"And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife who holds the keys of this power, and he teacheth unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe, and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God, for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law.
"Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things, whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah; who administered unto Abraham according to the law, when I commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife.
"And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen."
This jumble of doctrinal and family commands bears internal evidence of the truth of Clayton's account of its offhand dictation with a view to its immediate submission to the prophet's wife, who was already in a state of rebellion because of his infidelities.
The publication of the "revelation" was made at a Church Conference which opened in Salt Lake City on August 28, 1852, and was called especially to select elders for missionary work.* At the beginning of the second day's session Orson Pratt announced that, unexpectedly, he had been called on to address the conference on the subject of a plurality of wives. "We shall endeavor," he said, "to set forth before this enlightened assembly some of the causes why the Almighty has revealed such a doctrine, and why it is considered a part and portion of our religious faith."
*For text of the addresses at this conference, see Deseret News,
extra, September 14, 1852.
He then took up the attitude of the church, as a practiser of this doctrine, toward the United States government, saying:—
"I believe that they will not, under our present form of government (I mean the government of the United States), try us for treason for believing and practising our religious notions and ideas. I think, if I am not mistaken, that the constitution gives the privilege to all of the inhabitants of this country, of the free exercise of their religious notions, and the freedom of their faith and the practice of it. Then, if it can be proved to a demonstration that the Latter-Day Saints have actually embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. And should there ever be laws enacted by this government to restrict them from the free exercise of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional."
Thus, at this early date in the history of Utah, was stated the Mormon doctrine of the constitutional foundation of this belief, and, in the views then stated, may be discovered the reason for the bitter opposition which the Mormon church is still making to a constitutional amendment specifically declaring that polygamy is a violation of the fundamental law of the United States.
Pratt then spoke at great length on the necessity and rightfulness of polygamy. Taking up the doctrine of a previous existence of all souls and a kind of nobility among the spirits, he said that the most likely place for the noblest spirits to take their tabernacles was among the Saints, and he continued:—"Now let us inquire what will become of those individuals who have this law taught unto them in plainness, if they reject it." (A voice in the stand "They will be damned.") "I will tell you. They will be damned, saith the Lord, in the revelation he hath given. Why? Because, where much is given, much is required. Where there is great knowledge unfolded for the exaltation, glory and happiness of the sons and daughters of God, if they close up their hearts, if they reject the testimony of his word and will, and do not give heed to the principles he has ordained for their good, they are worthy of damnation, and the Lord has said they shall be damned."