namely, "neither shalt thou take a wife unto her sister, to vex her;"
supposing that is the rendering, and he asserts it is, and he is a
Hebraist, I argued and brought the proof yesterday that this law of
Moses is not kept by the Mormons; in other words there are men in
your very midst who have married sisters. Where was the gentleman's
solemn denunciation of the violation of God's law? Why did he not lift
his voice and vindicate the Divine law? But not a solitary word of
disapproval is uttered! Yesterday he pronounced a curse--"cursed is
he that conforms not to the words of this law, to do them." Does not
the curse rest upon him and upon his people? I gave him the liberty to
choose whether this text condemned polygamy, or whether it condemned
a man for marrying two sisters; he must take his choice, the horns of
the dilemma are before him. For the sake of saving polygamy he stands
up here, in the presence of Almighty God and His holy angels, and
before this intelligent congregation he admits that in this church,
and with this people, God's holy law is set at defiance. What respect,
therefore, can we have for the gentleman's argument, drawn from the
teachings of Moses, in support of polygamy?
He refers us to the multiplication of horses. I suppose a king may have
one horse or two, there is no special rule; but there is a special rule
as to the number of wives. Neither shall the king multiply wives. God,
in the beginning, gave the first man one wife, and Christ and Paul
sustain that law as binding upon us. And now, supposing that that is
not accepted as a law, what then? Why there is no limit to the number
of wives, none at all. How many shall a man have? Seven, twenty, fifty,
sixty, a hundred? Why, they somewhere quote a passage that if a man
forsake his wife he shall have a hundred. Well, he ought to go on
forsaking; for if he will forsake a hundred he will have ten thousand;
and if he forsake ten thousand he will have so many more in proportion.
It is his business to go on forsaking. That is in the Professor's book
called the Seer. Such a man would keep the Almighty busy creating women
for him.
I regret very much that I have not time to notice all the points
which have been brought forward. I desired to do so. I plead for more
time; my friends plead for more time; but time was denied us, I am
therefore restricted to an hour. Now, I propose to follow out the
line of argument which I was pursuing yesterday when my time expired,
and I propose to carry out and apply the great law brought forward
yesterday--"Neither shall a man take one wife unto another;" and in
doing this we call your attention to the fact that in the Bible there
are only twenty-five or thirty specially recorded cases of polygamy,
all told, out of thousands and millions of people. I say twenty-five
or thirty specially recorded cases, which polygamists of our day
claim in support of their position. I propose to take up, say half a
dozen of the most prominent ones. I divide the period, before the law
and after the law. I take up Abraham. It is asserted that he was a
polygamist. I deny it. There is no proof that Abraham was guilty of
polygamy. What are the facts? When he was called of the Almighty to be
the founder of a great nation, a promise was given him that he should
have a numerous posterity. At that time he was a monogamist, had but
one wife--the noble Sarah. Six years passed and the promise was not
fulfilled. Then Sarah, desiring to help the Lord to keep His promise,
brought her Egyptian maid Hagar, and offered her as a substitute for
herself to Abraham. Mind you, Abraham did not go after Hagar, but
Sarah produced her as a substitute. Immediately after the act was
performed Sarah discovered her sin and said, "My wrong be upon thee."
"I have committed sin, but I did it for thy sake, and therefore the
wrong that I have committed is upon thee." Then look at the subsequent
facts: by the Divine command this Egyptian girl was sent away from the
abode of Abraham by the mutual consent of the husband and the wife;
by the Divine command, it is said that she was recognized as the wife
of Abraham, but I say you cannot prove it from the Bible; but it is
said that she was promised a numerous posterity. It was also foretold
that Ishmael should be a wild man--"his hand against every man and
every man's hand against him." Did that prediction justify Ishmael
in being a robber and a murderer? No, certainly not; neither did the
other prediction, that Hagar should have a numerous posterity, justify
the action of Abraham in taking her. After she had been sent away by
Divine command, God said unto Abraham--"now walk before me and be thou
perfect."
These are the facts my friends. I know that some will refer you
to Keturah; but this is the fact in regard to her: Abraham lived
thirty-eight years after the death of Sarah; the energy miraculously
given to Abraham's body for the generation of Isaac was continued after
Sarah's death; but to suppose that he took Keturah during Sarah's
lifetime is to do violence to his moral character. But it is said
he sent away the sons of Keturah with presents during his lifetime,
therefore it must have been during the life time of Sarah. He lived
thirty-eight years after the death of Sarah, and he sent these sons
away eight years before his death, and they were from twenty-five to
thirty years old. Then this venerable Patriarch stands forth as a
monogamist and not as a polygamist.
Then we come to the case of Jacob. What are the facts in regard to him?
Brought up in the sanctity of monogamy, after having robbed his brother
of his birth-right, after having lied to his blind old father, he then
steals away and goes to Padan-aram and there falls in love with Rachel;
but in his bridal bed he finds Rachel's sister Leah. He did not enter
polygamy voluntarily but he was imposed upon. As he had taken advantage
of the blindness of his father and thereby imposed upon him, so also
was he imposed upon by Laban in the darkness of the night. But I hold
this to be true that Jacob is nowhere regarded as a saintly man prior
to his conversion at the brook Jabbok. After that he appears to us in a
saintly character. It is a remarkable fact that Jacob lived 147 years
all told, eighty-seven of which he lived before he became a polygamist.
He lived twenty-two years in polygamy, he lived forty years after
he had abandoned polygamy, so that out of 147 years there were only
twenty-two years during which he had any connection with polygamy.
I wish my friend had referred to the case of Moses. In his sermon
on celestial marriage he claims that Moses was a polygamist, and
he declares that the leprosy that was sent upon Miriam was for her
interference with the polygamous marriage of Moses. What are the facts?
There is no record of a second marriage. Zipporah is the only name
given as the wife of Moses. What, then, is the assertion made? Simply
this: It is recorded: and Moses was content to dwell with Jethro. He
gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. Josephus speaks of Jethro having
two daughters, and distinctly says that he gave Moses one of them. In
Numbers xii and 1st, it is said:
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Now it is affirmed that two women are here mentioned, whereas nothing
can be more untrue. Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman are one and
identical; it is one and the same person called by different names. Let
us see: The father of Zipporah was the priest of Midian; and according
to the best authorities Midian and Ethiopia are identical terms, and
apply to that portion of Arabia where Jethro lived. So the appellation
Midian, Ethiopia and Arabia are applied to the Arabian peninsula. See
Appleton's American Encyclopedia, volumes 6, 7 and 11. Then Moses, the
Jewish law-giver, stands forth as a monogamist, having but one wife.
Moses was not a polygamist. Surely the founder of a polygamist nation
and the revealer of a polygamist law, as this gentleman claims, should
have set an example, and should have had a dozen or a hundred wives.
This son of Jochebed; he was a monogamist, and stands forth as being a
reproof to polygamists in all generations.
Now we come to Gideon. And what about this man? An angel appeared to
him, that is true; but if the practice of polygamy by Gideon is a law
to us, then the practice of idolatry by Gideon is also a law to us. If
there is silence in the Bible touching the polygamy of Gideon, there
is also silence in the Bible touching his idolatry, and if one is
sanctioned so also is the other.
I wish my friend had brought up the case of Hannah, the wife of
Elkanah. I can prove to a demonstration that Hannah was the first wife
of Elkanah; but being barren Elkanah takes another wife. But Hannah, in
the anxiety of her heart, pleads to the Almighty, and God honored her
motherhood by answering her prayer. It is asked "Is not this a sanction
of polygamy?" Nay, a sanction of monogamy, because she was the first
wife of Elkanah, and because Elkanah had been guilty of infidelity and
married another wife, was that a reason why Hannah should not have her
rights from High Heaven, why God Almighty should not answer her prayer?
You ask me why did not she pray before. Can you tell me why Isaac did
not pray twenty years sooner for his wife, Rebecca, that she might have
children? I can not tell and you can not tell, all that I assert is
that Hannah was the first wife of Elkanah, and God honored and blessed
the beautiful Samuel.
Now we come to David. Why did not my friend bring up David, the great
warrior, king and poet, the ruler of Israel? He might have mentioned
him, with ten wives all told; he might also have mentioned him as the
adulterer, who committed one of the most premeditated, cold-blooded
murders on record, simply to cover up his crime of adultery. How often
do you hear quoted the words "and I gave thy master's wives into thy
bosom!"? Is this an approval of polygamy? If you will read on you
will find also that God also promises to give his (David's) wives to
another, and that another should lie with them in the sight of the
sun. Surely if one is an approval of polygamy the other is an approval
of rebellion and incest! David lived to be seventy-five years old. He
was twenty-seven years old when he took his first wife Michael, the
daughter of Saul. For the next forty years we find him complicated with
the evils, crimes and sorrows of polygamy; and the old man, seeing its
great sin, thoroughly repented of it and put it away from him, and for
the last eight years of his life endeavored to atone, as best he could,
for his troubled and guilty experience.
And what of Solomon? He is the greatest polygamist--the possessor of
a thousand wives! Had this gentleman told me that Solomon's greatness
was predicted, and therefore his polygamic birth was approved, and his
polygamic marriage also approbated, I can remind him of the fact that
the future greatness of Christ was foretold; but the foretelling of
the future greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ was not an approval of
the betrayal by Judas and the crucifixion by the Jews. Neither was the
mere foretelling of the future greatness of Solomon an approval of the
polygamic character of his birth.
I suppose the gentleman on this occasion would have referred to the
law of bastardy and have said, if my doctrine is true, then Solomon
and others were bastards. I could have wished that he had produced
that point. He did quote and declare in this temple, not long since,
in reference to the law touching bastardy, that a bastard should be
branded with infamy to the tenth generation. But it is plain that
he has misunderstood the law respecting bastards, as contained in
Deuteronomy xxiii and 2nd. It is known from history that the same
signification has not always been attached to this term. We say a
bastard is one born out of wedlock, that is monogamous matrimony. In
Athens, in the days of Pericles, five centuries before Christ, all were
declared bastards by law who were not the children of native Athenians.
And we here assert to-day that the gentleman can not bring forward a
law from the book of Jewish laws to prove that a child born of a Jew
and Jewess, whether married or not, was a bastard. The only child
recognized as a bastard by Jewish law is a child born of a Jew and a
Pagan woman; therefore the objection falls to the ground, and Solomon
and others, who were not to blame for the character of their birth, are
exonerated.
The geometrical progression of evil in this system of polygamy is seen
in the first three kings, Saul, David and Solomon. Saul had a wife and
a concubine--two women; David had ten women, Solomon had a thousand,
and it broke the kingdom asunder. God says it was for that very cause.
He had multiplied his wives to such an extent, that they had not only
led him astray from God into idolatry, but the very costliness of his
harem was a burden upon the people too heavy for them to bear. I said
the other day that polygamy might do for kings and priests and nabobs,
but could not do for poor men; it costs too much and the people are
taxed too much to support the harem.
Ah! you bring forward these few cases of polygamy! Name them if you
please. Lamech the murderer; Jacob, who deceived his blind old father,
and robbed his brother of his birthright; David, who seduced another
man's wife and murdered that man by putting him in front of the
battle, and old Solomon, who turned to be an idolater. These are some
polygamists! Now let me call the roll of honor: There were Adam, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Joseph and Samuel and
all the prophets and apostles. You are accustomed to hear, from this
sacred place, that all the patriarchs and all the kings and all the
prophets were polygamists. I assert to the contrary, and these great
and eminent men whom I have just mentioned, belonging to the roll of
honor, were monogamists.
Yesterday the gentleman gave me three challenges; he challenged me to
show that the New Testament condemned polygamy. I now proceed to do it.
I quote Paul's words, 1st Corinthians, 7th chap., 2nd and 4th verses:
Nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife,
and let every woman have her own husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise
also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Marriage is a remedy against fornication, and this is the subject of
the chapter. This is the opinion of Clark, Henry, Whitby, Langley and
others. One great evil prevailed at Corinth--a community of wives,
which the apostle here calls fornication. St. Paul strikes at the very
root of the evil and commands that every man have his own wife and that
every woman have her own husband: that is, let every man have his own
peculiar, proper and appropriate wife, and the wife her own proper,
peculiar and appropriate husband. In this there is mutual appropriation
and exclusiveness of right; and this command of Paul agrees with the
law of Moses in Leviticus xviii, 18: "Neither shalt thou take one wife
unto another," and the two are one statute, clear and unquestionable
for monogamy and against polygamy. The apostle teaches the reciprocal
duties of husband and wife, and the exclusive right of each. In verse
four it is distinctly affirmed that the husband has exclusive power
over the body of his wife, as the wife has exclusive power over the
body of her husband. It is universally admitted that this passage
proves the exclusive right of the husband to the wife, and by parity
it also proves the exclusive right of the wife to the husband. These
relations are mutual, and if the husband can claim a whole wife, the
wife can claim a whole husband. She has just as good a right to a whole
husband as he has a right to a whole wife. First Corinthians, 6th
chapter, 15th, 16th and 17th verses says:
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God
forbid.
What! know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body?
for two (saith he) shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
This passage is brought against the idea, but what are the facts? It
is objected that if one flesh is conclusively expressive of wedlock,
that St. Paul affirms that sexual commerce with a harlot is marriage.
For argument's sake I accept the assertion. The passage in question is:
"What! know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body?"
"For two," says he, "shall be one flesh, but he which is joined to the
Lord is one spirit." Now look at the facts of the position, showing
the true relation of the believer to Christ. It is illustrated under
the figure of marriage. The design of this figure is to show that the
believer becomes one with Christ; and the apostle further explains, in
reproof of the Corinthians mingling with idolaters and adulterers, that
by this mingling they become assimilated and identical. He brings up an
illustration that if a man is married to a harlot, not simply joined,
but cohabit with or married to a harlot, he becomes identical with her;
in other words, one flesh.
There is a passage which declares that "a bishop must be blameless, the
husband of one wife." It is asserted that he must have one wife anyhow
and as many more as he pleases. It is supposed that this very caution
indicates the prevalence of polygamy in that day; but no proof can be
brought to bear that polygamy prevailed extensively at that time; on
the contrary I am prepared to prove that polygamists were not admitted
into the Christian Church, for Paul lays down the positive command:
"Let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband;"
so that if you say the former applies to the priest, and the latter,
applies to the layman, what is good for the priest is good for the
layman, and vice versa.
How often is it asserted here that monogamy has come from the Greeks
and Romans. But look at the palpable contradiction in the assertion. It
is asserted that monogamy came from those nations; it is also asserted
that polygamy was universal at the time of Christ and his apostles.
If monogamy came from the Greeks and Romans, then polygamy could not
have been universally prevalent, for it is admitted that at that time
the Romans held universal sway, and wherever they held sway their laws
prevailed, hence the two statements cannot be reconciled.
Now we come to the words of the Savior, Matthew v, 27 and 28; and xix,
8 and 9, and Mark x, and 11 and 12. At that time, when the Savior was
discoursing with the Pharisees, as recorded in Matthew xix, the Jews
were divided as to the interpretation of the law of Moses touching
divorce: "when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it comes
to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some
uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement." Upon
the meaning of the word uncleanness, the Jews differed: some agreed
with the school of Rabbi Hillel: that a man might dismiss his wife for
the slightest offence, or for no offence at all, if he found another
woman that pleased him better; but the school of Rabbi Shammai held
that the term uncleanness means moral delinquency. The Pharisees came
to Christ, hoping to involve him in this controversy; He declined, but
took advantage of the opportunity to give them a discourse on marriage,
and in doing so, he refers to the original institution, saying "have
ye not read that in the beginning God made them male and female?" Thus
He brings out the great law of monogamy. Grant that the allusion is
incidental, nevertheless, it is all-important as falling from the lips
of the Great Master.
I was challenged to show that polygamy is adultery. The gentleman
challenged me, and I will now proceed to prove it. As adultery is
distinguished in Scripture from whoredom and fornication, it is proper
to ascertain the exact meaning of the words as used by the sacred
writers. The word translated whoredom is from the Hebrew verb Zanah
and the Greek pornica, and means pollution, defilement, lewdness,
prostitution and, in common parlance, whoredom, the prostitution of the
body for gain. The word translated fornication is from the same Hebrew
verb, and in general, signifies criminal, sexual intercourse without
the formalities of marriage. Adultery is from the Hebrew word Naaph and
the Greek word Moicheia, and is the criminal intercourse of a married
woman with another man than her husband, or of a married man with
any other woman than his wife. This is indicated by the philological
significance of the term adulterate, compounded of two words meaning
to another, as the addition of pure and impure liquors, or of an alloy
with pure metal. Adulterer is from the Hebrew Naaph and the Greek
Moichos, which mean as above.
The material question to be settled is, Is the Hebrew word Naaph and
the Greek word Moichos or Moicheia confined to the criminal sexual
intercourse between a man, married or unmarried, with a married woman?
This is the theory of the Mormon polygamists; but I join issue with
them and assert that the Scriptures teach that adultery is committed by
a married man who has sexual intercourse with a woman other than his
wife, whether said woman is married or unmarried. It is conceded that
he is an adulterer who has carnal connection with a woman married or
betrothed. Thus far we agree.
Now can it be proved that the sin of adultery is committed by a
married man having carnal connection with a woman neither married nor
betrothed! To prove this point I argue:
First, that the Hebrew word Naaph, translated in the seventh
commandment, adultery, does include all criminal sexual intercourse.
It is a generic term and the whole includes the parts. It is like the
word kill in the sixth commandment, which includes all those passions
and emotions of the human soul which lead to murder, such as jealousy,
envy, malice, hatred, revenge. So this word Naaph includes whoredom,
fornication, adultery, and even salacial lust. Matthew v, 27, 29.
Second. The terms adultery and fornication are used interchangeably by
our Lord, and mean the same thing. A married woman copulating with a
man other than her husband is admitted to be adultery, but the highest
authority we can bring forward calls the act fornication. Matthew v, 3,
2. Romans vii, 2, 3. 1st Corinthians vii, 1, 4.
Third. The carnal connection of a man with an unmarried woman is
positively declared to be adultery in God's holy word. It is so
recorded in Job xxiv, from the 15th to the 21st verse; and in Isaiah
lvii and 3rd it is taught that the adulterer commits his sin with the
whore. Therefore I conclude that the term Naaph, as used in the seventh
commandment, comprehends all those modifications of that crime, down to
the salacial lust that a man may feel in his soul for a woman.
But it may be asked: If this is so, why then, does the Mosiac law
mention a married woman? We deny that such a distinction is made.
We do admit, however, that special penalties were pronounced on
such an action with a married woman, but for special reasons. What
were they? To preserve the genealogy, parentage and birth of Christ
from interruption and confusion, which were in imminent danger when
intercourse with a married woman was had by a man other than her
husband. And no such danger could arise from the intercourse with
a married man with an unmarried woman. That law was temporary, and
was abolished and passed away when Christ came. Under the Jewish
dispensation he that cohabited with a woman other than his wife was
responsible to God for the violation of the seventh commandment; the
woman was also responsible to God for the violation of the seventh
commandment and this special law. But here you say if this be true,
then some great men in Bible times were guilty of the violation of
the seventh commandment. I say they were; but they were not all
polygamists: that I have demonstrated to you to-day. But take the
facts: Abraham, when convinced of his sin, put away Hagar; Jacob lived
several years out of the state of polygamy; David put away all his
wives eight years before he died; and if there is no account that
Solomon put away his, neither is there the assurance that he abandoned
his idolatry.
This then, my friend, is the argument; and as a Christian minister,
desiring only your good, I proclaim the fact that polygamy is adultery.
I do it in all kindness, but I assert it as a doctrine taught in the
Bible.