The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-05-17
THE MORMON'S POLYGAMY.
The Practice Originated With Proph-
ct Joseph Smith-Was At First
Concealed

IllduS 4OSSllOllS SttN P~AAN'AAS
investigation in the case OF Senator
Srnoot before the senate committee
on privileges and elections. All the
evidence has tended to show that the
services are simple-so simple, IN
fact. that the bishop or other official
OF the church has a good deal left to
his discretion as to what he shall say
on those occasions. says the Wash
ington Star.
There was a pretty fiction during
the days when plural marriages were
being performed day and night that
they were often brought about and
desired By the other wives OF the men
who were in that way adding to their
family responsibilities The sacred
books of the church contain signiti-
cant a!lusions TO the admonitions that
are given the wives of Mormons IN
this respect and wives who encourage
polygamy were promised great glory
IN the kingdom to come.
It is declared that if wife should
prevail upon her husband to take ad-
ditional wives .he should do so, but if
she should not so prevail upon him he
should do so anyway, while her resis-
tance to such a course would, it is de-
clared in the revelation, result in her
destruction.
When President Smith was asked
what this ''destruction" meant, wheth-
er it was to take place in this world,
he promptly replied that it didn't
mean destruction" What it does
mean is one of the mysteries OF the
church
While the services themselves are
simple. heir variety and significance
IS great and interesting. The mar
r;acc rite is referred TO as sealing
by the Mormons. and men and women
under the system of polygamy SO gen
orally practiced by them embraced at
least three separate methods of seal
ing" The ambitious Mormon had as
his object in life not only the acqui-
sition Of numerous wives and a multi
tude OF progeny. the memorizlng OF
whose names must have taxed the
best man Of brains. but he had the
other world to look after. His family
there was as great an object as it was
in the material life.
The fact that the family relations
were to be continued, and this doc
trine is as much believed among them
today as ever, made it necessary to
have the greatest care exercised in the
processes of Sealing" so that the
brethren on the other side of Jordan
might not be entangled in complica-
tions to mar their harmonious condi-
ton.
So it is that the system is so devised
that on the other side no two men
shall come into any dispute as to the
possession of their wifely property.
There are "sealings" for time, seal
ings for time and eternity and seal
ings for eternity. A woman can be
sealed for eternity but to one man. 1t
might happen that she would be seal
ed for time and eternity to the same
lord and master, but that was not
necessary condition. A widow, for in
stance. being sealed for both time and
eternity to one man, would finish
servig her "time" when that man
died. Between the death of her hus-
band and her own death there would
still remain a period during which she
might be sealed to some one else.
But that would not in the least inter-
fere with the claim of priority on the
part OF her first husband when he
should meet and greet her on the
other side.
According to the narrative Of Mrs.
Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife
of Brigham Young, who became an
apostate from the church and wrote
the story of her life and suferings in
Mormonism, it was about 1842 that
the Spiritual wife" doctrine was
hinted at by Joseph Smith. The an