MORMON REVELATIONS
How the Holy Ghost Revealed the Truth of the Polygamic Doctrine to One of the Prophets,
During the trial of the Rey-nolds polygamy ease in the Third District Court of Utah Territory, Daniel II. Wells, one of the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, testified that he had known the Mormon Church since 1839, since which time he had been a member has always been somewhat familiar with its doc-trines. Celestial marriage is a doctrine and teaching of the Church. The doctrine of celes-tial marriage is one of the dogs-mas of the church. The doctrine of the Church on the subject of polygamy is that it is right and legal in the sight of Heaven, and being revealed from God, it is binding upon all Latter Day Saints except in some instances. It is a fundamental principle in the Church and Kingdom of God, and it is the duty of all men to receive it to reform mankind on earth and exalt him in the worlds to come. A woman is a jewel in a man's crown, as a child is a jew-el in a woman's crown. It is cal-culated to do away with the so-cial evil, above which it is as far as the heavens are above the earth. Men of the world corrupt women and cast them off, the Latter day Saints marry women to exalt them and exalt them-selves. The revelation of celes-tial marriage makes it incumbent upon all Saints to take unto themselves wives, and when an elder comes to a knowledge of the truth of this revelation, and refuses to comply with it damna-tion will be the result. The prac-tice of polygamy is enjoined upon pain of damnation, he "will be clipped of his glory" in the world to come, and possibly deprived of his posterity; while the only punishment inflicted in this world for noncompliance with the rev-elation would be excommunica-tion from the Church; but in eternity it would "clip him of his glory'' and subject, him to hell so far as depriving him of his glory would constitute a hell.
It was in 1842 or 1843 that he first read the revelation on celes-tial marriage, which was given by the Lord to the Prophet Jos. Smith; witness knew it was a revelation from God fey the tes-timony of the Holy Ghosts which revealed it to his senses. The witness was asked when and where the Holy Ghost gave him the testimony, and he began an answer as long as the moral law in evasion, reciting his experi-ence with the Church from the time he joined, in 1839, to the time of the revelation on polyga-my, which the witness said was a "stumper," but which he tried, poor fellow, to explain away on Bible authority.
The prosecution said: You say the Holy Ghost revealed it to you as true. Now, then, state when and where it was so revealed to you.
Witness—The Holy Ghost re-vealed it to me gradually in Nau-voo about 1846.
Court—How long did it take the Holy Ghost to reveal it to you?
W.—In Nauvoo, in 1846 the still, small voice whispered to me, “lt's right, it's right, it's right!"
C.—You say it was whispered to you; did you hear a voice?
W.—I heard the still, small voice.
C.—Did you hear an audible voice?
W.—I did not hear an audible voice; the Holy Ghost, which is a spirit, told, my spirit. C.—But you stated that the Holy Ghost revealed it to your senses. Through which of the senses did the Holy Ghost reveal it to you; did you see an angel?
W.—I did not see an angel; the revelation came home to me with a conviction to my whole being. (True inwardness!)
The prosecution was worsted; he could not drag out of the wit-ness the truth as to the exact time and place, nor ascertain the nature of that sense which had touched the understanding of the Pirate, and made known God's will on the marrying question.
A juror asked him by what means he knew, if polygamy was revealed to him, that it was not the devil who made the revela-tion instead of the Holy Ghost, and he answered that he knew the presence of the Holy Ghost by the divine light that was born in him.
