Sermon of John Y. Barlow, 13 September 1940: Story of Entering Into Celestial Marriage
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13 September 1940
Sermon of John Y. Barlow, 13 September 1940: Story of Entering Into Celestial Marriage
A dated talk by John Y. Barlow from the compiled volume Sermons of John Y. Barlow. This date is not already published as a Salt Lake minute-book meeting or as a separate 1943 or 1949 document. The wording has not been changed. Reported by Marjorie Holm.
My brothers and sisters, I have been greatly edified by the remarks of the brethren, and I know that the Gospel is true. I used to say, ?I believe the Gospel is true.? Now I know that it is true. There are many things to come up. I think Brother Musser and myself have been on the firing line for the past twenty years. We have lived this. Brother Musser has raised a large family, nearly all of them grown. I never went into it as quick as he did. I believe it was the Savior who said, ?If you will do My will, you will know whether the doctrine I teach is true or not.? I think maybe it would be interesting to you people if I gave you just a little history of how I happened to take up this work. I always believed in it, and I told my wife that if the time ever came that I should live this law, I was going to enter it. Finally, my brother went into it. I went on a mission and I preached that it was all done away with. When I came back home, I found the President of our Stake had entered into the law. And they were trying to find my brother?s plural wife, and it was the time that she was to be confined. My brother said he didn?t know what to do. I said to him, ?Come on up to the house, and I will get Susie and go down and get your wife and take care of her.? While there, I told the Lord?I would be praying, ?Now, if this is right, make it known to me, and I will obey it.? One morning about 5:00 A.M., a panorama started, and I saw the ancients in the days of Father Adam come, and each man had two women on his arm walking by him. I saw Noah, etc., and I saw the Apostles of the Lord?Peter, etc. Then I saw Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, etc., all pass by me in this panorama. It was nearly twelve years after that before I got into it. We prayed to the Lord to send one to our home. This went on for a year or two. One night, my youngest daughter and her friend went riding with a man, and he was not very responsible, and they walked home. My daughter said, ?Daddy, teach us the marriage covenant.? I took the Doctrine and Covenants and taught them the truth of it. That night I saw Ada as my wife. The next morning I told Ada it was about time we were doing something about it. I went to one party after another. I could not find out who was doing it. Then someone said, ?You think of the man that bears the strongest testimony,? and I thought of Uncle Lorin Woolley. The marriage covenant and endowment are two different covenants. The man in the temple said, ?Brother Barlow, I knew it the m