The question of Celestial (including plural) marriage is treated quite
extensively in _Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage_ so
it will be passed with a brief notice here.
We maintain with abundant authority that Joseph Smith the Prophet
introduced Celestial Marriage, that is, marriage for eternity, into
the Church. This fact has been admitted by many members of the
"Reorganized" Church, notwithstanding they attack us on this doctrine
and say it is not a doctrine of the Church. And while they attack us
the better part of them hope it is true. What is there so terrible in
the doctrine of the preservation of the family union in eternity? What
right-living God-fearing man is there but would be glad to meet his
parents, his wife and children, in the kingdom of God and know they
were united never again to separate? While this belief is not taught
in the creeds of men--including the Reorganites--yet there is a hope
burning in the bosoms of many people that this doctrine _may_ prove
true!
Well, it is a Scriptural doctrine, and it _is_ true, for the Lord
revealed it to Joseph Smith. In the beginning, the very first marriage
was one intended to last forever. Do you not believe it? I quote from
the Inspired Scriptures:
"And I, God, created man _in mine own image_, in the image of mine
Only Begotten created I him, _male and female created I them_,
And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth."--(Genesis 1:29-30).
This was a spiritual creation, man was created in the image of God,
_male and female_, first in the Spirit, and told in that spiritual
creation that they were expected to multiply and replenish the earth
when they were placed upon it to subdue it. This we prove from the
second chapter of Genesis beginning with the fifth verse:
"For I, the Lord God, created all things of which I have spoken
_spiritually_, before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth; for I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face
of the earth.
"And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men, and
not yet a man to till the ground, for in heaven created I them,
and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water,
neither in the air."
Verse 23. "And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that
it was not good that the man should be alone;
"Wherefore, I will make an help meet for him."
Here the Lord declares that it is not good for man to be alone, and
therefore he gave him an helpmeet, Eve; and this union was formed
before _mortality or death came into the world_, and there is no
indication that it was meant to have an end. If, therefore, it was not
good for man to be alone before the days of mortality, will it not also
be good for man to have a helpmeet _after_ mortality has passed away?
Paul thought so, said he: "Nevertheless neither is the man without the
woman, neither the woman without the man, _in the Lord_."--(I Cor.
11:11).
Alexender H. Smith, "Patriarch" of the "Reorganized" Church, in a
discourse that is very excellent in many respects, delivered July 1,
1903, and published in "Zion's Ensign" of December 31, 1903, taught
the eternity of the marriage covenant as strongly and emphatically as
it could have been done by an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. The subject of the discourse was: "In My Father's
house are many mansions," after enlarging upon the theme for some time,
he concludes his discourse with some personal testimony regarding the
last illness of his mother from which the following extracts are here
produced:
"Pretty son the still, small voice of the Spirit said, "If your
mother dies _she will be with her companion, Joseph_. If she lives
she cannot but live a few short years at most of pain and anguish."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Just before she passed away she called, 'Joseph, Joseph,' I
thought she meant my brother. He was in the room, and I spoke to
him, and said, Joseph, mother wants you. I was at the head of the
bed. My mother raised right up, lifted her left hand as high as she
could raise it, and called, Joseph. I put my left arm under her
shoulders, took her hand in mine, saying, Mother, what is it, laid
her hand on her bosom, and she was dead; she had passed away.
"And when I talked of her calling, Sr. Revel, who was with us
during our sickness, said, Don't you understand that? No, I
replied, I do not. Well, a short time before she died she had a
vision which she related to me. She said that your father came to
her and said to her, Emma, come with me, it is time for you to come
with me. And as she related it she said, I put on my bonnet and
my shawl and went with him; I did not think that it was anything
unusual. I went with him into a mansion, a beautiful mansion, and
he showed me through the different apartments of that beautiful
mansion. And one room was the nursery. In that nursery was a babe
in the cradle. She said, I knew my babe, my Don Carlos that was
taken away from me. She sprang forward, caught the child up in her
arms, and wept with joy over the child. When she recovered herself
sufficiently she turned to Joseph, and said. Where are the rest of
my children? He said to her, Emma, be patient, and you shall have
all of your children."
Then Alexander comments:
"Do you wonder why, as a son of that mother, I plead for those who
believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and picture their beautiful
home in the city of God, in the language that I do, when I realize
that my mother occupies, or will occupy one of those beautiful
mansions? _It may be imagination; but it is grand_; it fills me
with a grand hope."
And so they do hope, notwithstanding the fact that they oppose us in
this doctrine, and say that there is no union of parents and children
in family union after death. They secretly hope, and pray in their very
hearts, that after all in this we _may_ be right.