NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE

Companionship of the Sexes

WHEN this earth, a new unit amongst uncounted worlds, had developed to a condition suited to human habitation, God created man in His own personal, physical image, and gave him dominion over the earth and its manifold belongings. Beside the man stood the woman, sharing with him the divinely bestowed honor and dignity of supremacy over all lesser creations; for the Lord God had said: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Gen. 2:18.)

So begins the first page of human history relating to this planet: "In the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."

The earliest recorded commandment to the newly embodied pair provided for the procreation of their kind; for unto them the Lord said: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." That the wedded state thus inaugurated was to be the permanent order of life amongst Adam's posterity is attested by the further Scripture: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)

Inasmuch as the union of the sexes is the only way by which the perpetuity of the race is possible, such union is essentially as beneficent as it is necessary. Lawful, that is to say righteous, association of the sexes, is an uplifting and ennobling function to the participants, and the heritage of earth-life to preexistent spirits who are thereby advanced to the mortal state. Conversely, all sexual union outside the bonds of legitimacy is debasing and pernicious, not only to the guilty parties themselves, but to children who are thus ill-born, and to organized society in general.

The stability of society demands that the divinely established institution of marriage shall be administered under secular law, whereby the family unit shall be a legalized entity, with responsibilities and obligations clearly defined, the rights of husband, wife and children protected, property interests safeguarded, and inheritance regulated.

But the marriage covenant is more than a legalized contract. It is a solemn sacrament, under which the parties are made eligible to the blessing of Divine approval, and by which they are answerable both to the law of man and to the Power that transcends all human institutions. That marriage is honorable is as true today as when the precept was written in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The Latter-day Saints accept the doctrine of the imperative necessity of wedlock and the sanctity thereof; and they apply it as a requirement to all who are not prohibited by physical or other disability from assuming the sacred responsibilities of the married state. They hold as part of the birthright of every worthy man the privilege and duty of standing at the head of a household, the companion of a virtuous wife, both imbued with the hope of posterity, which by the blessing of God may never become extinct; and equally ennobling is the desire of every worthy woman to be a wife and mother in the family of mankind.

We repudiate and abhor the pernicious doctrine that the sexual relation is but a carnal necessity, inherent in human kind because of fleshly desire, or that celibacy is a feature of exalted status more acceptable than marriage in the sight and judgment of God. Touching this matter the Lord hath spoken through direct revelation in the current age, saying:

"And again, I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation, and that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made." (D&C 49: 15-17.)

Without the power of perpetuating his kind man is in part bereft of his glory; for small is the possibility of achievement within the limited range of an individual life. Grand as may seem to be the attainments of a man who is really great as gaged by the best standards of human estimation, the culmination of his glorious heritage lies in his leaving offspring from his own body to carry forward the worthy efforts of their sire. And as with the man, so with the woman.

We regard children literally as gifts from God, committed to our parental care, for whose support, protection, and training in righteousness we shall be held to a strict accounting, remembering the solemn admonition and profound affirmation of the Christ: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10.)

But the bringing of children into the world is but part of God's beneficent plan of uplift and development through honorable marriage. Companionship of husband and wife is a divinely appointed means of mutual betterment; and according to the measure of holy love, mutual respect and honor with which that companionship is graced and sanctified, do man and woman develop toward the spiritual stature of God. It is plainly the Divine intent that husband and wife should be each the other's great incentive to effort and achievement in good works.

Blessed indeed are the wedded pair who severally find in each a help meet for the other.