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Show WOMAN'S EXPONENT. O 135 ' when He appeared to His' disciples, after the resurrection, when He spoke those sweet words, V "Peace be unto you." that His you may Spirit May God give you name of in the is unto seek my prayer, Him, Jesus, Amen. Your loving sister, E. G. Jones. "Improvement Star," No. 4, Vol. 1. script paper llj.li Ward Y. L. M. L A. Manu- WOMEN AND TEMPERANCE. Editor Exponent: In the last number of your valuable paper, the ruling of the Judge of the Supreme Court in regard to the liquor question was referred to, and it was suggested that every woman who has the welfare of mankind at heart should protest against it. I endorse the sentiment with all my heart. It is my earnest conviction, however, that women many times bring untold misery upon themselves and their offspring by indulging Jn spirituous liquors in various forms at certain times in their lives, thus creating an appetite for strong drink in their children before their birth which will be a withering curse to them, all their life long. I have heard some women say they could not do without Kquor at certain times, which, however, with my past experience I do not believe. To illustrate my belief I will relate an incident in my own life. My first child was born in the winter of '48, at Winter Quarters, arid in the opinion of all my friends, I was very near unto death; and I wish to state emphatically in this connection that I was not snatched from an untimely grave by the use of alcoholic stimulants in any foriu, but by the power of God through the faith of the sisters who had met at Brother Heber C. Kimball's to hold a little prayer meeting, and at the request of a sister of our family they exercised their faith and prayers in my behalf; and as a result I began to improve from that very hour, and was soon restored to my usual health. I would further say on this subject that if we admit that liquor is sometimes beneficial, we also know that there is no safety in its use. If it has ever saved life, it has also been the great destroyer of the human race. I have known bright, intelligent and would be useful men, if they had been able to overcome their appetite for liquor. I have often wondered why this state "of things should exist with intelligent beings, possessing many of the attributes of the Deity. I have been told that it is often inherited from one or both parents. There surely must be a fearful retribution for those who willfully bequeathe such a fearful legacy to their innocent children. But for those parents who have acquired the habit in ignorance of its direful results, and who have not sufficient stamina to overcome I have much sympathy. Illy advice to moth-it, ers bearing children is to abstain entirely from the use of alcoholic 8timulant37thathey"mar not be called to account in a coming day for rearing a generation of drunkarda. In view of such probable results, I would far rather a daughter of mine should remain in single blessedness all her days than become allied to a young man who i3$abitually addicted to the intoxicating cup, even in a moderate degree. Some may think I am too radical on the subject, but I feel that we have much at stake in the future welfare of Zion, and that we should set examples before our children worthy of their imitation; and if we fail to overcome our own propensities in the direction of intemperance, we can hardly expect our children to do so. , With these few reflections I will close, hop- - ing the Saints will give this momentous subject the attention it deserves. R. A. W. Manti, Jan. 17, 1882. CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. As much is said at present upon the law of Celestial Marriage, and so very little understood about it, at least among many of our own peeple and those not of our faith, I will endeavor to say a few words in relation to this subject; Brother Orson Pratt said, in a discourse upon this subject given in Salt Lake City 1869 (page 7G "Does the Bible sanction Polygamy ? "): "If all the inhabitants of the earth at the present time were righteous before G6d, and both males and females were faithful in keeping His commandments, and the number of the sexes of a marriageable age were exactly equal, there would be no necessity for any such institution; every righteous man could have his wife, and there would be no overplus of females." But he further explains, that by taking the statistics of the census of the different States, that there are hundreds of thousands more women than men; one cause of this being that many more males die under the age of twenty years than females, while many lose their lives in war and other employments. Brother Pratt also said that God was fighting against the evils and wickedness which are e the result of so many being deprived, by laws, of fulfilling that first great command to multiply arid replenish the earth; hence. He has given a commandment whereby this can be remedied. For certain reasons best known to our Heavenly Father, the Nephites were commanded not to practise this principle. Brother Orson Pratt said it was because their numbers were equal when Lehi left Jerusalem. Some try to take advantage of this, but I think whatever God commands us to do is binding upon us, no matter whether any one else ever practised it or not. The Bible informs us that in the days when God talked with man, that this principle was practised, and God honored those most who did practise it, and speaks of Abraham as being the father of the faithful, (chrisbut if he lived at present, the tians would seek to take away every privilege, and even his life if they could. No man can take wives outside of the law of God and please God, as was the case with David; God gave him many wives, but in the case of Uriah he took the wife unto himself and robbed another; hence, he was under condemnation, as is recorded in the 11th and 12th chapters of Second Samuel. But' we find that after being chastened he took Bathsheba in the right way, and she was the mother of Solomon, who was termed the wise king; who was also honored by God's presence, for He appeared unto him twice. But he was not so wise that he kept from sinning, for he took wives from the nations which were forbidden to the Saints, and they succeeded in turning him to idolatry But nothing is said about its being a sin to take more wives than one, Brother Orson Pratt also mentions in his remarks about the sister of Moses and others, who were jealous, because Moses had taken the Ethiopian woman, in addition to the daughter of Jethro, whom he had taken before in the land of Midian; that JVIiriam, his sister, was smitten with leprosy the moment she began to complain, and was considered unclean for a certain number of days. I wonder how many cases of leprosy there would ,be at present, if every woman was stricken with it that speaks against Celestial . Marriage. Book the to i I will make one more reference of Mormon. The Lord said unto Jacob, in so man-mad- so-calle- . -- d connection with other things: "For if I will, saith the Lord, raise up seed unto myself, I will command my people; otherwise ye shall obey these things." This plainly showed there was a probability that the time would come when He would command His people otherwise. The revelation was given in 1843, and Joseph Smith the Prophet practised it, and young maidens were sealed to him and lived in the house with his wife Emma, until she apostatized from the faith, or, rather, rebelled against the Lord, and like the ancient Jews, when they found that the Savior had arisen, they hired the watchman to tell that His body was stolen, and ..thousands are deceived by that story today. So with Emma, Brother Joseph's wife; she destroyed the original copy of the revelation, arid after Joseph's death taught her children that he never received any such revelation, and they believe it and try to induce others to, and many do. But sho did not thwart the purposes of God in doing this, for Bishop N. Whitney, one of Brother Joseph's particular friends, had preserved a copy of the revelation, but'ii was not published, until the Lord directed. And because she rejected the word of the Lord, it was no sign His work was going to stop. We hear very much said about Celestial Marriage being such a trial. I do not doubt but some are tried in this order, but is there anyprinciple, if it is practised aiming at perfection, but will try our selfish natures in some way or other? I think not. The great' trouble is, except we have a testimony of the truth of Celestial Marriage, we think every little trouble unnecessary. Isaiah says, just after speaking of the great calamities which will come upon the daughters of Zion for pride; "That seven women will take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." I think it would be better for the people to accept a principle than to be forced to it in that way. We read in the Bible, Rev. 21st chap., that John saw a beautiful city coming down from heaven, and it had twelve gates, and an angel at each gate; and each gate had a name written upon it, and the names were the Twelve Tribes of Israel; and we know that Jacob's twelve sons, by four different wives, will be the ones whose names will be written in such holy places. I expect the next measures introduced will be some leading man advising Congress to adopt special legislation to deprive the twelve sons of Jacob of a representation in heaven. I. Mary J. Morrison. WHAT WOMEN THINK. I have been thinking of the Exponent, and wondering why more of our sisters (I should gay all of them) do not take it. Surely it is of some importance ihaflhtf women of Utah-shoulbe properly represented; we certainly have misrepresentation enough. The cry has n women of Utah. ever been, the This same cry of oppression is made an excuse for all kinds of newspaper abuse, and a pretext for interference in our public and domestic institutions; indeed, they would have the world believe U3 the most degraded and neglected beings of all GodV. creation. Nowwe know this is not so; we enjoy full as much liberty a3 they do, and a great deal more, with all their boasted civilization. We do not need their, sympathy nor their interference in our behalf. We enjoy all the rights that are accorded to our sex anywhere, and know as well how to use them as any of our compeers in the Eastern cities would. Indeed, we enjoyed more before they kindly introduced so much of their vaunted civilization into our midst The day haa been when we could walk the streets of down-trodde- d |
