Show A POEM AND A PRINCIPLE THE celebrated author of john halifax gentleman recently wrote a short poem in honor bonor of a chil child dot dof of E english parentage which was born at jerusalem it war wac published in magazine aud and has bee been n copied into several papers we give below tho the second stanza as ib it conveys a sentiment generally shared by christian and jew alike but strangely C incon is tent with the popular opposition to plural marriage or if of still older cleod ere the world of christ has need I 1 should think of rachel fair hannah who child samuel bare hebrew women erand crand and calm calms whose pure lives roll like a psalm down tho the cent centuries urges urles who like ilke them themy mothers of Jerusa jerusalem leral rachel bachel and hannah are here at as 1 frequently in pulpit eulogies of the holy women of old set up aa as striking k examples of purity and the calm grandeur of virtuous mother hood did the poet while pen ning these lines or do the preachers who laud jaud the ani afi ancient elent clent kutheis of jerusalem ever think ebal ihal theet the same historic matrona were i ach itch u them the plural wife of a pol gamio husband i bachel rachel was the cecon second d wife 0 jacob and supported the family relation by giving to hn bei husband a third wife in the person of bilbay her handmaid and a at a reward for this act god remembered rachel who was and gave her a son sou joseph who afterwards obtained the binh right hannah was one of the two w alven ivea of Elk eik ariah and the mother ol 01 samuel damuel the prophet who was given to her ol 01 the lord in answer tk ho jy ar while while Je ner tier husband husbands lii other wife wile had bad baili sons and daug daughters fitere if it the pure lives of thee thet e hebrew women roli roll like a psalm down the cen which we bavo have now sh to dispute for a moment how 0 w ia is z it that mormon women V who vh 0 ee exhibit iu in their faith and sacrifice a their devotion to principle their triumph over pasion aud their lu in numerable proofs of supreme regald fur for the tie will of gods god at least hast a ar much gran grandeur deurand and ot of char ebar acter actor as the subjects of the poem be the objects ol 01 tian derision and contempt milo that what is praised in one case should be denounced in the 1 he that plural marriage ia is unsuited tu to the age and in opposition to the sentiment of the period does not approach the point purity does not become by reason of age and that which in its essentially vile today to day must have been wrong at any time however remote hut the same thing which many call evil in the nineteenth century they worship as good in patriarchal time times and tho the saim which publish the verea veres praising the plural wives of jacob and elkanah Elk Elka nab ansh have noth nothing ing but abuse abd aad contumely for t the h e ladies of latter days who are placed in a similar marital pouillon pos pou tion ilion the question of expediency we do not now wish to examine itil it ib the inconsistency of the condemnation of 96 mormon bemen and aud the laudation of ancient hebrew women for the same practice and of calling a system exalting in one age and debasing in another to which we desire to draw attention and in answer to the question who like them mothers smothers of jerusalem we answer the heroines ot of utah the wives and mothers in the modern jerusalem for like the holy women of old they regard the revelations of the most high rather than the tho voice of selfishness and the raising up of a righteous seed beed more than the gratification of personal desires among them may be found many a rachel who has been favored of 0 god with offspring as the reward of giving another wife t her husband abandand band dand and many a hannah pla Yin landh who for the saine sama remson reason hab hay beurn beeb dell vered voted from reproach and blessed with a ton of promise and in the great day of when mil ull shall receive It according to their works the virtues self denial and heroism of 61 uhe the mormon Mor ormon mon mou mothers in icrael w 11 aa as brightly y as the luttre which crown crowns any of their biblical prototypes and sarah garah and rebecca bachel rachel miriam deborah hinnah hannah mary martha dorcas and the tho neef reef of the historic daughters of the ancient covenant will be proud to welcome to their royal company the faithful and devoted women who grace and glorify the latter day dispensation the poem we quote from is lei pretty the principle we point out la is worthy of temperate em p erch consideration that wb which W wab pure in palestine cannot be impure at salt lake |