Letter to temple presidents, 13 April 1898
P.O. Box B. Salt Lake City, Utah, .
To Presidents of Temples
:
At a meeting of the First Presidency and
Apostles, held in the Salt Lake Temple December 16th last, the
following question, submitted by Elder David H. Cannon, of the
St. George Temple, was considered:
"A couple were sealed bu [by] competent author-
ity outside of the Temple; one or both of them had not received
endowments; are children of such unions born in the covenant, it
being understood that they were born before their parents received
their endoowments, or should they be sealed to their parents?"
In connection with the above question Bro.
David H. Cannon remarked that, following instructions given by the
late President Brigham Young on this point, the St. George Temple
did not regard the children of such marriage as being in the
covenant, and therefore required that they be sealed to their
parents.
By way of explanation it may be well to
state that some members of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles had sealed
couples in Arizona and Mexico by authority of President Wilford
Woodruff, which had been done because of the great distance to be
traveled in order to get to a temple, as well as impropriety of y
young people traveling by wagon to a temple to be married; and some
parties thus sealed had since presented themselves at the St. George
Temple to do Temple work, hence the question.
The discussion of this subject was quite
lengthy, each member present expressing his views thereon.
