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Show . ITS "FANTASTIC FORMS." From which it will be aeen that wlif n news ' travels a Ion? way it is not always al-ways possible to recognize It. 3t takes on new and fantastic forms as It rolls 8!10E0DeSCrCl Xews edItorlal. October Some people, have supposed that the doctrine - of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or non-essential to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of tho saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the priesthood for time and cternltv, will receive nn exaltation as great and glorious. glori-ous. If lie is faithful, as he posslblv could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this Idea, for I know it Is false. I understand the law of celestial marriage mar-riage to mean that every man in this church, who has the ability to obev and practice it in righteousness and wlfl not. shall be damned. I say I understand il to mean this and nothing less, and I testify In the name of Jesus that it dos mean that. Sermon of Joseph F. Smith In Salt Lake tabernacle. July 7, 1879; Deseret Des-eret Xews, September 7, 1S7U. That plural marriage Is a vital tenet of the church Is not true. "What the JLatler-day JLatler-day Saints call celestial marriage is characteristic of the church, and is in very general practice: but of celestial marriage plurality of wives was n.n Incident, Inci-dent, never an essential. President Soren Peterson in The Penny Illustrated Paper London, England. January 11. 1008. Such arc the "new and fantastic forms" that polygamous "news" as-suir.ei as-suir.ei "as it rolls along." The further off it gets from Utah, the harder it is to recognize. . President Smith, at "nor..i;, teliu the people that polygamy is essential to their salvation, a'jri that without its practice lhc3' will be damned. That he holds the sentiment loda3' thero is no doubt, else he must admit that he was lying in 1S79 when he claimed to be inspired in-spired by a God whose laws are unchangeable. un-changeable. And in pursuanco of this view, he causes the alleged revelation, making knowu his true position, to be published broadcast through the Doctrine Doc-trine aud Covenants, which is tho law to all tho saints throughput all the world. He lives,' a ' life, which proves that he has not changed iu his attitude toward plural marriage His failure to punish new polygamists is evidence that he is still a firm believer, not 0UI3' in tho doctrine of polyganrj', but also in tho practice of pob'gamy. Refusiug to discipline men who have performed the plural marriage ceremony, whilo 3'Ct lie holds tho solo keys to the priesthood covering this ministration, can be taken for no other thing than that ho still believes be-lieves the doctrine to be an essential and the practice to be necessary to a man's highest exaltation and salvation. This is Joseph P. Smith at home; and this is the nature of tho polygamous "news" in Utah. President Soren Peterson, of the London Lon-don Mormon mission, gives us an idea of how pol3-gamous "news" may be twisted to unrecognizability after it gets awa' from home. He contradicts tho utterances of his chief priest aud his guiding star in the firmament of divine di-vine revelation. That which Joseph F. Smith, at home, declares to be true, Elder El-der Peterson, abroad, says is a downright down-right lie. If Elder Peterson had been a little farther away from home, there is no telling but ho would have said that polygamy was a thing never known in the church so "ucw and fantastic" aro the shapes developed in "news" dolivcrod by the missionary ciders as thej- recede from the fouut of wisdom in Zion. The fact is that Joseph F. Smith rc-pcatcdly rc-pcatcdly told the Senate committee that ho believed iu the principle of polygamj' as much today as he ever did; he has confessed that it is practiced; he docs not punish ' those, who practico' it;' he does not discipline thoso who ofiiciato in the ceremonies. So what difference is thero between now and the 3'cara before tho manifesto, so far as polygamy in tho Mormon church is concerned? There is one thoy do it more on the sly now and that is about tho only difference. |
