Original LDS Church Leaders 
Strict Stand Against Abortion and Contraception.

There is a notable difference on the view of abortion between the present day leaders of the L.D.S. church, and the early church leaders who helped found the church in the first place. The present church leaders permit abortion on the "opinion of competent medical counsel," and "only after counseling with the bishop or branch president and after receiving divine confirmation through prayer."  In contrast the early church leaders considered it to be the vilest kind of murder, because it involves the shedding of innocent blood.

The Scriptures repeatedly teach us the ten commandments in great plainness.  One of the commandments is "Thou shalt not kill." Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that God will grant permission, or "divine confirmation through prayer" before destroying an innocent life.  A life which is the workmanship of God's hands.  It is blasphemy before God to suggest it.

George Q. Cannon stated in 1884 that "just as sure as it (abortion) is done, and people yield to it, so sure will they be damned, they will be damned with the deepest damnation; because it will be the damnation of shedding innocent blood, for which there is no forgiveness."  In 1882, President John Taylor stated that "Already are we interfering with the laws of nature and stopping the functions of life, and have become the slayers of our own offspring...I tell you now...as a humble servant of the living God, that unless these infamies are stopped, this nation will be overthrown... This is not only my saying, but it is the saying of those ancient prophets which they themselves profess to believe."

President Taylor later said that "I want to warn our brethren and sisters against these infamies, and against permitting these filthy wretches (abortion advocates) to come into their houses...there are some of these people crawling around us like so many vipers, and insinuating their hellish, murderous practices into the families of some who call themselves Latter-day Saints. Woe ! to such saints. You cannot have a place among the Latter-day Saints, and I speak of it that the Presidents of Stakes and the bishops may be apprised of these things."

The present leaders of the church also say that you must follow the leaders, and their counsels and policies will not lead you astray. If that is true, then which leaders counsels do you wish to follow? Either the present leaders are wrong, or the early church leaders were wrong. It is the present church leaders who have learned, and inherited the precepts that were revealed during the times of the early church leaders. 

No right ever appeared from a wrong. How could the present church leaders consider themselves to be right, if they themselves consider their very foundation to be faulty?

If you accept the explanation that since times change, that "the times were simpler then," and so the leaders position must also change with the times; then do you also accept that taking an innocent life which the church originally considered to be an unforgivable sin, is now conveniently forgivable? Do you not realize that God's revelations and commandments are everlasting and not subject to change?  The present leaders in the church have taken an about face from the earlier teachings, and the condition of the times has only taken a change for the worse.

The present church leaders say "as far as has been revealed, the sin of abortion is one for which a person may repent and gain forgiveness." Do you know where in the Scriptures or anywhere else you can find this new revelation which supplants the old? Have you ever read it, or even heard of it? If you really think that the prophet's view today can be different than another prophet's view from years gone past, then how can the two prophets exist in eternity in the same discipline when they so fundamentally disagree?

The present leaders have the keys of authority in the church, and what they say is the official position of the church. But each member in the church still needs to know for themselves the difference between right and wrong.

Before the devil fell from grace he boasted he would save all souls, and not allow anyone to be led astray. Christ said he would give them their free agency, and allow them to choose for themselves.

If you do decide that committing abortion is an unforgivable murder, then you should speak up against it; as President Taylor said "We must protest against foeticide, infanticide, and other abominable practices of Christendom being forced upon us, either in the shape of legislative enactment, judicial decision or any other adjunct of so-called civilization."

Will God our Creator, who gave us life, and is the only one has the wisdom and knowledge to take it, justify you to kill an innocent life which has given no offense, for worldly conveniences?  Latter Day Saints used to believe that God created all the spirits who ever lived, or who ever will live on this earth, before the world was created, and it is wrong for man to deny some of those spirits their just right to their lives on this earth, where they can be tested in their choice between good and evil.  And how can man possibly say there are too many people in the world, and thereby justify their murders; when they should know that the number of people to dwell on the earth has been pre-determined.  Latter Day Saints also used to heed the first great commandment from God to multiply and replenish the earth.  Population control is a devilish doctrine inspired by Satan, and those who preach it and practice it will surely be condemned of God.

If you believe the early church leaders and never consent to an abortion, you will not be lost without hope for being wrong. On the other hand, if you believe the present church leaders and consent to an abortion, then you should remember the eternal consequences of your actions if you are wrong.  Consequences which no Church leader, or mortal man has the power to revoke.

If any of you are being pressured into committing an action you know in your heart is wrong, please consider that there are many good Christian organizations ready and willing to provide you with assistance and support. Pray to God in faith for direction and comfort, with an eye single to His glory.  Please consider the admonition of Joseph Smith not to make any hasty moves which you will come to regret:

"I advise all of you to be careful what you do, or you may by and by find out that you have been deceived. Stay yourselves; do not give way; don't make any hasty moves, you may be saved. If a spirit of bitterness is in you, don't be in haste."  Joseph Smth

CONTENTS

President John Taylor
1) Protest legislative and judicial decisions concerning abortion
2) Wo to this nation
3) The right to life
4) Hundreds of thousands of infants murdered every year
5) Doctor's testimonies concerning nineteenth century abortions
6) millions of murders perpetrated

Apostle Erastus Snow
1) 1/3 of all people in Utah under 8 years old
2) God will counteract this evil
3) Children in New England rare compared to Utah,
4) The beauty and glory of multiplying the families of Israel
5) The U.S. government should have less fear of foreign immigrants coming to Utah, which are far less numerous than the children born in Utah.
6) The Saints do not imitate the examples of eastern cities in destroying their offspring

President Brigham Young
1) abortion advocates among the influential and powerful
2) Saints duty to have as many children as they can

President Heber C. Kimball
The whole nation guilty of the practice of abortion

President Joseph Smith, Jr.
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost

President George Q. Cannon
We suffer persecution because of large families

Apostle Moses Thatcher
Men of great influence in the world preach the doctrine of human limitation

Apostle Joseph F. Smith
Latter-day Saints proverbial for not murdering their children

Harriet Cook Young
Our Children constitute our true glory

Apostle Orson Pratt
setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock

Apostle B.H. Roberts
Hebrew children murdered by Pharaoh

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor,
Delivered in the Tabernacle, Provo,
November 30, 1879,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 20, page 354.

I feel to proclaim against the vices of the age, whether in this nation or others; for we as a nation are fast descending as low as the most degenerate and corrupt nations of Europe, and are practicing infamies which have been the overthrow and ruin of many mighty cities, nations and empires, and which are now the loathsome, unnatural, disgusting, damning sins of Christendom. The standing law of God is, be fruitful and multiply; but these reformers are "swift to shed blood," even the blood of innocence; and with their pre-natal murders and other crimes, are slaying their thousands and tens of thousands with impunity, to say nothing of that other loathsome, disgusting, filthy institution of modern Christendom "the social evil" as well as other infamous practices. We must protest against foeticide, infanticide, and other abominable practices of Christendom being forced upon us, either in the shape of legislative enactment, judicial decision or any other adjunct of so-called civilization. We are American citizens and are not yet deprived of the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor
Delivered at the General
Conference, April 9, 1882,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 23, page 66.

Taken from Discourse by President George Q. Cannon,
Delivered in the Tabernacle, Provo,
Nov 20, 1884,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 26, page 14.

If we were guilty of those crimes so fashionable in the world whereby the increase of families is prevented, I do not suppose their would be one word said about our system of marriage; I have no idea there would be. But the fact that we do raise children, the fact our houses and settlements are full of healthy offspring, is a standing protest against the crimes of the age; it is a standing protest against those abominable practices that are destroying the foundation of many communities within the confines of the United States, and they are determined - those who are guilty of these things - that we shall not exist. The loudest outcry against us, and the most devoted efforts against us, come from the region where these dreadful practices prevail, where women murder their offspring before they are born, are guilty of this pre-natal murder, among the people of the United States who think themselves the most enlightened. Twenty five years ago when I was laboring in the ministry in that region I visited one of the towns, and the President of the branch of the Saints there, (an old resident, whose ancestors were among the first settlers of the town) told me his wife was continually jeered at - and this was twenty five years ago - by her associates, because she bore children, and bore them regularly - that she did not take the means to prevent the increase of her family! If I had not known him I could scarcely have believed it, it was too horrid. I have learned since, however, that that is a common practice in that region. The feature of that society that impresses most vividly a traveler from Utah is the fewness of children in what are called the best families. And yet it is from there that the principle outcry is raised against us, and the determination expressed to break up our families and to destroy us.

God has gathered a few people out from the nations of the earth, out of Babylon. But shall they partake of these influences? I say to you my sisters, you teach your daughters against this accursed practice, or they will go to hell, they will be damned, they will be murderers, and the blood of innocence will be found upon them. A man that would sanction such a thing in his family, or that would live with a woman guilty of such acts, shares in the crime of murder. I would no more perform the ordinance of laying on of hands on a woman who is guilty of that crime if I knew it, than I would put my hands on the head of a rattle snake. We must set our faces like flint against such acts. These dreadful practices are coming up like a tidal wave and washing against our walls; for there are women among us who secretly - so I am told, I know nothing about this personally, but I am told there are women among us who are instilling this murderous and accursed idea into the breasts of women and girls in our midst. Now just as sure as it is done, and people yield to it, so sure will they be damned, they will be damned with the deepest damnation; because it will be the damnation of shedding innocent blood, for which there is no forgiveness; and I would no more, as I say, administer to such women, baptize them, or perform any ordinance of the Gospel for them, than I would a reptile. They are outside the pale of salvation. They are in a position that nothing can be done for them. They cut themselves off by such acts from all hopes of salvation.

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor,
Delivered at the General
Conference, April 9, 1882,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 23, page 62.

Already are we interfering with the laws of nature and stopping the functions of life, and have become the slayers of our own offspring, and employ human butchers in the shape of physicians to assist in this diabolical and murderous work. The sins of this nation, the licentiousness, the debauchery, the murders are entering into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, and I tell you now, from the tops of these mountains, as a humble servant of the living God, that unless these infamies are stopped, this nation will be overthrown, and its glory, power, dominion and wealth will fade away like the dews of a summer morning. I also say to other nations of the earth, that unless they repent of their crimes, their iniquities and abominations, their thrones will be overturned, their kingdoms and governments overthrown, and their lands made desolate. This is not only my saying, but it is the saying of those ancient prophets which they themselves profess to believe; for God will speedily have a controversy with the nations of the earth....There are certain principles that belong to humanity outside of the Constitution, outside of the laws, outside of all the enactments and plans of man, among which is the right to live; God gave us the right and not man; no government gave it to us, and no government has a right to take it away from us.

Taken from discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow,
Delivered in the Tabernacle, Provo,
May 31, 1885,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 26, page 219.

In modern Christendom - in these United States especially, and in staid New England more than perhaps any other portion of this American Continent is this commandment of God to multiply and replenish the earth nullified. The Latter-day Saints are looked upon with envy, with jealousy and reproach because they do not take the same view as they do, and their numerous families stand out in bold contrast with the New England families, where you will find as you go through the land one two, or at most three children in a family, and many families with none. In some instances this apparent sterility may have resulted from various abuses, but in most cases the result of wicked men and women to counteract and prevent the fulfilling of the great commandment of God to multiply and replenish the earth, and in many instances, foeticide, infanticide and child-murder are the result of this very general desire to avoid the responsibility of families. It has become a crying evil in the land. Some writers deeply deplore this crying evil, and represent it in its true light; while many other writers and speakers are either silent upon the subject or give their voice and influence in its favor. A few years ago, I remembered to have read a discourse of Brooklyn's great orator, Henry Ward Beecher, in which he took the ground that any considerable increase of the human species would be a positive evil, something to be deplored; and he elaborately attempted to portray the evils that would result from it, and the whole tendency of the discourse was to discourage the multiplication of human species. Others have followed in the same train of reasoning. They seem to have forgotten the commandment given to our first parents, and never to have comprehended the purposes of Jehovah. Those who adopt these views have seemed to imagine that there would be greater happiness in the gratification of fleshly lusts, and in pandering to pride and worldly pleasures, and the increase of wealth, than to obey the commandment of God. They have resolved to avoid raising large families. The last tour I took through New England, (which is my native country), about twelve years ago, I was more deeply impressed with this state of things than I have ever been before. When I was a boy, in Vermont, I knew not the ways of the world, and comprehended not what was going on, in our large cities and more populous parts of the country. I was born of honest parentage, who reverenced the principles of life and salvation, and I understood not what was going on around me, nor do I think those evils existed there to the same extent that they now do. But as I remarked, when I made my last tour through New England, I was more forcibly impressed with this state of society than ever before. I spoke of it to my aged aunt in Rhode Island. I said to her: "Aunt, when you were young, and when my mother was young, rearing large families, it was a source of joy and pleasure to rear offspring . Now as I go through the land, I see the efforts of the people are in an opposite direction." "Oh, yes," said she, "it is unpopular now, for people to have large families; it is considered vulgar, men and women now seek to avoid these responsibilities." This is a well known fact. The tendency of the age is to animalism, to the gratification of fleshly lusts and worldly pleasures. Well, the Latter-day saints have experienced in their own lives something nobler, and have learned to recognize the wisdom of Jehovah in that order of things which He enjoined upon our first parents. This is the marked difference between the unbelieving world and the Latter-day saints. I say the unbelieving world, because I regard this doctrine which I have referred to as a doctrine of devils and not the doctrine of Christ; that the tendency of it leads as I before remarked, to foeticide, infanticide, child murder, and to the gratification of fleshly lusts and worldly pleasures without fulfilling the great object and purposes of our Father, and the effect in the end would be the wasting away of the human species if it were generally adopted. It is high time that a voice from heaven should rebuke it. It is high time that the Lord, who wishes to raise up seed unto himself, should command his people and renew upon them the obligations placed upon our first parents. It is to the Latter day Saints that this mission has been committed, and the result is the multitude of school children that we find all over this territory. Over fifty thousand Sabbath school children in the territory of Utah - nearly one third of the entire population, as shown our statistics at our various conferences - are children under eight years of age. This is a startling fact to that class of the Christian world who are pursuing the opposite course. One of the Sabbath school superintendents of the city of New York, recently expressed himself very pointedly and plainly upon this subject in relation to the wealthy portion of the church going people of New York. In several thousand families attending the popular churches of New York, there could be mustered only about eighty Sabbath school children, and he attributed it to this prevailing desire for pleasure, wealth, and the shirking of the cares and responsibilities of the household, until the rearing of families was left almost entirely to the poor, to what is termed the vulgar people.......the chief warfare against the Latter-day saints at the present time is an endeavor to compel us to conform to their new state of things, or to their ideas of social sins and social duties.

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor
Delivered at American Fork,
November 28, 1879
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 21, page 116.

Not long ago, I was called upon by some intelligent, or those who profess to be intelligent men, who asked me something about polygamy. "How is it with you," said I; "do you know that in this land of yours you are murdering hundreds of thousands of infants every year? Do you know that you have among you people who are considered the most fashionable and honorable that are murderers, who destroy the life that God has given before and after birth, and interfere with the laws of the almighty? Do you know that they are doing that?" "Yes, we believe they are doing it." "Do you know that you are wallowing in corruption and degradation, and that your social evils and other damnable corruptions that exist are spreading and permeating through all your society?" "Yes." "Well, you please go and attend to your own affairs. It certainly does not look well for you who hail from these sinks of infamy and degradation to preach morality to us.  Please attend to your own affairs first and get them straightened out before you come to correct us."

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor
Delivered in the Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, Oct 6, 1884,
Journal of discourses,
Volume 25, page 315.

President Cannon read as follows:

Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, has declared in a paper read before a late meeting of the American Social Sciences Association, that "nowhere in the history of the world was the practice of abortion so common as in this country; and he gave expression to the opinion that, in New England alone, many thousands of abortions are procured annually."

Dr. Reamy, of the Ohio State Medical Society, says: "from a very large verbal and written correspondence in this and other states, together with personal investigation and facts accumulated that we have become a nation of murderers."

The Rev. Dr. Eddy writes to the Christian advocate regarding one little village of 1,000 inhabitants: "Yet here, and elsewhere, where 15 percent of wives have the criminal hardihood to practice this black art, there is a still large and additional percent who endorse and defend it. * * Among married persons, so extensive has this practice become, that people of high repute not only commit this crime, but do not shun to speak boastingly among their intimates of the deed, and the means of accomplishing it."

Dr. Allen further states: "Examining the number of deaths, we find that there are absolutely more deaths than births among the strictly American children, so that aside from immigration and births of children of foreign parentage, the population of Massachusetts is rapidly decreasing.  The birth rate in the State of New York, shows the same fact, that American families do not increase at all, and inspection of the registration in other states shows the same remark applies to all."

Bishop Coxe, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of New York, in a pastoral letter to his people writes: "I have heretofore warned my flock against the blood-guiltiness of antenatal infanticide. If any doubts existed heretofore as to the propriety of my warnings on this subject, they must now disappear before the fact that the world itself is beginning to be horrified by the practical results of the sacrifice to Moloch, which defile our land. Again I warn you that they who do such things, cannot inherit eternal life. If there be a special damnation for those who shed innocent blood, what must be the portion of those who have no mercy upon their own flesh."

Dr. Cowan, M.D., writing on what he styles "The Murder of the Unborn," says: "that this crime is not only wide-spread on this great continent, but is rapidly on the increase, we have the testimony of physicians, whose investigations have been thorough, and whose social standing and integrity cannot be questioned."

President Taylor continuing said: These are the people that are coming here to reform us, and are so disgusted with our corruptions. Yet I am pleased to find that there are, once in a while, men, who have the courage to speak against these damning evils. Bishop Coxe, of the Episcopal Church, is one of these men, and I honor such men whenever I hear of them, and should be glad at all times to extend to them all courtesies possible.  Dr. Allen and Dr. Reamy are inspired it seems, by the same detestation of these hellish, these fiendish, these outrageous acts. Yet from these people come our reformers, who are so horrified at the evils they see in Utah. But fortunately, the bed is too short, they cannot stretch themselves on it; and the covering is too narrow and too contracted, it will not cover them, and their evils and abominations crop out on every side, and they become their own accusers.

It is their own statements that I have read to you this morning. I am sorry to know that these things are as they are; but these are facts, and we do not feel very much honored with the association of such people. We do feel honored always to associate with honorable men and women; but with the seducer, with harlots, with thieves, with murderers of the innocents, no! never! no never! We want no association with them. As it is stated here by one of these reverend gentlemen in the East, speaking of these things, no murderer hath eternal life in him, nor no murderesses have eternal life in them....I want to warn our brethren and sisters against these infamies, and against permitting these filthy wretches to come into their houses. They are too low, too debased, too corrupt; and I speak of it because I know what I am talking about; there are some of these people crawling around us like so many vipers, and insinuating their hellish, murderous practices into the families of some who call themselves Latter-day Saints. Woe! to such saints. You cannot have a place among the Latter-day Saints, and I speak of it that the Presidents of Stakes and the Bishops may be apprised of these things. And some of these people would try to pass by the Bishops, and then by the Presidents of Stakes, and then by the President of the Church, and crawl with all their slime and damnable hypocrisy into the Temples of the living God. They may pass by these, but they will have to pass by the angels and the Gods, before they get through, and they will never inherit the Kingdom of God. Hear it you sisters! Hear it you brethren! Hear it you Bishops, and you Presidents of Stakes! Watch well and know well what you are doing, when you sign recommends for doubtful characters to go into these holy places. We do not want them there. It is not their place, and you will have to account for your acts if you permit these things knowingly. It is necessary that you should be particular about these matters, for you will have to answer for your doings as I have for mine. We cannot, because of relationship, because somebody is a cousin, or an uncle, or an aunt, or a brother, or a sister, or a son or a daughter, or a father or a mother we cannot admit and will not admit them to any of these holy places unless they are worthy.

President Taylor continued: (page 353)

In pondering over the above sickening details...I note deliberately the weight of testimony furnished by a host of their most honorable and reliable men in the East, to whom I give all honor, who calmly and deliberately pronounce them "a nation of murderers," "the slayers of the innocent," the consumers of their own flesh. In connection with this terrible record we have in our prominent cities, flaunted before our eyes, their dens of infamy and crime, impudently and unblushingly paraded before us, and stuck under our very noses. In looking at these things I ask myself can human depravity descend any lower, and the humiliating answer comes, yes! yes!! yes!!!

I have had these things read for more reasons than one. First to show the hypocrisy of those who come here to teach us morality, and who proscribe the acts of a pure and industrious people who dwell in these mountains. And for another purpose, to guard our brethren and sisters against the encroachments of such fiends in human form as those persons here referred to. We cannot have, and won' t have adulterers and adulteresses among us, much less will we have those who, by murder, stain their consciences and damn themselves forever. You sisters, guard yourselves against these infamies or you will sink yourselves down, down, down to pits of infamy and ruin, that you never dreamed of. I do not wonder that the Prophets have expressed themselves as strongly as they have in relation to the events that shall overtake the world. I remember that some 30 years ago, there was one of our brethren in an eastern city, I heard a report about his wife being engaged in something of that sort. I asked him if it were true. He said it was. I don’t know when I felt such a loathing for a human being in my life as I felt toward her. I would sooner have touched a rattlesnake than touched her hand. And I feel so to-day. We cannot degrade ourselves with these fiendish practices. All are not guilty; for as I have frequently said there are thousands and millions of honorable men and women throughout the land. But these evils which exist in this and other nations are too terrible almost to be spoken of; yet it is requisite they should be presented before you Latter-day Saints, that you may remember the pit from whence you were dug, and the rock from whence you were hewn; that you may appreciate in some measure the blessings you enjoy, and your freedom from these infamies in this land of Zion. And I would say to you bishops - if you find adulterers and adulteresses in the Church, cut them off, they cannot be associated with the Latter-day Saints.

Taken from discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow
Delivered in the tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, April 6, 1883,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 24, page 74.

When the time comes that God sees in the midst of His people an increase of the female element, and the wicked ready to devour that element and appropriate it not in the way to "multiply and replenish the earth," but for the gratification of fleshly lust, and will actually take and employ hellish means to prevent the increase of their species, and show that they are not only beneath the brute, but beneath the vegetable creation, by refusing to bear fruit, thereby placing themselves in the category of the trees that are dried up, fit only to be cast into the fire, he can take measures to counteract this evil. And I say before God, angels and men, that every man and woman who joins in unholy wedlock for the gratification of fleshly lust, and studiously plan to frustrate the command of God in the multiplication of their species, show that they are unworthy - what shall I say? - unworthy to be classed among the honorable of the earth. And we have reason to believe that many have done, and are to-day, in the great cities of Babylon, taking steps to destroy their own offspring, committing infanticide and foeticide, all of whom, and their aiders and abettors, are not ripening for the damnation of hell. And when God sees this damnable doctrine taught, and taught by such men as Mr. Henry Ward Beecher and other modern divines, falsely so called, who teach the world that it is a positive evil to multiply and increase so greatly in the land when such doctrine is taught by leading lights, and so readily accepted by the masses, the Lord says, the time has come for Him to take measures to counteract this great evil, by introducing laws in the midst of those who fear Him and live accordingly to the principles of life; men who are upright, honest and faithful, men who are willing to assume the responsibility; to take the daughters of Eve to wife and multiply and replenish the earth, for those men are unworthy of them. It is as Jesus said concerning the man who hid it in a napkin; he laid it carefully away, and by and by brought it out, saying here it is as I have received it, not having increased at all; in other words, we are just where we are when we started. Another one says I received two talents; and have increased to four, another says I received five talents, and now have ten: the master says to the one who hid his talent, who perhaps laid it carefully away and kept it nice, watching over it with the greatest care; or in other words, to him who did not multiply and increase, but on the contrary took pains to avoid doing so, "Take from him that which he seems to have and give to him that has ten; for he that has and improves upon that which he receives, shall receive more abundantly."

Taken from discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow,
Delivered in the Salt Lake
Assembly Hall, February 26, 1882,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 23, page 230.

I am a native born American; I was reared in the State of Vermont. In my early days the doctrine taught to our first parents, to multiply and replenish the earth, was popular; but during the period of my life that has elapsed, it has been almost totally ignored by the social circles of New England. When I last visited the old homestead, an old aunt nearly ready to go into her grave, told me that it was irregular for people now-a-days to have large families. And it seems this is the prevailing sentiment of that region; for in traveling through New England it was rarely I saw a woman with more than two or three children. Any of the older families, those honored matrons of New England, who lived contemporary with my mother, thought it honorable to raise large families; but my old aunt who was one of the last of that stock, has, by giving way to allowing the influence of death, has imbibed false notions; and when she thus expressed herself to me I knew she was not speaking the honest sentiments of her heart. Today infanticide and foeticide are popular....yes, child murder, this damnable doctrine of devils has become popular throughout New England, and is fast spreading over the American Continent. And now it is the Irish woman, who believes in raising children, the foreign element that comes to the country that are considered the vulgar people; and were it not for this flood of foreign immigration the staid New England element would soon become extinct, and I say, in the name of Israel's God, the sooner the better unless they repent of their murders, their whoredoms and their abominations that ascend to the heavens and are a stench in the nostrils of the Almighty .

Taken from writings by Elder B.H. Roberts,
Outlines of Ecclesiastical
History, Sixth Edition,
Part 4, Section 7, page 390.

Some time after Joseph’s (of Egypt) death, there arose a king who knew him not, and observing that the Israelites were likely to become more numerous than the Egyptians - since they did not murder their offspring either before or at birth, as many among the Egyptians did - this monarch enslaved them and placed task masters over them, and by oppression and the destruction of their male offspring sought to prevent their increase. Finally the Lord raised up Moses and delivered them from bondage amid a splendid display of his almighty power, and eventually settled them in the land of Canaan, the land he had promised unto Abraham as an inheritance - where they became a mighty nation.

Taken from Discourse by President Joseph Smith Jr.
Delivered during the "King Follet Sermon."
Nauvoo, Illinois, Sunday, April 7, 1844.
History of the Church,
Volume 6, page 302.

I have a declaration to make as to the provisions which God hath made to suit the conditions of man - made from before the foundation of the world. What has Jesus said? All sins, and all blasphemies, and every transgression, except one, that man can be guilty of, may be forgiven; and there is a salvation for all men, either in this world or the world to come, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, there being a provision either in this world or the world of spirits. Hence God hath made a provision that every spirit in the eternal world can be ferreted out and saved unless he has committed that unpardonable sin which cannot be remitted to him either in this world or the world of spirits. God has wrought out a salvation for all men, unless they have committed a certain sin; and every man who has a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin. And so you can see how far you can be a savior.

A man cannot commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body, and there is a way possible for escape. Knowledge saves a man; and in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge. So long as a man will not give heed to the commandments, he must abide without salvation. If a man has knowledge, he can be saved; although, if he has been guilty of great sins, he will be punished for them. But when he consents to obey the gospel, whether here or in the world of spirits, he is saved.

A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man.

I know the scriptures and understand them. I said, no man can commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body, nor in this life, until he receives the Holy Ghost; but they must do it in this world. Hence the salvation of Jesus Christ was wrought out for all men, in order to triumph over the devil; for if it did not catch him in one place, it would in another; for he stood up as a Savior. All will suffer until they obey Christ himself.

The contention in heaven was Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So the devil rose up in rebellion against God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. (P of GP, Moses 4:1_4; Abraham 3:23_28.)

The Forgiveness of Sins

All sins shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; for Jesus will save all except the sons of perdition. What must a man do to commit the unpardonable sin? He must receive the Holy Ghost, have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him. After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it; and from that time he begins to be an enemy. This is the case with many apostates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Taken from discourse by Elder Moses Thatcher,
Delivered in the Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, April 7, 1883,
Journal of Discourse,
Volume 24, page 116.

We were told yesterday by Elder Erastus Snow that men of great influence in the world were preaching the doctrine of human limitation, which leads to murder. And yet these very men will preach morality to you and me. While killing their own offspring and urging others to do it, they tell us that we shall not obey the laws of God pertaining to increase. I say we will. And upon natural principles, upon scientific principles. The boys and girls who live according to the law of the Lord will become the head not the foot. They will have stronger bodies, stronger minds, and by the force of the "survival of the fittest," will, eventually, under the direction of divine revelation, govern the affairs of the world. It has been so predicted; God has decreed it, who will prevent it? Let us therefore unite in turning our faces against the evil practices so prevalent in the world. Let us begin to understand and live according to the laws of nature, realizing that violations thereof bring penalties which sometimes are transmitted to the third or fourth generation. In the transmission of life God has devolved upon His creations the highest and most delicate functions, and which if abused, entail misery and often premature death.

God has his glory in the perpetuation of life. With wonder and admiration we behold life everywhere. We see it struggling in the vegetable kingdom, and breathing in the animal creations. Cut down and trample under foot the noxious weed, and yet by the law that governs its increase, it struggles upwards, and unless utterly destroyed matures seed for new life, and thereby perpetuates itself. All nature responds to the eternal law of increase. Man, being prompted by him who rebelled in heaven, alone seeks to defeat life, and bring confusion and death. While he and his emissaries strive through the commission of horrid crimes, even murder, to limit human increase, let us as Saints sanctify body and soul being pure in heart and mind, a fit lineage through which noble spirits may possess tabernacles unto the glory of God the Father of spirits. Let fathers and mothers in Zion beget children, as Samuel the ancient prophet was begotten, and I tell you there is no power on earth or in hell that can stop the progress of this people, we will increase and spread abroad until Zion shall arise and shine, and the kingdom of God shall have supremacy and sway forever.  Amen .

Taken from discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow,
delivered in the Quarterly
Conference, Parowan, June 24th, 1883,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 24, page 165.

While the wicked are hardening their hearts in sin, and giving themselves up to whoredoms and lust, and seeking to prevent the increase of offspring among them, God is impressing upon us the heinousness of these crimes and showing us the beauty and glory of multiplying the families of Israel. When we visit these settlements of the Saints and attend the Quarterly Conferences throughout the land, what do we hear in the reports? We hear that an average of about thirty percent of the entire population are children under eight years of age, and another one-third between that and twenty, and scarcely one-third of the population are yet old enough to enter into the marriage relation. And what do we hear? Reports from the Relief Societies and the Improvement Associations and the Sunday school teachers and superintendents that are engaged in instructing them - and what do we hear? Why we hear that the spirit of the Gospel is in them, that faith is in them, and that they possess bright and intelligent minds that are reaching out after knowledge, and hearts that are grasping the things of God. It is this that causes the world to fear and tremble and this is the cause of the opposition waged against us.

Taken from discourse by Harriet Cook Young,
Delivered in the Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, January 13, 1870,
Women of Mormondom,
Chapter 43, page 396.

Here we are taught not to destroy our children, but to preserve them, for they, reared in the path of virtue and trained to righteousness, constitute our true glory.

It is no wish to accuse our sisters who are not of our faith that we so speak; but we are dealing with facts as they exist. Wherever monogamy reigns, adultery, prostitution and foeticide, directly or indirectly, are its co-comittants.  It is not enough to say that the virtuous and high-minded frown upon these evils. We believe they do.  But frowning upon them does not cure them; it does not even check their rapid growth; either the remedy is too weak, or the disease is too strong.  The women of Utah comprehend this; and they see, in the principle of plurality of wives, the only safeguard against adultery, prostitution, and the reckless waste of pre-natal life, practiced throughout the land.

Taken from discourse by Elder Erastus Snow,
Delivered at the General Conference,
Salt Lake City,
Oct. 8,1879,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 20, page 374.

I have felt the greatest concern for the rising generation among us; they are far more numerous than our foreign immigrants. Secretary Evarts and the Cabinet need have far less fear concerning our foreign immigrants than of those that are constantly coming from the spirit world. The enemies of Zion fear this doctrine of the Saints to fulfill the first great commandment given to Father Adam and Mother Eve, instead of adopting that abominable and soul destroying doctrine of devils, infanticide and foeticide, which is practiced to no little extent in the Christian world, which is an open violation to the laws of nature and the law of God to our first parents, to "multiply and replenish the earth." And the practice of this same doctrine is fast depopulating some of our older states; besides, it tends to encourage prostitution; and, strange as it may appear, a future day will yet reveal that among the foremost and prominent votaries of this doctrine of devils are those who fight against Zion and her institution of marriage, under the hypocritical cant as such men as Schuyler Colfax, in his utterance from the balcony of the Townsend House in this city, and Attorney-General Devens, in his argument in the Reynolds case, in effect, that the plural marriage of the Mormons cannot be tolerated, because the burning by widows upon the funeral pile of their husbands was wrong. There is about as much relevancy and consistency in the argument as there would be to say that the practices of the multitudes of families of this Christian land, who are destroying their own offspring and taking villainous compounds to induce barrenness and unfruitfulness, must be tolerated and encouraged, because the practices of the Latter-day saints are filling these mountains with a thrifty population. It is shown by our statistics that our children under the age of eight years are already nearly as numerous as the lay members of the Church.  I feel that too much attention cannot be bestowed upon the rising generation.

Taken from discourse by President Brigham Young,
Delivered in Tooele City, 
August 17th, 1867,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 12, page 120.

To check the increase of our race has its advocates among the influential and powerful circles of society in our nation and in other nations. The same practice existed forty five years ago, and various devices were used by married persons to prevent the expenses and responsibilities of a family of children, which they must have incurred had they suffered natures laws to rule pre-eminent. That which was practiced then in fear and against a reproving conscience, is now boldly trumpeted abroad as one of the best means of ameliorating the miseries and sorrows of humanity. Infanticide is very prevalent in our nation. It is a crime which comes within the pervue of the law, and is therefore not so boldly practiced as is the other equally great crime, which no doubt, to a great extent, prevents the necessity of infanticide. The unnatural style of living, the extensive use of narcotics, the attempts to destroy and dry up the fountains of life, are fast destroying the American element of the nation; it is passing away before the increase of the more healthy, robust, honest, and less sinful class of the people which are pouring into the country daily from the Old World. The wife of the servant man is the mother of eight or ten healthy children, while the wife of his master is the mother of one or two poor, sickly children, devoid of vitality and constitution, and if daughters, unfit, in their turn, to be mothers, and the health and vitality which nature has denied them through the irregularities of their parents are not repaired in the least by their education.

Taken from discourse by Apostle Erastus Snow,
Delivered in the Assembly Hall,
Salt Lake City, March 9, 1884,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 25, page 111.

The Latter-day Saints do not imitate the examples of the Eastern cities and the old commonwealths of the Atlantic seaboard in destroying their offspring. They do not patronize the vendor of noxious, poisonous, destructive medicines to procure abortion, infanticide, child murder, and other wicked devices, whereby to check the multiplication of their species, in order to facilitate the gratification of fleshly lust. We are not disposed to imitate these examples, nor to drink in the pernicious doctrine once uttered in Plymouth Church by the noted Henry Ward Beecher - that it was a positive evil to increase families in the land beyond a limited extent, and the ability of the parents to properly educate and maintain them, sustaining the idea of small families; in effect, justifying the mothers - of New England, and their partners who sanction their efforts in destroying their own offspring, and in preventing the fecundity of the race. Fancy such a doctrine justified by the noted orator of the nineteenth century, and re-echoed by the smaller fry throughout the country! The Latter-day saints are taught to reverence the words of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, concerning the multiplication of their species, and are called as his children to multiply and replenish the earth. If the traveler who visits Utah, will deign to visit our congregations, our schools, and our Improvement Associations, he can view hosts of children growing up on every hand, all of whom are taught to read and write, and in the common branches of an English education beyond that which is found to exist in any other part of the land under similar circumstances. But notwithstanding all this, they say secretly among themselves, and in the national and state councils: "This will never do. A people multiplying and increasing like this will over-run the land." They say as Pharaoh did of old, "We must do something to stop this increase." Pharaoh devised means of secretly checking it, by charging his midwives, and making a decree, that every male child born in Israel should be put to death. We read that when Moses was born and his mother found him a goodly child she disregarded the decree of the king, and God over-ruled in her favor, in pursuance of her faith, and protected her movements, and Moses was spared and brought into the king' s house, and unwittingly educated under his tuition to become the future deliverer of Israel, and the lawgiver of nations. History but repeats itself. The efforts of the wicked to stop the growth and enlargement of the Latter-day Saints will as signally fail, and the failure will be on as natural principles as it was anciently in the days of Moses. For the Lord has decreed it.

Taken from remarks by President Heber C. Kimball
delivered in the Bowery,
Salt Lake City, July 26, 1857
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 5, page 91.

The priests of the day in the whole world keep women, just the same as the gentlemen of the legislatures do. The great men of the earth keep from two to three, and perhaps half-a-dozen private women. They are not acknowledged openly, but are kept merely to gratify their lusts; and if they get in the family way, they call for the doctors, and also upon females who practice under the garb of mid-wives, to kill the children, and thus they are depopulating their own species. (Voice: "And their names shall come to an end.") Yes, because they shed innocent blood. I knew that before I received "Mormonism." I have known of lots of women calling for a doctor to destroy their children; and there are many women in this enlightened age and in the most popular towns and cities in the Union that take a course to get rid of their children. The whole nation is guilty of it. I am telling the truth. I won't call it infanticide. You know I am famous for calling things by their names. I have been taught it, and my wife was taught it in our young days, when she got into the family way, to send for a doctor and get rid of the child, so as to live with me to gratify lust. It is God’s truth, and I know the person that taught it. This is depopulating the human species; and the curse of God will come upon that man, and upon that woman, and upon those cursed doctors. There is scarcely one of them that is free from the sin. It is just as common as it is for wheat to grow....I will tell you that some of the most noble spirits are waiting with the Father to this day to come forth through the right channel and the right kind of men and women. That is what has to be yet; for there are thousands and millions of spirits waiting to obtain bodies upon this earth.

Taken from discourse by Elder Orson Pratt
Delivered in the new Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, August 30, 1875
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 18, page 152.

Strangers if you want to know how fast we are multiplying, just go through our settlements, and look at the numerous children in our Sabbath school; you never heard of such an increase and multiplication, and the Lord foretold that it would be so. There is another very curious thing concerning this people who should come into the desert wilderness. Isaiah (Psalms 107:41-43) says - "He setteth the poor on high from affliction," Now, a great many of this people were very poor on arriving here; they had been robbed five times of all they had, and driven out. After having been thus plundered, we came here very poor; but the Lord "setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock." What a wonderful prophecy this is! A poor man to have not only a family like a flock, but even families. If you do not believe it strangers, go through our Territory, and see the large families, and in some cases you will find in the same vicinity six or eight different families, with their houses and farms, all belonging to one man, and he perhaps a poor man when he came here. "He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice." What! The righteous see this and have joy in it? So says the prophecy. "But," says one, "I should have thought every one would have been disgusted with it." To think that a man should have a family or families like a flock, while the righteous see it and rejoice!

Taken from discourse by President Brigham Young,
Delivered in the Bowery,
Salt Lake City, Sept. 21, 1856
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 4, page 56.

There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty? To prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can.

Taken from discourse by President John Taylor,
Delivered in the 14th Ward,
December 7, 1879
Journal of Discourses
Volume 21, page 167.

We know their crimes, we know their licentiousness, we know of the millions of murders that are perpetrated by mothers and fathers of children and they know it. Many of these murders are committed while the children are pre-natal; they kill them either before or after they are born, just as it happens.

Discourse by Joseph F. Smith
Delivered in the Assembly Hall,
Salt Lake City, October 29, 1882,
Journal of Discourses,
Volume 24, page 11.

Who can fathom the depths, of crime and corruption which exist in all the great cities of the world? You may go to the rural districts throughout the United States, and gather therefrom the most virtuous of our country to the number that are gathered together as Latter-day Saints, and I will venture to say that there are half as many children murdered among them annually, either before or after birth, by their own mothers or fathers, as are born to Latter-day Saints in the same period. The Latter-day Saints are proverbial for not murdering their children. They have hosts of them, and they do not try to destroy them neither before nor after birth, but endeavor to rear them to manhood and womanhood, that they may teach them the principles of the Gospel of Christ - the highest code of morals known, that they may be able to bear off the kingdom of God upon the earth, and to regenerate the world.

"But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!" 2nd Nephi, 9:27

"And wo unto the deaf that will not hear; for they shall perish. Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish also.  Wo unto the uncircumcised of heart, for a knowledge of their iniquities shall smite them at the last day.  Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.  Wo unto the murderer who deliberately killeth, for he shall die. Wo unto them who commit whoredoms, for they shall be thrust down to hell." 2nd Ne. 9:31-36.