MARRIAGE.
The question of Celestial (including plural) marriage is treated quite extensively in Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage so it will be passed with a brief notice here.
We maintain with abundant authority that Joseph Smith the Prophet introduced Celestial Marriage, that is, marriage for eternity, into the Church. This fact has been admitted by many members of the "Reorganized" Church, notwithstanding they attack us on this doctrine and say it is not a doctrine of the Church. And while they attack us the better part of them hope it is true. What is there so terrible in the doctrine of the preservation of the family union in eternity? What right-living God-fearing man is there but would be glad to meet his parents, his wife and children, in the kingdom of God and know they were united never again to separate? While this belief is not taught in the creeds of men—including the Reorganites—yet there is a hope burning in the bosoms of many people that this doctrine may prove true!
Well, it is a Scriptural doctrine, and it is true, for the Lord revealed it to Joseph Smith. In the beginning, the very first marriage was one intended to last forever. Do you not believe it? I quote from the Inspired Scriptures:
"And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him, male and female created I them, And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."—(Genesis 1:29-30).
This was a spiritual creation, man was created in the image of God, male and female, first in the Spirit, and told in that spiritual creation that they were expected to multiply and replenish the earth when they were placed upon it to subdue it. This we prove from the second chapter of Genesis beginning with the fifth verse:
"For I, the Lord God, created all things of which I have spoken spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth; for I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth.
"And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men, and not yet a man to till the ground, for in heaven created I them, and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air."
Verse 23. "And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone;
"Wherefore, I will make an help meet for him."
Here the Lord declares that it is not good for man to be alone, and therefore he gave him an helpmeet, Eve; and this union was formed before mortality or death came into the world, and there is no indication that it was meant to have an end. If, therefore, it was not good for man to be alone before the days of mortality, will it not also be good for man to have a helpmeet after mortality has passed away? Paul thought so, said he: "Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord."—(I Cor. 11:11).
Alexender H. Smith, "Patriarch" of the "Reorganized" Church, in a discourse that is very excellent in many respects, delivered July 1, 1903, and published in "Zion's Ensign" of December 31, 1903, taught the eternity of the marriage covenant as strongly and emphatically as it could have been done by an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The subject of the discourse was: "In My Father's house are many mansions," after enlarging upon the theme for some time, he concludes his discourse with some personal testimony regarding the last illness of his mother from which the following extracts are here produced:
"Pretty son the still, small voice of the Spirit said, "If your mother dies she will be with her companion, Joseph. If she lives she cannot but live a few short years at most of pain and anguish."
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"Just before she passed away she called, 'Joseph, Joseph,' I thought she meant my brother. He was in the room, and I spoke to him, and said, Joseph, mother wants you. I was at the head of the bed. My mother raised right up, lifted her left hand as high as she could raise it, and called, Joseph. I put my left arm under her shoulders, took her hand in mine, saying, Mother, what is it, laid her hand on her bosom, and she was dead; she had passed away.
"And when I talked of her calling, Sr. Revel, who was with us during our sickness, said, Don't you understand that? No, I replied, I do not. Well, a short time before she died she had a vision which she related to me. She said that your father came to her and said to her, Emma, come with me, it is time for you to come with me. And as she related it she said, I put on my bonnet and my shawl and went with him; I did not think that it was anything unusual. I went with him into a mansion, a beautiful mansion, and he showed me through the different apartments of that beautiful mansion. And one room was the nursery. In that nursery was a babe in the cradle. She said, I knew my babe, my Don Carlos that was taken away from me. She sprang forward, caught the child up in her arms, and wept with joy over the child. When she recovered herself sufficiently she turned to Joseph, and said. Where are the rest of my children? He said to her, Emma, be patient, and you shall have all of your children."
Then Alexander comments:
"Do you wonder why, as a son of that mother, I plead for those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and picture their beautiful home in the city of God, in the language that I do, when I realize that my mother occupies, or will occupy one of those beautiful mansions? It may be imagination; but it is grand; it fills me with a grand hope."
And so they do hope, notwithstanding the fact that they oppose us in this doctrine, and say that there is no union of parents and children in family union after death. They secretly hope, and pray in their very hearts, that after all in this we may be right.