MARRIAGE.
We are not the last spirits to enter upon the earth career. There are
yet countless numbers of unborn spirits waiting for the privilege of
receiving earthly bodies and of tasting the sorrows and the joys of
earth. The living, who understand the Great Plan, must not then
confine their attention to themselves and to those who have gone
before. The waiting spirits must be a concern of our lives.
**Eternity of Sex.** It has already been said that sex is an eternal
principle. The equivalent of sex has always existed and will continue
forever. As the sex relation, then, represents an eternal condition,
the begetting of children is coincidently an eternal necessity. We
were begotten into the spirit world by God the Father, and have been
born into the world which we now possess.
**The Waiting Spirits.** According to the Great Plan, all who, in the
Great Council, accepted the Christ, will in time appear on earth,
clothed with mortal bodies. All these spirits must be born as children
into the world. A high purpose, if not the main one, of the earth work
must be, therefore, to continue the race by begetting children and
properly caring for them until they reach maturity. Undoubtedly, the
waiting spirits are hoping patiently for their turn to reach the
earth--a glorious step in the progressive advancement of man, which
the spirits have earned by their righteous lives.
**The Meaning of the First Command.** This doctrine makes clear the
meaning of the first great command, to multiply and replenish the
earth. It is not only for the joy and satisfaction of humanity that
the sex relation, with the possibility of begetting offspring,
prevails on earth, but as much for the fulfilment of the eternal Great
Plan. It becomes a necessary duty, for all wedded persons who dwell on
earth, to bring children into the world. This is the greatest and
holiest and most necessary mission of man, with respect to the waiting
spirits. Fatherhood and motherhood become glorified in the light of
the eternal plan of salvation.
The doctrine that wedded man and woman should not beget children or
should limit the number of children born to them, is contrary to the
spirit of the Great Plan, and is a most erroneous one. Let the waiting
spirits come! Let children be born into the earth! Let fatherhood and
motherhood be the most honored of all the professions on earth!
Marriage resulting in parenthood is a great evidence of the reality of
the brotherhood of man, of the unselfishness of man. However, only in
the marriage relation should children be begotten. Looseness of life,
between man and woman, is the most terrible of human iniquities, for
it leads, assuredly, to the physical decay of the race. With the
sanction of the Priesthood, men and women should contract to live
together as husband and wife.
**The Family.** The unit of society is the family. The family circle
is intimate, and in it the keenest human loves prevail. As the family
develops so will society, as a whole, develop. By children comes
complete family life. Without children, family life is incomplete.
Children are, then, a real necessity in the fulfilling of the
possibilities of the Church. The true Church always encourages the
begetting of children; the intensifying of family life, and the
dignifying of all the duties pertaining to procreation.
**Celestial Marriage.** If sex is eternal, it follows of necessity,
that the marriage covenant may also be eternal. It is not a far step
to the doctrine that after the earth work has been completed, and
exaltation in the next estate has been attained, one of the chief
duties of men and women will be to beget spiritual children. These
spirits, in turn, in the process of time, will come down upon an
earth, there to obtain an acquaintance with gross matter, and through
the possession of earthly bodies to control more fully, and forever,
the manifold forces surrounding them. It is one of the rewards of
intelligent development, that we may be to other spiritual beings,
what our God has been to us.
Among those who understand the Gospel, marriage may be, and indeed
should be, for time and eternity. Marriage that lasts only during the
earth life is a sad one, for the love established between man and
woman, as they live together and rear their family, does not wish to
die, but to live to grow richer with the eternal years. Marriage for
time and eternity establishes a unique relation between husband and
wife. Their children belong to them for time and eternity; the family
is continued from this earth into the next life, and becomes a unit in
the eternal life, and, in all family relations, the vision is cast
forward, in anticipation of an undying relationship.
**The Sealing Powers.** Naturally, the power to seal men and women to
each other, for time and eternity, and to seal children to their
parents for eternal ages, is a supreme power, committed to man's
keeping. The President of the Church is the only person on the earth
who holds the keys of these sealing ordinances. True, he may delegate
his power to workers in the temples, so that celestial marriages and
sealings may go on, but such delegated authority may be withdrawn at
any moment. In that respect, it differs wholly from the power of the
Priesthood, which can be withdrawn from a man only who is found in
sin. It is proper that only one man should hold this power, for it is
of infinite effect, and should be guarded with the most jealous care,
and kept from the frail prejudices and jealousies of men.
The power to bind for time and eternity is the power, also, to loose
that which has been bound, should it be found necessary. Undoubtedly,
under human conditions, mistakes may be made, but if such mistakes are
made and are not rectified on earth, they will, no doubt, under a
supervising intelligent Being, be rectified in the hereafter. It is,
however, only through the sealing power that the eternal relationship
of the sexes, the eternal increase of life, and the consequent eternal
joy, may be obtained.