Orson Pratt

“ They have all the time supposed that they could enter into a fulness of the glory of the celestial world without being united in the bonds of eternal union. But it is not so; it was not so in the beginning. The very first marriage that was ever known in this creation, was not a marriage between the children of mortality, but was a marriage consummated by divine authority, by divine power. It was a marriage between two immortal beings. No other marriage could be so important, so essentially necessary, to the inhabitants of this creation, as the first one celebrated in the beginning. ”

“ The great redemption wrought out through the only begotten Son —the great redemption that reclaims Adam and Eve from their graves, restores them also from this short period of separation that has taken place by reason of death; it restores them again to each other's society, as husband and wife; and they will remain in that relationship while eternity shall endure. ”

“ If Eve dies before her husband, Adam, she is not divorced from him, neither is he divorced from her, but she considers, while dwelling in a celestial paradise, that she has legally and lawfully a husband in the flesh on the earth. Adam, if he still continues to live on the earth, while Eve has taken her flight to the eternal world, considers that he has a wife in heaven, though separated for a short time from her. She still is his wife, and will be his, until he himself shall fall into the grave, and even that does not dissolve the marriage tie. ”

“ He goes forth into the community, and seeks out a wife. He goes before those holding divine authority—power to bind on earth, and it shall be bound in heaven—and he is married to her for time and all eternity. By and bye she dies. Perhaps she may have had one or two children, perhaps she may not have had any children, as the case may be. She dies, leaves her husband still in his youth. ”

“ Must this youth, this good man, the man that has kept the commandments of God and been obedient to the Gospel of the Son of God—must he remain all the days of his life, perhaps 50 or 60 years longer, without having the privilege of taking another wife, his first wife having died? ”

“ Now, perhaps those who are not in the habit of reflecting upon this matter, may suppose that when Adam was placed on the earth, and Eve, his wife, they were mortal, like unto us; but that was not so. God did not make a mortal being. It would be contrary to this great goodness to make a man mortal, subject to pain, subject to sickness, subject to death. When he made this creation, and when he made these two intelligent beings and placed them upon this creation, he made them after his own likeness and his own image. ”

“ But will the time come in the endless duration of the future, when our first parents will fulfill that command which was given to them while they were yet children of immortality? In other words will the time ever come when Adam and Eve will become immortal and carry out the command that was given to them in the days of their first immortality? ”

“ Because after the fall, Adam and Eve became mortal, and their species, of course, were after the order of the world, mortal in their nature. As the parents were subject to death, subject to pain, and sorrow, and distress, and all kinds of evil, so were all their posterity. It was contrary to the law of God for mortal beings to bring forth children of immortality; it was contrary to, the order of heaven for mortal beings to multiply their species in the form of immortal beings. ”

“ Because your marriage was not legal, only legal so far as the laws of the land were concerned, only legal according to the traditions of men. What should you do, then, in order that you may be legally married, in order that your marriage may stand the test in the judgment day, in order that you may have claim upon your families after the resurrection? You should have the ceremony performed again. Every couple that was married abroad, among the nations, must be re-married, not by man's authority, but by divine authority. ”

“ Oh, says one, the law does not forbid, when a man's wife dies, his taking another. Suppose he takes another, what then? If he could have only one wife after the resurrection from the dead, what would his second wife do? Would she not be apt to say, "No, sir, you have a wife, she is in her grave, she was married to you for time and all eternity, now I desire a husband for all eternity myself. ”

“ Then we have an account that the Lord, because Satan thus transgressed, and because he sought to destroy the agency of man, and to redeem all mankind, that not a soul should be lost, was displeased with the proposition. And why should he not be? An agency was given to all intelligent beings; and without a proper agency, intelligent beings could not receive glory and honor, and a reward and a fullness of happiness in the celestial kingdom. There must be an agency wherever intelligence exists, and without agency no intelligent beings could exist ”

“ Are there no provisions made for the first wife that has fallen asleep just as much, as there is for the second? for God is without respect of persons, so far as people are honest and obedient; and though people may fail to receive the fulness of the blessings, pertaining to the Gospel, because it might not be sent to them and they fall asleep, yet God was not so short-sighted, in laying of the plan of salvation, that he made no provisions for them. ”

“ If there is any great principle that has a bearing upon the eternal welfare of the human family, any great ordinance necessary to be attended to that will give them a right and title to eternal blessings, it matters not whether it be baptism, or the laying on of hands, or any other ordinance which God has instituted, it will be recognized in the eternal heavens. ”

“ Why, if these two women come forth in the resurrection, and these ordinances are recognized in heaven, the man would have two wives at once in the eternal world, and that would shock our consciences very much! Well, the Lord is not particularly anxious that your consciences should not be shocked. He is not going to swerve from the principles of eternal truth in order that your consciences or traditions may not be in the least degree disturbed. ”

“ Must she stand aside in the resurrection? and the second wife, because she happens to live and to receive the Gospel, and to gather up from among the nations, into the mountains, where the authority to admin [i] ster these ordinances is revealed—must she supplant the first one that happened to fall into her grave before she heard these things? Must the first one remain without her family, without her children, according to the order that exists in the eternal world, while the second one enjoys all these things because she happened to live a little longer? ”

“ The disciplines that you have, for the government of your churches, inform us that when marriage is performed among you, it is between two mortal beings, and they are only married till death shall separate and part them. ”

“ Though there should be hundreds of thousands of millions, or more, of the descendants of those mortal beings come here upon the earth, the command is not fully complied with; though he may have begotten sons and daughters, Cain, Abel, Seth and many others for some nine hundred years and upwards, yet all the sons and daughters he begat while he was mortal here upon the earth did not, in all respects, fulfill the command given to him while an immortal being. ”

“ Two women would go into the same family, and be wives for all eternity; and as you have said that the Lord commanded this multiplication to take place, when they were immortal beings, then, of course, both of these wives would raise up posterity in all ages of eternity, being immortal personages, and thus fulfil the great and first commandment. ”

“ The same great Being that ordained the principle of baptism for and in behalf of the dead, also ordained eternal union through other sacred ordinances referring to the man and the woman; not only for the living but also for the dead, that they might be benefited not only by the actions of the living in baptism, but also by the acts of the living in relation to the marriage covenant; one is just as consistent as the other. ”

“ In meditating upon this great command given to these two immortal beings; it opens to us a field of reflection, of knowledge, concerning the great designs of the Almighty. It imparts to us a knowledge that the Lord our God intended that immortal beings should multiply their species. ”

“ The minister only married them till death should them part. When death comes along and separates these two persons their marriage covenant has expired; it has run out, it is at an end. But inquires one, will not the Lord permit them to live together as husband and wife, after the resurrection? Why should he? If he had joined them together, according to the marriage ceremony that was administered to the first pair of immortality, then they could claim each other, after the resurrection ”

“ If God had not revealed himself, had not given instructions upon this important point, we should be in ignorance, the same as all the rest of the world; and our marriages, like them, would only be for time. ”

“ There are provisions ordained from before the foundation of the world, which take into consideration all these cases; namely, that all the human family who have died without the law or between the dispensations, when there was no divine authority on the earth, shall have a proper chance, by the living acting for the dead ”

“ Now, says one, here is a woman who survives her husband and marries a second husband. The second husband receives the Gospel and comes into the Church; the first husband died without ever hearing it. What are you going to do with him? Do you suppose that God, in laying down the great plan of salvation would forget to make any laws, provisions, or conditions, in regard to these matters? Not at all. He has ordained that every man who is worthy shall have a family of his own ”

“ I admit they are; perhaps you may be willing to admit the truth of this, so far as eternity is concerned, and those that have left here without hearing the Gospel. But let me ask a question here—Is it any more right for two women to claim the same husband, after they come forth from the grave, than it is for two women, here in time living on this earth, to claim a man as their husband? If one is right, the other is right also ”

“ They have continued to do so, and their children after them, in all of their generations, until the present time, and will continue to do so in future generations, until the earth has filled the measure of its creation, according to the number of souls that existed before the world was organized, in the family of the two-thirds who kept their first estate. ”