There are sufficient proofs in the holy scriptures of the purity of polygamy. We read that it was a law in Israel, and it was an express command of the Almighty that if a brother should die without offspring the surviving brother (no exception was made if he were married) should marry his widow. We read in the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis that a certain son of Judah, who, according to this law, should have taken his. brother's widow, was put to death by the act of the Almighty because of his wickedness in taking a course to prevent rearing offspring by this woman.

What do we read about Hannah, Rachael, Ruth, Bathsheba and other holy women? Were they in a shameful condition of legalized prostitution, or were they lawful and honored wives? Was it considered degrading for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Samuel and many other distinguished saints of old to live in, or be born through the practice of polygamy? How was it with Boaz when he espoused Ruth, the Moabitess? was it looked upon as a low and debasing practice by the people? O no; the people that were at the gate, and the elders said: The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachael and Leah, which two did build the house of Israel." "Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath a quiver full of them." "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house, thy children like olive plants around about thy table. Behold that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord."

We read that Abraham, who was called the friend of God, practiced it without rebuke, and that his wife, Sarah, offered to him her maidservant, Hagar. It is also related that Abraham used deception with Abimelech, the king of Gerer, telling him that Sarah was his sister, and when the Lord reproved him for taking her, Abimelech said, "In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this, saith he not unto me she is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother." And God said, *I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; * * now, therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet."

God apparently did not look upon it as a debasing, disgusting practice, and demoralizing in its influences. It was practiced at the time of Christ's advent, and through all the New Testament there is nothing written against it. Jesus said, "Think not that I have come to destroy, but to fulfil," and "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me." The Savior was unsparing in His rebukes where merited. Both He and His apostles denounced the sins of hypocrisy and adultery, but they never rebuked any one for living in polygamy. John the Baptist reproved King Herod for adultery, and because he had the boldness to do this he was thrown into prison, where he was afterwards beheaded.

If polygamy were so great a sin these holy men certainly would not have remained silent upon this subject; but we do not find a single passage within the Holy Bible which condemns it. Even Paul, in his exhortations, expressed only his opinion. "Nevertheless," he said, "neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord."