Chapter IX (2)

15. David’s wives and concubines were given unto him, of me, by the
hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the
keys of this power; and in none of these things did he sin against
me, save in the case of Uriah and his wife; and therefore he hath
fallen from his exaltation, and received his portion; and he shall
not inherit them out of the world; for I gave them unto another,
saith the Lord.

16. I am the Lord thy God, and I gave unto thee, my servant Joseph,
an appointment, and to restore all things; ask what ye will, and
it shall be given unto you, according to my word; and as ye have
asked concerning adultery, verily, verily I say unto you, if a man
receiveth a wife in the new and everlasting covenant, and if she
be with another man, and I have not appointed unto her by the holy
anointing, she hath committed adultery, and shall be destroyed. If
she be not in the new and everlasting covenant, and she be with
another man, she has committed adultery; and if her husband be with
another woman, and he was under a vow, he hath broken his vow, and
hath committed adultery; and if she hath not committed adultery, but
is innocent, and hath not broken her vow, and she knoweth it, and I
reveal it unto you, my servant Joseph, then shall you have power,
by the power of my holy priesthood, to take her and give her unto
him that hath not committed adultery, but hath been faithful, for he
shall be made ruler over many; for I have conferred upon you the keys
and power of the priesthood, wherein I restore all things, and make
known unto you all things in due time.

17. And verily, verily I say unto you, that whatsoever you seal on
earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever you bind on earth, in
my name and by my word, saith the Lord, it shall be eternally bound
in the heavens; and whosesoever sins you remit on earth, shall be
remitted eternally in the heavens; and whosesoever sins ye retain on
earth, shall be retained in heaven.

18. And again, verily I say, whomsoever you bless I will bless, and
whomsoever you curse I will curse, saith the Lord; for I, the Lord,
am thy God.

19. And again, verily I say unto you, my servant Joseph, that
whatsoever you give on earth, and to whomsoever you give any one on
earth, by my word, and according to my law, it shall be visited with
blessings, and not cursings, and with my power, saith the Lord, and
shall be without condemnation on earth and in heaven; for I am the
Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world,
and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation,
and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father with Abraham
your father. Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive
all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which
I have told you: go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as
I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.

20. Verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto mine handmaid,
Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay
herself, and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer
unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I
did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand by
covenant and sacrifice; and let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive
all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are
virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have
said they are pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God; for I
am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice: and I give unto my
servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things, for he
hath been faithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will
strengthen him.

21. And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto
my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this
commandment, she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the
Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law; but
if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph
do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him,
and multiply him, and give unto him an hundred-fold in this world, of
fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives
and children, and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds. And
again, verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his
trespasses, and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses wherein she
has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her
and multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice.

22. And again I say, let not my servant Joseph put his property out
of his hands, lest an enemy come and destroy him, for Satan seeketh
to destroy; for I am the Lord thy God, and he is my servant; and
behold, and lo, I am with him, as I was with Abraham thy father, even
unto his exaltation and glory.

23. Now, as touching the law of the priesthood, there are many things
pertaining thereunto. Verily, if a man be called of my Father, as was
Aaron, by mine own voice, and by the voice of him that sent me, and I
have endowed him with the keys of the power of this priesthood, if he
do any thing in my name, and according to my law, and by my word, he
will not commit sin, and I will justify him. Let no one, therefore,
set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him; for he shall do the
sacrifice which I require at his hands, for his transgressions, saith
the Lord your God.

24. And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood: If any man
espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give
her consent; and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and
have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he can not commit
adultery, for they are given unto him; for he can not commit adultery
with that that belongeth unto them, and to none else: and if he have
ten virgins given unto him by this law, he can not commit adultery,
for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is
he justified. But if one, or either of the ten virgins, after she
is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery,
and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and
replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfill the
promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the
world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may
bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued,
that he may be glorified.

25. And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife
who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of
my priesthood as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe,
and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord
your God; for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon
all those who receive and abide in my law. Therefore it shall be
lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all
things whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because
she did not believe and administer unto him, according to my word;
and she then becomes the transgressor, and he is exempt from the law
of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law, when I
commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife. And now, as pertaining to
this law: Verily, verily I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you
hereafter; therefore let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am
Alpha and Omega. Amen.

Following the revelation is this explanation:

[POLYGAMY EXPLAINED.]

PLURALITY OF WIVES is a doctrine very popular among most of mankind
at the present day. It is practiced by the most powerful nations
of Asia and Africa, and by numerous nations inhabiting the islands
of the sea, and by the aboriginal nations of the great western
hemisphere. The one-wife system is confined principally to a few
small nations inhabiting Europe, and to those who are of European
origin inhabiting America. It is estimated by the most able
historians of our day that about four fifths of the population of the
globe believe and practice, according to their respective laws, the
doctrine of a plurality of wives. If the popularity of a doctrine
is in proportion to the numbers who believe in it, then it follows
that the _plurality system_ is four times more popular among the
inhabitants of the earth than the _one-wife system_.

Those nations who practice the plurality doctrine consider it as
virtuous and as right for one man to have many wives as to have one
only. Therefore they have enacted laws not only giving this right to
their citizens, but also protecting them in it, and punishing all
those who infringe upon the chastity of the marriage covenant by
committing adultery with any one of the wives of his neighbor. Those
nations do not consider it possible for a man to commit adultery
with any one of those women to whom he has been legally married
according to their laws. The posterity raised up unto the husband
through each of his wives are all considered to be legitimate, and
provisions are made in their laws for those children the same as if
they were the children of one wife. Adulteries, fornications, and
all unvirtuous conduct between the sexes are severely punished by
them. Indeed, plurality among them is considered not only virtuous
and right, but a great check or preventive against adulteries and
unlawful connections, which are among the greatest evils with which
nations are cursed, producing a vast amount of suffering and misery,
devastation and death; undermining the very foundations of happiness,
and destroying the frame-work of society and the peace of the
domestic circle.

Some of the nations of Europe who believe in the one-wife system
have actually forbidden a plurality of wives by their laws, and the
consequences are that the whole country among them is overrun with
the most abominable practices; adulteries and unlawful connections
prevail through all their villages, towns, cities, and country places
to a most fearful extent. And among some of these nations these sinks
of wickedness, wretchedness, and misery are licensed by law, while
their piety would be wonderfully shocked to authorize by law the
plurality system, as adopted by many neighboring nations.

The Constitution and laws of the United States, being founded upon
the principles of freedom, do not interfere with marriage relations,
but leave the nation free to believe in and practice the doctrine
of a plurality of wives, or to confine themselves to the one-wife
system, just as they choose. This is as it should be: it leaves the
conscience of man untrammeled, and, so long as he injures no person,
and does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is free by the
Constitution to marry one wife, or many, or none at all, and becomes
accountable to God for the righteousness or unrighteousness of his
domestic relations.

The Constitution leaves the several States and Territories to enact
such laws as they see proper in regard to marriages, provided that
they do not infringe upon the rights of conscience and the liberties
guaranteed in that sacred document. Therefore, if any State or
Territory feels disposed to enact laws guaranteeing to each of its
citizens the right to marry many wives, such laws would be perfectly
constitutional; hence the several States and Territories practice the
one-wife system out of choice, and not because they are under any
obligations so to do by the national Constitution. Indeed, we doubt
very much whether any State or Territory has the constitutional right
to make laws prohibiting the plurality doctrine in cases where it
is practiced by religious societies as a matter of conscience or
as a doctrine of their religious faith. The first Article of the
Amendments to the Constitution says expressly that “Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or _prohibiting
the free exercise thereof_.” Now, if even Congress itself has no
power to pass a law “prohibiting the free exercise of religion,” much
less has any State or Territory power to pass such an act.

The doctrine of a plurality of wives was believed and practiced by
Abraham, the father of the faithful; and we find that, while in this
practice, the angels of God frequently ministered to him, and at one
time dined with him; and God manifested himself to him, and entered
into familiar conversation with him. Neither God nor his angels
reproved Abraham for being a polygamist, but, on the contrary, the
Almighty greatly blessed him, and made promises unto him, concerning
both Isaac and Ishmael, clearly showing that Abraham practiced
what is called polygamy under the sanction of the Almighty. Now if
the father of the faithful was thus blessed, certainly it should
not be considered irreligious for the faithful, who are called his
children, to walk in the steps of their father Abraham. Indeed,
if the Lord himself, through his holy prophets, should give more
wives unto his servants, as he gave them unto the prophet David,
it would be a great sin for them to refuse that which he gives. In
such a case, it would become a matter of conscience with them, and
a part of their religion, and they would be bound to exercise their
faith in this doctrine, and practice it, or be condemned; therefore
Congress would have no power to prohibit the free exercise of this
part of their religion, neither would the States or Territories have
power constitutionally to pass a law “prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.” Now a certain religious society, called Shakers, believe
it to be wrong for them to marry even one wife; it certainly would
be unconstitutional for either the Congress or the States to pass a
law compelling all people to marry at a certain age, because it would
infringe upon the rights of conscience among the Shakers, and they
would be prohibited the free exercise of their religion.

From the foregoing revelation, given through Joseph the Seer, it
will be seen that God has actually commanded some of his servants to
take more wives, and has pointed out certain duties in regard to the
marriage ceremony, showing that they must be married for time and for
all eternity, and showing the advantages to be derived in a future
state by this eternal union; and showing still farther that, if they
refused to obey this command, after having the law revealed to them,
they should be damned. This revelation, then, makes it a matter of
conscience among all the Latter-Day Saints; and they embrace it as
a part and portion of their religion, and verily believe that they
can not be saved and reject it. Has Congress power, then, to pass
laws “prohibiting” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
“_the free exercise_” of this article of their religion? Have any
of the States or Territories a constitutional right to pass laws
“prohibiting the free exercise of the religion” which the Church of
the Saints conscientiously and sincerely believe to be essential to
their salvation? No, they have no such right.

The Latter-Day Saints have the most implicit confidence in all
the revelations given through Joseph the Prophet, and they would
much sooner lay down their lives and suffer martyrdom than to
deny the least revelation that was ever given to him. In one of
the revelations through him, we read that God raised up wise men
and inspired them to write the Constitution of our country, that
the freedom of the people might be maintained, according to the
free agency which he had given to them; that every man might be
accountable to God and not to man, so far as religious doctrines
and conscience are concerned. And the more we examine that sacred
instrument, framed by the wisdom of our illustrious fathers, the
more we are compelled to believe that an invisible power controlled,
dictated, and guided them in laying the foundation of liberty
and freedom upon this great western hemisphere. To this land the
Mohammedan--the Hindoo--the Chinese can emigrate, and each bring
with him his score of wives and his hundred children, and the
glorious Constitution of our country will not interfere with his
domestic relations. Under the broad banner of the Constitution, he
is protected in all his family associations; none have a right to
tear any of his wives or his children from him. So, likewise, under
the broad folds of the Constitution, the Legislative Assembly of
the Territory of Utah have the right to pass laws regulating their
matrimonial relations, and protecting each of their citizens in the
right of marrying one or many wives, as the case may be. If Congress
should repeal those laws, they could not do so on the ground of their
being unconstitutional. And even if Congress should repeal them,
there still would be no law in Utah prohibiting the free exercise of
that religious right; neither do the citizens of Utah feel disposed
to pass such an unconstitutional act which would infringe upon the
most sacred rights of conscience.

Tradition and custom have great influence over nations.
Long-established customs, whether right or wrong, become sacred in
the estimation of mankind. Those nations who have been accustomed
from time immemorial to the practice of what is called polygamy would
consider a law abolishing it as the very height of injustice and
oppression; the very idea of being limited to the one-wife system
would be considered not only oppressive and unjust, but absolutely
absurd and ridiculous; it would be considered an innovation upon
the long-established usages, customs, and laws of numerous and
powerful nations; an innovation of the most dangerous character,
calculated to destroy the most sacred rights and privileges of family
associations--to upset the very foundations of individual rights,
rendered dear and sacred by being handed down to them from the most
remote ages of antiquity.

On the other hand, the European nations who have been for centuries
restricted by law to the one-wife theory would consider it a shocking
innovation upon the customs of their fathers to abolish their
restrictive laws, and to give freedom and liberty according to the
plurality system. It is custom, then, in a great degree, that forms
the conscience of nations and individuals in regard to the marriage
relationships. Custom causes four fifths of the population of the
globe to decide that polygamy, as it is called, is a good, and not an
evil practice; custom causes the balance, or the remaining fifth, to
decide in opposition to the great majority.

Those individuals who have strength of mind sufficient to divest
themselves entirely from the influence of custom, and examine the
doctrine of a plurality of wives under the light of reason and
revelation, will be forced to the conclusion that it is a doctrine of
divine origin; that it was embraced and practiced under the divine
sanction by the most righteous men who ever lived on the earth: holy
prophets and patriarchs, who were inspired by the Holy Ghost--who
were enrapt in the visions of the Almighty--who conversed with holy
angels--who saw God face to face, and talked with him as a man
talks with his friend--were “polygamists,” that is, they had many
wives--raised up many children by them--and were never reproved by
the Holy Ghost, nor by angels, nor by the Almighty, for believing in
and practicing such a doctrine; on the contrary, each one of these
“polygamists” received by revelation promises and blessings for
himself, for his wives, and for his numerous children born unto him
by his numerous wives. Moreover, the Lord himself gave revelation
to different wives belonging to the same man, revealing to them
the great blessings which should rest upon their posterity; angels
also were sent to comfort and bless them; and in no instance do we
find them reproved for having joined themselves in marriage to a
“polygamist.” Indeed, the Lord himself gave laws not to prohibit
“polygamy,” but showing his will in relation to the children raised
up by the different wives of the same man; and, furthermore, the
Lord himself actually officiated in giving David all the wives of
Saul; this occurred, too, when David already had several wives which
he had previously taken: therefore, as the Lord did actually give
into David’s own bosom all the wives of Saul, he must not only have
sanctioned “polygamy,” but established and instituted it upon a sure
foundation, by giving the wives himself, the same as he gave Eve to
Adam. Therefore those who are completely divested from the influence
of national customs, and who judge concerning this matter by the
Word of God, are compelled to believe that the plurality of wives
was once sanctioned for many ages by the Almighty; and by a still
farther research of the divine oracles they find no intimations that
this divine institution was ever repealed. It was an institution, not
originated under the law of Moses, but of a far more ancient date;
and instead of being abolished by that law, it was sanctioned and
perpetuated; and when Christ came to fulfill that law, and to do it
away by the introduction of a better covenant, he did not abolish the
plurality system: not being originated under that law, it was not
made null and void when that law was done away. Indeed, there were
many things in connection with the law that were not abolished when
the law was fulfilled; as, for instance, the Ten Commandments, which
the people under the Gospel covenant were still obliged to obey;
and until we can find some law of God abolishing and prohibiting
a plurality of wives, we are compelled to believe it a divine
institution; and we are furthermore compelled to believe, that if
this institution be entered into now, under the same principles which
governed the holy prophets and patriarchs, that God will approbate it
now as much as he did then; and that the persons who do thus practice
it conscientiously and sincerely are just as honorable in the sight
of God as those who have but one wife. And that which is honorable
before God should be honorable before men; and no one should be
despised when he acts in all good conscience upon any principle of
doctrine; neither should there be laws in any of these States or
Territories to compel any individual to act in violation to the
dictates of his own conscience; but every one should be left in all
matters of religion to his own choice, and thus become accountable to
God, and not to his fellow-man.

If the people of this country have generally formed different
conclusions from us upon this subject, and if they have embraced
religions which are more congenial to their minds than the religion
of the Saints, we say to them that they are welcome to their own
religious views; the laws should not interfere with the exercise
of their religious rights. If we can not convince you by reason
nor by the Word of God that your religion is wrong, we will not
persecute you, but will sustain you in the privileges guaranteed
in the great Charter of American Liberty: we ask from you the
same generosity--protect us in the exercise of our religious
rights--convince us of our errors of doctrine, if we have any, by
reason, by logical arguments, or by the Word of God, and we will
be ever grateful for the information, and you will ever have the
pleasing reflection that you have been the instruments in the hands
of God of redeeming your fellow-beings from the darkness which you
may see enveloping their minds. Come, then, let us reason together,
and try to discover the true light upon all subjects connected
with our temporal or eternal happiness; and if we disagree in our
judgments, let us impute it to the weakness and imperfections of
our fallen natures, and let us pity each other, and endeavor with
patience and meekness to reclaim from error, and save the immortal
soul from an endless death.

Mormonism, it will be observed, claims at once to be, like Christianity, a progressive faith, with that development of spiritualism which the “Tracts for the Times” exemplified, and, like El Islam, to be a restoration by revelation of the pure and primeval religion of the world. Convinced that plurality was unforbidden by the founders of the former faiths, the Mormons, as well as the followers of the Arabian Prophet, have obeyed the command of their God to restore it, and that, too, although the Anglo-Scandinavian race every where agrees, after the fashion of pagan and monogamic Rome, to make it a common-law crime. Politically considered, the Mormons deem it necessary to their existence as a people. Contrary to the scientific modern economist, from Mr. Malthus to Mr. Mill, they hold population, not wealth, learning, civilization, nor virtue, to be the strength of a nation; they believe that numbers decide the rise and fall of empires, and that, as Nature works the extinction of her doomed races by infecundity, and as the decline of a people’s destiny is first detected in the diminution of its census, so they look upon the celestial promises of prolificity made to the patriarchs of old as the highest temporal blessing. They admit in the lawgiver only a right to legislate for the good of those who are to obey his laws, not to gratify his “whimsy whamsies,” and that the liberty which man claims by the dignity of his nature permits him to choose the tie, whether polyandric, monogamic, or polygamic, that connects him with the opposite sex. Mr. Parley P. Pratt (“Marriage and Morals in Utah,” p. 3) is explicit upon this subject:

“If we find laws, statutes, covenants, and precedents emanating from God; sworn to by himself to be everlasting; as a blessing to all nations--if we find these have to do with exceeding multiplicity of race, and with family and national organization and increase--if such institutions are older than Moses, and are found perpetuated and unimpaired by Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, then it will appear evident that no merely human legislation or authority, whether proceeding from emperor, king, or people, has a right to change, alter, or pervert them.”

[MORMON MATERIALISM.]

The third epoch is that of Materialism. In this the Mormons are preceded, to quote but a few schools, by the classic Academics--by the Jews, who believed in a material and personal Demiurgus, and by many fathers of the Christian Church, who held the soul of man, while immortal, to be material. Matter with them, as with Newton, is an aggregate of “solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, and movable particles.” Respecting the intelligence of its units and molecules--the test of true materialism--they are somewhat hazy; they deride the peripatetic dogma of perception by species or phantasms, and at the same time ignore the doctrine of Hobbes, Spinoza, Priestley, and others, who recognize no separate existence for the mind or spirit[206] except as a union of atoms or particles, which, unorganized, have neither feeling nor thought. They define matter as a something that exists in and occupies space between any two instants, and is susceptible of division, and of being removed from one portion of space to another. Unlike other metaphysicians, who confess ignorance as to the substratum of mind and matter, they boast acquaintance with the essence of all substances, solidity, which with them is not a mere property. Although the ultimate atoms of matter can not come under the cognizance of the senses, they are none the less assured of their solidity, viz., that they fill a certain amount of space, and are unable ever to fill a greater or a lesser--in fact, to believe otherwise would be impossible. They hold to different kinds of matter, for instance, the fleshly body and the spiritual body, which differ in quality as iron and oxygen. Mind and spirit, therefore, are real, objective, positive substances, which, like the astral spirit of the old alchymists, exists in close connection with the component parts of the porous, material body. Immaterialism is, with them, simply absurd; it is a belief which requires a man to put faith in a negation of time, space, and matter; in fact, in the zero of existence, in an entity whose ens admits no proof, and which can be described only by negative conditions and qualities, by saying what it is not. They contend that the materiality of spirit once taken away would negative its existence; that an “immaterial being” is a contradiction in terms; and that immateriality is another name for nothing; therefore, that the spirituality of spirit “is an unphilosophical, unscriptural, and atheistical doctrine.” The theses supported by Mr. Orson Pratt, the apostle of materialism, are the following:

[206] “If man,” says Dr. Priestley, “be a material being, and the
power of thinking the result of a certain organization of the brain,
does it not follow that all his functions must be regulated by the
laws of mechanism, and that, of consequence, all his actions proceed
from an irresistible necessity?” It is the glory of the present
age, the highest result of our nineteenth century physiological and
statistic studies, brought to bear by a master-mind of the age upon
the History of Civilization--to establish the fact that mankind
progresses by investigating the laws of phenomena; in fact, to prove,
not to conjecture, that such mechanism really exists. I need hardly
name Mr. Buckle.

I. That Immaterialism is irrational opposed to true philosophy.

II. That an Immaterial substance (_i.e._, a something existing which is not matter and is distinct from matter, which is not dependent upon matter for its existence, which possesses no properties nor qualities in common with matter, and which possesses properties and qualities all entirely different from those of matter) can not exist.

III. That a real material unchangeable spirit, possessing parts and extension, inhabits the body.

Immaterialists who believe in “an inexplicable, incomprehensible, imaginary something without extension or parts, as taught in the first of the Thirty-nine Articles,” are therefore the worshipers of an immortal Nihil--of a Nothing clothed with almighty powers.

It is abundantly evident that the partition between the spiritualist and the materialist is mainly philological, a dispute of words, a variation of terms, spirit and matter differing about as much as azote and nitrogen. The deductions, however, from the Mormon’s premises lead him, as the following extracts prove, far.[207]

[207] From Mr. Apostle Orson Pratt’s “Absurdities of Immaterialism,”
and his treatise on the “Kingdom of God.” It is hardly possible not
to believe that the author has borrowed most of his theories from Mr.
Carlyle’s “Republican.”

“The Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is a material being. The substance of which he is composed is wholly material. It is a substance widely different in some respects from the various substances with which we are more immediately acquainted. In other respects, it is precisely like all other materials. The substance of his person occupies space the same as other matter. It has solidity, length, breadth, and thickness, like other matter. The elementary materials of his body are not susceptible of occupying at the same time the same identical space with other matter. The substance of his person, like other matter, can not be in two places at the same instant. It requires _time_ for him to transport himself from place to place. It matters not how great the velocity of his movement, _time_ is an essential ingredient to all motion, whether rapid or slow. It differs from other matter in the superiority of its powers, being intelligent, all-wise, and possessing the property of self-motion to a far greater extent than the coarser materials of nature. ‘God is a spirit;’ but that does not make him an immaterial being, a being that has no properties in common with matter.”...

“All the foregoing statements in relation to the person of the Father are equally applicable to the person of the Son.

“The Holy Spirit, being one part of the Godhead, is also a material substance, of the same nature and properties in many respects as the Spirits of the Father and Son. It exists in vast, immeasurable quantities, in connection with all material worlds. This is called God in the Scriptures, as well as the Father and Son. God the Father and God the Son can not be every where present; indeed, they can not be even in two places at the same instant; but God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent: it extends through all space, intermingling with all other matter, yet no one atom of the Holy Spirit can be in two places at the same instant, which in all cases is an absolute impossibility. It must exist in inexhaustible quantities, which is the only possible way for any substance to be omnipresent. All the innumerable phenomena of universal nature are produced in their origin by the actual presence of this intelligent, all-wise, and all-powerful material substance called the Holy Spirit. It is the most active matter in the universe, producing all its operations according to fixed and definite laws enacted by itself, in conjunction with the Father and the Son. What are called the laws of nature are nothing more nor less than the fixed method by which this spiritual matter operates. Each atom of the Holy Spirit is intelligent, and, like other matter, has solidity, form, and size, and occupies space. Two atoms of this Spirit can not occupy the same space at the same time, neither can one atom, as before stated, occupy two separate spaces at the same time. In all these respects it does not differ in the least from all other matter. Its distinguishing characteristics from other matter are its almighty powers and infinite wisdom, and many other glorious attributes which other materials do not possess. If several of the atoms of this Spirit should exist united together in the form of a person, then this person of the Holy Spirit would be subject to the same necessity” (N.B., this out-anagkes anagke) “as the other two persons of the Godhead--that is, it could not be every where present. No finite number of atoms can be omnipresent. An infinite number of atoms is requisite to be _every where_ in infinite space. Two persons receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit do not receive at the same time the same identical particles, though they each receive a substance exactly similar in kind. It would be as impossible for them to receive the same identical atoms at the same instant as it would be for two men at the same time to drink the same identical pint of water.”

[MIND AND MATTER.]

I will offer another instance of the danger of meddling with such edged tools as mind and matter--concerning which mankind knows nothing beyond certain properties--in the following answer addressed by Mr. Pratt to the many who have been “traditionated in the absurd doctrines of immaterialism.” “The resemblance between man and God has reference, as we have already observed, to the shape or figure: other qualities may or may not resemble each other. Man has legs, so has God, as is evident from his appearance to Abraham. Man walks with his legs; so does God sometimes, as is evident from his going with Abraham toward Sodom. God can not only walk, but he can move up or down through the air without using his legs as in the process of walking (Gen., xvii., 22, and xi., 5, and xxxv., 13)--‘a man wrestled with Jacob until the breaking of day;’ after which Jacob says, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved’ (Gen., xxxii., 24-30). That this person had legs is evident from his wrestling with Jacob. His image and likeness was so much like man’s, that Jacob at first supposed him to be a man. God, though in the figure of a man, has many powers that man has not got. He can go upward through the air. He can waft himself from world to world by his own self-moving powers. These are powers not possessed by man, only through faith, as in the instances of Enoch and Elijah. Therefore, though in the figure of a man, he has powers far superior to man.”

This part of the subject may profitably be concluded by quoting the venerable adage, “_Qui nescit ignorare nescit sciri_.”

[MORMON DOXOLOGY.]

I now offer to the reader a few remarks upon the fourteen articles of the Mormon doxology,[208] leaving him to settle whether it be a kakodoxy or a kakistodoxy.

[208] From an article published in the “Frontier Guardian,” then
edited by the Apostle Orson Hyde.

I. “WE BELIEVE IN GOD, THE ETERNAL FATHER, AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST,
AND IN THE HOLY GHOST.”--Of the thousand sects and systems that have
used this venerable Kalmah or formula of Christian faith, none have
interpreted it more peculiarly than the Mormons.

The First Person is a perfected man, once a dweller upon earth:
advancing in intelligence and power, he became such that in
comparison with man he may be called the Infinite. Mr. Joseph Smith,
in his last sermon preached at Nauvoo, thus develops his remarkable
anthropomorphosis: “First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder
heavens, is a man like one of yourselves; that is the great secret.
If the veil was rent to-day, and the great God who holds this world
in its orbit, and upholds all things by his power, if you were to see
him to-day, you would see him in all the person, image, and very form
as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion and image of God;
Adam received instruction, walked, talked, and conversed with Him, as
one man talks and communes with another.”

The Second Person is the “Son Jesus Christ,” the material offspring
of the First by the Virgin Mary, who was duly married, after
betrothal by the angel Gabriel, to the Eternal Father, on the
plains of Palestine: the Holy Babe was the “tabernacle” prepared
for and assumed by the Spirit Son. The Son is the Creator: when in
the material spirit still, he took of the “unformed chaotic matter
element which had an existence from the time God had, and in which
dwells all the glory,” and formed and peopled this planetary world,
which he afterward redeemed. He is to be worshiped as Lord of all,
heir of the Father in power, creation, and dominion. “What did Jesus
do?” “Why, I do the things that I saw my Father do when worlds came
rolling into existence. I saw my Father work out his kingdom with
fear and trembling, and I must do the same.” (“Last Sermon,” p. 61.)

The Paraclete has already been described: it differs from the other
two Persons in being a merely spirit-material soul or existence
without a “tabernacle.” Thus the Mormons mingle with a Trinity a very
distinct, though not a conflicting Duality.

The Mormon Godhead may be illustrated by a council composed of
three men, possessing equal wisdom, knowledge, and truth, together
with equal qualifications in every other respect: each would be a
separate person or a substance distinct from the other two, and
yet the three would compose but one body. This body consists of
three, viz., Eloheim, Jehovah, and Michael, which is Adam. From the
Christian apostles and the Apocalypse, the Mormons deduce the dogma
of gods in an _ad infinitum_ ascending series: man, however, must
limit his obedience to the last heavenly Father and Son revealed by
the Holy Spirit. And as God is perfect man, so is perfect man God:
any individual, by faith and obedience, can, as the Brahminical
faith asserts, rise to the position of a deity, until, attaining
the power of forming a planet, peopling, redeeming it, and sitting
there enthroned in everlasting power. The Mormons, like the Moslems,
believe that--“things of earth, customs, and ceremonies, being
patterned after things in the Spirit world and future abodes of the
gods”--there are inferior glories and pleasures for “hewers of wood
and drawers of water.” In the eternal heavens there are three great
mansions, the celestial of the sun, the celestial of the stars, and
the terrestrial: the other state is called the Lake of Fire, or the
Burning Caldron.

II. “WE BELIEVE THAT MEN WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR OWN SINS, AND
NOT FOR ADAM’S TRANSGRESSIONS.”--Yet the Mormons hold the Son to
be necessary to reconcile fallen man to the Father and the Holy
Spirit, to sanctify and purify the affections of men, and also to
dwell in them as a teacher of truth. “The spiritual substance of man
was formed in the beginning after the same image as the spiritual
substance of the persons of the Father and the Son. Previously to
the fall, these spirits were all moral in their nature; by the fall
the spirits of men lost their morality and virtue, but not their
essence--that continued the same: by the new birth man regains
his morality and virtue, while the essence remains the same; it
now becomes a moral, virtuous image, whereas the same substance
was before immoral. Paul (1 Cor., xv., 49), in speaking of the
resurrection, says, ‘As we have borne the image of the earthly, let
us bear also the image of the heavenly!’” Unlike the more advanced
faiths--El Islam and Unitarianism--the Mormons retain the doctrine
of a “fall.” It contrasts strangely with their dogma of man’s
perfectibility. They have not attempted to steer clear between the
Scylla and Charybdis of predestination and free will.

III. “WE BELIEVE THAT THROUGH THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST ALL MANKIND
MAY BE SAVED BY OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF THE
GOSPEL.”--After Adam had fallen from his primal purity, a council was
held in heaven to debate how man should be saved or redeemed from the
state of evil. The elder brother Lucifer, son of the morning, the
bright star in glory, and the leader of heavenly hosts, declared,
when appealed to, that he would save man in his sins. But he who is
emphatically called “the Son”--Christ--answered, I will save him
_from_ his sins. Lucifer, the “archangel ruined,” rebelled, was cast
out from the planetary abode of the Father, and became, under the
name of Satan, the great ruler and “head devil” of evil spirits, and
of the baser sort of imps and _succubi_. I can not say whether in
their mysteries the Mormons represent Sathanas as the handsome man
of El Islam, or the horned, tailed, and cloven-footed monster which
monkish Europe fashioned probably after pagan Pan.

IV. “WE BELIEVE THESE ORDINANCES ARE, 1ST. FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS;
2D. REPENTANCE; 3D. BAPTISM BY IMMERSION FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS;
4TH. LAYING ON OF HANDS BY THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; 5TH. THE
LORD’S SUPPER.”--Faith is not only the “evidence of things that
appear not, the substance of things to be hoped for,” the first
principle of action, and an exercise of the will in intelligent
beings toward accomplishing holy works and purposes, with a view to
celestial glory; it is also the source of power both on earth and
in heaven. We find that by faith God created the world (Heb., xi.,
3); and, “take this principle or attribute away from the Deity, he
would cease to exist.” (“Lectures on Faith,” sec. 1.) “Faith, then,
is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion,
and authority over all things.” (Ibid.) Of the second ordinance,
it was revealed, “Say nothing but repentance unto this generation”
(“Covenants and Commandments,” sec. 37); a very comprehensive and
valuable rule to those under whom their brethren must sit. As regards
the third, the child succeeds its parent in moral responsibility
at eight years of age, when it must be baptized “in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen,” into the
Church. Infant baptism is regarded as a Bida’at or innovation--a
sin. Baptism by immersion--any other method being considered a
vain ceremony--remits our peccata, but it must be repeated after
each mortal act. (“Covenants and Commandments,” sec. 2, par. 21.)
Vicarious baptism for the dead is founded upon St. Paul’s saying
concerning the fathers, that they can not without us be made perfect,
and “otherwise what shall they do that are baptized for the dead,
if the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptized for
them?” (1 Cor., xv., 29.) Immersion in water is the symbol of death,
emersion of the resurrection, and the baptismal font is a simile
of the grave; but baptism for the dead is acceptable only in the
Temple. (“Covenants and Commandments,” sec. 103.) There being a
probationary state while the earth endures in the Spirit world--the
purgatorial doctrine of Virgil and others--the dead can by proxy
“fulfill all righteousness;” and the Saints are enjoined that “the
greatest responsibility that God has laid upon us is to look after
our dead;” so Mr. Joseph Smith, in his “Last Sermon,” says, “Every
man who has got a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he
has committed the unpardonable sin; so you can see how you can be a
Savior.” A man baptized for deceased relations traces back the line
to one that held the priesthood among his progenitors, who, being a
saint, will take the place of sponsor, and relieve him of farther
responsibility. All thus admitted to salvation will be added at the
resurrection to the household of the baptized person, who will reign
as a patriarch forever, his rank and power among kingly spirits being
proportioned to his wives and his children--adopted or begotten--and
his baptizées. The fourth ordinance, or laying on of hands by the
water’s side, is a perfection of the regeneration begun in baptism,
and whereby the recipient is promoted to the Melchisedek priesthood;
the order was revealed, or rather renewed, in 1831. (“Covenants and
Commandments,” sec. 66.) The fifth ordinance, touching the Eucharist,
is instituted “in remembrance of the Lord Jesus:” the elder or priest
administers it kneeling with the Church, praying and blessing first
the bread and then the wine. (“Covenants and Commandments,” sec.
2.) The second element was changed by a direct revelation (Sept.,
1830), saying, “You shall not purchase wine nor strong drink of your
enemies,” since which time water has been substituted. Mormons, young
and old, equally take the sacrament every Sabbath.

V. “WE BELIEVE THAT MAN MUST BE CALLED OF GOD BY INSPIRATION, AND BY
LAYING ON OF HANDS FROM THOSE WHO ARE DULY COMMISSIONED TO PREACH THE
GOSPEL AND ADMINISTER IN THE ORDINANCES THEREOF.”--The Mormons hold
to a regular apostolic succession. “Every elder” (which includes the
apostles), “priest, teacher, or deacon, is to be ordained according
to the gifts and callings of God unto him; and he is to be ordained
by the power of the Holy Ghost, which is the one who ordains him.”

VI. “WE BELIEVE IN THE SAME ORGANIZATION THAT EXISTED IN THE
PRIMITIVE CHURCH, VIZ., APOSTLES, PROPHETS, PASTORS, EVANGELISTS,
ETC.”--The proper signification of these words will be explained when
treating of the Mormon hierarchy.

VII. “WE BELIEVE IN THE POWERS AND GIFTS OF THE EVERLASTING
GOSPEL, VIZ., THE GIFT OF FAITH, DISCERNING OF SPIRITS, PROPHECY,
REVELATIONS, VISIONS, HEALING, TONGUES, AND THE INTERPRETATION OF
TONGUES, WISDOM, CHARITY, BROTHERLY LOVE, ETC.”--The everlasting
Gospel means the universal order and arrangement of things springing
from the “two self-existing principles of intelligence and element,
or matter,” and forming the law under which the primordial gods
came into being. According to Mr. Joseph Smith, “God himself could
not create himself,” and “Intelligence exists upon a self-existent
principle: it is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation
about it.” In the far eternity two of the elementary material æons
met, compared intelligence, and calling in a third to council, united
in what became the first power, superior because prior to all others,
and ever-enduring by the union of other æons. Under this union arose
a “law governing itself and all things”--the everlasting Gospel.
The seer has not left on record the manner in which the head god
originated: the other gods, however, sprung from him as children.
Heaven has not only kings, but queens--the Sakti of Hindooism, and
the various Ario-pagan faiths--who are the mothers of gods, of men’s
souls, and of all spiritual existences. St. John saw a portion of
the everlasting Gospel in the “little book” in the hand of the angel
“coming down from heaven” to proclaim again on earth the Church of
Christ, a type of Moroni, who taught the fullness of knowledge to
Joseph the Seer, that the gladder tidings might be preached to men
with the “signs following” which were promised to the primitive
apostles.

As regards the discerning of spirits, the human soul is not visible
to mortal eyes without a miracle, nor is it ponderable: it passes
through the body as the electric fluid through the earth. Yet, in
reality, it is more substantial than the body, for it can not be
changed nor destroyed; it “coexisted equal with God,” and had no
beginning, which would argue the possibility of an end, and “it is
immortal as God himself.” It is uncreate: “God never did have power
to create the spirit of man at all--the very idea lessens man in
my estimation--I know better.” (“Last Sermon,” p. 62.) Spiritual
existences have a choice of two paths. Either they must remain
cribbed, cabined, and confined in their own ethereal order and proper
sphere, to be called and sent as angels, heralds, or ministers from
one planet or planetary system to another; and thus the Mormon, as
the Moslem, places angelic nature below human, saying with St. Paul
(1 Cor., vi., 3), “Know you not that we shall judge angels?” or they
may choose, like the precreated spirits of El Islam in the Yaum i
Alast--the Day of Am-I-Not (thy God)?--the probation of an earthly
tabernacle; and, ignoring their past existence, descend below all
things to attain a higher than celestial glory, and perfection in
the attributes of power and happiness. As with the metempsychosist,
there are grades of tabernacles. The lowest of humans is the African,
who, being a “servant of servants unto his brethren,” is “cursed as
to the priesthood,” and therefore can not “attain to any thing above
a dim-shining glory.” Above him is the Indian, for the Red Men,
through repentance, obedience, and acceptance of the new Evangelism,
can rebecome a “fair and delightsome people,” worthy of their Hebrew
sires. Below the negro is the brute tabernacle, into which the still
rebellious spirit descends, until, yielding to Gospel law, it is
permitted to retrace its course through the successive changes to
splendor and perfection. So, “when we are tormented by a refractory
horse or an obstinate ass, it may not be amiss to reflect that they
were actuated by an apostate soul, and exemplifying a few of the
human infirmities.” The same words might be spoken orthodoxically by
a Jain or a Banyan.