The Lord says, on a certain occasion, if a man have married two wives,
and he should happen to hate one and love the other, is he to be
punished--cast out and stoned to death as an adulterer? No; instead of
the Lord denouncing him as an adulterer because of having two wives, He
gave a commandment regulating the matter so that this principle of hate
in the mind of the man towards one of his wives should not control him
in the important question of the division of his inheritance among his
children, compelling him to give just as much to the son of the hated
wife as to the son of the one beloved; and, if the son of the hated
woman happened to be the first-born, he should actually inherit the
double portion.
Consequently, the Lord approved, not only the two wives, but their
posterity also. Now, if the women had not been considered wives by
the Lord, their children would have been bastards, and you know that
He has said that bastards shall not enter into the congregation of
the Lord, until the tenth generation, hence you see there is a great
distinction between those whom the Lord calls legitimate or legal, and
those who were bastards--begotten in adultery and whoredom. The latter,
with their posterity, were shut out of the congregation of the Lord
until the tenth generation, while the former were exalted to all the
privileges of legitimate birthright.
Again, under that same law and dispensation, we find that the Lord
provided for another contingency among the hosts of Israel. In order
that the inheritances of the families of Israel might not run into
the hands of strangers, the Lord, in the book of Deuteronomy, gives a
command that if a man die, leaving a wife, but no issue, his brother
shall marry his widow and take possession of the inheritance; and to
prevent this inheritance going out of the family a strict command
was given that the widow should marry the brother or nearest living
kinsman of her deceased husband. The law was in full force at the time
of the introduction of Christianity--a great many centuries after
it was given. The reasoning of the Sadducees on one occasion when
conversing with Jesus proves that the law was then observed. Said
they: "There were seven brethren who all took a certain woman, each
one taking her in succession after the death of the other," and they
inquired of Jesus which of the seven would have her for a wife in the
resurrection. The Sadducees, no doubt, used this figure to prove, as
they thought, the fallacy of the doctrine of the resurrection, but it
also proves that this law, given by the Creator while Israel walked
acceptably before Him, was acknowledged by their wicked descendants
in the days of the Savior. I merely quote the passage to show that
the law was not considered obsolete at that time. A case like this,
when six of the brethren had died, leaving the widow without issue,
the seventh, whether married or unmarried, must fulfill this law
and take the widow to wife, or lay himself liable to a very severe
penalty. What was that penalty? According to the testimony of the law
of Moses he would be cursed, for Moses says--"cursed be he that doth
not all things according as it is written in this book of the law, and
let all the people say Amen." There can be no doubt that many men in
those days were compelled to be polygamists in the fulfillment of this
law, for any man who would not take the childless wife of a deceased
brother and marry her, would come under tho tremendous curse recorded
in the book of Deuteronomy, and all the people would be obliged to
sanction the curse, because he would not obey the law of God and
become a polygamist. They were not all congressmen in those days, nor
Presidents, nor Presbyterians, nor Methodists, nor Roman Catholics; but
they were the people of God, governed by divine law, and were commanded
to be polygamists; not merely suffered to be so, but actually commanded
to be.
There are some Latter-day Saints who, perhaps, have not searched these
things as they ought, hence we occasionally find some who will say that
God suffered these things to be. I will go further, and say that He
commanded them, and He pronounced a curse, to which all the people had
to say amen, if they did not fulfill the commandment.
Coming down to the days of the prophets we find that they were
polygamists; also to the days of the kings of Israel, whom God
appointed Himself, and approbated and blessed. This was especially the
case with one of them, named David, who, the Lord said, was a man after
His own heart. David was called when yet a youth, to reign over the
whole twelve tribes of Israel; But Saul, the reigning king of Israel,
persecuted him, and sought to take away his life. David fled from city
to city throughout all the coasts of Judea in order to get beyond the
reach of the relentless persecutions of Saul. While thus fleeing, the
Lord was with him, hearing his prayers, answering his petitions, giving
him line upon line, precept upon precept; permitting him to look into
the Urim and Thummin and receive revelations, which enabled him to
escape from his enemies.
In addition to all these blessing that God bestowed upon him in his
youth, before he was exalted to the throne, He gave him eight wives;
and after exalting him to the throne, instead of denouncing him for
having many wives, and pronouncing him worthy of fourteen or twenty-one
years of imprisonment, the Lord was with His servant David, and,
thinking he had not wives enough, He gave to him all the wives of his
master Saul, in addition to the eight He had previously given him. Was
the Lord to be considered a criminal, and worthy of being tried in a
court of justice and sent to prison for thus increasing the polygamic
relations of David? No, certainly not; it was in accordance with his
own righteous laws, and He was with His servant, David the king, and
blessed him. By and by, when David transgressed, not in taking other
wives, but in taking the wife of another man, the anger of the Lord
was kindled against him and He chastened him and took away all the
blessings He had given him. All the wives David had received from
the hand of God were taken from him. Why? Because he had committed
adultery. Here then is a great distinction between adultery and
plurality of wives. One brings honor and blessing to those who engage
in it, the other degradation and death.
After David had repented with all his heart of his crime with the wife
of Uriah, he, notwithstanding the number of wives he had previously
taken, took Bathsheba legally, and by that legal marriage Solomon was
born; the child born of her unto David, begotten illegally, being a
bastard, displeased the Lord and He struck it with death; but with
Solomon, a legal issue from the same woman, the Lord was so pleased
that he ordained Solomon and set him on the throne of his father David.
This shows the difference between the two classes of posterity, the one
begotten illegally, the other in the order of marriage. If Solomon had
been a bastard, as this pious generation would have us suppose, instead
of being blessed of the Lord and raised to the throne of his father,
he would have been banished from the congregation of Israel and his
seed after him for ten generations. But, notwithstanding that he was
so highly blessed and honored of the Lord, there was room for him to
transgress and fall, and in the end he did so. For a long time the Lord
blessed Solomon, but eventually he violated that law which the Lord had
given forbidding Israel to take wives from the idolatrous nations, and
some of these wives succeeded in turning his heart from the Lord and
induced him to worship the heathen gods, and the Lord was angry with
him and, as it is recorded in the Book of Mormon, considered the acts
of Solomon an abomination in His sight.
Let us now come to the record in the Book of Mormon, when the Lord led
forth Lehi and Nephi, and Ishmael and his two sons and five daughters
out of the land of Jerusalem to the land of America. The males and
females were about equal in number: there were Nephi, Sam, Laman and
Lemuel, the four sons of Lehi, and Zoram, brought out of Jerusalem.
How many daughters of Ishmael were unmarried? Just five. Would if
have been just under these circumstances, to ordain plurality among
them? No. Why? Because the males and females were equal in number and
they were all under the guidance of the Almighty, hence it would have
been unjust, and the Lord gave a revelation--the only one on record I
believe--in which a command was ever given to any branch of Israel to
be confined to the monogamic system. In this case the Lord, through His
servant Lehi, gave a command that they should have but one wife. The
Lord had a perfect right to vary His commands in this respect according
to circumstances, as He did in others, as recorded in the Bible. There
we find that the domestic relations were governed according to the mind
and will of God, and were varied according to circumstances, as He
thought proper.
By and by, after the death of Lehi, some of his posterity began to
disregard the strict law that God had given to their father, and took
more wives than one, and the Lord put them in mind, through His servant
Jacob, one of the sons of Lehi, of this law, and told them that they
were transgressing it, and then referred to David and Solomon, as
having committed abomination in his sight. The Bible also tells us that
they sinned in the sight of God; not in taking wives legally but only
in those they took illegally, in doing which they brought wrath and
condemnation upon their heads.
But because the Lord dealt thus with the small branch of the House of
Israel that came to America, under their peculiar circumstances, there
are those at the present day who will appeal to this passage in the
Book of Mormon as something universally applicable in regard to man's
domestic relations. The same God that commanded one branch of the
House of Israel in America, to take but one wife when the numbers of
the two sexes were about equal, gave a different command to the hosts
of Israel in Palestine. But let us see the qualifying clause given in
the Book of Mormon on this subject. After having reminded the people
of the commandment delivered by Lehi, in regard to monogamy, the Lord
says--"For if I will raise up seed unto me I will command my people,
otherwise they shall hearken unto these things;" that is, if I will
raise up seed among my people of the House of Israel, according to
the law that exists among the tribes of Israel, I will give them a
commandment on the subject, but if I do not give this commandment they
shall hearken to the law which I give unto their father Lehi. That is
the meaning of the passage, and this very passage goes to prove that
plurality was a principle God did approve under circumstances when it
was authorized by Him.
In the early rise of this church, February, 1831, God gave a
commandment to its members, recorded in the Book of Covenants, wherein
He says--"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave
unto her and to none else;" and then He gives a strict law against
adultery. This you have, no doubt, all read; but let me ask whether
the Lord had the privilege and the right to vary from this law. It was
given in 1831, when the one-wife system alone prevailed among this
people. I will tell you what the Prophet Joseph said in relation to
this matter in 1831, also in 1832, the year in which the law commanding
the members of this church to cleave to one wife only was given. Joseph
was then living in Portage County, in the town of Hyrum, at the house
of Father John Johnson. Joseph was very intimate with that family, and
they were good people at that time, and enjoyed much of the spirit of
the Lord. In the fore part of the year 1832, Joseph told individuals,
then in the Church, that he, had enquired of the Lord concerning the
principle of plurality of wives, and he received for answer that the
principle of taking more wives than one is a true principle, but the
time had not yet come for it to be practised. That was before the
Church was two years old. The Lord has His own time to do all things
pertaining to His purposes in the last dispensation. His own time for
restoring all things that have been predicted by the ancient prophets.
If they have predicted that the day would come when seven women would
take hold of one man saying--"We will eat our own bread and wear
our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our
reproach;" and that, in that day the branch of the Lord should be
beautiful and glorious and the fruits of the earth should be excellent
and comely, the Lord has the right to say when that time shall be.
Now, supposing the members of this Church had undertaken to vary from
that law given in 1831, to love their one wife with all their hearts
and to cleave to none other, they would have come under the curse
and condemnation of God's holy law. Some twelve years after that
time the revelation on Celestial Marriage was revealed. This is just
republished at the Deseret News office, in a pamphlet entitled "Answers
to Questions," by President George A. Smith, and heretofore has been
published in pamphlet form and in the Millennial Star, and sent
throughout the length and breadth of our country, being included in our
works and published in the works of our enemies. Then came the Lord's
time for this holy and ennobling principle to be practised again among
His people.
We have not time to read the revelation this afternoon; suffice it to
say that God revealed the principle through His servant Joseph in 1843.
It was known by many individuals while the Church was yet in Illinois;
and though it was not then printed, it was a familiar thing through all
the streets of Nauvoo, and indeed throughout all Hancock county. Did I
hear about it? I verily did. Did my brethren of the Twelve know about
it? They certainly did. Were there any females who knew about it? There
certainly were, for some received the revelation and entered into the
practice of the principle. Some may say, "Why was it not printed, and
made known to the people generally, if it was of such importance?" I
reply by asking another question: Why did not the revelations in the
book of Doctrine and Covenants come to us in print years before they
did? Why were they shut up in Joseph's cupboard years and years without
being suffered to be printed and sent broadcast throughout the land?
Because the Lord had again His own time to accomplish His purposes, and
He suffered the revelations to be printed just when He saw proper. He
did not suffer the revelation on the great American war to be published
until sometime after it was given. So in regard to the revelation
on plurality, it was only a short time after Joseph's death that we
published it, having a copy thereof. But what became of the original?
An apostate destroyed it; you have heard her name. That same woman,
in destroying the original, thought she had destroyed the revelation
from the face of the earth. She was embittered against Joseph, her
husband, and at times fought against him with all her heart: and then
again she would break down in her feelings, and humble herself before
God and call upon His holy name, and would then lead forth ladies and
place their hands in the hands of Joseph, and they were married to
him according to the law of God. That same woman has brought up her
children to believe that no such thing as plurality of wives existed
in the days of Joseph, and has instilled the bitterest principles of
apostasy into their minds, to fight against the Church that has come to
these mountains according to the predictions of Joseph.
In the year 1844, before his death, a large company was organized
to come and search out a location, west of the Rocky Mountains. We
have been fulfilling and carrying out his predictions in coming here
and since our arrival. The course pursued by this woman shows what
apostates can do, and how wicked they can become in their hearts. When
they apostatize from the truth they can come out and swear before
God and the heavens that such and such things never existed, when
they know, as well as they know they exist themselves, that they are
swearing falsely. Why do they do this? Because they have no fear of
God before their eyes; because they have apostatized from the truth;
because they have taken it upon themselves to destroy the revelations
of the Most High, and to banish them from the face of the earth, and
the Spirit of God withdraws from them. We have come here to these
mountains, and have continued to practise the principle of Celestial
Marriage from the day the revelation was given until the present time;
and we are a polygamic people, and a great people, comparatively
speaking, considering the difficult circumstances under which we came
to this land.
Let us speak for a few moments upon another point connected with this
subject--that is, the reason why God has established polygamy under
the present circumstances among this people. If all the inhabitants of
the earth, at the present time, were righteous before God, and both
males and females were faithful in keeping His commandments, and the
numbers of the sexes of a marriageable age were exactly equal, there
would be no necessity for any such institution. Every righteous man
could have his wife and there would be no overplus of females. But what
are the facts in relation to this matter? Since old Pagan Rome and
Greece--worshippers of idols--passed a law confining a man to one wife,
there has been a great surplus of females, who have had no possible
chance of getting married. You may think this a strange statement, but
it is a fact that those nations were the founders of what is termed
monogamy. All other nations, with few exceptions, had followed the
scriptural plan of having more wives than one. These nations, however,
were very powerful, and when Christianity came to them, especially the
Roman nation, it had to bow to their mandates and customs, hence the
Christians gradually adopted the monogamic system. The consequence
was that a great many marriageable ladies of those days, and of all
generations from that time to the present have not had the privilege
of husbands, as the one-wife system has been established by law among
the nations descended from the great Roman Empire--namely the nations
of modern Europe and the American States. This law of monogamy, or
the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and evils
and diseases of the most revolting nature and character, under which
modern Christendom groans, for as God has implanted, for a wise
purpose, certain feelings in the breasts of females as well as males,
the gratification of which is necessary to health and happiness, and
which can only be accomplished legitimately in the married state,
myriads of those who have been deprived of the privilege of entering
that state, rather than be deprived of the gratification of those
feelings altogether, have, in despair, given way to wickedness and
licentiousness; hence the whoredoms and prostitution among the nations
of the earth where the "Mother of Harlots" has her seat.
When the religious Reformers came out, some two or three centuries ago,
they neglected to reform the marriage system--a subject demanding their
urgent attention. But leaving these Reformers and their doings, let us
come down to our own times and see whether, as has been often said by
many, the numbers of the sexes are equal; and let us take as a basis
for our investigations on this part of our subject, the censuses taken
by several of the States in the American Union.
Many will tell us that the number of males and the number of females
born are just about equal, and because they are so it is not reasonable
to suppose that God ever intended the nations to practise plurality
of wives. Let me say a few words on that. Supposing we should admit,
for the sake of argument, that the sexes are born in equal numbers,
does that prove that the same equality exists when they come to a
marriageable age? By no means. There may be about equal numbers
born, but what do the statistics of our country show in regard to
the deaths? Do as many females as males die during the first year
of their existence? If you go to the published statistics you will
find, almost without exception, that in every State a greater number
of males die the first year of their existence than females. The
same holds good from one year to five years, from five years to ten,
from ten to fifteen, and from fifteen to twenty. This shows that the
number of females is greatly in excess of the males when they reach
a marriageable age. Let us elucidate still further, in proof of the
position here assumed. Let us take, for instance, the census of the
State of Pennsylvania in the year 1860, and we shall find that there
were 17,588 more females than males between the age of twenty and
thirty years, which may strictly be termed a marriageable age. Says
one, "Probably the great war made that difference." No, this was before
the war. Now let us go to the statistics of the State of New York,
before the war, and we find, according to the official tables of the
census taken in 1860, that there were 45,104 more females than males
in that one State, between the ages of twenty and thirty years--a
marriageable age recollect. Now let us go to the State of Massachusetts
and look at the statistics there. In the year 1865, there were 33,452
more females than males between the age of twenty and thirty. We might
go on from State to State, and then to the census taken by the United
States, and a vast surplus would be shown of females over males of a
marriageable age. What is to be done with them? I will tell you what
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York say: they say, virtually, "We
will pass a law so strict, that if these females undertake to marry a
man who has another wife, both they and the men they marry shall be
subject to a term of imprisonment in the penitentiary." Indeed! Then
what are you going to do with these hundreds of thousands of females
of a marriageable age? "We are going to make them either old maids
or prostitutes, and we would a little rather have them prostitutes,
then we men would have no need to marry." This is the conclusion many
of these marriageable males, between twenty and thirty years of age,
have come to. They will not marry because the laws of the land have
a tendency to make prostitutes, and they can purchase all the animal
gratification they desire without being bound to any woman; hence many
of them have mistresses, by whom they raise children, and, when they
get tired of them, turn both mother and children into the street,
with nothing to support them, the law allowing them to do so, because
the women are not wives. Thus the poor creatures are plunged into
the depths of misery, wretchedness, and degradation, because at all
risks they have followed the instincts implanted within them by their
Creator, and not having the opportunity to do so legally have done so
unlawfully. There are hundreds and thousands of females in this boasted
land of liberty, through the narrow, contracted, bigoted state laws,
preventing them from ever getting husbands. That is what the Lord
is fighting against; we, also, are fighting against it, and for the
re-establishment of the Bible religion and the Celestial or Patriarchal
order of marriage.
It is no matter according to the Constitution whether we believe in the
patriarchal parts of the Bible, in the Mosiac or in the Christian part;
whether we believe in one-half, two-thirds, or in the whole of it; that
is nobody's business. The Constitution never granted power to Congress
to prescribe what part of the Bible any people should believe in or
reject; it never intended any such thing.