An epistle of the First Presidency to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in General Conference, said:
"The Gospel of the Son of God, brings life and immortality to light." We believe in Jerusalems, such as the one which John saw when banished as a slave to the Isle of Patmos because of his religion, where promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are to be fulfilled; "which had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels"--and the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was one pearl." Its walls were of jasper, its streets and the city were pure gold. The foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones, and the glory of God did lighten it, "and the Lamb is the light thereof." Its pearly gates had written upon them the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel and the foundations of its walls, "the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb." "The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. The porters of its gates were angels and its light the glory of God." What was written on those pearly gates? The names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Who was Israel? Jacob. From whom did the twelve tribes descend? From Jacob. What were their names? The names of the sons of Jacob, which he had by four wives. Jacob, then, was a polygamist? Yes; he was one of those barbarians of which the Judge of the Third Judicial District says: "These practices might have been proper in a barbarous and primitive time--in crude times--but they won't do now. Civilization has thrown them away. It won't do to gather up these old customs and practices out of the by-gone barbarism and by-gone ages, and attempt to palm them upon a free and intelligent and civilized people in these days."
How free the people are in Utah today needs no discussion. If the judge cannot stand these things it would seem God and the Lamb can, for He is the light of the city, on the gates of which are written the names of twelve men, the sons of one man by four women--a polygamist. Had Jacob lived now, the judges would have sent spies, spotters and deputy marshals after him, and if caught would have sent him to the penitentiary.