1. "It is not good for man to be alone," was the Divine judgment, and
so God created for him an helpmate; therefore sex is as Divine as the
soul.
2. POLYGAMY.--Polygamy has existed in all ages. It is and always has
been the result of moral degradation and wantonness.
3. THE GARDEN OF EDEN.--The Garden of Eden was no harem. Primeval
nature knew no community of love; there was only the union of two
souls, and the twain were made one flesh. If God had intended man to
be a polygamist he would have created for him two or more wives; but
he only created one wife for the first man. He also directed Noah
to take into the ark two of each sort--a male and female--another
evidence that God believed in pairs only.
4. ABRAHAM no doubt was a polygamist, and the general history of
patriarchal life shows that the plurality of wives and concubinage
were national customs, and not the institutions authorized by God.
5. EGYPTIAN HISTORY.--Egyptian history, in the first ostensible form
we have, shows that concubinage and polygamy were in common practice.
6. SOLOMON.--It is not strange that Solomon, with his thousand wives,
exclaimed: "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Polygamy is not the
natural state of man.
7. CONCUBINAGE AND POLYGAMY continued till the fifth century, when
the degraded condition of woman became to some extent matters of some
concern and recognition. Before this woman was regarded simply as an
instrument of procreation, or a mistress of the household, to gratify
the passions of man.
8. THE CHINESE marriage system was, and is, practically polygamous,
for from their earliest traditions we learn, although a man could
have but one wife, he was permitted to have as many concubines as he
desired.
9. MOHAMMEDANISM.--Of the 150,000,000 Mohammedans all are polygamists.
Their religion appeals to the luxury of animal propensities, and the
voluptuous character of the Orientals has penetrated western Europe
and Africa.
10. MORMONISM.--The Mormon Church, founded by Joseph Smith, practiced
polygamy until the beginning of 1893, when the church formally
declared and resigned polygamy as a part or present doctrine of their
religious institution. Yet all Mormons are polygamists at heart. It is
a part of their religion; national law alone restrains them.
11. FREE LOVERS.--There is located at Lenox, Madison County, New York,
an organization popularly known as Free Lovers. The members advocate
a system of complex marriage, a sort of promiscuity, with a freedom
of love for any and all. Man offers woman support and love;
woman enjoying freedom, self-respect, health, personal and mental
competency, gives herself to man in the boundless sincerity of
an unselfish union. In their system, love is made synonymous with
sexuality, and there is no doubt, but what woman is only a plaything
to gratify animal caprice.
12. MONOGAMY (SINGLE WIFE), is a law of nature evident from the fact
that it fulfills the three essential conditions of man, viz.:
the development of the individual, the welfare of society and
reproduction. In no nation with a system of polygamy do we find a code
of political and moral rights, and the condition of woman is that of
a slave. In polygamous countries nothing is added to the education and
civilization. The natural tendency is sensualism, and sensualism tends
to mental starvation.
18. CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION has lifted woman from slavery to liberty.
Wherever Christian civilization prevails there are legal marriages,
pure homes and education. May God bless the purity of the home.
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