The Life of John Taylor: Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — John Shaqi
The Life of John Taylor: Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SaintsRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
History
The Life of John Taylor: Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches; Taylor, John, 1808-1887
The object for which the Apostles had visited Great Britain was
accomplished. They had established the Church there on a sound basis.
The Book of Mormon and the Hymn Book had been published; a periodical
to advocate and defend the faith delivered to the Saints established;
a permanent shipping agency founded to aid the Saints in gathering to
Zion; branches had been organized in nearly all the principal towns of
the kingdom, and some eight thousand souls had been baptized. In all
this labor Elder Taylor had taken an active, prominent part; and now,
in company with his fellow Apostles, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball,
Orson Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith and Willard Richards, he
sailed on the ship _Rochester_ for America.
Elder Taylor arrived in Nauvoo on the 1st of July, 1841. Here a great
sorrow was awaiting him--his faithful, patient Leonora was sick
nigh unto death. The hardships in Missouri, the separation from her
husband,--on whose strong arm and steadfast courage she was wont to
lean,--and the consequent increase of care in watching over her family,
had at last broken down her strength; and hence he found her pale and
wan, and death clutching at her precious life. He called in twenty
Elders, who prayed for her; she was anointed with oil, hands were laid
upon her, and, in fulfillment of God's promise, the prayer of faith
healed the sick--the Lord raised her up.
It was shortly after the return of the Twelve from England that
the Prophet Joseph made known to them the doctrine of celestial
marriage--the marriage system that obtains in the celestial worlds
where the Gods dwell,--marriage that is to endure for time and for
eternity, the ceremony being performed by one holding that power which
binds on earth and binds in heaven. Celestial marriage also includes a
plurality of wives.
This system of marriage had been revealed to the Prophet a number of
years before, but he had kept the matter in his own heart. The time
had come, however, when the principles of this marriage system must
be made known to others and the practice thereof entered into by the
faithful in the Priesthood. Hitherto the Saints, in common with the
so-called Christian world, had married until death did them part; but
now, through the introduction of celestial marriage, the covenants
between men and their wives were to be made for eternity as well as
for time. In this marriage system the great truth is revealed that the
association of husband and wife, with all its endearing associations is
to continue forever; and that--to paraphrase the words of one who spake
as if inspired on this theme [1]--as long as there is room in infinite
space, or matter in the exhaustless storehouse of nature, or as long
as the bosoms of the Gods glow with affection, just so long will new
worlds be created and filled with the ever increasing posterity of the
righteous, and new kingdoms added to the dominions of the Fathers!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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