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Show 136 PRlVlTfi AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. Doctrines and Covenants;" And they'also continue to receive, as intimations of the Divine will, such communications as are now made to his successor from, time to time, for. their guidance,, not only in • matter* of faijth and doctrine,, but in those also of worldly policy and the concerns of ever^- day life. Inlhe gift of miracles, and healing of the pick by the laying on of hands by the elders of the church, they are firm believers ; rand I have met more than one wbe has assured me not only that they had been eye- witnesses of the miraculous cures thus performed, but had themselves been the subjects of them. / , • The mode of worship is, in its. general arrangement, fhe same as that adopted by most Protestant denominations who d6 not use printed ritual; to wit, singing, prayer, and a sermon or exhortation from the pulpit. A band of music is stationed behind the choir of singers, and not pnljr aids in the devotional services, but regales the audience before and after the close of the exercises. But it is in their private and domestic relations that this sin- , gular people exhibit the widest departure from the habits and practice of all. others denominating themselves Christian. I refer to what. JiaS been generally termed the " spiritual wife . system," the practice of which was changed against them in Illinois, and served greatly to prejudice the public mind in that State. * It was then, I believe, most strenuously denied by them that any such practice prevailed, nor is it now openly avowed, either as a matter sanctioned by thfeir doctrine or discipline. But that polygamy do& actually exist among them cannot be concealed from any one of the inost ordinary observation,- who has spcfot even a short time in this community. I heard it proclaimed from the stand, by the president of the church himself, that he ha<| the right to take a thousand wives, if he thought proper; and he defied any one to prove from the Bible that be had not. At the same time, I have • never known any member of the community to avow that he himself had, more, than one, although that such was the facjt was as well known and understood as any fact could be. If a man-, once married,* desires to take him a second helpmate, He must first, as with us, obtain- the. consent of the lady intended, and that of her parents or guardians, and afterward the approval of the seer or president, without which the matter- cannot proceed. The woman is then " iealed" to him under the solemn sanction of the church, and stands, in all respects, in the same relation to the man, as the wife that was first married. The union thus formed is con- |
