Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-14
PLURAL MARRIAGES
Incidents in the Life of the
Prophet Joseph.
OWN E RBVEL ALTON
WITHHELD FROM PUBLIC FOR
TEN YEARS.
Women at First Rebelled Against
Polygamy-Religious Fervor
Brought Obedience.
DIVINE REVELATION


rhe marriage services of the Mormon
Church have been the subject of many
questions during the pending investigation
in the case of Senator Smoot before the
senate committee on privileges and cleo
tions 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 discre-
ton as to what he shall say on those occa-
sions.
There was a pretty fiction during the
days when plural marriages were being per-
formed 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 signifi-
cant illusions to the admonitions that are
given the wives of Mormons in that re-
spect and wives who encouraged polygamy
were promised great glory in the kingdom
to come.
1t is declared that if wife should prevail
upon her husband to take additional wives
he should do so. but if she should not so
prevail upon him he should do so anyway,
while her resistance to such course would,
it is declared in the revelation result in
her destruction.
When President Smith was asked what
this destruction meant. whether 1t was
to take place in this world he promptly re-
piled that it didn't mean destruction"
What 1t does mean is one of the mysteries
OF the church
Sealing" of the Faithful.
While the services themselves are simple,
their variety and significance is great and
interesting. The marriage rite is referred
to as sealing by the Mormons. and men
and women under the system of polygamy
so generally practiced by them embraced at
least three separate methods of sealing:
The ambitious Mormon had as his object In
life not only the acquisition of numerous
wives and multitude of progeny, the
memorizing of whose names must have
taxed the best 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 doctrine Is as much
believed among them today as ever, made
it necessary to have the greatest care eXer-
cised in the processes of sealing" so that
the brethren on the other side of Jordan
might not be entangled in complications to
mar their harmonious condition.
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" Seaings for time and eternity
and sealings for eternity. A woman can be
sealed for eternity to but man. 1t might
happen that she would be sealed for time
and eternity to the same lord and master,
but that was not a necessary condition A
widow, for instance. being sealed for both
time and eternity to one man. would finish
serving her time" when that man died. Be
tween the death of her husband 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
interfere with the claim of priority on the
part of her first husband when he should
meet and greet her on the other side:
The Nineteenth Wife.
According to the narrative of Mrs. Ann
Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brig
ham Young. who became an apostate from
the church and wrote the story of her life
and suiferings in Mormonism, it was about
1912 that the spiritual wife doctrine was
limited at by Joseph Smith. The announce
ment caused a great apostacy and divided
the church against itself.
William Law. one of Smiths counsellors
and warmest friends, in that year accused
Smith in Illinois of making proposals to his
wife in effect that he had a revelation that
the Lord had commanded that he should
take spiritual wives to add to his
glory. and that he had visited his first wife
while he knew that he absent. Mrs.
Law testified that Smith had asked her to
give him half of her love and to keep the
other half for her husband
Smith and his adherents retaliated by
charging the apostateS with the grossest
immortality. Law and some of his followers
started newspaper to expose the course
OF Smith. but only one issue was published
the printing office being destroyed by the
Mormons.
Ii was to silence the loud protests that
were coming from some of the faithful
who had no idea when they Joined Nor
monism that the taking of plural wives was
ever to be one of it's tenetS,~ that the doc
trine of polygamy was given the faithful
in Zion, but was not made public generally
1t was a revelation that explained some of
the tendencies of the Prophet Smith. Among
the saints 1t was received reluctantly and
many of the women openly rebelled. But
II was a revelation from the Lord. and it
commanded the attention of the fanatics
and later their obedience Thus saith the
Lord" was the stamp cpproval that was
not to be disputed
Celestial Marriage.
The career of the Prophet Joseph after
producing his celestial marriage reyela-
ton was short. He was sought by the
authorities and was inauced to surrender.
He was wanted on various charges. He
was placed in the Carthage jail 1t was
feared by his followc- that an attempt
would be made to massacre him in prison
but the governor of the state seemed to
fear no such result. and no extra guards
were provided While in the iail the
prophet and his brother Hyrum were assas-
sinatcd. President Smith. who is today at
the head of the Mormon Church is the son
of Hyrum, who met his death in the Garth
age Jail.
The revelation on celestial marriage"
was not publicly announced until 1852 and
then it was stated by Brigham Young that
Smith had first produced it in 1s43 1t has
been claimed that there were hints at this
doctrine at a much earlier date. The nine
tecnth Mrs. Brigham loung claimed that
the first public announcement made by
Smith of his belief in plural wives was at
Nauvoo, in 1910. In a sermon one Sunday