In this bible, I read of a holy man, named Abraham, who is represented as the friend of God — a faithful man in all things — a man who kept the commandments of God ; and who is called, in the New Testament, the * Father of the faithful." (See Jarae3 2nd, 23. Rom. 4th : 16th. Gal. 3rd : 8th, 9th, 16th, 29th.)

I find this man had a plurality of wives, some of which were called concubines. (See book of Genesis ; and for his concubines, see 25th chapt., 6th verse.)

I also find his grandson, Jacob, possessed of four wives, twelve sons and a daughter. These wives are spoken of very highly by the sacred writers, as honorable and virtuous women. "These," say the Scriptures, " did build the House of Israel."

Jacob himself was also a man of God, and the Lord blessed him and his house, and commanded him to be fruitful and multiply. (See Genesis, 30th chap, to 35th, and particularly 35th chap., 10th and 11th verses.)

I find, also, that the twelve sons of Jacob, by these four wives, became princes, heads of tribes, patriarchs, whose names are had in lasting remembrance to all generations.

Now God talked with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob frequently, and his angels also visited and talked with them, and blessed them and their wives and children. He also reproved the sins of some of the sons of Jacob, for hating and selling their brother, and for adultery. But in all his communications with them, he never condemned their family organization ; but, on the contrary, always approved of it, and blessed them in this respect.

He even told Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations, and that in him and his seed all the nations and kindreds of the earth should be blessed. (See Genesis. 18th chap., 16th, 18th and 19th verses : also, 12th chap., 1st, 2nd and 3rd verses.) In later years, I find the plurality of wives perpetuated, sanctioned and provided for in the law of Moses.

David, the Psalmist, not only had a plurality of wives, but the Lord himself spoke by the mouth of Nat>.an the prophet, and told David that Hi (the Lord) had given his master's wives into his bosom ; but because he had committed adultery with the wife of Uriah, and had caused his murder, He would take his wives and give them to a neighbor of his, etc. (See 2nd Samuel, 12th chap., 7th to 11th verses.)

Here, then, we have the word of the Lord, not only sanctioning polygamy, but actually giving to King David the wives of his master, (Saul,) and afterward taking the wives of David from him, and giving them to another man. Here we have a sample of severe reproof and punishment for adultery and murder; while polygamy is authorized and approved by the word of God.

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What then appears to be the great object of the marriage relations? I answer: the multiplying of our species — the rearing and training of children.

To accomplish this object, natural law would dictate, that a husband should remain apart from his wife at certain seasons, which, in the very constitution of the female are untimely. Or in other words, indulgence should not be merely for pleasure, or wanton desires, but mainly for the purpose of procreation.

The morality of nature would teach a mother, that, during nature'." process in the formation and growth of embryo man, her heart should be pure, her thoughts and affections chaste, her mind caTm, her passions without excitement; while her body should be invigorated with every exercise conductive to health and vigor; but by no means subjected to anything calculated to disturb, irritate, weary, or exhaust any of its functions.

And while a kind husband should nourish, sustain, and comfort the' wife of his bosom by every kindness and attention consistent with her situation, and with his most tender affection; still he should refrain from all those untimely associations which are forbidden in the great constitutional laws of female nature ; which laws we see carried' out in almost the entire animal economy. Human animals excepted.

Polygamy, then, as practiced under the Patriarchal law of God, tends directly to the chastity of women, and to sound health and morals in the constitutions of their offspring.

You can read, in the law of God, in your bible, the times and circumstances under which a woman should remain apart from her husband, during which time she is considered unclean ; and should her husband come to her bed under such circumstances, he would commit a gross sin both against the laws of nature and the wise provisions of God's law, as revealed in his word. In short, he would commit an abomination ; he would sin both against his own body, against the body of his wife, and against the laws of procreation, in which the health and morals of his offspring; are directly concerned. The polygamic law of God opens to all vigorous, healthy and virtuous females, a door by which they may become honorable wives of virtuous men, and mothers of faithful, virtuous, healthy and vigorous children.

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This law leaves females exposed to a life of single "blessedness," without husband, child, or friend to provide and comfort them; or to a life of poverty and loneliness, exposed to temptations, to perverted affections, to unlawful means to gratify them, or to the necessity of selling themselves for lucre. While the man who has abundance of means is tempted to spend it on a mistress in secret, and in a lawless way, while the law of God would have given her to him as an honorable wife. These circumstances give rise to murder, infanticide, suicide, disease, remorse, despair, wretchedness, poverty, untimely death, with all the attendant train of jealousies, heartrending miseries, want of confidence in families, contaminating disease, etc. And, finally, to the horrible license system, in which governments, called christian, license, their fair daughters, I will not say to play the beast, but to a degradation far beneath them ; for every species of the animal creation, except man refrain from such abomjnable excesses, and observe, in a great measure, the laws of nature in procreation.

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Hence a nation organized under the law of the gospel, or in other words, the law of Abraham, and the patriarchs, would have no institutions tending to licentiousness ; no adulteries, fornications, etc., would be tolerated. No houses, no institutions would exist for traffic in shame, or in the life blood of our fair daughters. — Wealthy men would have no inducement to keep a mistress in secret, or unlawfully. Females would have no grounds for temptation in any such lawless life.

Neither money nor pleasure could tempt them, nor poverty drive them to any such excess : because the door would be open for every virtuous female to form the honorable and endearing relationships of wife and mother, in some virtuous family, where love, and peace, and plenty, would crown her days, and truth and the practice of virtue qualify her to be transplanted with her family circle in that eternal soil, where they may multiply their children, without pain, or sorrow, or death; and goon increasing in numbers, in wealth, in greatness, in glory, might, majesty, power and dominion, in worlds without end.

Oh my dear sister ! could the dark veil of tradition be rent from your mind! — could you gaze for a moment on the resurrection of the just! — could you behold Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives and children, clad in the bloom, freshness and beauty ofimmortuljlesh and bones, clothed in robes of fine, white linen, bedecked with precious stones and gold ; and surrounded with an offspring of immortals as countless as the stars of the firmament, or as the grains of sand upon the sea shore ; over which they reign as kings for ever and ever ! — you will then know something of the weight of those words of the sacred writer which are recorded in relation to the four wives of Jacob, the mothers of the twelve patriarchs, namely : "These did build the house of Israel."

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I have a good and virtuous husband, whom I love. We have four little children, which are mutually and inexpressibly dear to us. And, besides this, my husband has seven other living wives, and one who has departed to a better world. He has, in all, upwards of twenty live children. All these mothers and children are endeared to me by kindred ties — by mutual affection — by acquaintance and association ; and the mothers, iu particular, by mutual and long continued exercises of toil, patience, long-suffering and sisterly kindness. We have all our imperfections in this life ; but I know that these are good and worthy women, and that my husband is a good and worthy man : one who keeps the commandments of Jesus Christ, and presides in his family like an Abraham. He seeks to provide for them with all diligence ; he loves them all, and seeks to comfort them and make them happy. He teaches them the commandments of Jesus Christ, and gathers them about him in the family circle to call upon his God, both morning and evening.