannot enter there, consequently
you must not put off baptism until the resurrection day, and say you
will attend to it then, for that will be too late for baptism, and
also for marriage.
Here is another question. A great many of those good people abroad,
who, with their ancestors, back for seventeen hundred years, while God
had no authority or Church on the earth, have gone down to their
graves, without knowing anything about the pattern of marriage as
recorded here in the Bible, which is eternal in its nature. What are
you going to do with them? I answer, it would look rather hard if
there was no provision made for them, would it not? There are about
seventeen centuries or generations, and if we compute a thousand
million of people for every generation, coming upon and passing away
from the earth, we shall have about fifty thousand million altoge ther, who have gone down to their graves without baptism, without the
administration of the ordinances, without divine authority to
administer in their marriages! Do you suppose that the Lord has made
no provision for all these things? All must have a chance. There is
not an individual that ever lived upon the earth, from the days of
Adam down to this time, whether it was among the heathen or savages,
who never heard of Jesus or of the true God, and who went down to his
grave in total ignorance; there never was a man or woman on the face
of the globe, but what will have an opportunity, either in this life
or in the life to come, to obey and enjoy the benefits of the Gospel
of Salvation.
"But did you not say that there was no opportunity for them to attend
to these ordinances in the life to come?" I did. "Then why did you
say, that there will be an opportunity for them?" There is quite a
difference between having an opportunity, and attending to the
ordinances. You cannot attend to the latter in the life to come.
Parties who have died in this generation or in the generations passed,
without having an opportunity to be baptized by a man holding
authority, will have an opportunity of hearing the Gospel in the life
to come; but they cannot attend personally to the ordinances thereof.
Why? Because God has ordained that men, here in the flesh, shall be
baptized in this life; or, if they die without a knowledge of the
Gospel and its ordinances, that their friends in the flesh, in the day
of his power, when he brings forth the everlasting Gospel, shall
officiate for them, and in their behalf. This is another peculiarity
of the doctrine of the Latter-day Saints—baptism for the dead.
You see a Temple building here, east of this tabernacle, and a great
many inquiries are made respecting the nature of this building. Some
suppose that we are going to hold meetings in it, and preach to the
people; but no, that pertains to the tabernacle. God has pointed out
the uses of a Temple by new revelation, the same as he pointed out the
object of a tabernacle in the days of Moses, and the object of the
Temple of the Lord in the days of Solomon; and among those objects he
has told us that in the basement of the Temple there should be a
baptismal font. What for? That those who are living here on the earth
may be baptized for and in behalf of those who die without a knowledge
of the Gospel.
Does that reach back to all generations who have died in ignorance?
Yes. To all our ancestors? Yes; it reaches back to our fathers, our
grandfathers and their progenitors away back to ancient days, when the
Priesthood was upon the earth. Baptism for the dead! The same thing
was attended to in ancient times, so that we have not got a new
pattern, it is the old pattern renewed. Paul says, in the 15th chapter
of the first of Corinthians—"Else what shall they do who are baptized
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized
for the dead?" Sure enough! It was a strong argument to prove the
resurrection of the dead, that the people who belonged to the ancient
Christian Churches had the privilege of going and being baptized for
those who had died before the Gospel came among them.
Now do you not see that we are not so uncharitable as a great many
would suppose? Instead of sending all the generations who lived in
former ages to hell, because they did not happen to hear the Gospel,
and because there was no Christian Church upon the earth; I say
that, instead of sending them all to an endless hell, God has made
provisions that the living may act for and in behalf of the dead. The
ordinances thus attended to here on the earth in behalf of the dead,
will be recorded and sealed here by proper authority; and what is thus
recorded and sealed here will be recorded and sealed in the heavens in
behalf of those individuals; and if those spirits who are in prison
and in the eternal worlds will repent when the Gospel is taken to
them, they can have the benefit of the ordinances administered for and
in their behalf here, and they will have part in the first
resurrection.
Then again, if baptism for the dead is true, every other divine
ordinance is equally true and necessary for the dead, for one is just
as consistent as the other. The laying on of hands in confirmation
upon a person that is living here in the flesh, for and in behalf of
those who are in their graves, is just as consistent as baptism for
the dead.
Again, if our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, have
died without being married by divine authority, the same authority
that would cause a people to act for the dead in relation to baptism,
would cause them to act for and in behalf of the dead in relation to
their marriage ceremonies too. Such a plan gives them all a chance.
For there are no marryings, nor baptisms, nor confirmations, in and
after the resurrection. The resurrected dead can do none of these
things; but if it is done here for them, and they will accept of it,
it will be acknowledged in the heavens. Hence, here is another
peculiarity of the Latter-day Saints pertaining to the Temple, the
house of the Lord to be built in the tops of the mountains in the
latter days, as Isaiah says in the second chapter—"Many people shall
say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of
the God of Jacob, that he may teach us of his ways, that we may walk
in his paths." A Temple, therefore, instead of being a place for
teaching and preaching, is a place for the administration of holy
ordinances.
Another question. A great many have wondered why so many people in the
eastern, southern and middle States have been stirred up for a number
of years past in searching out their ancestors. Now the Lord does a
great many things unknown to the people, and this is one of them. The
people do not know why they are interested in their ancestry, but they
are wrought upon by some invisible operation, and they feel very
anxious to know about their progenitors. I think that some four
hundred different families have already got extended family records,
tracing their ancestry back from generation to generation to the first
settlements of the New England States, and then back into Old England
if it is possible, to make out the connection. Do they know what they
are doing this for? No; they feel wrought upon, that is all they know
about it. Now I will tell you why it is, for a great many of the
people in this congregation, and many who are scattered through the
villages, towns and settlements in this Territory, emigrated from the
New England States, and they had fathers and mothers, grandfathers and
grandmothers, and ancestors, now in their graves, who were just as
pure, upright, virtuous and honest in their feelings as we their
children are. Now we are going to act for them. We have not time to
search up all these genealogies, but all we have to do is to go and
get the books which the Lord has wrought upon them to get up,
containing the names of hun dreds and thousands of the dead, and
we will receive baptism, confirmation and marriage for eternity, and
all the ordinances of the Gospel for them, that they, if they will
receive what is done for them, may come forth in the resurrection, and
inherit all that their children will inherit. Why? Because they were
worthy of it. Our pilgrim fathers were a good people, just as worthy
as we are, but unfortunately they did not happen to live in the time
that God has set for establishing his kingdom on the earth, and
sending his angels from the heavens.
Thus you see that this Gospel reaches after the dead as well as the
living. Our Savior set the example in regard to this matter, for we
are told that when his body lay in the tomb, his spirit was not idle;
and instead of going off into the heavens and sitting down there for
three days and three nights in perfect idleness, he had something to
do, and while his body lay in the tomb, his spirit went and opened the
prison doors in which were confined those who were drowned in the
flood. What! Were they in prison? Yes. Did Jesus truly visit them?
Yes. Did he preach to them? Yes. Where have we this recorded? In
Peter's declaration. He says that, "Jesus was put to death in the
flesh, but quickened in the spirit, by which he also went and preached
to the spirits which were in prison, which sometime were disobedient
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was preparing." Oh indeed; He went to those old antediluvians
then, that had not received their resurrection, and preached to them.
What did he preach to them? The following verses tell us what he
preached. What would you think he preached? Says one—"If he followed
the ex amples of our sectarian preachers, he would go and tell them
that their doom was irrevocably fixed, that they were cast down to
prison, never to be recovered; that as the tree falls so it lies, and
that there was no hope in their case." Well, that was not the kind of
preaching that Jesus did to the antediluvian spirits. "For, for this
cause," says Peter, "was the Gospel preached to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, and live
according to God in the spirit." Though they were in the spirit world,
without any bodies, yet they had the privilege of hearing the same
Gospel that Jesus preached to those here in the flesh. They could
repent, for that is an act of the mind; they could believe in Jesus,
for that is also an act of the mind; but the spirits could not be
baptized, for that is an act of the body, it is something that
pertains to this life. Jesus could preach repentance to them, he could
preach the same Gospel to those antediluvians that he had preached to
men in the flesh, and they could then be judged according to men in
the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit. Men in the flesh
could be baptized for them, and they could come forth and receive all
the blessings of those who received the Gospel in the flesh.
There are a few more remarks which I would like to make, if time will
permit, upon a subject which grows out of this eternal marriage or
union between the male and the female. For instance, here is a good
young man who courts up a wife in the kingdom of God. He says to her,
"Let us go and be married for time and all eternity, according to the
requirements of heaven." Very well; they are agreed in it; they attend
to the ordinance, and it is sealed upon their heads and recorded for their benefit. We will say that, in the course of two or
three months after this marriage, some accident befalls the wife and
she dies. They loved each other and were married for all eternity, and
he mourns over the fact that in his youth, in the very prime of his
manhood, he is left alone, a widower. Now is it right for him to marry
another wife after having been married to one for time and for all
eternity? Is it right for him again to receive a young lady for a
wife? "Oh, yes," you answer, "it is perfectly right, because that
would not be living with two on the earth at the same time." Very
well, he goes and marries again; and now the question arises, suppose
that they only marry for time, or until death shall part them—we will
suppose this, because the man already has a wife on the other side of
the veil—what is to become of the second wife in the morning of the
resurrection? Can you answer that question? If he only marries her for
time, she has no husband when the resurrection comes. Perhaps she is
just as good a woman as the wife the man married first for all
eternity. What are you going to do with her? Shall she be left in a
condition where she can have no posterity, no endless increase, no
kingdom in connection with a husband, and no husband? Shall she be
left throughout all the future ages of eternity without any such
privilege, while the first wife, no better than she is, is married for
all eternity, and inherits all the blessings arising therefrom? Would
not there be partiality in this? There certainly would. How are you
going to remedy this? We answer, when this widower takes this second
wife, let her also be married to him for time and all eternity, the
same as the first; then, by and by, when the resurrection comes, there
come up the two women. What will you do then? This introduces
plurality into the next life, does it not? Polygamists in the next
world? It certainly does; and these two women, both having received
this man as their husband for all eternity, one of them will now be in
just as good a condition as the other.
Let this principle be extended. There are some cases in life where two
women might die, and a man be still left in his young days without a
wife, and he marries a third and perhaps a fourth; in the resurrection
they are contemporaneously his wives. Plurality, therefore, would be
perfectly consistent in the world to come, but, "Oh," says a
sectarian, "how awful it is in this world!"
Thus you see that the very moment we admit the eternity of marriage,
the very moment that we admit that Adam and Eve were immortal beings,
when they were married, and we undertake to follow that pattern,
plurality necessarily comes along; either marriage has no bearing upon
eternity, and no bearing upon immortality and immortal beings, or else
plurality of wives necessarily must exist in eternity.
Says one—"Turn it about the other way, then we shall have plurality of
husbands." Let me say to the congregation that the object of marriage
is to fulfill the commandment which God gave to immortal beings. Could
a woman multiply faster by having two husbands? Everybody knows that
in this respect there is a difference between the male and the female.
In this life, at any rate, if one woman had two husbands, instead of
making her more fruitful, the probability is that it would prevent her
raising any offspring at all; and if she did, how would the father be
known? And hence, God has strictly forbidden, in this Bible,
plurality of husbands, and proclaimed against it in his law.
I should be glad to touch upon a great many other points, in relation
to plurality, but time will not permit. You have heard partially
explained some of the peculiarities of the faith of the people called
Latter-day Saints. Now what is necessary in regard to polygamists? Our
enemies say, "There should be a law passed that all polygamists should
be shut up in prison from five to ten years, as the case may be, and
pay a heavy fine." Very well; this is the voice of the people. But
does the voice of the people rule in a manner that is inconsistent
with the Constitution of our country, by taking away the rights of the
minority? Is it the order of our government that the minority must
have their rights wrenched from them because the majority decide
against them? Let me ask, suppose the majority of the people should
decide against infant sprinkling, many look upon that with the utmost
horror, and it is only a small minority in our nation that believe in
that awful doctrine, suppose the majority should take it into their
heads that those who practice infant sprinkling should be imprisoned,
they have the same right to do that as to do the other thing which I
have named.
Again, there is a certain class of people, and they are far in the
minority in this great nation, who believe in dancing on the
Sabbath day. I allude to the Shaking Quakers. Would it be right to
pass a law against this small minority, and say they shall be
imprisoned, because the voice of the people in general happens to
denounce their practice of dancing as a crime? "But then," says one,
"polygamy is a crime." Who told you so? Does the Bible tell you so? Oh
no, neither the Old nor the New Testament; no Prophet, no revelator,
no Apostle, no man of God, nor Jesus himself, nor any angel ever
denounced it as a crime, but on the contrary they advocated it, and
the Lord himself administered in this divine ordinance. He gave to
Jacob his four wives and children, so Jacob tells us in Genesis.
Then we might continue and show that every Christian denomination in
the United States possesses peculiarities which the majority do not
believe in, and which they are convinced should be denounced by the
civil law as criminal, and that those who practice such peculiarities
ought to be imprisoned for doing so. But because the majority of
people condemn a principle, that is no proof that it is a crime.
Supposing that the great majority of the people condemned the
principle of baptism by immersion, would it be right to pass laws
punishing those who practice it? No, the Constitution of our country
was framed to protect the people in every item of doctrine that they
might glean out of this Bible, and instead of condemning these
doctrines as criminal, all the States and all the Territories ought to
leave Bible principles as matters of conscience; especially the great
principle of marriage should be left open and free to all, either to
marry one wife, or two or three, or a dozen, as the case may be, only
making laws in relation to criminal abuses of the marital state, and
in regard to property, how it should descend to the children, etc. But
the very moment that they pass laws that are proscriptive and
restrictive in their nature, condemning principles that are not
condemned in the Bible, taking away the privileges of the people to
believe that which is contained in the word of God, religious liberty
is in danger, and there is no telling where that infringement will lead to. By and by they may have a blending of Church and State;
and no one must believe anything, unless it be doctrines or creeds got
up by the State, or by Congress, or by some legislative body; and
everybody must bow to that, or be fined, or imprisoned, or be burned,
butchered, or hung.
That our great, and free country may never be afflicted with such a
species of despotism, is my most earnest prayer. Amen.