The following are some insights from the journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith (1837-1906). He was the cousin of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
1862 (while serving as Mission President in
Scandinavia)—Addressing an Unusual Argument Against Latter-day Saint Theology:
Oct. 14. (Tues.) The “Berlinske
Tidende” took up a scurrilous article from some English paper, without giving
the customary credit, stating that “among the Mormons there were many kinds of
marriage, but mainly four kinds, as follows: 1st, The Glorifying Proxy; 2nd,
the Retroactive Proxy; 3rd, the Substitutive Proxy; and 4th, the Redeeming
Proxy." Bro. Poulsen had before my return from Switzerland written a short
article in reply, but the editor refused to insert any refutation in any other
form than that of an advertisement. Bro. Poulsen wrote a short article to which
I signed my name as President of the Scandinavian Mission, and paid for as an
advertisement. It appeared the same evening and ran as follows:
MISTAKE CORRECTED:
Under heading Marriage Among the Mormons, the “Berlinske Tidende” for Thursday evening,
contained an article which, for the sake of truth, and for the sake of said
paper’s many readers, I will take the trouble to point out some of the gross
errors therein published, although I do not intend to refer to all the
different ideas which exist upon the subject mentioned. The “Substitutive Proxy”
does not exist, either as a form of marriage or in any other form among the
Mormons. Should a missionary leave home he will probably recommend his dear
ones to the care of some good friend during his absence, very much as the head
of a family would do here, I presume, but to be represented by good friends
among wives and children that the increase of children shall not be broken off
and thereby suffer the increase of their glory to be broken off or hindered is
a plain straightforward false fabrication. We consider children a great
blessing, though not a necessary requisite for our salvation, but hold that
everyone who believes the Gospel and is baptized shall be saved here on earth,
and should they remain faithful until the end of life, be saved in all eternity.
The “Redeeming Proxy” is not intended for the lost, but the increase of the
blessings of the redeemed. We learn that without marriage and without children,
a person can be saved, here, and in a more perfect existence enter into the
presence of the Father and enjoy the highest glory.
In general we pass
silently by the false statements of our opponents, but as many good people may
have supposed that the article to which I refer contained a reliable
description of the order of things which surround my home, I considered it my
duty to write the foregoing.
--Jesse N. Smith, President of the Scandinavian Mission.
(The Journal of
Jesse Nathaniel Smith: Six Decades in the Early West, 1834-1906 [3d ed.;
Provo, Utah: Jesse N. Smith Family Association, 1997], 91)
Recounting Brigham Young Jr’s comments in
a sermon May 8, 1884:
Bro. Young said the
Gospel of the Son of God is delightful to hear. Notwithstanding the constant
stream of revelation for the last 55 years that ha flowed unto us, we are yet
only upon the threshold of the Gospel. (Ibid., 287)
Such sound very much like the idea the
Restoration is an on-going process (per
Dieter F. Uchtdorf)
From 1888 on freedom of religion and
speech, something that continues to be relevant today:
Mar. 10. (Sat.) Quarterly conference.
In some opening remarks I said we have very little drinking and gambling in our
midst. If you establish the principles of uprightness and integrity in the minds
of your children there is not much danger of them going astray in after years.
Teach them early to honor their father and their mother. They can not attain to
highest blessings without humility and faith. While wealth and education are
quite proper when properly used yet without the divine gifts of faith and humility
there will be a lack. Later I said in the Middle Ages the Catholic Church held
such sway over the nations that men dared not proclaim more advanced views over
the nations that men dared not proclaim more advanced views upon any subject.
We are living in a time when it is claimed that thought and speech are free,
yet officers of our government are resorting to the old methods of forcing
their fellows to retract from their religious views or submit to pains and penalties.
In Utah such a thing as trail by jury has become a farce. Men there are being
forced to promise under oath that they will not teach the doctrine of polygamy,
which is a part of their religion. Why this departure from the principles of
freedom? Why this cruelty? It is because there are two churches and two only.
They are the Church of Christ and the church of the devil, and those who have
yielded obedience to the latter are jealous of those who are serving the Lord.
This is a land of liberty; it is a land that the Lord has decreed shall not be
desecrated by the oppression of kings, and wickedness shall not to a great
extend about without those guilty of it being called to a reckoning by the
Lord. The persecutions now being heaped upon the Saints are having the effect
to convince the young of the truthfulness of the work. Exhorted the Saints to
humility before the Lord and to remember the glorious example of Peter of old
when he said, “Is it not better to serve God than man?” (Ibid., 347-48)
