The enemy of righteousness grew more determined to crush the Mormon marriage system. The Edmunds measure was given full constitutional standing by the United States Supreme Court March 23, 1885, after which prosecutions of the Saints became more vigorous. They were hounded day and night, imprisoned and some murdered by officers of the law. President Taylor went into retirement from public view February 1, 1885; and while at the home of John W. Woolley, Centerville, Davis County, Utah, and in response to an inquiry of the Lord as to how binding the law of plural marriage was upon the Saints, on the night of September 26–27 the answer came as follows:

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 | 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: AlI 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 I, for it is everlasting and those who will enter into my glory MUST obey the conditions thereof; even so, Amen.

. . .

A photostat copy of the revelation of 1886, written by President John Taylor himself, and which now is presumably in the possession of the President of the Church, was published in TRUTH of October, 1938, Vol. 4, pp. 84-5, giving definite and unmistakable evidence of the fact that John Taylor did write the document. That it was given out by John Taylor has been shown. The facts admit of but one conclusion: either the revelation is not genuine and President Taylor was a false prophet and a wicked deceiver, or it is genuine and the present leaders of the Church are guilty of betraying heaven, of trying to deceive the Saints and of sailing under false colors. Will the present leaders say—dare they say it—that John Taylor was not a Prophet of God and that the document in question is not genuine?