15. The laws were rigorously enforced by the United States officials, special appropriations being made by Congress to enable them to carry on a judicial crusade against the Saints. The prominent church officials were driven into retirement; others into exile. Homes were disrupted; family ties were rent asunder. Upwards of a thousand men endured fines and imprisonment in the penitentiary rather than be untrue to their families. Every effort of the government to deprive the people of what was considered their religious liberty was stubbornly contested in the Courts until the decision of the supreme court of the United States was obtained. While some of the proceedings of the courts in Utah in enforcing the anti-polygamy laws were condemned, the laws were sustained as constitutional. The court also held that the first amendment to the Constitution, which provides that Congress shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion, cannot be invoked against legislation for the punishment of plural marriages. Meantime government was relentless, and still more stringent measures than those already enacted were threatened.
16. Discontinuance of Plural Marriages.—In the midst of these afflictions and threatening portents President Wilford Woodruff besought the Lord in anguish and prayer and the Lord inspired him to issue the manifesto which discontinued the practice of plural marriages. At the semi-annual conference in October following, the action of President Woodruff was sustained by unanimous vote of the conference and plural marriages are discontinued in the church. [See notes 6, 7, 8, end of section.]
17. In this matter of plural marriage the Latter-say Saints are neither responsible for its introduction nor for its discontinuance. The Lord commanded its practice, and in the face of the sentiment of ages, and in opposition to the teachings of their own traditions, many of the Saints obeyed the commandment, and in the midst of weakness, difficulties and dangers sought to carry out the law as revealed to them. For about half a century they maintained its practice in the face of opposition sufficient to appall the stoutest hearts. They defended it in the public press proclaimed it from the pulpit, debated it on the platform with all those who chose to assail it, and practiced it in their lives, notwithstanding fines and imprisonments threatened; and when the power of the government was vigorously employed to enforce its laws against this institution, hundreds of men cheerfully endured both fines and imprisonment rather than be untrue to it. A whole generation had been grown and had grown to manhood and womanhood in this marriage system, and the affections of family ties were entwined with it. Then, under the pressure of suffering brought upon the people through the laws of the United States, the Lord inspired the president of the church to proclaim its discontinuance, and the people, with hearts bursting with grief submitted to the will of heaven, and there the matter rests. If the labors and sufferings of the church of Christ for this principle have done nothing more, this much at least has been accomplished—the Saints have borne testimony to the truth. And it is for God to vindicate his own law and open the way for its establishment on the earth, which doubtless he will do when his kingdom shall come in power, and when his will shall be done in earth as it is in heaven.
18. Laying of the Cap-Stone of the Salt Lake Temple.—One of the most pleasing and at the same time one of the most important events in the history of the church during the administration of President Woodruff, was laying the cap-stone of the Salt Lake Temple, on the 6th of April, 1892. It was laid by President Woodruff amid the rejoicing of thousands of the Saints; and a resolution was adopted to complete the sacred edifice and dedicate it on the 6th of April, 1893—forty years from the time the corner-stones thereof was laid.
19. The Growth and Present Condition of the Church (1892).—Since the Saints settled in the valleys of the Rocky mountains the church has been making steady growth in numbers, and its territorial boundaries are constantly extending. The church is no longer confined within the boundary lines of the territory of Utah. It has five stakes organized in the state of Idaho, one in the state of Colorado, one in Wyoming, four in the territory of Arizona, and colonies in Mexico and Canada. The settlements of the Saints are noted for peace and good order; for the cleanliness, thrift, sobriety and the comfortable circumstances of the people. But few individuals in the church can be considered wealthy, yet as a whole the community is rich, most of the people owning their homes, the lands they cultivate and the flocks and herds they tend. The land has been blessed for their sakes, and made to yield in its strength. They are a contented, happy, and fast becoming a mighty people. They are diligently preaching the gospel to the world, having sent missionaries to nearly all the nations of the earth. In the British Isles, and among the Scandinavian and German people the missionaries have been especially successful. Of late years great progress has been made also among the natives of New Zealand, Sandwich Islands, and other islands of the Pacific, notably in Samoa.
20. The church is also devoting much of its energies to the work for the dead. Four magnificent temples have been reared by the Saints. One in St, George, dedicated January 1st, 1877; one in Logan, dedicated 17th of May, 1884; another in Manti, dedicated 21st of May, 1888; and one in Salt Lake, dedicated on the 6th of April, 1893. In these temples the faithful Saints are doing a noble and a mighty work for their ancestors, as well as a very important work for the living.
21. A Preparatory Work.—The work of God, as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, has a peculiar significance to this generation. It is essentially a preparatory work; its direct mission is to prepare for the glorious coming of the Son of God to reign over the earth. Nothing can be more explicitly stated in the scripture than the fact that the Son of God will come to the earth in the glory of his Father, to reward the righteous with a speedy resurrection from the dead, and destroy the wicked by the judgments of famine, pestilence and war; to establish his kingdom in power, bringing in a reign of peace, liberty and righteousness. In proof of this let the student consider the following scripture:
I. Promise of Messiah's Glorious Return:—"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And, while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men [angels] stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."[[208]]
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."[[209]]
II. Messiah to Come to Judgment:—"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."[[210]]