Page:History of Utah.djvu/406



3S» MORMONISM AND POLYGAMY.

A sacred duty is the constant effort to convert all men throughout the world to a belief in the divinity

the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses, of your own free will and accord?' 'Yes.' 'In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the author- ity of the holy priesthood, I pronounce you legally and lawfully husband and wife, for time and for all eternity. And I seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection, with power to come forth in the morning of the lirst resur- rection, clothed with glory, immortality, and everlasting lives; and I seal upon you the blessings of thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, and exaltations, together with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And I say unto yoa. Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your prosperity in the day of the Lord Jesus. AH these blessings, together with all other blessings per- taining to the new and everlasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, through your faithfulness unto the end, by the authority of the holy priesthood, in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. Ameu.' 'The scribe then entered the date of the marriage, together with the names of my mother and the one or two friends who accompanied us.' When the marriage is a polygamous one, the wife stands on the left of her husband, and the bride at her left hand. The president then puts this question to the wife: 'Are you willing to give this woman to your husband, to be his lawful and wedded wife for time and for all eternity? If you are, you will manifest it by plac- ing her right hand within the right hand of your husband.' The right hands of the husband and bride being thus joined, the wife takes her husband by the left arm, as in walking, and the ceremony then proceeds as in the manner quoted above. Younrfs Wife No. 19, 388. Mrs Stenhouse, who gave a po- lygamous wife to her husband, states that in her case the cei'emony was per- formed at the altar, her husband kneeling on one side, and the two women opposite him; the wife being required to join the hands of the contracting parties as in the other case; but it does not appear that she afterward took her husband's arm. Indeed, the position of the three would render this im- practicable. See TelL It A II, 453-4. Of course, as these ceremonies took place in the endowment house, the temple robes were worn.

But apart from ordinary n^arriage as known among gentiles, remarriage of converts and polygamous unions, the church in its benelicence, by an addi- tional marriage rite, secures to her children eternal salvation accompanied with permanent positions of rank. This is effected by the ceremony known as spiritual marriage, based upon the following tenets: No unmarried man or woman can be eternally scved. One woman can save one man only; but a man can be instrumental in the salvation of an indefinite number of women. Sealing may be either for the dead, or for those yet alive. Persons sealed on earth need not necessarily live together. Brigham, in a discourse delivered in Nauvoo, Apr. 6, 1845, announces the doctrine in the following language: 'And I would say, as no man can be perfect without the woman, so no wo- man can be perfect without a man to lead her. I tell you the truth as it is in the bosom of eternity ; and I say so to every man upon the face of the earth: if he wishes to be saved, he cannot be saved without a woman by his side. This is spiritual wifeism, that is, the doctrine of spiritual wives.' Times and Seasons, vi. 955. ' No woman can be sealed to two husbands; she nmst choose which it shall be whom she will marry for eternity. The man can be sealed to as many wives as he pleases. If the husband will be baptized for a former husband who perhaps died out of the church, then it leaves the wife at lib- erty to make that choice. If she feels that her second husband is her pref- erence, she can be baptized for some dead female, and have her sealed to her dead husband, so as to secure his conjugal happiness forever.' Mis Richards' Inner Facts, MS., 5. ' If a husband has lost his wife by death, before he had the opportunity of attending to this holy ordinance, and securing her ae Iiis lawful wife for eternity, then it is the duty of the second w ife, hrst, to be