Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-13

believer in the New Gospel, and the girls
careless words panied her. g | am sorry,
Nora, that you had no higher motive in
coming" she said gravely.
"And what motive should have, pray :"
"The salvation of your soul"
Nora laughed lightly. "That is some
thing that can attend to by and by" she
said. "They told me hundred times.
when we were crossing the plains, that l
could be saved by being sealed to one of
the brethren. l don't know just what
they meant. but shall have plenty of time
to find out if spend my life here, as L sup
pose l must.
Il see it is 20 use to talk to you, Nora.
You will never be serious.
Yet while she treated the girl's words as
Jest, she found herself wondering many
times what they meant.
what do you think of Nora?" she
asked her husband few days later.
81 think her rather pert and forward, "
was the reply, land am almost sorry
you were so ready to offer her home.
"Oh, don't say that Suppose one of
our own girls should some time be friend
lees in strange land. am sure l did
right, and only asked your opinion of her
because have been thinking of something
she said. She told me she had been taught
that she could be saved by being sealed to
one of the brethren. Do you imagine that
she was in earnest? ?"
"Without doubt. You did not hear
anything of the sort on the plains, but
did,"
"Nora says she don't know exactly what
| sealing means, and /"
"You don't know either, of course, but
l can enlighten you. 1t means marriage
for eternity"
"Aud what becomes of the unmarried?
I" None are to be left in that state. II
there are more women than men in the
community, one man is to take several
wives"
"That explains something the children
were telling me about the poor old woman
in the cabin above US, who works in the
fields like a day-laborer. They said she
lived alone because her husband and his
other wife had gone South. wish had
known these things before"
"And if you had, what then, If we
accept the New Gospel we must accept it
as whole"
eyes; but"-and the wife's face grew
very white" there may be some require.
msnts that AN not strong enough to com
ply with. If you should take another
wife it would kill me"
Lucy, you silly child, what has put
such an absurd idea into your head
have all that can do to care for one wife.
Pray don't suggest that l should take hall
dozen p
I The conversation was interrupted at this
point by the noisy entrance Of three of the
children followed by Nora. The girl had
improved wonderfully in the short time
that she had been with them. She was
really pretty, and to-day Mrs. Sheldon no.
ticed, with curious feeling of disapproba
ton that she had curled her hair, and
frightened her attire by knot of gay rib.
I bon. She chided herself for this feeling
the next moment, and by way of rebuking
it still farther, bought Nora more becom.
ing dress the first time she was able to go
| out.
"Why should blame the child for wish.
ing to look pretty?" she said to herself.
"She is young, and it is right that she
should feel as she does"
Yet in spite of this reasoning, Nora's
evident fondness for admiration troubled
her. She wished the girl would be more
serious. She wished, especially, that she
would not Jest 30 much about marriage.
"When you are well enough to go to the
Tabernacle yourself" Nora said one day,
after being reproved for this tendency,
"you will not blame me. Marriage is the
only thing talked of there"
| Nora was right, as Mrs. Sheldon found.
At the Tabernacle, at the ward meetings,
and at every gathering of the people, celes-
tial marriage was urged as duty that could
not safely be neglected.
"It is the duty of woman to give other
wives to her husband, even as Sarah gave
Hagar to Abraham but if she refuse then
it shall be lawful for the husband to take
them without her consent, and she shall be
destroyed for her disobedience.
This was the text from which innumera-
bic sermons were preached, not only in pub
lie gatherings, but at the firesides of the
people. No household was exempt from
the visits of the teachers, whose business
it was to inquire how the celestial law was
obeyed in each family.
Lucy" Mr.. Sheldon said after one of
these visits, "what do you think of this
new doctrine now ?"
al can only say, as l did at first" she
replied, "that if you should take another
wife it would kill me"
"That is not the question. What want
to know is whether you think the law of
celestial marriage is Divine command
binding on all p
81 cannot say 1 believe it is Divine
command. l only fear it may be-"
Her husband looked at her moment in
silence, then he said slowly:
am sure it is command of God, but
am not ready to obey it."
Lucy Sheldons face blanched, and her
breath came and went in short, quick gasps
II her husband had deliberately planned to
bring her to the point of urging him to
take another wife he could not have chosen
better way. The thought that she might
be fighting against God was terrible to one
of her acute religious sensibilities. The
words she had been compelled to listen to
so often rang in her ears 1t is the duty
of woman to give other wives to her hus.
band" It seemed almost as though they
were spoken from above in an audible
voice. 1t was moment of supreme mis-.
cry. Could she, dared she, disobey God ?
Then her woman's nature asserted itself,
and with sudden revulsion of feeling she
cried out
SIT is not Of God. He never would
command anything so monstrous - SO
cruel p
81 wish l could think 3d." her husband
answered gravely; and without another
word he left the room.
Five minutes later Nora came in hum
ming lively air. care you going to the
meeting tonight ?" she asked.
1" think not; but why do You wish to
known
Because, if you mean to stay at home
1 would like to go. Can you spare me ,"
"Of course can there is nothing to do
in the evening"
Mrs. Sheldon spoke sharply. The girls
careless gsyety hurt her. In her present
mood it was like
1.-THE sun let in suddenly upon sick eyes"
"She is as merry ss if there was no such
thing in the world as duty-and no such
thing as sorrow." This was the elder