Doctrinal Library

Object of Assembling—A Peculiar People...

The republicans long ago put into their platform that there were two twin relics that had to be moved out of the way—the one was slavery, and the other polygamy. They have removed slavery out of the way, but polygamy seems to be rather a hard nut for them to crack. It seems to bother them. They are in a good deal of trouble about it, and the religious people are very much exercised over it. Their pure souls are very much agonized about things of that sort, and about impurities which exist among the Mormons. They cannot see or say anything about the licentiousness, the corruption, the feticide, the infanticide, the rottenness, hypocrisy, lying, fraud and deception that exists among themselves; but they think we are a very bad people, and in order to purge the nation of so foul a blot, they must all unite to put us down.

The Word of Wisdom—Degeneracy...

Infanticide is very prevalent in our nation. It is a crime that comes within the purview of the law, and is therefore not so boldly practiced as is the other equally great crime, which no doubt, to a great extent, prevents the necessity of infanticide. The unnatural style of living, the extensive use of narcotics, the attempts to destroy and dry up the fountains of life, are fast destroying the American element of the nation; it is passing away before the increase of the more healthy, robust, honest, and less sinful class of the people which are pouring into the country daily from the Old World.

The Gospel's Restoration—Its Priesthood and Principles...

Of the two hundred and fifty towns and villages in Utah, over two hundred have no “gaudy sepulchre of departed virtue,” and these two hundred and odd towns are almost exclusively Mormon in population. Of the suicides committed in Utah, ninety odd percent are non-Mormon; and of the Utah homicides and infanticides, over eighty percent are perpetrated by the seventeen percent “outsiders.”

Kingdoms of Glory

From modern revelation, Latter-day Saints have this unique understanding of God’s plan of happiness for His children. That plan begins with our life as spirits before we were born, and it reveals the purpose and conditions of our chosen journey in mortality and our desired destination thereafter.

Divine Love in the Father’s Plan

Those who do not fully understand the Father’s loving plan for His children may consider this family proclamation no more than a changeable statement of policy. In contrast, we affirm that the family proclamation, founded on irrevocable doctrine, defines the kind of family relationships where the most important part of our eternal development can occur.

Gathering the Family of God

This is part of the miracle of Heavenly Father’s plan. He wants His children to come to earth, following the eternal pattern of families that exists in heaven. Families are the basic organizational unit of the eternal realms, and so He intends for them also to be the basic unit on earth. Though earthly families are far from perfect, they give God’s children the best chance to be welcomed to the world with the only love on earth that comes close to what we felt in heaven—parental love. Families are also the best way to preserve and pass on moral virtues and true principles that are most likely to lead us back to God’s presence.

Self-Mastery

When you marry, you and your eternal companion may then invoke the power of procreation, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity.

Cleave to Light—Coming of Chirst—Welfare of the Young

The enemies of Zion fear this doctrine of the Saints, that “Children are an heritage of the Lord, * * * and happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” This doctrine permits the Latter-day Saints to fulfil the first great command given to Father Adam and Mother Eve, instead of adopting that abominable and soul-destroying doctrine of devils, infanticide and feticide, which is practiced to no little extent in the Christian world, which is in open violation to the laws of nature and the law of God to our first parents, to “multiply and replenish the earth.”

The Work of God Cannot be Hindered...

We won’t have their meanness, with their feticides and infanticides, forced upon us. And you, sisters, don’t allow yourselves to become contaminated by rustling against their polluted skirts. Keep from them! Let them wallow in their infamy, and let us protect the right, and be for God and his Christ, for honor, for truth, for virtue, purity and chastity, and for the building up of the kingdom of God. Amen.

Preaching of John the Baptist and Restoration of the Gospel Compared...

Congress of the United States says that it must not be permitted. Well, then, “Where are we today?” What have we to expect? This law has been passed—although we had hoped that Congress and the nation had sufficient virtue, enlightenment, liberty, and the spirit of the constitution of the fathers left among them, that they could see that this was not a sin or an evil—yet we find they have closed their eyes against this, and have determined that it is sin, while corruptions of every kind are permitted to be carried on in the country, such as prostitution, feticide, infanticide, etc., that because we have embraced the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we must be demolished or give up our religious faith.