OCR Text |
Show PLURALITY i> F WIVBS. 1ST sidered a perfectly virtuous and honourable one, and the lady maintains, . without blemish, the same position hr society to which she would be entitled were she the sole wife of her husbfcnd. Indeed, the connection b^ itig under the sanction of the only true priesthood, is deemed infinitely more sacred and binding than any marriage Among the gentile world, not only on account of its higher a^ d more sacred authority, but inasmuch as it bears directly upon the future sta^ e of existence of both the man and the woman; for it is the doctrine <? f the church, that no woman can attain to eelestia} glory without the husband, nor can he arrive at full perfection - in the next world without at least one wife: and t^ e greatet the number he is able to take' with him, the higher wiU " be his seat in the celestial paradise. • ; All idea of seqsuiklity,. as the motive of such unions, is inost indignantly repudiated 9 the avowed object bping to raise up, as . rapidly as possible, " a holy generation, to. the Lord," who shafl build upiiis kingdoip on the earth. Purity of v Iife> in all the domestic relations, is strenuously inculcated; and they do not hesitate to declare, that when they shall ctbtain the uncontrolled . power of making their own civil laws, ( which will b$ when they are admitted 98 one of the States of* the Union,) they will punish the departure from chastity in the severest manner, even by death. As the seer or president alone possesses die ' power to approve of these unions, so felso he alone can absolve the parties'from their bonds, should, circumstances in his judgment render it at any tinie either expedient or necessary.'. It may easily be perceived, then, what a tremendous influence the possession of. such a power must give to him who holds it, and how grfeat must be the prudence, ' firmness, sagacity,, and wisdom, required in one who thus stands in the relation o^ confidential adviser, as well as of oivil and ecclesiastical ruler, over this singularly, constituted community. Upon the practical working of this system of plurality of wives, .1 can hardly be expected to express more than a mere opinion. Being myself an " Outsider" and a " gentile," it is not to be sup-" posed that I should have been permitted to View more than the surface of what is in fact as yet but an experiment, the details of which are sedulously veiled from public View. So fer, however, as my intercourse with the inhabitants afforded me an opportunity of judging, its practical operation was quite different from what I had anticipated. Peace* harmony, and cheerfulness seemed to prevail, where my preconceived notion* led me to look for nothing |