And I gave thee (David) thy master's house and thy master's wives
into thy bosom. (2 Sam. 12 : 8.)
The Christian apologist says that "the Lord endured them to practice
polygamy in consequence of the hardness of their hearts." But it is
explicitly shown in the above passage that the Lord gave David a number
of wives. "I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom," certainly
exonerates David, and throws the responsibility on Jehovah. David
is not censured for his polygamy, but is uniformly spoken of with
approval except in one instance. In counseling Solomon Jehovah said:
"And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and commandments
as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days." (1
Kings 3 : 14.)
Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord
and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the
days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. (1
Kings 15 : 5.)
The truth is that nearly all the patriarchs and prophets were
polygamists. They had not the faintest idea of true marriage, but
took women according to their caprice, and kept them as long as they
were pleased with them and cast them off when tired of them. It is a
remarkable fact that we do not often read of any marriage ceremony
when these men after God's own heart took them wives. A man in
these days who "takes up" with a woman without marriage is called a
free-lover. Were the patriarchs who took a number of women as wives
without a marriage ceremony free-lovers? Just now the Christians
cannot endure polygamy among the Mormons. They indorse it as a
Bible institution, good enough for Abraham, Isaac, and all the rest,
but out of fashion just now. The worst of it all is, the Christian
sends missionaries and Bibles to the heathens and afterward reports
wonderful success in converting them from their Paganism and polygamy
through the means of preaching, praying, and missionary work; but
when he thinks of the Mormon he forgets what wonders the missionary
has done abroad in converting the polygamists, and insists that our
Congress send Winchester rifles to Utah rather than missionaries. The
Holy Ghost is of no account there. The gospel of peace must now as
ever resort to the divine efficacy of bullets rather than Bibles,
to secure a victory for truth, justice, and love. Christianity shows
the same brutal instincts of war in its treatment of the Mormons that
Constantine exhibited in establishing the church by the sword.
The Subjection of Woman.
The Bible nowhere teaches the equality of man and woman, but from
Genesis to Revelation it treats her as man's inferior. The mythology
of the ancient Hebrew story of the Garden of Eden has proved to be a
veritable curse to her. "And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3 : 16), has been the poisoned chalice
put to her lips for over two thousand years. Paul the founder of the
church, insists upon the subjection of woman. "Likewise ye wives be
in subjection to your own husbands." (1 Peter 3 : 1.)