Show editorials old APPLIED TO NEW conditions the presidents recommendation the mormons cormons bo be deprived orpo of political li rights until they abandon polygamy does not appear to us to ommer offer a practical solution of that problem congress can no doubt do what he suggests but it is almost certain certain that it would be without effect the mormon church possesses an organization fully capable of governing the whole mormon body and in such a case it would doubtless proceed to govern them in this way of course the territorial government tern torn ment could not carry out the processes of the courts in the face of or an adverse community that has been tried in the south and has signally failed the truth is that coercion and punitive legislation will not reach this difficulty and it is time that fact was recognized the mormon leaders are perfectly aware of this and they do not care what congress does in the premises whatever can be made macle to appear to mormon eyes in the light of persecution for conscience con cod science sake is to their advantage and will oni only y strengthen agthea both t the h 0 church and polygamy of course it is very much easier easler to find out the defects in any an given line of policy than to propose i e a practicable solution we confess that ive lve we do not see our way to any determination of this question within the reach of congress at present but we are disposed to place much rel rei reliance lanee lande upon the silent allent influence of contact with gentile civilization jt it may not be satisfactory is mohave to have to await t the he slow effects of that influence but it would abe be still stil iless lIess less satisfactory to find after adopting drastic measures that the evils aimed at had only been entrenched by the attacks upon them the tile above is from the sacramento accord union and we believe it acon icon conveys ve Vs the opinions of the most tho thoughtful I 1 a hatful portion of the people of the united states on a question to which much importance seems to be attached inato and to the prominence of which its enemies contribute more than thin its friends we recognize the hand of providence in jn all the attempts made to destroy or misrepresent se nt mormonism because it keeps up public I 1 interest in the subject gives gives the mormons cormons Mor mons an opportunity of telling the truth concerning principles and results in bringing bridging many honorable people after investigating li aves ti our doctrines to embrace embra bethe the faith and aid in the work in the same issue issued c the decord umon union in which the above article is published published appears an article mainly in n reference to railroads roads as public highways and from which we make the annexed extracts it sometimes happens that law hinders progress and it does in attempting to measure new fiew phenomena by the rules which were devised devisee to measure old phenomena with it is probably a very amery common idea that the dead are soon forgotten but bilt if it men reflected they would perceive 7 that the government of the world is carried on far more by the dead than by the living and that the si silent influence of those long gone to their rest rost molds not only opinions but actions more more strongly tron y th than n any n y contemporary exp eap experience ryence and nd if we in bringing to this eon con continent in t t the he legal traditions and doctrines of old england have secured many maily priceless benefits it must also be admitted that we gave cave have entailed upon ourselves many serious drawbacks and hindrances arising out of the want of harmony with actual conditions too frequently existing in these venerable maxims and theories rules which were the result of an experience long obsolete are adhered to despite their applicability one consequence of all alt this is a confusion in the interpretation of fundamental concepts which leads to astonishing toni shing results frequently although the foregoing remarks are intended to apply to another and totally different subject they have equal application to the law in relation ito iwo to mormon celestial marriage which the astute writer in the thip record union ought to perceive when treating on the mormon question the anti antl polygamy y act of 1862 was aimed against cere ceremony monand and institution pec peculiar ullar uliar to the church of jesus christ of nat lat ter day saints but it was in its construction a enactment reenactment re of an old anglish statute framed against a very different practice the very wording of the first english civil law a against bigamy tato that of f james I 1 is used in the act of 62 mormon plural marriage and the crime of bigamy are as unlike in essence and in deed as any two things can be which both relate to the intercourse of the sexes bigamy implies the forsaking of a legal wife for an illicit union with another woman under a fraudulent form of marriage mormon plural marriage I 1 does not repudiate the first wife but confirms her in her marital position while it gives to the hus bus husband hubband and another by consent of all the parties one is deceptive throughout the whole transaction the other is by agreement with the knowledge and understanding of both the wives in one case the second or bogus wife imagines she is the lawful spouse of the bigamist in the other case the plural wife understands that the ceremony while binding ecclesiastically asti cally and bona bonafide nide fide in the eyes of her people and church is not recognized 7 as such by the civil law in bigamy the man knows he is perpetrating a wrong affecting each of the deceived women whom he betrays in li mormon formon plural marriage the husband conscientiously believes in fact declares he be knows that he is is doing right in the sight of heaven his convictions being so strong that to himot him it amounts to knowledge one is under no restraint but is doa done in defiance of restraint the other is done under rules and I 1 regulations which the parties accey accept t as divine and believe to be binding upon them the religious element enters into perm and controls the latter while the former repudiates all religious suggestions or sent bent sentiments as well as the law of man now take to an old law framed against that which is generally known as bigamy and try to make it apply to mormon polygamy is is unwise and incompatible legislation it is not statesmanship it is in the very nature of the old laws and their application to modem and different circumstances against which the record union declaims as we think with avith reason the venerable maxims a nd theories of anglican ecclesiastical government are in this case grafted into modem american civil jurisprudence jf uris iris prudence with the object of overcoming by the force of law a different practice altogether from that assailed by the ancient and inapplicable edict we agree with the sacramento journal that the latest plan pian proposed evenia adopted which we have no fears of seeing would atwould afford no practical solution of the problem all this hostility to a system which its enemies can only assail with falsehood and force but intensifies the convictions of its abher ants and the more undue and anti antl republican meas measures tir es are concocted in the spirit of malice and intolerance against it the more difficult and complicated will the problem become As a le amed learned jurist who has visited this territory remarked to some of his friends in m the east after investigating this subject to some extent there is one thing that the rabid opponents of the not take into account and that Is s that they are as sin bin sincere cane care and conscientious in the marriage portion of their religion as any members of any christian sect are ard in their destine destina tive five beliefs this will have to be taken into consideration by those who undertake to efrece effect any change in the marital relations of the mormons cormons Mor mons ons and in leaving it out of their deliberations those who plan against it omit the most important factor in the so called problem the record accord union seems to sense this to some extent and we hope it will also apply the argument on the inapplicability mapp 11 ica iea ability of old laws to new conditions in reference to railroads in the same in manner mannen a and to the same effect in in relation to the mormon question ats its a poor poon rule that will only work one way SCIENCE AND GENESIS tim tins sacred record called t the h a bible opens with a brief account of the creation it not only declares that god made created or organized the heavens and the earth the an animal imal imai and vegetable products and finally male and female man but gives the order of this creat croat creation ion lon telling what was done in the several days or epochs until the globe was sufficiently perfected to be a fit abode for man the crowning works of deity formed in liis ills own image until quite recently this biblical account of the creation was received among christian nations as the revealed word of god and remained undisputed as a relation of facts to call it in question at one time would have subjected the skeptic not only to the scorn and indignation of believers but eliut to pains and penalties of the sev ses severest er character but of late years the first chapter of the book ot genesis has been assailed by scientists in such a manner mannen that even professing christians and other devout believers in the old testament hava come to doubt the authenticity of bf that chapter while the efforts of some modern divines to interpret its 16 sayings so 80 as to conform to fila file the ilia declarations cla rations of so called science have inmany in many cases been pitiful ani and and painful to behold many litany religious teachers claim that the portion of serl seri scripture iture referred to is merely a poem containing allegorical anti and metaphorical langua language gd not to be received in any literal sease sense geology has set up dog dogmas mas in su such sueh cli cil direct opposition to the der standing ferstanding of genesis and the tendency of modem modern thought is so strongly turned in the direction of human deductions rather than divine revelation that former orthodox theology is pushed aside and the authority of that portion of the bible at least leastle is ls as nothing compared to the enuncio eions of thel geologists and secularists the mi mischief of this lies in tb the a disposition to doubt which it fos fog and increases driving falt faith hout out of the heart and closing up the avenues of divine illumination to the soul the of the very beginning of holy writ once a matter of uncertainty or the subject of ridi ridicule cule cuie it is easy to proceed in the iame game same direction until the whole volume is viewed as fiction lr or at least mun aa unworthy of trusting reliance alm arid when those who profess to be called as teachers of the people join in the growing skepticism the result result cannot fail fall to be subversive of thao tha alth aith which is the kc key y to divine communion I 1 and the great essential to present and eternal salvation the latter day saints have faith falth faith in the opening chapters of the bible as a relation of actual occurrences which is confirmed by direct revelation in our own times that great prophet and seer joseph smith received a divine communication making known the word of the lord as revealed to moses who wro wrote to the account of the creation in genesis a sis sig this not only establishes the fact of the authorship of that book butt but the h a fact that what moses wrote was revealed to him from heaven it was not the result of his 1 tion eions or a mere expression of bis bin ow own n philosophy hr il or theories but the very word of the creator himself this communication is published in the pearl of great price so is the book of abraham Ab rahamin in wech the account of the creation as feve revealed aled to that great patriarchic Patri archis made known corroborating the statements of moses mogas and putting beyond question the literal character of the biblical narration of primal events there are some things connected with this however which need to be explained in order to form a correct understanding of the subject oncas one is in relation to the them days Y spoken of in which the process of organization was accomplished these days are shown in the book of abraham to be according to celest celestial iid lid and not earth time one revolution of this globe glow taking about twenty four hours measures oter our oun day including the darkness and the ight light but celestial time is measured by the revolutions of a governing world set far above our sun in astral power and glory as it is in magnitude one revolution taking a thousand years of our time this makes one of the days of the lord who to moses of celestial time in re reference Mience to the periods of the earths evolution and not to td our diurnal reckoning another thing to be noted is that no period is defined as intervening between the time when the earth was first formed out of chaos and the time when light was called by the divine flat fiat out of the mid midst of the darkness and the emerging of which and its division from insop its opposite took place in the first yeimei time or celestial day how long the forming globe remained in the outer darkness of its state is not revealed Ag ages esmay may have intervened between the beginning and the time of the first day whether smaller and older orbs arbs or fragments of others that had passed away by the word of gods godys power because bemuse they had not filled the measure of their creation were involved and incorporated in the new now started nucleus is not ex planned in the divine words worm to moses and abraham and in the absence of definite revelation on this point we will not interpose conclusions that hat may however r be consistently deduced from other oth e r inspired I 1 n communications but we wo merely draw attention to these two points in relation to the periods of the divine work which whichard chare are not generally considered in reading the biblical account of the creation the question that will arise in some minds j is how does all this tally with the declarations of sc ienco science we answer what is called callad science is not infallible luie lUle it makes many mistakes true science is indisputable but much that is called science is only philosophy some of it very vain philosophy there is quite a mixture of theory and gudas guesswork with demonstrated principles and factS jin the assertions a niong along of learned men con eon concertin cernin the formation of worlds and geo gec geologic blogic processes and periods they cannot be accepted as the end of controversy and if the revelations to which we have referred came into direct contact with the dogmas of scientists we should prefer to depend on the former no matter how much they might contradict the latter but we think that there is no real conflict between the mosaic account of the cr creation edtion and in d the nebular theory which is the most widely accepted among the most prominent scientists and amdee we will close this rather lengthy article which is Ls written for the purpose of cf arousing thought 1 on this subject among our young people with an extract from a contribution to a late number of the christian carf Chri alan dlan union placing side by side the sayings in genesis gensis slightly alte altered reil reel badr by dr warning Warring the writer with the assertions and admissions of science on this important subject gen L i mccamm SCIENCE TO 10 nib HIB TR IGRAM MARAND J LEXICON 00 1 in the tho beginning there was a beginning god there Is a first cause created tho the heavens the universe had its and the earth origin in the Unknown source of things thin herbert |