MORMONS 



3950 



MORMONS 



marriages on earth without divine authority 

 are ended by death. On the other hand, if 

 marriage is accompanied by the ceremony of 

 sealing, by an authorized member of the priest- 

 hood, a man and woman are wedded for all 

 eternity. This term is taken from the closing 

 words of the marriage ceremony as performed 

 by the Prophet Joseph Smith and his succes- 

 sors: "All these blessings, together with all 

 other blessings pertaining to the new and ever- 

 lasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, 

 through your faithfulness, etc." A man may 

 be sealed to any number of women, but a 

 woman may be sealed to only one man. As in 

 baptism, marriage and sealing may be by proxy, 

 in order to assure salvation to men and women 

 who have left this world still unsealed, but are 

 not to blame for this fact. 



The Book of Mormon contains a strong de- 

 nunciation of polygamy, with a permissive 

 clause, however: "For if I will," saith the Lord 

 of Hosts, "Raise up seed unto me I will com- 

 mand my people; otherwise they shall hearken 

 unto these things" (Book of Mormon, Jacob, 

 Chapter 11, v. 30). Plural marriage is 'now 

 abandoned in practice. But for nearly forty 

 years polygamy was the exception rather than 

 the rule ; only three per cent of the men accept- 

 ing the difficult rule. Brigham Young, in 1852, 

 publicly announced the revelation on the sub- 

 ject of plural marriages, which had been given 

 in private by the Prophet in 1843. According 

 to this revelation, the saints, when they leave 

 earth, are deified, and their business in Heaven, 

 the perpetuation of family life, is the propa- 

 gation of souls to occupy the bodies of people 

 bora on various earths, being a part of their glo- 

 rification. The glory of a saint in Heaven is in 

 proportion to his intelligence, his obedience to 



law and to his experience on earth. The mar- 

 riage of one man to a number of women on 

 earth purifies, through continence, sobriety, and 

 affection, the man and the women, making pos- 

 sible the bringing onto the earth of a better 

 race of children, at the same time making for 

 the creation of enough bodies for the thou- 

 sands of disembodied spirits which are awaiting 

 pure and wholesome incarnation. The contra- 

 diction between this revelation and the present 

 practice is explained by Mormon scholars as 

 due to the laws of the United States which 

 prevent the saints from carrying put the com- 

 mands received through revelation, but as the 

 saints have tried to obey they will not be 

 punished for their apparent failure to heed 

 these commands. 



Church Government. At the head of the 

 Church is the president, who is the successor 

 of Joseph Smith. Associated with him are two 

 counselors. These three, who are declared to 

 be the successors of Peter, James and John, 

 constitute the first presidency, in the priesthood 

 of Melchisedek, and thus preside over the whole 

 Church. Below them rank the patriarch, whose 

 function it is to bless and lay on hands, and 

 the Twelve Apostles, who are a high council of 

 the Church; and in case of the death or dis- 

 ability of the president they exercise his pow- 

 ers. These high officials, together with the 

 elders and high priests, comprise the priesthood 

 of Melchisedek. The subordinate priesthood 

 of Aaron includes the priests, teachers and 

 deacons. The Church is divided into about 

 fifty stakes, nearly half of which are in Utah. 

 Each stake is divided into wards, and each ward 

 into districts, each of which has its meeting- 

 house, Sunday school, Woman's Relief Society 

 and social organizations. 



History of the Mormon Church 



The Revelation to Joseph Smith. According 

 to Joseph Smith it was on the night of Septem- 

 ber 21, 1823, that the angel Moroni appeared to 

 him and told him that a book containing the 

 history of the ancient inhabitants of America 

 was buried in Cumorah Hill, about four miles 

 from Palmyra, N. Y. The next day Smith 

 went to the hill and found the book, but the 

 angel told him the time to remove it had not 

 yet come. Not until four years later, on Sep- 

 tember 22, 1827, did the angel allow Smith to 

 take the book. It was written in strange char- 

 acters on golden plates, and the volume was 

 closed with three clasps. Each plate was nearly 



eight inches long by seven inches thick, but a 

 part of it was sealed, and only the unsealed 

 part was revealed to Smith at that time, the 

 rest being reserved for future revelations. 



The next two years were devoted chiefly to 

 the translation of the characters, which were 

 in "reformed Egyptian." With the book he 

 had received a pair of spectacles, two trans- 

 parent crystals set in a silver bow, by the aid 

 of which he could translate the characters. 

 Smith sat behind a curtain and read aloud his 

 translation, while his wife, with Martin Harris 

 and Oliver Cowdery, wrote down his dictation. 

 These, with Smith's father and two brothers 



