TILL DEATH DOES YOU PART

Is There No Hope Beyond?

IT is not good that man should be alone.

This is the word of God. It is inscribed on the first page of human history. The affirmation was given special application to the marital state, whereby the perpetuity of the race would be insured in the distinctive family order. To this end "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.)

At the very beginning of man's existence as an embodied spirit, the Divine fiat against promiscuity in the association of the sexes was promulgated. Anthropologists aver that even in the most primitive communities kinship was recognized as an established feature, and laws relating to the sexual relationship obtained.

The family unit is therefore the universal order amongst mankind, and is of Divine establishment. Both the Mosaic code and the law of the Gospel, in which it was fulfilled and superseded, recognized the sanctity of family ties and prescribed regulations for the maintenance thereof.

The family institution comprises more than the wedded union of husband and wife with its mutual obligations and responsibilities. The status of parenthood is the flower of family existence, while marriage was but the bud. Under the revealed law parents are as truly answerable to God for the adequate discharge of duty to their children as for the faithful observance of the marriage covenant respecting themselves.

Within the family established and maintained according to the Divine word, man and woman find their holiest and most ennobling happiness. Individual development—the education of the soul for which earth-life has been provided—is incomplete without the impelling and restraining experiences incident to the responsibilities of the wedded and parental state.

Is the family relationship to end with death?

Are husbands and wives to be separated, and the mutual claims of parents and children to be nullified by the grave?

If so, then surely the sting of death and the victory of the grave are enduring verities; for the dead would be lost to us and we to them. Such a conception affords ample explanation of the prevalence of black at funerals. The sombre pall and sable trappings are all in place if bereavement on earth means everlasting separation.

The dread assumption—let us not say belief, for who does not hope that a brighter destiny awaits us?—has been fostered by custom and ignorance, and even taught as doctrine by substituting the precepts of men for the word of God. It is embodied in the marriage ceremony, wherein the officiating minister, addressing the principals at the moment of their supreme concern, says: I join you in the bonds of matrimony until death does you part.

How like the thud of clods upon the casket in an open grave! Must we tolerate the shadow of death as an intruding guest at every wedding?

Verily so, if marriage be nothing more than an earthly contract, regulated by law solely as a human institution; for no legislature, congress, or parliament of men, no synod, church, council, or ecclesiastical hierarchy of human origination, can legislate or administer ordinances of other than earthly validity. To claim jurisdiction in post-mortal affairs on the basis of human assumption is both sacrilege and blasphemy.

The current marriage ceremony, uniting the parties until death does them part, is framed in consistency and propriety. As an institution of men it is honorable and legally binding. And so are all the obligations and endowments resulting therefrom, including the exalting status of parenthood. But all such relationships are to end with death if validated only by man's authority. Can we consistently affirm that if the grave terminates the claim of parents upon each other it shall not likewise end the claim of parents upon children, and of children upon parents?

But behold, there is hope! God has provided a way by which the family unit may survive the grave and endure throughout eternity. It is the Divine intent that marriage be an eternal union, and that the relationship between parents and offspring shall be made valid in the hereafter as here.

We affirm that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth by direct dispensation from the heavens, and this in accordance with prophecy and Scripture, and that the authority of this Priesthood, when administered as God has directed, is effective both on earth and in heaven. (Compare Matt. 16:19; 18:18.)

We affirm that even as baptism, when administered as our Lord prescribed, by those invested with the Holy Priesthood, shall be a means to salvation beyond the grave, so other ordinances, including the sealing of wives to husbands and children to parents, may be authoritatively solemnized so as to be valid after death. To this effect hath the Lord spoken respecting the everlasting covenant, which embraces marriage for both time and eternity.

"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world. Therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world. Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage. . . . And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity, and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds for ever and ever." (D&C 132.)