Page:History of Utah.djvu/404



cial system being in the hands of the bishopric, but supervised by tlie trustee in trust through the aid of an auditing committee. The names of those who do not keep the law of tithing shall not be enrolled with the people of God; neither shall their genealogy be kept.

The doctrine of divine revelation is continued. God's ways are immutable; past and present to him are as one; what he has done, that he continues to do; what was right five thousand years ago is right now. If God spoke to Abraham and Solomon, and gave them more wives than one, even giving to David his neighbor's wives, there is no reason why he should not do the same with Joseph and Brigham. There is nothing which God has ever done and sanctioned that he may not do and sanction now; otherwise he is not an omniscient, omnipotent, unchangeable, all-wise, and perfect being. Every member of the church may hold communion with God relative to his own aifairs; revelations for the church are only given through its head.

As through Christ alone man may be saved, in order that the souls of many millions who never heard of him may not be all of them lost, baptism for the dead, and thereby salvation, was revealed, as was also celestial marriage.

Nature is dual. An unmarried man or woman is and forever must be an imperfect creature. There are marriages for time and marriages for eternity. A celestial marriage is a marriage of God, and those thus

ble, and other church purposes, by the members of other religious bodies, is clearly an ecclesiastical matter, with which, as law-makers, we have nothing whatever to do, so long as the free exercise thereof does not interfere with the rights and liberties of others. Tithing is not, as we understand it, a new doctrine, for, as a religious i^rivilege and duty, Abraham paid tithes to Mclchisedck about four thousand years ago. Wc arc not aware, however, that exactions of tithings arc made in this territory, even by ecclesiastical authority; but supposing they were, there is no law by which payment can be enforced, nor is it likely there ever will be, for it is a matter not within t!ie constitutional province of legislative enactment. If any citizen in the territory feels aggrieved by reason of the payment of tithes or other church donations, he holds the remedy in his own hands by simj)ly renouncing con- nection with any religious body requiring such dona