POLYGAMY
The Patriarchal Institution as Viewed from a Mormon Standpoint.
ANCIENT COVENANTS AND MODERN REVELATIONS.
Mysteries of Celestial Marriage.
THE GATES WIDE OPEN.
A View of the Heaven of the Lat-ter-Day Saints,
&c., &c., &c.
FIRST PAPER.
BY A MORMON ELDER.
Notwithstanding all that has been written upon the subject of Mormon polygamy, only a very few of its cardinal points have been touched, and scarcely a practical view of the solution given. The reason of this is evidently because “Gentile" correspon-dents and magazine writers have aimed chiefly at sensational exposes, and, moreover, knew but little of the inner views of the "celestial order," as the Saints understand it in the integrity of their faith. Even Dr. Newman's essays and discussions will amount to nothing, and explain nothing in the case of practical value, either to the Mormons or the Gentiles. Nor do our apostolic theologians, such as Orson Pratt and John Taylor, much better render their subject to the popular understanding; for they deal almost exclu-sively with patriarchal disputations, which none but the disciples of the ''peculiar institution" can ap-preciate. I therefore design a compendium of the chief views and points of Mormon polygamy, in strict harmony with Mormon conceptions, but ren-dered by the author rather than by the enthusiastic disciple.
POLYGAMY BUT AN OFFSPRING.
One of the crude notions in the popular mind is that polygamy and Mormondom are substantially one and there are many who have no clearer con-ceptions of the case than that Mormonism has flourished in the world out of poly-gamic inducements. Now, almost the reverse of this is the case. Mormondom existed long before polygamy was instituted; the ''Book of Mormon" was twenty years old when the new revelation of the celestial order of marriage was given to Joseph Smith, only just prior to his martyr-dom; and the peculiar institution was not published in Great Britain until fifteen years after the opening of its mission, and eight after Brigham Young suc-ceeded to the leadership of the church. Moreover, the Saints have not increased in numbers since that period; for, when polygamy was publicly declared in Great Britain, the Saints boasted that they were 300,000 strong, and they are certainly not more than that to-day. Mormondom, then, has not flourished out of polygamy, but may be said to have grown up to the monogamic period of the new dispensation, though it has been certainly matured and celestial-ized in the polygamic period. Mormondom is thus shown to be an entirety, without respect to either the one wife system or the many wife system.
PATRIARCHAL COVENANTS.
Mormonism has essentially a patriarchal genius. It was born Abrahamic, and since the day that Brig-ham Young played the Moses and led his Israel out of their Egypt it has been also Mosaic. To Joseph and Brigham and their people all the covenants made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were renewed, and in them confirmed for the "consummation of all things." To them pertained the promise, confirmed by a new oath and “the new and everlasting cove-nant," that "in thee and thy seed shall all the na-tions of the earth be blessed;" and ''I will make thee as numerous as the stars in the firmament of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore." This was the new revelation to Joseph smith and the Saints from the beginning. What wonder, then, seeing that they inherited the cov-enunts made to Abraham, that they should seek to "do the works of Abraham," the father of the Faithful, whose children they arrogated to them-selves to be? Moreover, all the Mormons became infatuated with the design to ''restore all things" of Divine order belonging to the various dispensa-tions, but which had been “lost to the world through apostacy," and it was with them atone time quite a matter for future determination how much or how little of the Mosaic economy ought to be restored in “this the dispensation of the fulness of times." Moses, however, could be taken ad-vantage of and treated with some liberty, because the scriptures told them that he instituted the “law of carnal commandments," which neither themselves nor their “fathers could bear." The Saints con-sidered themselves to be the children of those fathers, though exactly how to work out the sacred parentage I do not know. The institutions of Moses, then, could be set aside if found in the way, for Mormon Apostles are too sagacious and practical in their turn of mind to take upon their shoulders that which they cannot bear. But the patriaichs, Abraham and Jacob, had to be treated with exactness; for, according to Mormon theology, unto Abraham the fulness of the Gospel was re-vealed, and polygamy was a part thereof. Indeed, the “plurality system" is properly denominated the "patriarchal order of marriage," and it means a great deal more to the Mormon mind than mere polygamy. It is an es-sential portion of the covenant made to Abraham, lsaac, and Jacob, and absolutely necessary for celes-tial glory hereafter. The patriarchal order of mar-riage had, therefore, to be restored in this, the crowning dispensation of all the ages. Abraham had two wives and Jacob four, so the Saints of the modern covenant must have at least as many wives; and when the view extended to David and Solomon, they multiplied wives vastly in the polygamic sum. This opening view of the institution ex-poses the germinations of the polygamic order, among the apostles of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. And here it may be observed, that though the Mormons might permit the institution to be su-perceded because of their own necessities, in meet-ing the demands of the age, yet polygamy was a nat-ural offspring, Mormonism having essentially the patriarchal genius. Polygamy was born neither of Mormon vice nor Mormon virtue, but sprang up from the very germinations of their religion, and almost independent of the will of the people who have become so deeply involved in its system and complications. Indeed, to this very hour, Mormon polygamy is thus inde-pendent of the will of those who are in its toils, or those who believe in its theories and revelations. Even Brigham Young is mastered by these systems, and cannot change them; for the institutions of Mormondom are like the laws of the Medes and Persians. Nothing but a revelation extraordinary to suit the times could enable Brigham to abolish polygamy; and we shall presently discover abundant answers to the often repeated question, ''Will he receive that revelation at the last hour, if driven with his people to the wall by the legislation of Con-gress and the executive force of Grant?" To you ask President Young, as Mr. Colfax and others of the great officers of the State have done at various times, “Sir, what do you intend to do with your polygamy? You ought to know that the nation will not allow your people to practice the system any longer, for it is against both the sense and I will of the age; what, President Young, do you intend to do with polygamy?" You would be answered; “Nothing, sir. I intend to do nothing with polygamy; I can do nothing with it but observe its obligations in their integrity. The institution came not through me, but was given by revelation through Joseph Smith. I opposed it myself at first, and told Joseph that if anything could break up the church polygamy would. I sub-mitted to it because it came from a power greater than my will or wisdom, and was given for my salvation. I am only one in this case, and cannot touch the order of celestial marriage to abolish it, any more than I can abolish baptism for the remission of sins. Vice-President Colfax, I shall simply do nothing with polygamy, and you may tell Congress and the nation so, if you please." This is substantially what President Young would say to every legislator in America, no matter how often such questions were put to him. He has answered thus in effect repeatedly. With all his potency of character and dominant will, Brigham is but as a child when he comes to his religion. His religion masters him, and it is the only thing that ever has or ever will master Brigham Young. He is at the feet of the in-stitutions of his church, yet there is in the man such a supreme assumption of a divine mission in his life that he never takes any counsellor extraordi-nary but the Lord, whom he invites into his closet at his need. Perhaps, after all, Brigham Young is his own lord, but, if so, he knows it not, and in the case of the peculiar institution of patriarch-cal marriage, he believes that the Lord sustains it, and will help him to carry it successfully through until it is established as the marriage institution for the Saints and the future. Nevertheless the question will still remain in the ''Gentile" mind—which cannot appreciate the integrity of the institutions of our modern Israel. “Suppose Brigham and the Lord should be driven to the wall, and forced at last to own up that they cannot establish the patriarchal order on the American Continent, will they, between them, make up a timely revelation to abolish polygamy to save the church?" A “yes" or “no" will not give a satis-factory answer. The answer can only be found in harmonized expositions of the Mormons in their patriarchal relations.
THE AMERICAN FIRST WIVES.
Here we reach a view of Mormon polygamy that has scarcely been glanced at by any writer upon the subject. The women who first entered into the patriarchal order of marriage, by permitting their husbands to take more wives than themselves, were not laughters of the East nor of any land where the serfdom of the white woman could prevail. These first wives of the Mormon apostles and elders were nearly, to every woman, American born. They were, in the first place, of pure Saxon descent—possesing, in the very constitution of their physique and metaphysics, all that stam-ina of character and love of equality and self-assertiveness belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race. Their parents were nearly all from England generations ago, and some of them could trace their line up to the Pilgrim Fathers. Many of them came from New England, and they had a most chaste monogamic training and every educational ten-dency, as well as instinctive desire to fight against polygamy. They were strongly Puritanic in their character and religious consistency of mind, and from intense religious natures were more disposed to that forceful religious life of the ancient Puri-tans and to the adoption of their strong and literal conceptions of religion than to the more modern laxity of faith and transcendentalism. Some of these first wives were also from the very best fami-lies of New England. The sister of a present Sen-ator of Congress was one of the first wo-men to enter into polygamy, and her son, if I mistake not, was the first child of the celestial order." These are the women, then, who helped their husbands and lovers to establish polygamy. American women and wives dared the tremendous innovation of founding a new order of marriage relations for the American State Church (for such their “kingdom of God" is), and dared to found the patriarchal institu-tion for the American nation. Dad not these strong, earnest, Puritanic women taken polygamy into their religious faith and lives the “peculiar institution" would never have existed. It was these American women who established it, and not their husbands. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the apostles were powerless here, excepting in their priestly and prophetic character. As men and hus-bands, they are as smoked reeds, which could have been blown away by the breath of a woman's mouth. Without the sanction of these earnest religious women—these female reformers of America—and without their benediction, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, bless our husbands, and the sisters whom we give unto them in the name and the fear of the Lord," polygamy to-day would not be troubling our statesmen and harrassing our divines. And the last act of these female reformers is almost as extraor-dinary as that of founding the peculiar institution. They have now boldly asserted women's rights, and caused to be passed the Female Suffrage bill in the Legislature of Utah, and henceforth they will carry all the elections against the Gentiles and the se-ceders to which I belong; and if Congress and the nation meddle with their affairs, or dare to reject their delegate, then they will fight Congress and the nation with withering reproaches and fiery scorn. Now let Congress dare to touch the political rights of these American women, granted to them by their polygamic lords in the Utah Legislature, and America will hear such petitions, protests, and declarations as she heard in the days of Washington when her sons struck for liberty and rights against Great Britain and King George. It was then her sons, but now it would be her daughters in a grand revolution for the inalienable rights of both man and woman. It was these female reformers who also a few months back held their grand mass-meeting of the sisters exclusively, at which there were present in the great Tabernacle nearly ten thousand women, to protest to the nation against the Cullom bill, and to boldly assert the wo-man's exclusive right to choose her marriage insti-tution, be it monogamic or polygamic. These very women, who gathered at that mass-meeting to protect polygamy, in the first place estab-lished it, and now they will defeat all the enemies of Brigham and celestial marriage by their political vote. They and their daughters after them will, by their female suffrage bill, control the destiny of Utah for the next quarter of a century, and they will maintain polygamy as long as they please in spite of Congress and the Cul-lom bill; and in spite of all the troops that might be sent to Utah to arrest their polygamic lords, or of the United States judges sent there to condemn and imprison them. Joseph Smith called these Ameri-can women to his help to found the patriarchal order by the magic power of their match-less religious faith, and Brigham Young is now calling them to his help to preserve polygamy and protect himself and the apostles. They will be a bulwark which no hostile force will be able to break down. What Congress and what General Grant can vanquish such women as Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff, wife of Apostle Wilford Woodruff, who closed her bold speech at the great mass-meeting thus: “If you send our husbands and sons to a State prison for keeping the commandments of God, make your prisons large enough for us, their wives and mothers, for where theg go we will go also?" It is such women as these who, like Phoebe Woodruff, were almost brought to the grave in “wrestling with the Lord" (to use her own words to me) against polygamy, who after-wards established the celestial order with their de-votion and blessing crowning it, and now, with the same devotion and matchless fidelity, they thus boldly defend their husbands and the great cause of their lives. To continue his wonderful career, to multiply his social victories in the nation, arid to make Mormon institutions supreme in Utah, Brigham has given these American first wives of the polygamic order their political rights. It is Brigham's master stroke of policy. Who could have thought that a Cullom bill, which was designed to disfranchise all the polygamic men, should enfran-chise all the polygamic women? He only could have thought it who can trace Brigham Young's extraor-dinary methods and policies. Brigham Young can match all America with his policies, and no earthly power can stand against him. And he has with him now, endowed with political rights, these American first wives who did a more wonderful thing than Brigham Young himself, when they laid the chief corner stones of the patriarchal order.
THE CELESTIAL LAW.
What, then, has subdued these strong women of the Anglo-Saxon race, of the old American stock, of good families; and what led them to crucify their natures and establish polygamic relations, against which women instinctively revolt? A celes-tial law, and a new revelation; nothing less could have effected such a revolution among these Ameri-can wives. And even granting that this celestial law is not good, or applicable to human society, still to these earnest, religious women who have ac-cepted its revelation as divine the case is all the same. They are by their patriarchal relations con-nected with the ''eternities," and in the grand marriage order of the celestials. It is very doubtful whether Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the apostles would have succeeded had they sought to apply polygamy to the church as a terrestrial order of social and marriage relations. Indeed, my polygamic brethren will allow me to af-firm for them that had they attempted to apply polygamy to the church as a mere civil con-tract or simply as a sacred relation between the sexes, lasting only until death dissolved the earthly union, they would have failed altogether; and per-haps raised a revolt among these American first wives which would have shaken the Mormon Church to the ground. A law extraordinary, there-fore, had to be sent down; the very institutions of the celestials alone had to be brought down to the aid of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, for, though prophets, they were but men; and yet in this case they had the work of archangels to perform. This celestial law is like the fore-shadowing of our immortality, and it has thrown around these apostolic American women potent spells, which have mastered them and chained them to an institution against which they were all at first strongly disposed to rebel. It would be in vain for me to say, even were I disposed to lie, that my Mormon sisters have not been martyred by polyg-amy. All the polygamic wives have borne the cross and worn the crown of thorns. They have been martyred daily by polygamy; and when I think of any American Congress passing a bill to thrice martyr them every day, I boil with pas-sion and indignation at the barbaric out-rage. It is said by some, "Let them take other husbands and their difficulties will all be set-tled." Fools, what do you know about their case! They went into polygamy not only because it was a celestial law, given by a new revelation, and a living prophet, but also because it came to them with im-perative commands. They were conquered not only by the fascinations worked up in their mind by the entire revelation of Mormonism, and with their ex-traordinary views of the relations of the patriarchal order with the other life and the celestial sphere; but they were subdued to it by the prospect of sal-vation or damnation, according as they received or rejected the ''divine" order of marriage for the church. At one and-twenty I rebelled against polyg-amy in England, just as now I have rebelled against the absolute rule of a theocracy, and yet these strict laws and patriarchal obligations con-quered my will and judgment so much that I gave my only and beloved sisters into the toils of polyg-amy, and have now the sense of knowing that no power of mine could redeem them from the institu-tion, however much I might desire such a consum-mation. It is much the example of the entire Mor-mon people. They are in the chains of heaven, if polygamy be divine, and no human power can de-liver them.
A VIEW OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
The Mormons all take that view, and on earth enter into the order of the celestials above. It is, therefore, a practical and not a speculative matter; and did legislators know of the long line of celestial relations into which the ''saints" have entered, they would not be so impolitic as to legislate to put down the kingdom of heaven. Now, the celestial world is altogether a patriarchal world, under a patriachal government, at the head of which is Father Adam and Mother Eve. It is made up of the families of the faithful, all linked together in their endless lines and countless branches. Every person of thought and observa-tion whose mind has been directed to the subject, knows that the Mormons are matchless for their priestly and social organizations on earth. The same genius observed in this, and which is so emi-nently characteristic of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, may be observed in their conceptions of heaven and celestial exaltation. They have mapped out their glory and put the kingdom of heaven under the most complete organization, of which the ''Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-ter-day Saints," with its patriarchal and polygamic institutions is but the shadow on earth. Heaven is a literal subject with the Mormons, and not a glorified ideality; hence they enter into its order here, with but very little reference to the Gen-tiles, or care whether or not they offend the will of the nation, or come in contact with the sense of the age. In looking upon patriarchal and polygamic Mormondom, with Brigham Young at its head (ac-cording to the view of the saints), you catch a glimpse of the celestial world above, with Adam and Eve at its head. It is a polygamic world How stands the matter with our first parents? Brigham answers: "Our father Adam, before the fall, was an immortal who came from a celestial world, and he brought with him Eve, 'one of his wives!'" It is Mormon theology. To doubt this polygamic beginning of the race would practically amount to nothing in our view of the saints and their peculiar institutions. Adam, then, is at the head of the celestials, with Eve as first wife and queen; and she has given many wives to her hus-band. Adam may be supposed as a grand patriarch, very much the prototype of Brigham Young, only in a sphere above, with ages of development upon his head. Brigham Young patterns after this grand patriarch, according to his own conceptions, and he has in solemn thunders from his Mount Sinai re-vealed to the age that Adam is our father and god. And certainly he must be, if the Mormon conception of the celestial kingdom be correct, and whether correct or not, they embody their conceptions in social and religious facts of the age, and establish them on this continent in the heart of our republic. Adam's celestial kingdom Brigham is set-ting up in Utah, but he has been more successful in instituting the order of celestial marriage than he has in forming the links of the celestial patriarchal government. But evidently this is not specially Brigham's part of the work, to link the fathers to the sons, and mothers to the daughters in one vast patriarchal kingdom, reaching back to Adam's days. But when the faithful saint passes away from this life, and rises to the celestial sphere, he will find Adam the great father of mortals, standing at the head of the world of immortals of celestial order. The grand patriarch of our race had linked to him all the most illustrious sons of his celestial line, from their seven dispensations (for this is the seventh), and from ''all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people." Foremost among these are Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Melchesedeck, and others of the first ages. Then we come to the defined and chosen line, and meet polygamic Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, in whose seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. To him is linked Isaac, Jacob, and the Twelve Patriarchs, who are typed by the Mormon Twelve Apostles. After these come Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and the rest of the prophets, with David the Beloved, and Solomon the Wise. Crowning these dispensa-tions of the ancients is the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles. Jesus is the divinest son of Adam, begotten by the power of the Father, and he is the Redeemer of the world, having been pre-destinated to save and exalt the world, which his grand patriarch began to create in bringing forth the race of man after the fall. Jesus takes the whole of humanity into the celestial order, the Gentiles as well as the house Israel, and through him all the patri-archs can bring down and send up their family lines. Let the imaginative reader call up all the great and good among the ancients and among all nations, kindred tongues and ages—spirits of the illustrious dead, whose names have been preserved, and millions more whose names are not known on earth to-day, but who are known in heaven—and we will call those great spirits pillars of the celes-tial kingdom and chief links of an endless patriarchal line. Now, Seth and Shem and Melche-sedeck and Abraham, and Jacob and the rest of the grand patriarchs, all link their fam-ilies in their hundreds of generations and their innumerable branches, the same as they have been linked to Adam. Of course the fathers can only seal in the celestial order the noblest of their sons, but they also make provisions for their less noble sons in the ''lesser glories," in which the Mormons believe. These celestial fathers (of the order of Brigham and his apostles) will not permit any of their children to be lost, and out of this ex-traordinary Mormon conception has grown the equally extraordinary doctrine of the "shedding of blood for the remission of sins." The fathers and the apostles would sooner follow their children or their disciples to the grave than see them apostatize from their celestial covenant. Here, then, is a view of heaven on the male side—millions upon millions in an endless line of the fathers and sons linked to-gether, literally fulfilling the covenant to Abraham—"Thy seed shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore," which is only realized by a view of Abraham and his endless family in the celestial world. But there are the mothers and the daughters, and they are also in the everlasting family chain, and they are linked to their husbands by an eternal patriarchal marriage, and just at this point of the view polygamy in heaven comes in; and it is also just here that it comes practically into the Mormon's life in the celestial marriage on earth. It is doubtful if Dr. Newman and Congress will be able to cure the Mormons until they take their in-sane patriarchal theology out of their heads. Mother Eve leads her daughters in the patriarchal line, and Adam has succeeded in getting himself and Eve linked to enough polygamy. They have done it between them, either by Adam bringing the rest of his wives, which Brigham tells us he had when he came into the Garden of Eden to begin his race of man, or else he has accomplished it by command-ing some of his great sons, such as Enoch and Abraham, to stand proxy for him, the same as Brigham Young has stood proxy for Joseph Smith. Or perhaps he has come several times in some mys-terious way, as he did to the Virgin Mary, who con-ceived by his power and brought forth a son unto him whose name was Jesus. The Virgin Mary is Adam's wife, and not the wife of Joseph, and she stands to him from the birth of the Christ in the same relation of Eve his first wife. Eve and Mary are the mothers of gods and the mothers of worlds. Here is something of a Catholic conception of the Virgin Mary as the mother of God, and Mormon theology puts her at the head of a world—as the female half of the dispensation of her son Jesus, in virtue of being the actual wife of Adam his father. The orders and mysteries of Mormonism are as in-comprehensible as those of the Catholic Church, to all but the most learned of their priesthoods. But the Mormon is the boldest man of the two; and, being so eminently practical, he sweeps away much of the intangibility of the immaculate conception of Jesus, and makes the Virgin Mary the wife of God, and so Jesus becomes the ''Son of God" and the ''Son of Man." Adam, in his celestial power, came to Mary in the form of a man and did to her the duty of husband. Brigham, in making these revelations and commenting upon the old views of the concep-tion by the Holy Ghost, tells the Christian world in very plain satire his objections to the Holy Ghost falling upon the sisters and giving them off-spring. Perhaps Brigham is most consistent, even as he is the most daring, in making the ''Virgin Mary" a wife, and crowning it all by getting her into polygamy with Eve, the first wife. He has thus matched all objections to the celestial or-der, derived from arguments that God created for Adam only one wife; Where then is Dr. Newman in the case? I will show presently how easily Mor-mon mysteries of the celestial order set aside (with-out condescending to argument) the learned divine's anti-polygamic essays, and also show some of his radical misconceptions of Orson Pratt's words, be-cause he understood not the inner views of his op-ponent on celestial relations.
EVE AND MARY LINKING THEIR DAUGHTERS.
The curious reader will perceive that by thus com-mitting Eve and Mary to polygamy Mormon theol-ogy makes the celestial world essentially polygamic. There is in fact no monogomy in the world where God and Christ dwell; and, therefore, ''Gentile" sister, if ever you reach the heaven where Eve and Mary link the daughters of Adam and the daughters of Christ into their celestial order of life and glory, you will be brought into polygamic relations. "What a blasphemous belief!" you may exclaim. Perhaps it may be; but it is the belief of the Mormon sisterhood, and that is where the weight of the subjet comes in. The Mormon women have entered into polygamy that they may enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that they may be where God and Christ are. And thus it may be seen polygamy is a very essential part of the Mormon re-ligion, and it is no politic humbug when Brigham and the apostles reproach Congress for touching the sanctity of a religious economy and doing violence to the essential genius of the American Constitution. The Mormon elders are just as much under the obli-gations of ''patriarchal marriage" as their sisters are, for not one of them can enter into the kingdom of the Celestial Father Adam, and celestial mothers, Eve and Mary, and into the glory of the Christ, unless he takes upon himself the everlasting covenant of patriarchal marriage. To give a view of this grand linking of the celestial sons of Adam and Eve, and not to betray any mys-teries of the temple and the kingdom, I will give a glimpse of the Mormon endowments—such as Brig-ham himself might publicly give—to illustrate his case.
The earth-life is represented by Adam and Eye in the Garden of Eden, and each brother and sister, as he or she passes through the endowments, repre-sent severally an Adam and an Eve. Then Peter, James, and John, who represent the Gos-pel and the celestial covenant, take the candidates for glory through their different degrees of endow-ments, until they reach the ''veil'' of the celestial world, where is the one representing the Lord. He receives the man through the veil which takes him from the mortal to the immortal side, but while he is yet on the mortal side, he has given to him the cove-nant and blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the promise of endless posterity. The High Priestess, whom we will suppose to be Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been, with other sisters of the High Priesthood, bring along the daughters of Eve to the veil with Peter, James, and John, and the sons of Adam. They receive the same blessings through the veil as the men, which represent God giving cov-enants to his children and bringing them into the family of Abraham, with the patriarchal blessing upon their heads. The men pass the veil first, and unto them come the women—the wives—whom they bring into the celestial order with them; and then at the altar and in the patriarchal and celestial state they are sealed together ''for time and for all eter-nity," and crowned, they and their posterity, with the everlasting blessings of celestial marriage. They are now in a polygamic covenant! And thus it will be seen that Mormon polygamy is something more than religion and marriage relations applied to earth, for it reaches into the celestial world and into the life hereafter. To the Saints, therefore, it is sacrilege, of the rudest kind, for Congress to legislate against their patriarchal institutions and hopes of endless rela-tions with those they love—aye, legislating away their heaven hereafter, for I have already said that the celestial heaven is a polygamic world where no monogamy reigns. It is true, “Saints" may be monogamic in this life, but no such Saint ever enters into the state of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has but a degree of celestial glory, for marriage is a degree; but if he has no wife he has no degree, and if the woman has no husband she has no degree. Marriage then, to the Mormon mind, is a part of salvation, a part of Heaven, a part of God, a part of Christ, and every sound hearted brother and sister, no matter whether of the orthodox or the hetrodox sides, unite in ask-ing Congress how it dares to legislate against their celestial marriage relations and against their salva-tion.
That which I have shown of the celestial order on earth is but a type of that which is going on above. Heaven to the Mormon is very much a place where all the families of the faithful are linked into their endless lines and innumerable branches; and while Adam, the father, is gathering unto him, through Abraham, all the great of his posterity, and, through the Christ, bringing them into celes-tial glory, Eve and Mary are doing a similar work among their daughters of the race and the church; and they in heaven link the women into the grand patriarchal world by the covenant of marriage for all eternity. Here, then, we have an endless line of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, all united for ever as husbands and wives in celestial glory. This constitutes the Mor-mon heaven.
