in early life, being an idolater, it was an idolatrous, heathenish
principle which he adopted in taking to himself a second wife while
Sarah still lived. Those who make this assertion in reference to the
great patriarch, seem to be ignorant of the fact that he was well
advanced in life and had served God faithfully many years, prior to
making any addition to his family. He did not have a plurality of wives
until years after the Lord had revealed Himself to him, commanding him
to leave Ur, of the Chaldees, and go forth to a land which He would
give to him and his posterity for an everlasting possession. He went
forth and lived in that land many long years before the promise of God
was fulfilled unto him--namely, that in his seed should all the nations
of the earth be blessed; and Abraham was still without any heir, except
Eliezer, of Damascus, the steward of his house. At length, after living
thus for ten years, God commanded him to take to himself another wife,
who was given to him by his wife Sarah. When the offspring of this
marriage was born, Abraham was eighty-six years old.
We read of no word of condemnation from the Lord for this
act--something which we might naturally expect if, as this unbelieving
and licentious generation affirm, the act of taking more wives than one
be such a vile crime, and so abominable in the sight of God; for if it
be evil in the sight of the Lord to-day it was then, for the scriptures
inform us that He changes not, He is the same yesterday, today and
forever, and is without variableness or the shadow of turning. But
instead of condemnation, God revealed himself continually to his friend
Abraham, teaching His will unto him, revealing all things concerning
the future which it was necessary for him to understand, and promising
him that, though he had been blessed with a son, Ishmael, yet in
Isaac, a child of promise, not yet born, should his seed be called.
Abraham was to have yet another son. Sarah, in her old age, because
of her faithfulness, because of her willingness to comply with the
requirements and revelations of God, was to have a son given unto her.
Such an event was so unheard of among women at her time of life that,
though the Lord promised it, she could not help laughing at the idea.
But God fulfilled His promise, and in due time Isaac was born, and was
greatly blessed of the Lord.
Determined to try His faithful servant Abraham to the uttermost, the
Lord, some years after the birth of this son, in whom He had promised
that Abraham's seed should be called, required him to offer up this boy
as a burnt offering to Him; and Abraham, nothing doubting, but full of
faith and integrity, and of devotion to his God, proved himself worthy
of the honored title that had been conferred upon him, namely, "the
Friend of God," by taking his son Isaac, in whom most of his hopes for
the future centred, up the mountain, and there, having built the altar,
he bound the victim and, with knife uplifted, was about to strike the
fatal blow, when the angel of the Lord cried out of heaven, commanding
him not to slay his son. The Lord was satisfied, having tried him to
the uttermost, and found him willing even to shed the blood of his well
beloved son.
The Lord was so pleased with the faithfulness of Abraham, that He gave
unto him the greatest promise He could give to any human being on the
face of the earth. What do you think was the nature of that promise?
Did He promise to Abraham a crown of eternal glory? Did He promise to
him that he should be in the presence of the Lamb, that he should tune
his harp, and sing praises to God and the Lamb, throughout the endless
ages of eternity? Let me quote it to you, and it would be well if all
the inhabitants of the earth would reflect upon it. Said the Lord:
"In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy
seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore: and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies."
This was the promise which God gave to Abraham, in that hour of
his triumph, in that hour when there was joy in heaven over the
faithfulness of one of God's noblest and most devoted sons. Think of
the greatness of this blessing! Can you count the stars of heaven, or
even the grains of a handful of sand? No, it is beyond the power of
earth's most gifted sons to do either, and yet God promised to Abraham
that his seed should be as innumerable as the stars of heaven or as the
sand on the sea-shore.
How similar was this promise of God to Abraham to that made by Jesus as
a reward for faithfulness to those who followed Him! Said Jesus, "He
that forsakes brothers or sisters, houses or lands, father or mother,
wives or children, shall receive a hundred fold in this life with
persecution, and eternal life in the world to come." A very similar
blessing to that which God, long before, had made to Abraham, and
couched in very similar terms.
It is pertinent for us to enquire, on the present occasion, how the
promises made by Jesus and His Father, in ages of the world separated
by a long interval the one from the other, could be realized under the
system which prevails throughout Christendom at the present day? In the
monogamic system, under which the possession of more than one living
wife is regarded as such a crime, and as being so fearfully immoral,
how could the promise of the Savior to his faithful followers, that
they should have a hundredfold of wives and children, in this present
life, ever be realized? There is a way which God has provided in a
revelation given to this Church, in which He says:
"Strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the
exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find
it, because ye receive me not in this world, neither do ye know me."
God revealed that strait and narrow way to Abraham, and taught him
how he could enter therein. He taught him the principle of plurality
of wives; Abraham practised it and bequeathed it to his children as
a principle which they were to practise. Under such a system it was
a comparatively easy matter for men to have a hundred fold of wives,
children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and everything else in
proportion; and in no other way could the promises of Jesus be realized
by His followers, than in the way God has provided, and which He has
revealed to His Church and people in these latter-days.
I have felt led to dwell on these few passages from the sayings of
Jesus, to show you that there is abundance of scriptural proofs in
favor of this principle and the position this Church has assumed, in
addition to those previously referred to.
It is a blessed thing to know that, in this as in every other doctrine
and principle taught by us as a Church, we are sustained by the
revelations God gave to His people anciently. One of the strongest
supports the Elders of this Church have had in their labors among the
nations was the knowledge that the Bible and New Testament sustained
every principle they advanced to the people. When they preached faith,
repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the laying on of hands
for the reception of the Holy Ghost, the gathering of the people from
the nations, the re-building of Jerusalem, the second coming of Christ,
and every other principle ever touched upon by them, it was gratifying
to know that they were sustained by the scriptures, and that they could
turn to chapter and verse among the sayings of Jesus and His Apostles,
or among those of the ancient prophets, in confirmation of every
doctrine they ever attempted to bring to the attention of those to whom
they ministered. There is nothing with which the Latter-day Saints can,
with more confidence, refer to the scriptures for confirmation and
support, than the doctrine of plural marriage, which, at the present
time, among one of the most wicked, adulterous and corrupt generations
the world has ever seen, is so much hated, and for which mankind
generally, are so anxious to cast out and persecute the Latter-day
Saints.
If we look abroad and peruse the records of everyday life throughout
the whole of Christendom, we find that crimes of every hue, and of
the most appalling and revolting character are constantly committed,
exciting neither surprise nor comment. Murder, robbery, adultery,
seduction and every species of villany known in the voluminous
catalogue of crime, in modern times, are regarded as mere matters of
ordinary occurrence, and yet there is a hue and cry raised, almost
as wide as Christendom, for the persecution, by fine, imprisonment,
proscription, outlawry or extermination, of the people of Utah because,
knowing that God, the Eternal Father, has spoken in these days and
revealed his mind and will to them, they dare to carry out His
behests. For years they have meekly submitted to this persecution and
contumely, but they appeal now, as ever, to all rational, reflecting
men, and invite comparison between the state of society here and in
any portion of this or any other country, knowing that the verdict
will be unanimous and overwhelming in their favor. In every civilized
country on the face of the earth the seducer plies his arts to envelop
his victim within his meshes, in order to accomplish her ruin most
completely; and it is well known that men holding positions of trust
and responsibility, looked upon as honorable and highly respectable
members of society, violate their marriage vows by carrying on their
secret amours and supporting mistresses; yet against the people of
Utah, where such things are totally unknown, there is an eternal and
rabid outcry because they practise the heaven-revealed system of a
plurality of wives. It is a most astonishing thing, and no greater
evidence could be given that Satan reigns in the hearts of the children
of men, and that he is determined, if possible, to destroy the work of
God from the face of the earth.
The Bible, the only work accepted by the nations of Christendom, as a
divine revelation, sustains this doctrine, from beginning to end. The
only revelation on record that can be quoted against it came through
the Prophet Joseph Smith, and is contained in the Book of Mormon; and
strange to say, here in Salt Lake City, a day or or two since, one of
the leading men of the nation, in his eager desire and determination to
cast discredit on this doctrine, unable to do so by reference to the
Bible, which he no doubt, in common with all Christians, acknowledges
as divine, was compelled to have recourse to the Book of Mormon, a work
which on any other point, he would most unquestionably have scouted
and ridiculed, as an emanation from the brain of an impostor. What
consistency! A strange revolution this, that men should have recourse
to our own works, whose authenticity they most emphatically deny, to
prove us in the wrong. Yet this attempt, whenever made, cannot be
sustained, for Brother Pratt clearly showed to you, in his remarks the
other day, that instead of the Book of Mormon being opposed to this
principle, it contains an express provision for the revelation of the
principle to us as a people at some future time--namely that when the
Lord should desire to raise up unto Himself a righteous seed, He would
command His people to that effect. Plainly setting forth that a time
would come when He would command His people to do so.
It is necessary that this principle should be practised under the
auspices and control of the priesthood. God has placed that priesthood
in the Church to govern and control all the affairs thereof, and this
is a principle which, if not practised in the greatest holiness and
purity, might lead men into great sin, therefore the priesthood is
the more necessary to guide and control men in the practice of this
principle. There might be circumstances and situations in which it
would not be wisdom in the mind of God for his people to practise
this principle, but so long as a people are guided by the priesthood
and revelations of God there is no danger of evil arising therefrom.
If we, as a people, had attempted to practise this principle without
revelation, it is likely that we should have been led into grievous
sins and the condemnation of God would have rested upon us; but the
Church waited until the proper time came, and then the people practised
it according to the mind and will of God, making a sacrifice of their
own feelings in so doing. But the history of the world goes to prove
that the practice of this principle even by nations ignorant of the
gospel has resulted in greater good to them than the practice of
monogamy or the one-wife system in the so-called Christian nations.
To-day, Christendom holds itself and its institutions aloft as a
pattern for all men to follow. If you travel throughout the United
States and through the nations of Europe in which Christianity
prevails, and talk with the people about their institutions, they
will boast of them as being the most permanent, indestructible and
progressive of any institutions existing upon the earth; yet it is a
fact well known to historians, that the Christian nations of Europe are
the youngest nations on the globe. Where are the nations which have
existed from time immemorial? They are not to be found in Christian
monogamic Europe, but in Asia, among the polygamic races--China,
Japan, Hindostan and the various races of that vast continent. Those
nations, from the most remote times, practised plural marriage handed
down to them by their forefathers. Although they are looked upon by
the nations of Europe as semi-civilized, you will not find among them,
woman prostituted, debased and degraded as she is through Christendom.
She may be treated coldly, and degraded, but among them, except where
the Christian element to a large extent prevails, she is not debased
and polluted as she is among the so-called Christian nations. It is a
fact worthy of note that the shortest lived nations of which we have
record have been monogamic. Rome, with her arts, sciences, and war-like
instincts, was once the mistress of the world; but her glory faded. She
was a monogamic nation, and the numerous evils attending that system
early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually overtook
her. The strongest sayings of Jesus, recorded in the New Testament,
were levelled against the dreadful corruptions practised in Rome and
wherever the Romans held sway. The leaven of their institutions had
worked its way into the Jewish nation, Jewry or Palestine being then a
Roman province, and governed by Roman officers, who brought with them
their wicked institutions, and Jesus denounced the practices which
prevailed there.
A few years before the birth of the Savior, Julius Caesar was First
Consul at Rome; he aimed at and obtained imperial power. He had four
wives during his life and committed numerous adulteries. His first
wife he married early; but, becoming ambitious, the alliance did not
suit him, and, as the Roman law did not permit him to retain her
and to marry another, he put her away. He then married the daughter
of a consul, thinking to advance his interests thereby. She died,
and a third was married. The third was divorced, and he married a
fourth, with whom he was living at the time he was murdered. His
grand-nephew, the Emperor Augustus Caesar, reigned at the time of the
birth of Christ. He is alluded to in history as one of the greatest of
the Caesars; he also had four wives. He divorced one after another,
except the last, who out-lived him. These men were not singular in
this practice; it was common in Rome; the Romans did not believe
in plurality of wives, but in divorcing them; in taking wives for
convenience and putting them away when they got tired of them. In our
country divorces are increasing, yet Roman-like, men expect purity
and chastity from their wives they do not practise themselves. You
recollect, doubtless, the famous answer of Caesar when his wife was
accused of an intrigue with an infamous man. Some one asked Caesar why
he had put away his wife. Said he, "The wife of Caesar must not only
be incorrupt but unsuspected." He could not bear to have the virtue of
his wife even suspected, yet his own life was infamous in the extreme.
He was a seducer, adulterer and is reported to have practised even a
worse crime, yet he expected his wife to possess a virtue which, in his
highest and holiest moments, was utterly beyond his conception in his
own life.
This leaven was spreading itself over every country where the Roman
Empire had jurisdiction. It had reached Palestine in the days of the
Savior, hence by understanding the practices prevalent in those times
amongst that people, you will be better able to appreciate the strong
language used by Jesus against putting away, or divorcing wives. Rome
continued to practise corruption until she fell beneath the weight
of it, and was overwhelmed, not by another monogamic race, but by
the vigorous polygamic hordes from the north, who swept away Roman
imperialism, establishing in the place thereof institutions of their
own. But they speedily fell into the same habit of having one wife and
multitudes of courtesans, and soon, like Rome, fell beneath their own
corruptions.
When courtesans were taught every accomplishment and honored with the
society of the leading men of the nation, and wives were deprived of
these privileges, is it any wonder that Rome should fall? or that the
more pure, or barbarous nations, as they were called, overwhelmed and
destroyed her?
I have had it quoted to me many times that no great nations ever
practised plural marriage. They who make such an assertion are utterly
ignorant of history. What nations have left the deepest impress on the
history of our race? Those which have practised plurality of marriage.
They have prevented the dreadful crime of prostitution by allowing men
to have more wives than one. I know we are dazzled by the glory of
Christendom; we are dazzled with the glory of our own age. Like every
generation that has preceded it, the present generation thinks it is
the wisest and best, and nearer to God than any which has preceded it.
This is natural; it is a weakness of human nature. This is the case
with nations as well as generations. China, to-day, calls all western
nations "outside barbarians." Japan, Hindostan and all other polygamic
nations do the same, and in very many respects they have as much right
to say that of monogamic nations, as the latter have to say it of them.
I heard a traveller remark a few days ago, while in conversation with
him, "I have travelled through Asia Minor and Turkey, and I have
blushed many times when contrasting the practices and institutions of
those people with those of my own country," the United States. He is a
gentleman with whom I had a discussion some years ago on the principle
of plural marriage. He has traveled a good deal since then, and he
remarked to me: "Travel enlarges a man's head and his heart. I have
learned a great many things since we had a discussion together, and
I have modified my views and opinions very materially with regard to
the excellence of the institutions, habits and morals which prevail in
Christendom." This gentleman told me that among those nations, which
we call semi-civilized, there are no drinking saloons, no brothels,
nor drunkenness, and an entire absence of many other evils which exist
in our own nation. I think this testimony, coming from a man who,
previously, had such strong prejudices, was very valuable. He is not
the only one who has borne this testimony, but all reliable travelers,
who have lived in Oriental nations, vouch for the absence of those
monstrous evils which flourish in and fatten and fester upon the vitals
of all civilized or Christian nations.
In speaking of Utah and this peculiar practice amongst its people it
is frequently said, "Look at the Turks and other Oriental nations and
see how women are degraded and debased among them, and deprived of many
privileges which they enjoy among us!" But if it be true that woman
does not occupy her true position among those nations, is this not more
attributable to their rejection of the gospel than to their practice
of having a plurality of wives? Whatever her condition may be there,
however, I do not therefore accept, as a necessary conclusion, that
she must be degraded among us. We have received the gospel of the Lord
Jesus, the principles of which elevate all who honor them, and will
impart to our sisters every blessing necessary to make them noble and
good in the presence of God and man.
Look at the efforts which are being made to elevate the sex among the
Latter-day Saints! See the privileges that are given them, and listen
to the teachings imparted to them day by day, week by week, and year by
year, to encourage them to press forward in the march of improvement!
The elevation of the sex must follow as a result of these instructions.
The practice in the world is to select a few of the sex and to elevate
them. There is no country in the world, probably, where women are
idolized to the extent they are in the United States. But is the entire
sex in the United States thus honored and respected? No; it is not.
Any person who will travel, and observe while he is travelling, will
find that thousands of women are degraded and treated as something very
vile, and are terribly debased in consequence of the practices of men
towards them. But the gospel of Jesus, and the revelations which God
has given unto us concerning Patriarchal Marriage have a tendency to
elevate the entire sex, and give all the privilege of being honored
matrons and respected wives. There are no refuse among us--no class to
be cast out, scorned and condemned; but every woman who chooses, can
be an honored wife and move in society in the enjoyment of every right
which woman should enjoy to make her the equal of man as far as she can
be his equal.