... It is not adviseable to fall into the fashion of issuing certificates of the character you describe. The parties themselves should keep a record of the transaction and the names of the witnesses, and beyond this nothing more is necessary unless it should be required to prove the marriage for the purposes of heirship to property, when it can be procured. We do not think it proper for a young man of the age you mention and an old lady, such as you describe, to marry for time and eternity, [but] there would be no objection to a union for eternity [only], even where such a disparity of ages exist[s].
[John Taylor to Marriner Wood Merrill, Jan. 27, 1886, in Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship]
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