The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901Linn, William Alexander
History
The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
Linn, William Alexander
Latter Day Saints -- History; Utah -- History
Not only was the moral character of Smith and other individual members
of the church successfully attacked at this time, but the charge was
openly made that polygamy was practised and sanctioned. In the "Book of
Doctrine and Covenants," published in Kirtland in 1835, Section 101 was
devoted to the marriage rite. It contained this declaration: "Inasmuch
as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of
fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should
have one wife, and one woman one husband, except in case of death, when
either is at liberty to marry again." The value of such a denial is seen
in the ease with which this section was blotted out by Smith's later
"revelation" establishing polygamy.
An admission that even elders did practise polygamy at that time is
found in a minute of a meeting of the Presidents of the Seventies, held
on April 29, 1837, which made this declaration: "First, that we will
have no fellowship whatever with any elder belonging to the Quorum of
the Seventies, who is guilty of polygamy."*
* Messenger and Advocate, p. 511.
Again: The Elders' journal dated Far West, Missouri, 1838, contained
a list of answers by Smith to certain questions which, in an earlier
number, he had said were daily and hourly asked by all classes of
people. Among these was the following: "Q. Do the Mormons believe in
having more wives than one? A. No, not at the same time." (He condemns
the plan of marrying within a few weeks or months of the death of the
first wife.) The statement has been made that polygamy first suggested
itself to Smith in Ohio, while he was translating the so-called "Book of
Abraham" from the papyri found on the Egyptian mummies. This so-called
translation required some study of the Old Testament, and it is not at
all improbable that Smith's natural inclination toward such a doctrine
as polygamy secured a foundation in his reading of the Old Testament
license to have a plurality of wives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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