The Women of Mormondom

by Edward W. Tullidge

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall dream dreams;

"And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit; and they shall prophesy."

Here was a magic gospel for the age! And how greatly was woman in its divine programme!

No sooner was the application made than the prophesy was discovered to be pregnant with its own fulfillment. The experience of the former-day saints became the experience of the "latter-day saints." It was claimed, too, that the supreme fulfillment was reserved for this crowning dispensation. These were emphatically the "last days." It was in the "last days" that God would pour out His spirit upon "all flesh." The manifestation of Pentecost was but the foreshadowing of the power of God, to be universally displayed to his glory, and the regeneration of the nations in the "dispensation of the fullness of times."

This gospel of a new dispensation came to America by the administration of angels. But let it not be thought that Joseph Smith alone saw angels. Multitudes received angelic administrations in the early days of the Church; thousands spoke in tongues and prophesied; and visions, dreams and miracles were daily manifestations among the disciples.

The sisters were quite as familiar with angelic visitors as the apostles. They were in fact the best "mediums" of this spiritual work. They were the "cloud of witnesses." Their Pentecosts of spiritual gifts were of frequent occurrence.

The sisters were also apostolic in a priestly sense. They partook of the priesthood equally with the men. They too "held the keys of the administration of angels." Who can doubt it, when faith is the greatest of all keys to unlock the gates of heaven? But "the Church" herself acknowledged woman's key. There was no Mormon St. Peter in this new dispensation to arrogate supremacy over woman, on his solitary pontifical throne. The "Order of Celestial Marriage," not of celestial celibacy, was about to be revealed to the Church.

Woman also soon became high priestess and prophetess. She was this officially. The constitution of the Church acknowledged her divine mission to administer for the regeneration of the race. The genius of a patriarchal priesthood naturally made her the apostolic help-meet for man. If you saw her not in the pulpit teaching the congregation, yet was she to be found in the temple, administering for the living and the dead! Even in the holy of holies she was met. As a high priestess she blessed with the laying on of hands! As a prophetess she oracled in holy places! As an endowment giver she was a Mason, of the Hebraic order, whose Grand Master is the God of Israel and whose anointer is the Holy Ghost.

She held the keys of the administration of angels and of the working of miracles and of the "sealings" pertaining to "the heavens and the earth." Never before was woman so much as she is in this Mormon dispensation!

The supreme spiritual character of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (its proper name), is well typed in the hymn so often sung by the saints at their "testimony meetings," and sometimes in their temples. Here is its theme: