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Show ABSOLUTION IS ASSURED. Editor Trlhuno. I see by Reed Smoot's testimony before the Sennto. committee that he Indorses tho book of Doctrine and Covenants. Including tho revelation on the celestial law of marriage, paragraph 2C of which says 'If a man marry a wife according to my word, and they arc scaled by the holy spirit of promise, according ac-cording to mine appoinlmont, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of tho new and. everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of hlnsphemlcs. and If they commit no murder, wherein they shed Innocent blood yet they shall come forth In the first resurrection, and qnter Into their cxaltntlon." To me there could not be much value attached to tho testimony of any man who would believe In a doctrine which declares him to be saved, no matter what manner of sin he committed short of murder, Just so long as he became a polygamist. INVESTIGATOR. Elslnore, January 23, 1007. Our correspondent is referred to tho proceedings in the Smoot investigation for confirmation of his conclusion. In Washington Joseph V. Smith testified that ho had received no revelation; within two wceka, in tho tabernaclo at Salt Lak, ho declared that ho had lied in Washington in order to escape tho traps set for him by his enemies. In Washington he admitted that his understanding under-standing of the intent of the manifesto was that it inhibited all further polygamous polyga-mous living with plural wives married before the issuanco of that docurnout; before the Third District court in Salt Lako he pleaded that his "tacit understanding" under-standing" was that ho could continue to live with his plural wives without molestation or question. In Washington he confessed that ho was living in continuous con-tinuous defiance of the laws of God and man; in Utah ho asserted that if thoro was any man living upon tho face of tho earth who possessod moro of the spirit of God than he did he would like to meet I hat man. In Washington he said that ho was not teaching polygamy since the -manifesto; at a banquet in Ogdon, long after the manifesto was issued, is-sued, he taught polygamy to over three hundred local leaders in the Weber stake and other stakes of his church, and he has taught the virtue of it pri-vatcly pri-vatcly since. In Washington he protested pro-tested that he was permitting no more plural marriage ceremonies in tho Mormon Mor-mon church; tho church colonies in Canada Can-ada and Mexico are peopled very largely by new polygamists since tho manifesto. In Washington he said thai he was living liv-ing in open and flagrant polygamous relation re-lation with his plural wives, and intimated inti-mated that ho intended to continue, and that he was willing to tuko his chances against the law; in Salt Lake, after his forty-third child was born to him by one of his plural wives, he went into court and made' an abject pica for a gentle judgment against him, not being be-ing willing to take his chances against the letter and the spirit of Iho law. In fact, it is noticeable that tho most" palpable evasion and denial came in the testimony of the chief prophet ami the other polygamists who testified in the Smoot case. In Washington Reed Smoot says that he opposes polygamy in tho church; in Utnh he never utters a whisper or a word against, it, although he has had greater opportunity to raise his voico in public protest lhan any other public man in the Slate. After all, if living up to the moral standard set up in the revelation quoted by our correspondent is an evidence of polygamous belief or practice, Reed Smoot might bo open to suspicion, even if tho specific, chargo against him asserts as-serts that he only believes in the principle princi-ple and protects the practiccrs of tho doctrine. |
