On September, 1886, President Taylor approached the Lord for direction relative to a manifesto that had been prepared by prominent members of the Church for his signature, and which was intended to discontinue plural or celestial marriage. He received the following revelation:

Revelation to President John Taylor.

Given at the Home of John W. Woolley, Centerville, Utah, September 26-27, 1886

My son John, you have asked me concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant and how far it is binding upon my people; thus saith the Lord. All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name, unless they are revoked by me or by my authority, and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant, for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with, but they stand forever.

Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my law and the keeping of my commandments, and yet have I borne with them these many years; and this because of their weakness—because of the perilous times, and furthermore it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regard to these matters. Nevertheless, I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not, and as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph: All those who would enter into my glory MUST AND SHALL obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham's seed and would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham? I have not revoked this law, nor will l, for it is everlasting, and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof; even so, Amen.

Under instruction of the Lord, on this occasion, and in the presence and under the immediate direction of the Prophet Joseph Smith, President Taylor set five of the brethren apart to exercise the sealing authority and to keep alive the principle of plural marriage, even after such a manifesto that was before him, and which he proclaimed was from the lower regions, should be signed by a future leader of the Church, as he predicted would be the case.