Hist. Utah. 24
the bigotry of fanatics, causes them to be feared and
hated by their neighbors.
Polygamy, as a tenet of the Mormon church, is based upon scripture example, and if this is unlaw- ful, it says, all is unlawful. Marriage is ordained of God, and essential to salvation. Christian sects hold up the patriarchs as examples in their sacred instruction, and yet condemn in these personages a practice which Christ nowhere condemns. While in polygamy, God blessed them and their polyga- mous seed, saying never a word about their plural wives. Polygamy was common in Asia at the time of the apostles; yet none of them preached against it, nor does John the revelator mention it, writing to the seven churches. In the days of Justin Martyr, the Jews practised polygamy. It is true that the emperor Theodosius, about a. d. 393, promulgated a law against polygamy, but it was repealed sixty years after by Valentinian. Nevertheless, as the civilized world, particularly Christian sects, regarded the prac- tice with abhorrence, the prophet Joseph inquired of the Lord as to what he should do. And the Lord answered, commanding him to restore all things, the practice of polygamy among the rest. The revelation on this subject is given entire in note 19 of this chap- ter. The inferior order of wifehood, known in the sacred scriptures as concubinage, is not recognized in the Mormon church. By the marriage covenant, all are made wives, and all children are legitimate.
Celestial marriage and the plural-wife system, as incorporated parts of the Mormon religion, are essen- tial to the fulness of exaltation in the eternal world. The space around us, it declares, is inhabited by spirits, thousands of years old, awaiting tabernacles in the flesh, which can be legitimately furnished them only by marriage and procreation; and bodies cannot be obtained for these spirits fast enough unless men have more wives than one. It is the will and glory of God
