"None [of the revelations] seem to penetrate so deep, or be so well calculated to shake to its very center the social structure which has been reared and vainly nurtured by this professedly wise and Christian generation; none more conclusively exhibit how surely an end must come to all the works, institutions, ordinances and covenants of men; none more portray the eternity of God's purpose--and, we may say, none have carried so mighty an influence, or had the power to stamp their divinity upon the mind by absorbing every feeling of the soul, to the extent of the one which has appeared in our last." With the Mormon church in England, however, the publication of the new doctrine proved a bombshell, as is shown by the fact that 2164 excommunications in the British Isles were reported to the semi-annual conference of December 31, 1852, and 1776 to the conference of the following June. The doctrine of "sealing" has been variously stated. According to one early definition, the man and the woman who are to be properly mated are selected in heaven in a pre-existent state; if, through a mistake in an earthly marriage, A has got the spouse intended for B, the latter may consider himself a husband to Mrs. A. Another early explanation which may be cited was thus stated by Henry Rowe in the Boston Investigator of, February 3, 1845:-- "The spiritual wife doctrine I will explain, as taught me by Elder W--e, as taught by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Elder Adams, William Smith, and the rest of the Quorum, etc., etc. Joseph had a revelation from God that there were a number of spirits to be born into the world before their exaltation in the next; that Christ would not come until all these spirits received or entered their 'tabernacles of clay'; that these spirits were hovering around the world, and at the door of bad houses, watching a chance of getting into their tabernacles; that God had provided an honorable way for them to come forth--that was, by the Elders in Israel sealing up virtuous women; and as there was no provision made for woman in the Scriptures, their only chance of heaven was to be sealed up to some Elder for time and eternity, and be a star in his crown forever; that those who were the cause of bringing forth these spirits would receive a reward, the ratio of which reward should be the greater or less according to the number they were the means of bringing forth." Brigham Young's definition of "spiritual wifeism" was thus expressed: "And I would say, as no man can be perfect without the woman, so no woman can be perfect without a man to lead her. I tell you the truth as it is in the bosom of eternity; and I say to every man upon the face of the earth, if he wishes to be saved, he cannot be saved without a woman by his side. This is spiritual wifeism, that is, the doctrine of spiritual wives."* * Times and Seasons, Vol. VI, p. 955.