Orson Pratt

“ Point out to us a husband and wife that God has joined together, from the second century of the Christian era until the nineteenth, if any can. Such a phenomenon cannot be found among Christians or Jews, Mahometans or Pagans. All are without prophets or inspired men—all are without divine authority: none have had power to seal on earth the marriage covenant, that it might be sealed in heaven ”

“ Remember, then, that when the Lord gave eve to Adam, He gave an immortal woman to an immortal man: He made them one flesh, not for time, not for any definite period of duration, not till death—for that monster was not in the creation which was then newly formed and pronounced “very good”—but He joined them in one, as one flesh, to be indissolubly united while eternal ages should roll on, or God himself endure. ”

“ They, therefore, must be numbered with the angels who do not keep the law; while those who do keep it, will sit upon thrones of judgment and will judge those angels and make them their servants, and they shall serve them throughout endless generations forever and ever, for angels have no power to enlarge themselves by an increase of posterity. But to those who keep the law through the eternal covenant of marriage, shall honor, and glory, and dominion, and eternal lives, be added, to endless ages in worlds without end. By such shall worlds be people with their own sons and daughters ”

“ Those who have not secured their marriage foreternity, in this life, can never have it attended to hereafter; therefore if they should through faithfulness even be saved, yet they would be no higher than the angels, and would be compelled to live separately and singly, and consequently without posterity, and would become servants to all eternity for those who are counted worthy to become kings and priests, and who will receive thrones and kingdoms, and an endless increase of posterity, and inherit a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. ”

“ If sin had not entered our world, death never would have been known in this creation; consequently our first parents would have been living this day as fresh, and as fair, and as full of all the vigour and strength of immortality, as in the morn of creation; millions of ages would have produced no effect upon their immortal systems; they would have been as durable as the throne of Jehovah, and as lasting as eternity itself. ”

“ When a man and woman enter into matrimonial contracts, and covenant to be each other’s companion until death, they have claim upon each other for this life only; when death comes, their marriage contracts and covenants expire; and in the resurrection, however much they may desire to enjoy themselves in all the endearing relationships of husband and wife, they will find that their contracts and covenants which were made for time only, give them no title to each other in eternity. ”

“ All things feel his withering touch; all nations and generations are prostrated in the dust; ruin and desolation follow in his train; the whole creation groan beneath the grasp of his tyrant hand. Under his direful reign our first parents were banished from the presence of their Creator—were disinherited from the garden of Eden—were subjected to labour and toil to procure food from the ground cursed for man’s sake. ”

“ Republics and kingdoms, thrones and empires, principalities and powers, and all things else of human origin, shall be cast down and destroyed, and vanish away like “the dream of a night vision;” but all things sealed on earth and in Heaven, shall abide forever and have no end. ”

“ Who then cannot easily see that the very existence of mortal man on this earth depended on the fall? Who so dull of apprehension that he cannot perceive that if our first parents had not fallen, we, as mortal beings, could have had no existence? Mortal children of flesh and blood could not have been born.
After our first parents had become fallen, and consequently mortal, it was impossible for them to obey the command to multiply, as immortal beings, and raise up immortal children. It is true, they could offer a substitute of a mortal posterity, subject to death, instead of an immortal one ”

“ If for one sin of this description, twenty-five thousand Benjaminites, together with their wives and little children, were destroyed by the command of God, what must be the fierce wrath and terrible judgments laid up against modern Christendom, who have suffered these abominations to prevail among them, not in a few isolated cases existing for a moment, but in hundreds of thousands of cases, where public prostitutes, swarming forth from their deathly, hellish dens, like so many venomous serpents, have corrupted nations and generations for centuries and for ages? ”

“ But man, through disobedience, opened the gates to the enemy; death enters the armed with horrible vengeance, and with a ghastly smile seats himself upon the throne of the new world, and clad with frightful majesty proclaims himself “The Kin of Terrors.” ”

“ When a man who has a wife, teaches her the law of God, as revealed to the ancient patriarchs, and as manifested by new revelation, and she refuses to give her consent for him to marry another according to that law, then it becomes necessary for her to state before the President the reasons why she withholds her consent: if her reasons are sufficient and justifiable, and the husband is found in the fault or in transgression, then he is not permitted to take any step in regard to obtaining another. ”

“ If the Gentile nations consider Patriarchal Matrimony “a mote” which has got into the Saints’ eyes, let them, before they undertake to pluck it out, extricate the great beams from their own eyes; and then they will learn that what they suppose to be “a mote,” is in reality a divine institution, which was practised, by the most holy men that ever lived in ancient times, under the sanction and approbation of the Almighty. ”

“ If they could not have multiplied while immortal, it was absolutely necessary that they should break one law to obey another. But, on the other hand, if they could have multiplied while immortal, then their posterity would of necessity have been immortal also; otherwise, death would have entered the world without sin, which no one for a moment could believe. ”

“ The redemption through Christ was intended to restore both male and female to immortality, that what they lost by the fall might be regained. If the fall deprived them of the power of raising up an immortal posterity, the redemption will restore that privilege, or else it will be incomplete. Adam must, therefore, have restored to him his beloved wife—his immortal Eve ”

“ But those who do not, in this life, enter into the eternal covenant of marriage, after the pattern set by the first immortal pair, can never obey the first great command. If any shall say that they obey that in this life, to them we reply, that a fallen, corrupt, mortal posterity, will never be accepted, as sufficient to answer the ends of that great law which was given to man in his immortal state. Immortal beings only can obey that law acceptably, according to the read design and purpose which the Lord had in view. ”

“ Thus will God show to all his creations, that the enemy has not defeated His designs and purposes, but that they will all be fulfilled and accomplished, and that the Devil, who sought to overthrow them, has, himself, been defeated and banished from this creation into his own place. ”

“ No uninspired man has authority from God to join together the male and female in the marriage covenant. Marriage is an ordinance of God, and we read that “what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”—Matthew xix, 6. Where man usurps authority to officiate in the ordinance of God, and joins together the sexes in marriage, such unions are illegal in the sight of God, though they may be legal according to the laws and governments of men. ”

“ In the Revelation on Marriage, we are informed that there is never but one man on the earth at the same time who holds the keys to minister the ceremony of marriage fro time and for all eternity, and to seal the same on earth with authority, so that it may be acknowledged and sealed in heaven. ”

“ If our first Parents were married for eternal ages, for the purpose of multiplying an immortal offspring, we cannot for one moment suppose that there will ever a period arrive throughout all future duration, when they will cease to obey this command. Hence their own sons and their own daughters, aside from their grandchildren, will be as numerous as the dust of the earth, or in other words, there will be no end to their increase. ”

“ It is the duty of a man who takes another wife, to look after her welfare and happiness, and to provide for her the comforts of life the same as for the first; for the Scripture, in speaking of such a man, says, “If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.”—Exodus xxi, 10. ”

“ The first marriage we have on record, is that of our first parents. After the Lord had formed Eve, He “Brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”— (Gen. ii, 22, 24) Here was a marriage in which the Lord in person officiated—a marriage between two immortal beings. Both Adam and Eve were so organized that death had no dominion over their bodies ”

“ They, therefore, who enter not into the everlasting covenant of marriage, can never obey that law; and because they have not placed themselves in a condition to obey it, they will find in the resurrection, that they have no lawful companions, and cannot enjoy the same fullness of glory as their first Parents, and as others who have been joined by the Lord eternally as one flesh. ”

“ Tradition causes individuals and nations to “strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.” They cry out, as though they were frightened out of their senses, because a territory practises legal and lawful matrimony after the pattern set before them in the Scriptures; but they can swallow down comparatively easy, without scarcely uttering a groan, the polluted, wretched, most filthy sinks of iniquity that prevail to an alarming extent in all the large towns, cities, and sea-ports among the Gentile nations. ”

“ Their children play and associate together with the greatest affection as brothers and sisters; while each mother apparently manifests as much kindness and tender regard for the children of the others, as for her own. And morning and evening, when the husband calls together his family to worship the Lord and call upon his name, they all bow the knee, and, with the greatest union of feeling, offer their devotions to the Most High. ”

“ It is very frequently the case that they all reside in the same dwelling, and take hold, unitedly and with the greatest cheerfulness, of the different branches of household or domestic business, eating at the same table, and kindly looking after each other’s welfare, while the greatest peace and harmony prevail year after year. ”

“ By such shall God be glorified in the continuation of His works, in the extension of the Universe, in the redemption and glorification of worlds, and in the increase of intelligent, immortal, godlike beings who inherit all the fullness of His own great perfections. ”

“ Let this nation put these evils from their midst; let them enact strict laws to protect the virtue of the country; let the heaviest penalties be inflicted upon all public prostitutes, and upon all those who encourage the same, either by precept or example ”

“ It is sometimes the case that the husband provides for his wives separate habitations, as Jacob did for his four wives, each of whom had a separate tent.—See Genesis xxxi, 33. Where all the wives are equally faithful, the husband generally endeavours to treat them all without partiality.
Jealousy is an evil with which the Saints in Utah are but seldom troubled: it is an evil that is not countenanced by either male or female ”

“ Such a state of things actually existing, not in theory alone, but in general practice, removes every cause for jealousy, distrust, and want of confidence, and lays a broad and permanent foundation for peach and union. If a man ill-treats any one of his wives, he is looked upon as having violated the law of God, and it is difficult for him to recover from the disgrace. ”

“ The keys of authority are conferred by revelation, and by the holy anointing, upon the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the Church, who is the President over all the Saints throughout the world. In cases where it is inconvenient for him to attend, he has the authority to appoint others to officiate in his stead. ”

“ One such den of pollution, in ancient times, would have brought down the heaviest judgments of the Almighty upon the whole nation of Israel, until they eradicated the evil, root and branch, from their midst. ”

“ There are more quarrellings, and jealousies, and disunions, and evil speakings, in one week, among two thousand families, taken at random anywhere in the United States or England, than would be seen throughout all Utah Territory in five years. ”

“ Such will need myriads of servants, as their kingdoms and dominions increase; and the numbers requisite will be found among those who kept not the higher law, but still rendered themselves worthy of an inferior reward. ”