| Show the following article is taken im from a pamphlet entitled I 1 jezreel the problem of judaism and christianity solved 11 by david published Publish edby by irvin moore at ann arbor Alic michigan higan there are two great questions that aff affect act society for good or for evil perhaps more than all others namely how now how to regulate labor and capital and how to properly regulate the law of marriage and it is t the t e latter that I 1 propose to examine and discuss first both jew and christian will or should prefer the law of god as revealed in ehg the bible on this momentous to topic lh the e great question now before us is Is polygamy night right or is it wrong Is it good or is it bad has gos goa god ever sanctioned the institution as holy and good rood or did he ever denounce it or condemn it my bly opinion or the opinion of the whole jewish and christian world will amount to nothing only as such opinions are in accordance with the will of god as we find it recorded in the scriptures I 1 have hunted all through h the old and new testaments carefully to find the place where god condemns a man or a woman for practicing polygamy amy and I 1 have not found it I 1 cannot find it and furthermore I 1 assert that no man can find it on the other hand band has god ever countenanced the man or the woman who practiced it has he ever called such people his own peculiar people beloved of the lord people after aften his own heart he has indeed done so god has sanctioned polygamy and bestowed upon women tile the honorable and holy name of wife equally equall from one to seven hundred one and all ail afi of them having the undoubted right to that sacred distinction god says that a woman is a wife whether she is the first second third thir d fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth tenth or t the he seven dundr hundredth eath god has legislated legislate d in one particular instance between two wives regarding them as equal sand as deserving of equal treatment according to his holy law if a man have two wives R one beloved and another hated and they have borne bome him children both the elabed and the hated and if the firstborn first born son be hers that was hated bated then it shall be when he mabeth his sons to inherit that which he hath that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn first born before the son of the hated which is indeed the firstborn first born but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn first born by giving him a double portion of all that he hath for he is the beginning of his strength the right of the firstborn first born is his dent axt 15 17 this practically settles the whole question of polygamy and proves it to be strictly inconsonance in consonance with the will of god because he orders the two wives to be treated as on an equal footing god never gave avea a law to regulate an evil all ali his laws are intended to do away with evil all any man or woman requires is to have the sanction of god on his or her conducts conduct they must needs be good citizens 0 of i earth and also of heaven goi gol god gives directions and legislates in another place regarding a man when he takes a new wife when a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to war neither shall he be charged with any business but he shall be free at home one year and shall cheer up his wife wile which he hath taken I 1 D deut beut aut 5 herein are plain directions concerning a new wife again the prophet samuels father M had two wives his name was elkanah and he had two wives the name of the one was hannah ana and the name of the other peninnah 1 sam 1 2 Andt and this hisman man went up yearly to shiloh to worship the lord and if he was a wicked man and living in open rebellion to the laws of god and good morals how comes it that the lord blessed him and his wives abraham had two women one a wife and the other a concubine jacob had two wives and two concubines both these men were the chosen of god favorites the beloved of heaven the fathers of the faithful faltha ua unto whom the great promises were made just let the christian ministers think of it I 1 if some of them had been living in their day and were as ignorant as they are now and had the power they would have caused them to be thrown into prison and david went on and grew great and the lord god of hosts was with him and david took him more concubines and wives out of jerusalem after he was come from hebron and there were yet sons and daughters born bom to david 2 sam v 10 1013 13 david was the lords anointed the chosen favorite and it is said of of him that lie he was a man after gods own heart except in the matter 0 of f uriah the nittie blittle and that was not fo for r taking another wife but for taking another mans wife and for killing uriah with the sword of the children of ammon ammond david had several wives before he came to reign in jerusalem and he took more wives afterward and this was right and pleasing in the sight of god it does not however please an infidel christian church of the present day not at all they know better than god does what is right it seems it would hurt their feelings very much to see all the women get a chance to procure husbands it would serve as a check to even if it did not stop prostitution in 1874 1871 there were in england egland about eight hundred and fifty thousand more women than men and in germany about the same number all these are forbidden the right to obtain husbands hus bus bands by the mandates mandate of a spurious priesthood and governments that are founded fou poled on pagan acan agan superstition instead of on oil the bible bibie and if england and ge germany many have so many more women than men how many more must there be in all other countries in the united states it seems men and women are nrc about eu equally tally balanced although not equally div duy divided eded up there are vastly more women than men in the eastern states and in the year 1874 1 think the youg women of massachusetts petitioned th the legislature for a law allowing sing ving a man to take more than one wife although the petition was not granted yet it was shown that the women considered themselves wronged cutoff cut onn off from marriage ria e y perhaps haps the united states may feel proud of the fact that the number of men to women is nearly equal but if the reasons for this were investigated it might be rather sad one reason undoubtedly is the extent of of prostitution in this country the money that is made gets e ts into the pockets of the great ma mass s s of tile the people a large proportion of whom squander it on these poor unfortunate women I 1 am informed that the average life of those who obtain a livelihood by b prostitution is about five years if f such luch is the case some conception may be e formed of the vast rast army of women who fall down slain perhaps another teason reason for women being eing numerically equal to men in the united states is the steady flow of immigration the provability prop ability neing that more men than women come com e to stay whatever the cause may be it is a fact act that there are in the world millions more women than men did jesus christ or the apostles or the new testament anywhere say that polygamy was wrong if the new testament re teaches anything whatever on the subject it teaches that it is right from the fact that a bishop or a deacon was to have one maybe inferred that hat their case was an exception to the general rule christ teaches polygamy in the new testament foche for he came not to destroy the law or tie the the prophets prophet but to f fulfill alfill the law to establish it and no infidel or agan pagan power on the earth will be able abie ab to inder hinder the kingdom kindom kin dom of godor god or his laws society in this thin age of the world demands monogamy and whoredom but in the laws of the kin kingdom of god it was and shall again ge be written there shall be no whore of the daughters of israel perhaps the ministers of the christian church think that their skirts are clear of responsibility in regard to the increase of prostitution prostitution if they do they are mistaken if go god in his sacred word and laws sanctioned polygamy by recognizing those who practiced it as his own people as people after his own heart and also by legislating for it then allwoo all ali who oppose it are cuilty guilty of rebellion against the laws of god and guilty of helping on the ruin of millions of both men and women ministers form societies for the reclamation of fallen women after having done their part in making them what they are an ounce of prevention retention reven tion is worth a pound abound of cure will will these ministers tell us what the crime of polygamy is Is it fornication is it adultery is dom or what is it if god honors women who practice it by the chaste and sacred name of wife how then is it a crime it might with equal truth be said that monogamy is a crime as according to the teaching of the church of rome home it is when committed by pope pr or priest the church of Rome cradled in in pagan rome home became apostate and luther and the reformers got so disgusted with the church that they started to return to god and to the te teaching achin of the bible but alas I 1 they got only halfway half way back they turned faint heart ed they either did not know all the truth or they were afraid to proclaim it I 1 verily believe that if luther had known the whole truth he would have had the courage t to 0 o standby tand by it ile he was a noble danwit man h his lack of knowledge how to teach and preach the whole truth concerning the kingdom which is to te come anen the wilf of god will be done on earth as it is in heaven brave and noble lutherl luther 1 lie ile had th the courage to burn bum the popes bull buli and I 1 have no doubt that he will be one of the great company of saints which will descend with christ to witness the final overthrow of antichrist when the saints will burn the popes body it seems hard to foretell foret foretell eil iii such things of the judgment but at whose door does the fault fait lie Is wickedness to reign for ever it is over twelve hundred years since the pope was crowned universal bishop and he has been teaching celibacy and exclusive monogamy ever since and has changed times an and laws as was predicted and protestants are fearfully contaminated with the filthy garments of kome but bat the time has come at last when the true followers of christ must array themselves in pure and white raiment which is the righteousness of the saints polygamy roly poly tte amy is right and in accordance with the will and the word of god because david did that wh which ch was night right ri et lit 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 urlah uriah the hittite U 1 kings xv 5 this one text is all ali sufficient to prove that polygamy is right and pure and good if bathsheba was not a wife but a prostitute as the ministers of the christian church would call her now then Solomon was a bastard and as christ christ was descended of that line it would follow that he came of a tainted ancestry cannot a man have but one wife god says that solomon had seven hundred wives and he had seven hundred wives princesses and three hundred concubines and his wives turned away his heart 1 I 1 kings mits mii mris s xi 3 too many wives like too eny many preachers are dangerous when they turn away from the truth and despise the plain teaching M of the word of god but both are very good if they know the tile truth and practice it it does docs not take seven hundred wives to ruin a man la io these days one wife bif c has often been found sufficient for the pur purpose by her infidelity and wrongdoing and there are plenty of men who are hasten hastening ino int on to ruin that have nowise no wife it is no not so much tile the number of cifes that will ruin a man but it is wrong principles and bad practice there are many laws in the bible in regard to marriage men who ought to be compelled to marry the woman they have done wrong wron by and so on but I 1 have not room roum in in this tilts little work to enter further into the matter I 1 intended at the outset to show whether polygamy is in harmona harmony with the bible bibie or not and I 1 think that I 1 have succeeded at least to the satisfaction of those who wish to know the truth and those who do not are privileged to worship their own gods |
