History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

352
MORMONISM AND POLYGAMY.
cial system being in the hands of the bishopric, but
supervised by the trustee in trust through the aid of
an auditing committee. The names of those who do
not keep the law of tithing shall not be enrolled with
the people of God; neither shall their genealogy be
kept.
The doctrine of divine revelation is continued.
God's ways are immutable; past and present to him
are as one; what he has done, that he continues to do;
what was right five thousand years ago is right now.
If God spoke to Abraham and Solomon, and gave
them more wives than one, even giving to David his
neighbor's wives, there is no reason why he should not
do the same with Joseph and Brigham. There is
nothing which God has ever done and sanctioned that
he may not do and sanction now; otherwise he is not
an omniscient, omnipotent, unchangeable, all-wise, and
perfect being. Every member of the church may
hold communion with God relative to his own affairs;
revelations for the church are only given through its
head.
As through Christ alone man may be saved, in
order that the souls of many millions who never heard
of him may not be all of them lost, baptism for the
dead, and thereby salvation, was revealed, as was also
celestial marriage.
Nature is dual. An unmarried man or woman is
and forever must be an imperfect creature. There
are marriages for time and marriages for eternity. A
celestial marriage is a marriage of God, and those thus
ble, and other church purposes, by the members of other religious bodies, is
clearly an ecclesiastical matter, with which, as law-makers, we have nothing
whatever to do, so long as the free exercise thereof does not interfere with
the rights and liberties of others. Tithing is not, as we understand it, a
new doctrine, for, as a religious privilege and duty, Abraham paid tithes to
Melchisedek about four thousand years ago. We are not aware, however,
that exactions of tithings are made in this territory, even by ecclesiastical
authority; but supposing they were, there is no law by which payment can
be enforced, nor is it likely there ever will be, for it is a matter not within
the constitutional province of legislative enactment. If any citizen in the
territory feels aggrieved by reason of the payment of tithes or other church
donations, he holds the remedy in his own hands by simply renouncing connection
with any religious body requiring such donations.'