SARAH THE MOTHER OF THE COVENANT--IN HER THE EXPOUNDING OF THE
POLYGAMIC RELATIONS OF THE MORMON WOMEN--FULFILMENT OF GOD'S PROMISE
TO HER--THE MORMON PARALLEL--SARAH AND HAGAR DIVIDE THE RELIGIOUS
DOMINATION OF THE WORLD.
Meet we now Sarah the mother of the covenant. In her is incarnated the
very soul of patriarchal marriage. In her is the expounding of the
patriarchal relations of her Mormon daughters. Sarah, who gave to her
husband another wife, that the covenant which the Lord made with him
might be fulfilled.
O woman, who shall measure thy love? And thus to give thyself a
sacrifice for thy love! Thus on the altar ever!
It is thy soul-type in nature that makes nature beneficent. Had not
nature the soul of woman she had been infinitely selfish; an infinite
love had not been born; there had been no Christ; no sacrifice of self,
that blessing and joy might come into the world.
The story of Sarah is the more touchingly beautiful when we remember
that it has its cross. It would be a grievous wrong to Sarah's
memory should we forget the sacrifice that her act necessitated, or
underestimate that sacrifice. And let us not forget that it was not
Abraham who bore that cross, great and good though he was.
The sacrifice in the initial of the covenant is a psalm to woman.
Keeping in mind the episode of Sarah and Hagar, let us continue the
Abrahamic story:
"And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
"And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will
bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people
shall be of her.
* * * * * *
"And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto
Sarah as he had spoken.
"For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the
time of which God had spoken to him."
The divine story was once familiar; it is now almost forgotten. But it
is the living word of God to the Mormon people.
Reincarnate in modern times the soul of this vast Abrahamic iliad.
Breathe the breath of its genius into a young civilization. A
civilization born not in the East, where once was the cradle of
empires--where now are their crumbling tombs. A young civilization,
born in the revirgined West--the West, where new empires are springing
up on the very dust of empires which had expired when Egypt was but a
maiden--ere Babylon was a mother--ere Rome was born.
Re-utter the word and will of that God who spake to the Hebrew sire on
the plains of Mamre; utter it now in the birth and growth of a young
Israel in the land of America. Comprehend him in his birth and in his
growth. Consider his genius and his covenant.
In Abraham of old is the expounding and understanding of the renewed
covenant with the latter-day Israel; and in Sarah of old is the
expounding and understanding of patriarchal marriage among her Mormon
daughters.
The Mormon woman is Sarah in the covenant, as she is Eve in the
creation and fall. She has appropriated the text of the covenant.
She claims her mother Sarah's rights. She invokes her mother Sarah's
destiny: "She shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of
her."
Thus in the mind of the Mormon woman is patriarchal marriage
established by her God. Be it confessed that woman was a listener to
the Abrahamic promise in the days of Sarah; was she not also a listener
in the days of Joseph the prophet? Could the heavens thus speak and
woman fail to hear? Could such promises be made and motherhood fail to
leap for joy?
If she dared to bear the patriarchal cross, was it not because she saw
brightly looming in her destiny the patriarchal crown? In this life
only the cross--in all the lives to come a crown of glory!
The Mormon woman knows nothing of "polygamy" as conceived by the
Gentiles. She is constantly declaring this. There is no "many-wife
system" in Mormondom. It is patriarchal marriage. There is the destiny
of a race in the Mormon woman's vision. For this came she into the
world. In her is motherhood supremely exalted, and woman is redeemed
from bondage to her husband.
Glance at the story of Sarah again. Mark its stupendous import to
motherhood. Witness the introduction of polygamy into the Abrahamic
family. And, if the wondrous sequel has any meaning, Isaac was the
Lord's answering gift to Sarah's act, to fulfil the covenant.
And while remembering the sacrifice of Sarah and Hagar let us also
remember the compensation. Those two mothers are without parallel in
all history. Races and empires came of them. Sarah and Hagar, in their
sons Isaac and Ishmael, have divided the world.
From Isaac's line was given to the world the Christ; from Ishmael came
Mohammed, the prophet of hundreds of millions.
Weigh those two mothers, with their sons, their races, and their
civilizations. What a weight of empire! What were Egypt and Babylon,
compared with Sarah and Hagar?
The Abrahamic subject is the most stupendous of all history. That
subject has been reincarnated in Mormonism. Its genius and covenants
are with the Mormon people; the age is witnessing the results.
Patriarchal marriage is one of those results. Sarah is a live character
of our times. She will fulfil her destiny.
From the courts above the Mormon woman shall look down upon an endless
posterity. In the heavens and in the earth shall her generations be
multiplied.
This is the faith of each Mormon Sarah--each mother of the covenant.
This only is her polygamy.