It is difficult to find this full text online, so I thought I'd add it here. I would have included it in the AGR* book if I had known of its existence then. Typos are not corrected.
The original copy is in the Church Historical Department. Additionally, it can be found in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young (only 350 copies of this five volume set exists) by Richard Van Wagoner; also the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, UT in the H. Michael Marquardt Papers, Accession 0900 Special Collections (see insert Fd13 below).
See also Fair Mormon article on this subject.
See also Fair Mormon article on this subject.
ddd
=========================
[1913]
"8 October 1861 SLC Tabernacle Morning. Conference. “LJA 12-55-9,38; BYC;
BYA 4:138-141.”
I
will give you a few words of doctrine upon which there has been much inquiry
and with regard to which considerable ignorance exists. Br. Watt will write it,
but it is not my intention to have it published, therefore pay good attention
and store it up in your memories. Some years ago I advanced a doctrine with
regard to Adam being our Father and God. That will be a curse to many of the
elders of Israel because of their folly with
[1914]
regard
to it. They yet grovel in darkness, and will. It is one of the most glorious
revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold it in derision. Had I
revealed the doctrine of baptism for the dead instead of Joseph Smith, there
are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until doomsday, but they
are ignorant and stupid, like the dumb ass. Relative to the doctrine I shall
now make known, if anyone should wish it otherwise, it will not alter the fact
in the least. It is the principle of sealing. We are continually sealing women
to men, and continually giving divorces. I now inform every one of my sisters
that when they come to get a divorce, paying me ten dollars for it, you may
just as well tear off a piece of your shirttail and lay it by and call it a
divorce so far as any good that piece of paper called a divorce will do you. I
express myself in this wise not because I admire course figures of language,
but my object is to use language that will rivet the idea I wish to convey upon
your memories. Can a woman be freed from a man to whom she is sealed? Yes, but
a bill of divorce does not free her; there is no such law given by the God of
heaven to the children of men. Moses gave a law to the children of Israel as
follows: “When a man hath taken a wife and married her and it come that she
find no favor in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then
let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and sent her
out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be
another man’s wife.” Jesus, in the gospel by Math. says, “It hath been said,
whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement,
but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause
of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced committeth adultery.” In the gospel by Mark it is said, “And
Jesus answered and said unto them (the Pharisees) For the hardness of your
heart, he (Moses) wrote you this precept (referring to the law on divorcement)
but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain
shall be one flesh. So then, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What
therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” I am suffered to
give bills of divorcement unto you because of your blindness, ignorance and
hardness of heart, otherwise it would be a sin in me. How can a woman be made
free from a man to whom she has been sealed for time and all eternity? There
are two ways. All the elders in Israel will not magnify their priesthood, that
are now in the habit of taking women, not caring how they get them. They get
them frequently by stealth. I will diverge a little here to comment on the way
some get their wives: they will actually commit adultery for the sake of
getting a woman sealed to them. But they will probably find in the morning of
the resurrection that they have not attained their end; wives obtained in this
way will be given to those who are more worthy. This I mean to apply to you
elders on my right and left who forfeit your covenants and violate the
regulations of this holy order of matrimony which is to live godly in Christ
Jesus every hour of our lives. To return to the thread of the subject before
us: if a man magnifies his priesthood, observing faithfully his covenants to
the end of his life, all the wives and children sealed to him, all the
blessings and honors promised to him in his ordinations and sealing blessings
are immutably and eternally fixed; no power can wrench them from his
possession. There is, however, one provision that must be added here. You may
inquire, in case a wife becomes disaffected with her husband, her affections
lost, she becomes alienated from him and wishes to be the wife of another, can
she not leave him? I know of no law in heaven or on earth by which she can be
made free while her husband remains faithful and magnifies his priesthood
before God and he is not disposed to put her away she having done nothing
worthy of being put away. If that disaffected wife could behold the
transcendent beauty of person, the godlike qualities of the resurrected husband
she now despises, her love for him would be unbounded and unutterable. Instead
of despising him she would feel like worshipping him, he is so holy, so pure,
so perfect and so filled with God in his resurrected body. There will be no
disaffection of this kind in the resurrection of the just. The faithful elders
have then proved themselves worthy of their wives, and are prepared to be
crowned gods, to be filled with all the attributes of the gods that dwell in
eternity. Could disaffected ones see visions, even of the future glorified
state of their husbands, love for them would immediately spring up within you
and no circumstance could prevail upon you to forsake them.
[1915]
The
second way in which a wife can be separated from her husband while he continues
to be faithful to his God and his priesthood I have not revealed except to a
few persons in this church, and a few have received it from Joseph the Prophet
as well as myself. This other path a woman may take if she can get a chance and
do it in accordance with the order of heaven. If a woman can find a man holding
the keys of the priesthood with higher power and authority than her husband,
and he is disposed to take her, he can do so, otherwise she has got to remain
where she is. This is the second way in which a woman can leave her husband to
whom she has been sealed for time and all eternity. In either of these ways of
separation you can discover there is no need for a bill of divorcement. To
recapitulate: First, a man forfeits his covenant with a wife or wives, becoming
unfaithful to his God and his priesthood, that wife or wives are free from him
without a bill of divorcement. Second, if a woman claims protection at the hands
of a man possessing more power in the priesthood and higher keys, if he is
disposed to rescue her and has obtained the consent of her husband to make her
his wife, he can do so without a bill of divorcement. Then a piece of blank
paper will answer just as good a purpose for a bill of divorcement as the bills
the wives get from me. If after she has left her husband and is sealed to
another she shall again cohabit with him, it is illicit intercourse and
extremely sinful. In a few words I have laid before you the important items of
doctrine. I have not time to give you an elaborate discourse on it that will
answer the thousand and one questions that may occur to your minds and show its
workings in social life. To do this would require much time. I will, however,
extend my remarks a little further. I do not wish any of the elders to
speculate upon what I have now advanced, but ponder these words in your hearts
in silence. There may be only a few that can understand this item of doctrine
and retain it in their memory, as I have spoken it. A few remarks on woman: She
is the glory of the man, but she is not at the head in all the creations of God
pertaining to his children on this earth. She is not accountable for the sins
that are in the world. God requires obedience from man, he is lord of creation,
and at his hands the sin of the world will be required. Could the female
portion of the human family fully understand this they would see that they are
objects of tender mercy and greatly blessed. This, no doubt, on a casual view,
appears to my sisters a glorious doctrine for them, and some might be tempted
in their ignorance to take unwarrantable liberties, corrupt themselves with sin
and then take shelter under the doctrine that man is culpable for the sins they
commit. There are, however, restrictions placed upon woman. I will quote a
passage of scripture to illustrate this, “And the man that committeth adultery
with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s
wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” When the
crime was thus atoned for, then was she free and prepared to receive in full
the blessings she otherwise would have received had she not committed sin.
Woman must atone for sins committed by the volition of her own choice. But she
will never become an angel to the devil and sin so far as to place herself
beyond the reach of mercy. She will suffer all that she has strength to suffer
according to the venality of her sins. The woman is the glory of the man. What
is the glory of the woman? It is her virginity, until she gives it into the
hands of the man that will be her lord and master to all eternity. She in many
instances trifles with her virtue, and will be damned for so doing, if it were
not for more than five minutes. When a woman can say truly to her husband who
magnifies his priesthood, “I am as pure as you.” She ought to remember that she
is the glory of that lord. Is it her glory to have illicit intercourse with a
gentile and then be sealed to a good elder and faithful servant of God? No, she
will be damned for it and suffer the pangs of hell. It is her duty to let
wickedness alone. Our sisters are very tenacious with regard to a man’s having
more than one wife. Says the wife, “Husband, I am capable of making your
dinner, I can make your bed, I can tend to your fiscal wants, you do not need
another woman in this house.” Do you not know that is a curse pleased upon the
woman? Why so? That she may not become an angel to the devil. It is the order
of heaven she should suffer in the flesh. Will you say you will not suffer in
the flesh? that you will not be cursed? that you will have the fullest
satisfaction of this life and let the next life take care of itself? “And now
Mr. Husband, if you do not make a heaven for me I will leave you.” You have a
curse upon you that the male portion of the human family have not got. Their
curse is to toil for subsistence for themselves and wives and children,"
[1916]
to
obtain from the ground by the sweat of their brow, bread and fruit etc. “And
unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and
hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying Thou shalt not eat of
it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the
days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread etc.” Now notice the curse that is placed upon the woman: “Unto the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall
rule over thee.” Yes, your desire shall be for him, and it is one of the
hardest things you can think of to consent that your husband should take
another wife. And when you bring forth, it shall be in extreme pain. Were it
not for this curse woman would not have suffered pain in child bearing. She has
taken the lead in committing sin and she will fill her days with sorrow. She
shall desire this and that and the other, and her disposition and affection and
her whole being shall be afflicted as mush as the man, but his afflictions are
of another kind. Let me say one thing to the young girls, and what I shall tell
you I wish you to ponder in your hearts and say nothing about it, for the
wicked world has no business with these things, nor half-hearted Mormons, and
if there is any here who will not make a good use of what they hear, the evil
shall be upon themselves. I wish to say to my young sisters, if you can go into
the hands of a man that will lead you into the kingdom of heaven and exalt you
there, to become an Eve, a queen of heaven, the wife of a god, and you can remain
with that man whom your soul delights, and you take to him your virginity, you
have obtained a treasure that millions of worlds like this could not buy from
you, for there is your glory to all eternity. Trifle with this matter and you
will reap sorrow and affliction. When you make your choice of a husband for
time and eternity and you are sure you have got your choice, hang on to him and
not come to me for a bill of divorcement which amounts to nothing at all. I
have told you the only ways that a woman can be freed from a man. There are
other items pertaining to this doctrine you will learn from time to time. Many
have asked for this matter which I have opened to you. You have got it. Let it
envail your noble hearts, expand your capacities, aid subduing your
ungovernable passions and encourage everything within you that is godlike and
enables you to live a pure and holy life. The whole of mankind according to the
words of the prophets anciently, have gone a whoring after strange gods. They
worship they know not what. Men can sin with their wives by violating the law
by which we are. This law is pure and holy, and every act of our lives should
be to promote that and not destroy it. We should preserve the life that is
within us and permit it to multiply. If any other course is pursued in the
midst of this people, the curse of God will come upon those who do it. We will
now adjourn. Amen. [GDW]
“James
Beck Diary.”
Conference
Met in the Tabernacle. Bro W. W. Phelps said…Joseph Smith said that the 2
Prophets who would Prophesy in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 years & a
half, were Enoch & Elijah. Also the two wings, north & South of our
earth were inhabited. The north with the 9 1/2 tribes & the south wing by
the People of Enoch’s City. This Earth when first created occupied a Position
next to Kolob the highest in glory of all the Creations consequently on account
of the high Position we once occupied we have fallen below all of the others in
space; consequently our sufferings are greater, the greater the rise the
greater will be the fall, when we are Redeemed we will be taken back again
& Placed in our former Position…Joseph Smith said that Eve had 28 sons
& 28 daughters & that Adam had many wives. Bro Brigham then got into
the stand& stated the same thing. He [Pres. Young] then gave some
instructions in relation to sealing. He said that there were many men &
women who after having been sealed to each other for time & all Eternity,
came to him for a Bill of Divorce. & for the sum of 10 Dollars he gave them
a Bill Because the Lord permitted it but it was of no use to them. They might
just as well tear off a Piece of their shirt tail or have a Piece of Blank
Paper for a Divorce. But on account of the hardness of their hearts, the Lord
permitted it, as it was in the days of Moses. But there was a way in which a
woman could leave a man lawfully. When a woman becomes alienated in her
feelings & affections from her husband, it is then his duty to give her a
Bill & set her free which would be fornication for the man to
[1917]
cohabit
with his wife after she had thus become alienated from him. The children
begotten of such a woman would be Bastards in the true Scriptural term of the
word Fornication, for the crime of adultery a woman (& also men) would be
stoned to Death & then come up in the morning of the Resurrection &
Claim all of her rights & Privileges in the marriage covenant. Also there
was another way in which a woman could leave a man, if the woman Preferred
another man higher in authority& he is willing to take her, & her
husband gives her up there is no Bill of divorce required in the case it is
right in the sight of God. But if he ever after has any connection with her, he
is then guilty of committing a very great sin & will be Punished
accordingly. If a Man is faithful & should his wife leave him & be
married to another without his consent there is no Power in heaven or on Earth
that can Prevent him from claiming her in the Resurrection. If faithful a Man
will attain to an Adam & the Wife to be an Eve & begat Millions of
Spirits who will come forth & receive their Tabernacles upon an earth like
this, &c. The glory of the Man is the woman, And the glory of the woman is
her Virginity. Men are the Lords of Creation & the Responsibility rests
upon the man & not upon the woman, all women will be saved after they have
suffered & atoned for their sins & thus satisfied the ends of Justice
they will not become angels to the Devil. The Curse Placed upon the woman is
that her desire shall be to her husband she shall long & Desire for him
& will not wish to be supplanted by another & in sorrow & in Pain
she shall bring forth her offspring, if it was not for this curse, the woman
would bring forth as easy as she would drink a glass of water. The curse upon
the man is that he shall labour to support his family by the sweat of his brow
&c& he has to be tormented with thorns & briars sunflowers& all
kinds of noxious weeds. Is there any way for a man & his wife to commit sin
in the marriage state, there is. It is for us to cultivate the Principles of
life which God has Planted in us & not for us to Destroy life by an
unlawful intercourse with each other, but for us to multiply & Replenish
the Earth as God has enjoined upon us.
“Frederick
Kesler Journal.”
B.
Young Spoke on the order of sealing for time & Eternity Said that His
Remarks would Not be published& for all to pay good attention & Hear
Correctly. he Said that a Divorce was of no use. Could a woman be freed from a
man yes in 2 ways only. 1st if a man forfeits His priesthood 2nd if the man is
faithful. But the wife is Not Satisfied the[n] if She can find a man Holding a
Higher Priesthood than Her husband that will take Her. He Can Do So without any
Divorce. the Glory of a man is the woman the glory of a woman is her virginity
this She Should Carefully preserve for Her intended Lord which will Be unto Her
of great worth Hereafter much more Did he Say on this important Subject but
this will Suffice for the present.
“Anthony
W. Ivins Journal 13:109”
I
wish to say to my young sisters, if you can go into the hands of a man, that
will lead you into the Kingdom of Heaven, and exalt you there to become an Eve,
a Queen of Heaven, the wife of a God; if you can remain with that man [in] whom
your soul delights, and you take to him your virginity, you have obtained a
treasure that millions of worlds like this [one] could not buy from you, there
is your glory to all eternity. Trifle with this matter, and you will reap
sorrow and sore affliction. When you make your choice of a husband for time and
eternity, and you are sure you have got your choice, hang on to him.
“DN
11:186; BYA 4:138.”
President
Brigham Young preached a highly interesting and instructive discourse upon the
important subject of marriage for time and all eternity.
“WWJ
5:596.”
President
Young then Preached a vary interesting discourse upon the subject of Marriage
for time & Eternity. G D Watt reported the discourse.”
The end.
2) * AGR = Adam-God Revelation, by Dennis Doddridge
3) Recommended further study: Can Mormons divorce?
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