Chapter XII.
- Position
- Anti-scriptural
- Adam
- Noah
- Lamech
- Abraham
- Jacob
- David
- Book of Mormon denounces David
- Christ
- Paul
- Christian dispensation
- Anti-natural
- Proportions of the sexes
- Nature confirms Scriptures
- Irrational
- Woman's position the test of progress
- Children's dependence on the mother
- Wife
- Races
- Different laws of marriage
- Single prophets
- Lowest races most prolific
- "Polygamy a preventive of prostitution" examined
- Anti-Mormon
- Revelation
- Utah census.
Practical polygamy results in many evils wherever it exists. As we can only well judge causes by effects, we must conclude it to be practically erroneous. It then becomes an important query, Can a principle be practically false, and yet remain theoretically true? It is certain, say its apologists, that polygamy was practiced, and woman degraded, in the Hebrew nation; it is not evident that God blamed the practice or punished its adopters therefor. Were it so heinous an offense, it is probable that he would have expressed his disapprobation; and, as the Scriptures are silent, we must conclude he favored and intended it. This is all their real argument when stated in brief. It needs but the slightest smattering of logical acumen to discern the sophistry of the whole; as it is merely the argumentum ex silentio, which is the weakest of all proof.
