Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/121

Rh for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory;

"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever."

This system of holy matrimony, involving covenants for both time and eternity, is known distinctively as Celestial Marriage, and is understood to be the order of marriage that exists in the celestial worlds. This sacred ordinance is administered by the Church to those only who are adjudged to be of worthy life, fit to be admitted to the House of the Lord; for this holy rite, together with others of eternal validity, may be solemnized only within the temples reared and dedicated for such exalted service. Children born to parents thus married under the celestial law are heirs to the Priesthood; "children of the covenant" they are called; no ordinance of adoption or sealing is required to give them place in the blessed posterity of promise.

The Church, however, sanctions and acknowledges legal marriages for time only, and indeed solemnizes such unions between parties who may not be admitted to the House of the Lord, or who voluntarily choose the lesser and temporal order of matrimony.

Within the temple and not elsewhere, are marriages solemnized for and in behalf of parties who are dead. Husbands and wives who have lived in mortality together and now are dead, may be sealed under the authority