| Show LI OF WIVES THE BIBLE IN EVIDENCE in the outcry that has been and is being made against plurality of wives by a certain vertain class throughout the nation we have sought care eare carefully carefully full fuli y but in vain for oon something in the shape of argument from those opposing the doctrine instead of that invective and abuse have been the weapons used with a large amount of baseless assumptions sure evidences of a defective cause for if the position taken by the opponents of the doctrine was tenable upon reasonable and scriptural grounds it would be stoutly defended by reason argument and scripture as they neither lack talent edum edun education tion nor polemical ability every one who has read the bible and believes it must admit as beyond controversy tro versy that plurality of wives was practiced by the ancients to whom god communicated his oracles by those to ishom he revealed himself and on whom his choicest blessings were bestowed e stowed the only question at issue is did jehovah simply permit it or did he lip sanction sean fean cUon euon approbate and require U 47 yeton yet on these points the scripture is ex es clear elear in the case of abraham aira ham called by christians C hris chrls fians to t 0 this day itile tiie itlie father of the faithful falth faith ful fui we find that arter after he had two wives the lord expressly guys gayb 11 1 I emoto him that he will command id klis ails his children and them they the shall shail tho way of the lord I 1 gen 18 19 here the almighty emphatically sanctions and approbates probates ap it expressing the utmost confidence in a man whom he visited while that man had at the the time two tivo wives living inith with mm him und and to whom he then and there reve revealed ced himself and promised the grea greatest tet of blessings no word of bf reproof of condemnation dem nation or correction is uttered but direct approbation of his whole course and in gen 21 2113 13 G god od declares I 1 I 1 of edthe the son odthe of the bondwoman bond woman will I 1 make a nation because he is thy seed while through isaac the son orthis of this man with two wives was all the nations of the earth tarth to be blessed abraham further added addea to his 1 amily by increasing the number er of his bis wives yet paul the apostle to the kontiles gen Gon tiles places him high ligh among amon 0 the tiie worthies of df exceeding faith falth whom the til es 1 saints taints of god should ph ofila pattern aate r we have not apace space for many examples which are as chimer fiul husn th tle the e sacred book as the luminous lil lii minous eon con constellations sie ila iia lla of heaven in tho tl milky kj my way but put will let a few plain and pertinent ones on each point suffice tn in deut beut 25 5 the living brother of a man deceased is commanded to td tadeas take as wife the widow of his deceased brother whether he be married or not and as the issue of such union would not be called his but his brothers by the great primal com mandof mandof jehovah he was required to perpetuate his own name and seed upon the earth therefore in that act of legislation does the lord absolutely require under certain contingencies the taking of a plurality of wives and gives it asa command again the seducer of a virgin is required to make her his wife he may not put her away all his daay deut beut 22 14 29 the penalty for not making her his wife when the case rols rois s adjudged being simply death deahl deut beut ar W 12 if a married man were thus dulity guilty he is by that act of divine legislation lation required under pain of de death ath to td take a plurality of wives in exodus 2110 21 10 and in duet 21 2115 15 direct acts of divine legislation are recorded regarding the doi dol domestic bestic hestie affairs of those who have more than one wife living at the same time so do a great number of other passages of scripture directly bear testimony that the lord legalized sanctioned and approved of the pie it is said that plurality of wives is ad adulterous ul that the children of all but the first wife are bastards it is recorded in exodus 2014 20 14 that god in the midst of rings and from mount sinai said thou not commit adultery 11 yet at the same time in giving the same series of commandments mand maud ments he also said if he take him another wife her food her raiment and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish referring to the olle one he had before taking the second what condemn adultery and brand it as a crime and in the same breath sanction it and legislate for its perpetuation what sort of a being does christendom invest with the adf awful ul attributes of the almighty Is it one whose senseless mutability tabi lity would disgrace the most changeable politician ever foisted into legislatorial dignity by election trickery it cannot be he who said 1 I am god I 1 change not the same god through his servant nathan the prophet said to david the man after his own heart I 1 gau gave thee theo thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosom I 1 I 1 ii sam 12 8 he behaving hav before that a plurality of wives when God raised him to the throne of israel would an au all wise being so far encourage and approbate that which he had condemned and declared death the fitting penalty for as to give wives into the he bosom bf david if a plurality of wives were adulterous if it were adultery then would the issue be bastard forbidden to enter into the congregation gre gation of the lord to the tenth generation erat era loii tion yet we find the children of men who had a plurality of wives born to them by other than the first wife taking lead in the affairs of the ancient people of god officiating as priests called to be prophets as was samuel and in the case of solomon chosen to build the holy temple and blessed directly by the lord to such an extent as to have his name carried down through long centuries of time tige the honored of heaven blessed with wisdom above ot other hermen men clearly then among the ancient people of god plurality of wives was practiced sanctioned and required by the lord was not a breach of the seventh commandant comman dent and the issue springing from it was legitimate it is further urged that it is forbidden under the gospel dispensation where we find not nothing h i ing to answer in this objection jec tion for there is nothing advanced in support of it but assertion it has been said that the law given to moses was was done away the la law was fulfilled by jesus not destroyed nor abrogated the ahe decalogue though not renewed is accepted as being in force today to day by all ail 11 christendom Christen domas as much so go as when it was thundered from mount sinai it will be in force for all time the principles enunciated e n uncia teh ted ill in the ten commandments are eternal ili in their nature had an existence in fact from the dawning of time and will continue that existence elisten ce as long as time endures so with marriage the legitimacy of that ord ordinance in dates fr from om the existence of opposite sexes seles odthe of the tho human family and the laws which governed it then are in force in all ages among those who serve god unless the great lawgiver law giver pleases to change or r repeal them the law of rites and ceremonies was given to the jews as a schoolmaster to bring th them I 1 em to chri christ 11 but the mind bt Jehovah concerning ja marriage arriage was revealed ve aled wh when c n men lived under a gospel dispensation and before they had so f far ar wandered from god as to require a schoolmaster to bring them back again to him plurality of wives was known practiced and approbated probated ap 01 of god during the gospel dispensation previous to the days of Mose sand when that which was added because of transgression gres sion was lifted away the same principles governing and perpetuating ilfe life eternally which had been impart in part rejected were those by which the people of god were to be governed but in the days of the savior there must have been men who had more than one wife living for the command which required require da a man to take his brothers widow to wife still existed yet the lord jesus nowhere utters the first syllable condemn condemnatory ato ry of it though he lie speaks in unsparing terms against the adulteries adul teries of the day and reprehends their divorces which moses allowed because of the hardness of their hearts furthermore but one of the apostles expresses himself on the subject and while nowhere condemning it his words in one place are a direct confirmation that plurality of wives was practiced and allowed in his own days paul limits a bishop and a deacon to one wi fethe reason for which is obvious living under the monog a mic law of pagan rome and being men brought before the people he deemed it wise that they should so far conform to the usage of their times and the laws jaws under which they lived following out his avowed policy of being all things to all men that he might win souls but the fact of his feeling it necessary to place such restriction on these officers is proof that the doctrine of plurality of wives was acted upon by the early christians who looked back to a are redeemer that had come as by those christians who lived under ailder the gospel law in patriarch ial times and who like job looked forward to a coming redeemer such is in part the bible testimony on this subject very briefly noticed indeed but yet so plain that it is beyond successful contradiction the law of nature revealed in the works of the cre ore ator is sustained by the written law revealed in his word now you who while sitting c steeped in corruption against the practices of the mormons cormons Mor mons and profess a deep faith and reverence for the bible meet its plain statements as best you may mai to the law and to the testimony bring forth your strong reasoning and convince us of our error from the source whence we have drawn our arguments let your weapons he be powerful reasoning in g plain quotation direct testimony they will be more in consonance with the boasted enlightenment of the nineteenth te en th century than the cannon canno i and bayonets with which you yau threaten eten iten to exterminate conscientious believers for obeying a commandment of god which you find yourselves unable to meet in fair and open argument or if you will pursue the course you are now traveling be consistent consi avow your disbelief iii in the bible proclaim your infidelity to god stigmatize those who are seated on thrones in the celest celestial lal lai kingdom as adulterers declare the son of goda god a de cendana of adulterers and a scion of bastardy throw the dee dec decalogue logue aside the morality and purity of the bible to the mormons cormons Mor mons and establish for yourselves a god of gold with prostitution as its high priestess these you must do to be consistent or you must humble yourselves before god own his power and wisdom and his right to legislate in all that concerns mankind and hud accept the revelations contained in that book which you have professedly adopted as a rule of faith MR GOULDS 02 axtt the llo ilo hos hom v james gould in db livering delivering the annual address to the society at albany N Y feb 13 said he hewl wished shed to bring to the notice of physicians the terrible increase of the crime of abortion among the women of america respectable married women he said who had no shame to conceal resorted as much maeh to this disgusting and criminal practice as their erring sisters w who 0 had at least an incentive desire to avoid the scorn which would inevitably meet them did they not take some measures to hide their guilt in one village through which he passed lay three women who had recently recent lys lu died through having abortion procured in one house a mother and daughten daughter died from the same cause women he stated in good society perform penury the me operation opera uon on themselves in many instances bein being taug taught by physicians he urged that every influence should be brought drought to bear bean r to remedy this great evil ta jaty y Is not this waxing I 1 I 1 iverse worse and worse 1 I 1 as foretold or is it only a legitimate result of mode modern rn so called re genera ti tion olly we do not like to print such t ing facts but the keeping our readers advised upon significant signs of the times compels an occasional tion of increasing wickedness as in the instance testified of by the hon james gould sueh such instances are by no means printed as any proof that mormonism is consequently true for christendom m as most emphatically do we deplore such awful corruption but dut such instances do prove that so long iong agany community sect of nation changes the laws transgresses the ordinances and breaks the everlasting covenant cleaves to man made priest hoods and not only re rejects acts the revelations of Vs heaven but trives strives to prevent their observance by others bt liers they must of necessity wax worse and worse 11 11 i OVE OVERLAND RLAND DISPATCH we e are compelled to state that the above abo ve named dispatch manage managed df very badly last year in its freighting to utah leaving much freight at bridged and a fid denver and some clear back at the starting point at atchison on the missouri sour and that is not all for upon inquiring we cannot 1 learn that any steps are being taken to forward it lt on at this late date before the P time waters without soon delivering at least the freight at Brid bridger cerand gerand and denver andin anden damn their t losses we do CIO not clearly see how J they ney can C an well ask for future patronage hurry in the last years yearns freight and satisfy the reasonable demands of those you you have caused disappointment stand and loss or br give way to those who will fulfill their engagements even though it be at a money sacrifice as penalty for fallu faliu failures rea reg F JP fp L U URAL E allty ITY OF W I 1 j FURTHER R sustaining eva denoe DENGE f the length of the art article on an i pl plurality i of wives in our SEMI seni semiweekly weel leei WEEKLY LY march 11 II and leading in this number compelled us to close the arguments drawn from the sew new testament rather abruptly the view expressed thereof paulin I 1 junction con eon concerti concerning cerni ng a bishop an and 4 a deacon being boing each the hu husband osband of q one ne wife was taken because it is the only view on which opponents of the doctrine could hope to base baie anything in the shape of an argument yet looking at tt I 1 it t from the stand point pint there thie expressed it sustains the doctrine is however still r vuew i gore loro in con consonance with the the whole tenor of scripture and the principles of church government bishops a and n d deacons dea sae officers having coo coc cognisance nuisance ni sance q of temporal things among the Sain saints tg and andring eing required to advise counsel and regulate in temporal matters hence henc they ethey needed experience in fa family M lly liy government n i and I 1 domestic affairs see acts VI 1 tim III ili the legitimate that unmarried men dvera ivera were well veil v qualified for these offices t jacking the requisite experience a and nd therefore paul yaul thought it best that a man who was appointed to the office of a bishop or a deacon should bo the husband of at least one wife this we consider the i correct view and one that is 1 S amply sustained in the new testament while beth bib bih uth views u questionably prove that plurality of wives was sanctioned ap probated and practiced in new testament times in 2 cor VII 2 paul raul enjoins to avoid fornication that every man should have his own wife and every woman her own ow A husband which besides being spoken by permission and not of commandment simply inculcates marriage without limiting the glusband husband to one wile wite in the verse he exp |
