h. Church and State are inseparable and
the main complications are in the priesthood which extends to nearly
every male member of the church who has a family, thus making them all
more or less responsible for the proceedings of their leaders. This
priesthood is composed of a president, in whom is combined prophet, seer
or revelator of the church. There have been only three men to fill that
office, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor who now occupies
the position. This chief with two councillors form the first presidency.
Next in order come the twelve apostles who hold equal authority in
church matters with the president, though the presidency is the last
resort in case of appeal. Next comes the order of the seventies, which
consists of seven presidents, each having control or presiding over
seventy priests or lower presidents, each of whom in turn, presides over
a quorum of seventy. Out of this order of seventies come the patriarchs
who dispense the blessings of the church, the high council which is an
ecclesiastical court, all these orders making up a priesthood after the
order of Melchisedec. Then follows the Aaronic priesthood which is
composed of a senior bishop with two councillors acting as president of
the state of Zion, and an indefinite number of bishops of lower rank
with elders, teachers and deacons. The Mormons claim that this is the
only apostolic church, the only church having the sign of miracles, the
laying on of hands, the giving of tongues, the baptism for the dead, the
consecration of marriage, the only church through whom and with whom God
is talking as of old. Many of the ordinances of the church are performed
in secret and are still more complicated. Although some of these rites
and ceremonies have been revealed by apostates, yet there are others of
such a character that even the bitterest seceder from the church would
not dare unfold them. With this complex system conceived after the
manner of the Jewish priesthood, and with the various revelations that
have been added from time to time, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints stands to-day as a very curious monument to the ingenuity of
men, the most prominent of whom were descended from Puritan fathers.

The ordinance that has given so much unpleasant notoriety to this church
is that of polygamy, or plural marriage as the Mormons designate it.
There are three kinds of marriage; the marriage for this world as in
other churches, "ti