prostitution. It has been affirmed time and time again, not only in
this discussion, but in the written works of these distinguished
gentlemen around me, that in monogamic countries prostitution, or
what is known as the social evil, is almost universally prevalent. I
perceive that I have not time to follow out this in arguments; but I
am prepared to prove, and I will prove it in your daily papers, that
prostitution is as old as authentic history; that prostitution has been
and is to-day more prevalent in polygamic countries than in monogamic
countries. I can prove that the figures representing prostitution in
monogamic countries are all overdrawn. They are overdrawn in regard to
my native city, that the gentleman brought up, New York, and of the
million and over of population he can not find six thousand recorded
prostitutes. I can go, for instance, to St. Louis, where they have just
taken the census of the prostitutes of that city, and with a population
of three hundred thousand, there are but 650 courtesans. You may go
through the length and breadth of this land, and in villages containing
from one thousand to ten thousand inhabitants, you cannot find a house
of prostitution. The truth is, my friends, they would not allow it for
a moment. Those men who assert that our monogamous country is full of
prostitutes put forth a slander upon our country.
Our distinguished friend referred to religious liberty, and claimed
that he had a right under the Federal Constitution to enjoy religious
liberty and to practise polygamy. I am proud as he is that we have
religious liberty here. I rejoice that a man can worship God after
his own heart; but I affirm that the law of limitation is no less
applicable to religious liberty than it is to the revolution of the
heavenly bodies. The law of limitation is as universal as creation, and
religious liberty must be practised within the bounds of decency, and
the wellbeing of society; and civil authority may extend or restrict
this religious liberty within due bounds. Why, the Hindoo mother may
come here with her Shasta--with her Bible--and she may throw her babe
into your river or lake, and the civil authorities, according to your
theory, could not interpose and say to that mother, "You shall not do
it." That is the theory. You say it is murder, I say it is not. I say
the act is stripped of the attributes of murder; it is a religious act.
She turns to her bible or Shasta, and says: "I am commanded to do this
by my bible." What will you do? You will turn away from the Shasta and
say, "The interests of society demand that you shall not murder that
child." So civil government has the right to legislate in regard to
marriage, and restrict the number of wives to one, according to God's
law. But I am not an advocate of stringent legislation. I agree with
my friend, that the law should not incarcerate men, women and children
in dungeons! No, my friends, if I can say a word to induce humane and
kind legislation toward the people of Utah I shall do it, and do it
most gladly. But I assert this principle, that civil government has the
right to limit religious liberty within due bounds.
There was another point that I desired to touch upon, and that is as
to the longevity of nations. We are told repeatedly here, in printed
works, that monogamic nations are short-lived, and that polygamic
nations are long-lived. I am prepared to go back to the days of Nimrod,
come down to the days of Ninus Sardanapalus, and down to the days of
Cyrus the Great, and all through those ancient polygamic nations, and
show that they were short-lived; while on the other hand I am prepared
to prove that Greece and Rome outlived the longest-lived polygamic
nations of the past. Greece, from the days of Homer down to the third
century of the Christian era; and Rome at from seven hundred and fifty
years before the coming of Christ down to the dissolution of the old
empire. But that old empire finds a resurrection in the Italians under
Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi; and England, Germany and France are all
proofs of the longevity of monogamic nations. Babylon is a ruin to-day,
and Babylon was polygamic. Egypt, to-day, is a ruin! Her massy piles
of ruin bespeak her former glory and her pristine beauty. And the last
edition of the polygamic nations--Turkey--is passing away. From the
Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, from the Danube, and the Jordan and the
Nile, the power of Mahommedanism is passing away before the advance of
the monogamic nations of the old world. Our own country is just in its
youth; but monogamic as it is, it is destined to live on, to outlive
the hoary past, to live on in its greatness, in its benificence, in its
power; to live on until it has demonstrated all those great problems
committed to our trust for human rights, religion, liberty and the
advancement of the race.
My friends, these are the arguments in favor of Monogamy; and when they
can be overthrown, then it will be time enough for us to receive the
system of Polygamy as it is taught here. But until that great law that
we have quoted can be proved to be not a law: until it can be proved
that there is no distinction between law and practice; until it can be
proved that there is a positive command for polygamy; until it can be
proved that Christ did not refer to the original marriage; until it
can be proved that Paul does not demand that every man shall have his
own wife and every woman her own husband; until it can be proved that
polygamy is a prevention of prostitution; until it can be proved that
monogamic nations are not as long-lived as polygamous nations; until
it can be proved that monogamy is not in harmony with civil liberty;
until all these points can be demonstrated beyond a doubt; until then,
we can't give up this grand idea that God's law condemns polygamy,
and that God's law commends monogamy; that the highest interests of
man, that the dearest interests of the rising generation, that all
that binds us to earth and points us to heaven are not subserved and
promoted under the monogamic system. All these great interests demand
the practice of monogamy in marriage--one man and one wife. Then indeed
shall be realized the picture portrayed in Scripture of the happy
family--the family where the wife is one and the husband one, and the
two are equivalent; then, when father and mother, centered in the
family, shall bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord--when the husband provides for his family--and it is said that
the man who does not is worse than an infidel--then indeed monogamy
stands forth as a grand Bible doctrine.
DISCOURSE
ON
CELESTIAL MARRIAGE,
DELIVERED BY
ELDER ORSON PRATT,
IN THE
NEW TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY, OCTOBER 7th, 1869.
It was announced at the close of the forenoon meeting that I would
address the congregation this afternoon upon the subject of Celestial
Marriage; I do so with the greatest pleasure.
In the first place, let us enquire whether it is lawful and right,
according to the Constitution of our country, to examine and practise
this Bible doctrine? Our fathers, who framed the Constitution of our
country, devised it so as to give freedom of religious worship of the
Almighty God; so that all people under our Government should have the
inalienable right--a right by virtue of the Constitution--to believe in
any Bible principle which the Almighty has revealed in any age of the
world to the human family. I do not think however that our forefathers,
in framing that instrument, intended to embrace all the religions
of the world. I mean the idolatrous and pagan religions. They say
nothing about those religions in the Constitution; but they give the
express privilege in that instrument to all people dwelling under this
Government and under the institutions of our country, to believe in all
things which the Almighty has revealed to the human family. There is no
restriction or limitation, so far as Bible religion is concerned, on
any principle or form of religion believed to have emanated from the
Almighty; but yet they would not admit idolatrous nations to come here
and practise their religion, because it is not included in the Bible;
it is not the religion of the Almighty. Those people worship idols, the
work of their own hands; they have instituted rights and ceremonies
pertaining to those idols, in the observance of which they, no doubt,
suppose they are worshipping correctly and sincerely, yet some of them
are of the most revolting and barbarous character. Such, for instance,
as the offering up of a widow on a funeral pile, as a burnt sacrifice,
in order to follow her husband into the eternal worlds. That is no part
of the religion mentioned in the Constitution of our country, it is no
part of the religion of Almighty God.
But confining ourselves within the limits of the Constitution, and
coming back to the religion of the Bible, we have the privilege to
believe in the Patriarchal, in the Mosaic, or in the Christian order of
things; for the God of the patriarchs, and the God of Moses is also the
Christians' God.
It is true that many laws were given, under the Patriarchal or Mosaic
dispensations, against certain crimes, the penalties for violating
which, religious bodies, under our Constitution, have not the right to
inflict. The Government has reserved, in its own hands, the power, so
far as affixing the penalties of certain crimes is concerned.
In ancient times there was a law strictly enforcing the observance
of the Sabbath day, and the man or woman who violated that law was
subjected to the punishment of death. Ecclesiastical bodies have the
right, under our government and Constitution, to observe the Sabbath
day, or to disregard it, but they have not the right to inflict
corporeal punishment for its non-observance.
The subject proposed to be investigated this afternoon is that of
Celestial Marriage, as believed in by the Latter-day Saints, and which
they claim is strictly a Bible doctrine and part of the revealed
religion of the Almighty. It is well known by all the Latter-day Saints
that we have not derived all our knowledge concerning God, heaven,
angels, this life and the life to come, entirely from the books of the
Bible; yet we believe that all of our religious principles and notions
are in accordance with and are sustained by the Bible; consequently,
though we believe in new revelation, and believe that God has revealed
many things pertaining to our religion, we also believe that He has
revealed none that are inconsistent with the worship of Almighty
God, a sacred right guaranteed to all religious denominations by the
Constitution of our country.
God created man, male and female. He is the author of our existence.
He placed us on this creation. He ordained laws to govern us. He gave
to man, whom he created, a help-meet--a woman, a wife to be one with
him, to be a joy and a comfort to him; and also for another very great
and wise purpose--namely, that the human species might be propagated
on this creation, that the earth might teem with population according
to the decree of God before the foundation of the world; that the
intelligent spirits whom He had formed and created, before this world
was rolled into existence, might have their probation, might have an
existence in fleshly bodies on this planet, and be governed by laws
emanating from their Great Creator. In the breast of male and female
he established certain qualities and attributes that never will be
eradicated--namely love towards each other. Love comes from God. The
love which man possesses for the opposite sex came from God. The same
God who created the two sexes implanted in the hearts of each love
towards the other. What was the object of placing this passion or
affection within the hearts of male and female? It was in order to
carry out, so far as this world was concerned, His great and eternal
purposes pertaining to the future. But He not only did establish this
principle in the heart of man and woman, but gave divine laws to
regulate them in relation to this passion or affection, that they might
be limited and prescribed in the exercise of it towards each other.
He therefore ordained the Marriage Institution. The marriage that was
instituted in the first place was between two immortal beings, hence it
was marriage for eternity in the very first case which we have recorded
for an example. Marriage for eternity was the order God instituted on
our globe; as early as the Garden of Eden, as early as the day when
our first parents were placed in the garden to keep it and till it,
they, as two immortal beings, were united in the bonds of the New and
Everlasting Covenant. This was before man fell, before the forbidden
fruit was eaten, and before the penalty of death was pronounced upon
the heads of our first parents and all their posterity, hence, when God
gave to Adam his wife Eve, He gave her to him as an immortal wife, and
there was no end contemplated of the relation they held to each other
as husband and wife.
By and bye, after this marriage had taken place, they transgressed the
law of God, and by reason of that transgression the penalty of death
came, not only upon them, but also upon all their posterity. Death,
in its operations, tore asunder, as it were, these two beings who had
hitherto been immortal, and if God had not, before the foundation of
the world, provided a plan of redemption, they would perhaps have been
torn asunder forever; but inasmuch as a plan of redemption had been
provided, by which man could be rescued from the effects of the Fall,
Adam and Eve were restored to that condition of union, in respect to
immortality, from which they had been separated for a short season of
time by death. The Atonement reached after them and brought forth their
bodies from the dust, and restored them as husband and wife, to all the
privileges that were pronounced upon them before the Fall.
That was eternal marriage; that was lawful marriage ordained by God.
That was the divine institution which was revealed and practised in
the early period of our globe. How has it been since that day? Mankind
have strayed from that order of things, or, at least, they have done
so in latter times. We hear nothing among the religious societies of
the world which profess to believe in the Bible about this marriage for
eternity. It is among the things which are obsolete. Now all marriages
are consummated until death only; they do not believe in that great
pattern and prototype established in the beginning; hence we never hear
of their official characters, whether civil or religious, uniting men
and women in the capacity of husband and wife as immortal beings. No,
they marry as mortal beings only, and until death does them part.
What is to become of them after death? What will take place among all
those nations who have been marrying for centuries for time only? Do
both men and women receive a resurrection? Do they come forth with all
the various affections, attributes and passions that God gave them in
the beginning? Does the male come forth from the grave with all the
attributes of a man? Does the female come forth from her grave with
all the attributes of a woman? If so, what is their future destiny?
Is there no object or purpose in this new creation save to give them
life, a state of existence? or is there a more important object in view
in the mind of God, in thus creating them anew? Will that principle
of love which exists now, and which has existed from the beginning,
exist after the resurrection? I mean this sexual love. If that existed
before the Fall, and if it has existed since then, will it exist in
the eternal worlds after the resurrection? This is a very important
question to be decided.
We read in the revelations of God that there are various classes of
beings in the eternal worlds. There are some who are kings, priests,
and Gods, others that are angels; and also among them are the orders
denominated celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. God, however,
according to the faith of the Latter-day Saints, has ordained that
the highest order and class of beings that should exist in the
eternal worlds should exist in the capacity of husbands and wives,
and that they alone should have the privilege of propagating their
species--intelligent, immortal beings. Now it is wise, no doubt, in
the Great Creator to thus limit this great and Heavenly principle to
those who have arrived or come to the highest state of exaltation,
excellency, wisdom, knowledge, power, glory and faithfulness, to dwell
in his presence, that they by this means shall be prepared to bring up
their spirit offspring in all pure and holy principles in the eternal
worlds, in order that they may be made happy. Consequently he does not
entrust this privilege of multiplying spirits with the terrestrial
or telestial, or the lower order of beings there, nor with angels.
But why not? Because they have not proved themselves worthy of this
great privilege. We might reason, of the eternal worlds, as some of
the enemies of polygamy reason of this state of existence, and say
that there are just as many males as females there, some celestial,
some terrestrial and some telestial; and why not have all these paired
off, two by two? Because God administers His gifts and His blessings
to those who are most faithful, giving them more bountifully to the
faithful, and taking away from the unfaithful that with which they had
been entrusted, and which they had not improved upon. That is the order
of God in the eternal worlds, and if such an order exist there, it may
in a degree exist here.
When the sons and daughters of the Most High God come forth in the
morning of the resurrection, this principle of love will exist in
their bosoms just as it exists here, only intensified according to the
increased knowledge and understanding which they possess; hence they
will be capacitated to enjoy the relationships of husband and wife, of
parents and children a hundred fold degree greater than they could in
mortality. We are not capable, while surrounded with the weaknesses
of our flesh, to enjoy these eternal principles in the same degree
that will then exist. Shall these principles of conjugal and parental
love and affection be thwarted in the eternal worlds? Shall they be
rooted out and overcome? No, most decidedly not. According to the
religious notions of the world these principles will not exist after
the resurrection; but our religion teaches the fallacy of such notions.
It is true that we read in the New Testament that in the resurrection
they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
in heaven. These are the words of our Savior when He was addressing
himself to a very wicked class of people, the Sadducees, a portion of
the Jewish nation, who rejected Jesus, and the counsel of God against
their own souls. They had not attained to the blessings and privileges
of their fathers, but had apostatized; and Jesus, in speaking to them,
says that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in
marriage but are as the angels of God.
I am talking, to-day, to Latter-day Saints; I am not reasoning with
unbelievers. If I were, I should appeal more fully to the Old Testament
Scriptures to bring in arguments and testimonies to prove the divine
authenticity of polygamic marriages. Perhaps I may touch upon this for
a few moments, for the benefit of strangers, should there be any in our
midst. Let me say, then, that God's people, under every dispensation
since the creation of the world, have, generally, been polygamists.
I say this for the benefit of strangers. According to the good old
book, called the Bible, when God saw proper to call out Abraham from
all the heathen nations, and made him a great man in the world, He saw
proper, also, to make him a polygamist, and approbated him in taking
unto himself more wives than one. Was it wrong in Abraham to do this
thing? If it were, when did God reprove him for so doing? When did He
ever reproach Jacob for doing the same thing? Who can find the record
in the lids of the Bible of God reproving Abraham, as being a sinner,
and having committed a crime, in taking to himself two living wives?
No such thing is recorded. He was just as much blessed after doing
this thing as before, and more so, for God promised blessings upon the
issue of Abraham by his second wife the same as that of the first wife,
providing he was equally faithful. This was a proviso in every case.
When we come down to Jacob, the Lord permitted him to take four wives.
They are so called in holy writ. They are not denominated prostitutes,
neither are they called concubines, but they are called wives, legal
wives; and to show that God approved of the course of Jacob in taking
these wives, He blessed them abundantly, and hearkened to the prayer of
the second wife just the same as to the first. Rachel was the second
wife of Jacob, and our great mother, for you know that many of the
Latter-day Saints by revelation know themselves to be the descendants
of Joseph, and he was the son of Rachel, the second wife of Jacob.
God in a peculiar manner blessed the posterity of this second wife.
Instead of condemning the old patriarch, He ordained that Joseph, the
first-born of this second wife, should be considered the first-born
of all the twelve tribes, and into his hands was given the double
birthright, according to the laws of the ancients. And yet he was
the offspring of plurality--of the second wife of Jacob. Of course,
if Reuben, who was indeed, the first-born unto Jacob, had conducted
himself properly, he might have retained the birthright and the greater
inheritance; but he lost that through his transgression, and it was
given to a polygamic child, who had the privilege of inheriting the
blessing to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills; the great
continent of North and South America was conferred upon him. Another
proof that God did not disapprove of a man having more wives than one,
is to be found in the fact that, Rachel, after she had been a long time
barren, prayed to the Lord to give her seed. The Lord hearkened to her
cry and granted her prayer; and when she received seed from the Lord by
her polygamic husband, she exclaimed--"the Lord hath hearkened unto me
and hath answered my prayer." Now do you think the Lord would have done
this if He had considered polygamy a crime? Would He have hearkened to
the prayer of this woman if Jacob had been living with her in adultery?
and he certainly was doing so if the ideas of this generation are
correct.
Again, what says the Lord in the days of Moses, under another
dispensation? We have seen that in the days of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, He approved of polygamy and blessed His servants who practised
it, and also their wives and children. Now, let us come down to the
days of Moses. We read that, on a certain occasion, the sister of
Moses, Miriam, and certain others in the great congregation of Israel,
got very jealous. What were they jealous about? About the Ethiopian
woman that Moses had taken to wife, in addition to the daughter of
Jethro, whom he had taken before in the land of Midian. How dare the
great law-giver, after having committed, according to the ideas of the
present generation, a great crime, show his face on Mount Sinai when it
was clothed with the glory of the God of Israel? But what did the Lord
do in the case of Miriam, for finding fault with her brother Moses?
Instead of saying "you are right, Miriam, he has committed a great
crime, and no matter how much you speak against him," He smote her with
a leprosy the very moment she began to complain, and she was considered
unclean for a certain number of days. Here the Lord manifested, by the
display of a signal judgment, that He disapproved of any one speaking
against His servants for taking more wives than one, because it may not
happen to suit their notion of things.
I make these remarks and wish to apply them to fault-finders against
plural marriages in our day. Are there any Miriams in our congregation
to-day, any of those who, professing to belong to the Israel of
the latter-days, sometimes find fault with the man of God standing
at their head, because he, not only believes in but practises this
divine institution of the ancients? If there be such in our midst, I
say, remember Miriam the very next time you begin to talk with your
neighboring women, or any body else against this holy principle.
Remember the awful curse and judgment that fell on the sister of Moses
when she did the same thing, and then fear and tremble before God, lest
He, in his wrath, may swear that you shall not enjoy the blessings
ordained for those who inherit the highest degree of glory.