Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/25

* MORMONS. preme Court ruled that religious belief cannot be accepted as a justification for an overt act made criminal by the law of the land. President Hayes, in his message of December, 1879, struck at the root of the matter by declaring that polygamy could only be suppressed by taking away the political power of the sect which en- couraged and sustained it. Like remarks of Presi- dents Garfield and Arthur, in 1881, led to the Edmunds bill of 1882, wliieh provided that no polygamist should be entitled to vote in any Territory or to hold office under the United States. Within two years 12,000 voters were disfranchised by this act, and within eight years 468 persons, mostly in the rural districts, were convicted for pol3'gamy or unlawful cohabitation. When in 1890 the courts declared the ecclesias- tical property confiscated because the Mormon Church was an organized rebellion. Young's suc- cessor. President 'ilford Woodruff, issued a manifesto in which he advised the Latter-Day Saints to "refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." The difficul- ties of obtaining Statehood and the unseating of Congressman Roberts in 1899 led the Church to so modify its views of political dominion as to declare that the Mormons "form not a rival power as against the Union, but an apostolic ministry to it, and their political gospel is State rights and self-government." A late estimate places the nimiber of Mormons in the United States, exclusive of the Reorganized Church, at about 300,000. They are no longer receiving large accessions from foreign propaganda among Teu- tonic races. According to the present official handbook, the religion of the Latter-Day Saints consists of doctrines, commandments, ordinances, and rites revealed from God to the present age. The first principle is faith in God and in .Jesus Christ; the next is repentance from all sin, then follows baptism for the remission of sin, as a ])repara- tion for the gift of the Holy Ghost, Ijestowed by the laying on of hands. Obedience to these prin- ciples is necessary to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Faith in God is the beginning of religion, and confers spiritual gifts such as healings, miracles, tongues, the interpretation of tongues, discern- ment, visions, dreams, prophecy, and revelation. Authority to administer in the name of the Deity must of necessity come from God. This involves revelation. There having been no communication with heaven for hundreds of years, the world was without divine authority to administer gospel ordinances until .Joseph Smith. By .John the Baptist he was ordained to the lesser or Aaronic priesthood, and by Peter. James', and .John to the higher or Melchizedek priesthood, receiving the Holy Apostleship and the keys of the kingdom with power to seal on earth so that it might be sealed in heaven. The religion of the T^atter-Day Saints is progressive. It cannot be defined in a written creed. It is added to by the revelations and the needs of the Church increase. Every member of the Church is entitled to the blessings of divine communion and revelation for his or her own comfort and guidance. Revelations for the whole Church are only given through its President, who is its earthly head and holds the keys of the kingdom. Among the later revela- tions to the Church are the doctrines of baptism 13 MORMONS. for the dead and of celestial marriage. As there was no authority among men to administer the ordinances of the gospel from the days of the early Apostles or shortly after, to the time of the restoration of the priesthood to Joseph Smith the Prophet, all the baptisms during the inter- vening period were void. The friends of the dead, however, are permitted to take their names and be baptized in their stead, the ceremony being duly witnessed and recorded on earth and accepted and ratified in heaven. Other ordinances may also be admitted by proxy, the living in behalf of the dead. Celestial marriage is' marriage unto all eter- nity. According to the revelation on this sub- ject all the marriages entered into without divine authority are dissolved by death. Celestial mar- riage is entered into by those who have obeyed the gospel and become the sons and daughters of God by adoption. The woman is given to the man and thej' become one flesh. That which is thus sealed on earth is sealed in heaven, and is as valid as though performed in person by the Deity. If a wife thus sealed to her hu.sband should precede him in death, it would be his privilege to wed another. The second wife, or third, if the second should die, would be sealed to him in the same manner as the first. They would all be his equally. In the resurrection he would have three wives, with their children, be- longing to him in the everlasting covenant. The revelation on celestial marriage declares that if given to man in the everlasting covenant in the way appointed of God, he is not under condemna- tion, but is justified in receiving more wives than one. They are sealed to him and become his, and he cannot commit adultery with them because they are his and his alone. None of them are concubines or mistresses, or mere min- isters of lust. Celestial marriage in its fullness is ordained of God. It is an establishment ot religion. It is ecclesiastical in its nature and government. It is therefore outside the domain of constitutional law. Being within the pale of the Church, its free exercise cannot of right be prohibited. The ISIormon system of proselyting is simple. Twice each year, at the annual and semi-annual conferences held in Salt Lake City, a number of the faithful elders of the Church are selected by the authorities and 'called' by the assembled saints to visit the home or the foreign field. They travel at their own charges. Each mission is presided over by some elder selected by the general authorities of the Church, and the minor divisions of branches and conferences have their proper officers. The Utah missionaries remain in their fields of labor from two to four years and until released by competent authority to re- turn home. Mormon missionaries have gone to every State and Territory of the Union, also to Canada. Mexico, the Antilles, Brazil and Peru, Great Britain, Germany. Switzerland. France, Italy. Denmark. Sweden. Norway, Iceland. Fin- land, South Africa, India, the East Indies. China, Australia, New Zealand, the Society Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands. The Church has an or- ganization known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company, which makes advances of money to assist the faithful to Utah and adjoining dis- tricts. The Mormon hierarchy is complicated. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowderv were the first two
 * f God as the capacities of the Saints enlarge