there was no sin." Before even prophets and patriarchs can be imitated as models, they must be proven infallible and immaculate. "All Scripture is written for our instruction," all Scripture however, is not written for our example. Abraham practiced polygamy; true, but Abraham drove out his wife and child to die in the wilderness. If the mere fact of Abraham's practicing polygamy be a warrant for me to commit it, then, pari passu, his wife and child desertion should be also imitated, for the same reason. The most rabid Mormon will not advocate child-desertion, even though Abraham practiced it; and ought not, therefore, to advocate polygamy, even though practiced by Abraham. To deduce from the apparent silence of God on this polygamy, an approval of it, is fallacious. God did not apparently condemn the driving out Hagar and Ishmael to die in the wilderness. Who will infer from that silence an approval of abandonment and murder! If the taking of Hagar be right, per se, then her desertion is right, per se; but if desertion be wrong, as it is; then polygamy is wrong, as it is.
It is well to remember, too, that all the blessings promised to Abraham were received by Isaac, the son of Sarah, his first. and lawful wife. It should also be remembered that this Isaac was a monogamist, and that his blessings were none the less sure, and none the less glorious.
5. Jacob's polygamy is a "tower of strength" for the Mormons. Especial emphasis is laid on his sons being the heads of the house of Israel. View Jacob's polygamy first as a temporal matter, and let any pure mind read the sacred historian's simple and unsparing account of Jacob's household
