Brigham Young
Pushing Polygamy
Since the founding of
the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous
to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers,
and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among
them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all
Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and
whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New
World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both
national and religious. (Brigham Young, Journal Of Discourses 11: 128)
It
is a fact worthy of note that the shortest-lived nations of which we have
record have been monogamic. Rome…was a monogamic nation, and the numerous evils
attending that system early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually
overtook her. (George Q. Cannon, Journal
of Discourses, 13:202)
This law of monogamy,
or the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and
diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern
Christendom groans,… (Orson Pratt,
Journal of Discourses 13:195
“I have
noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon
begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh,
young and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he
honors his word. Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it
but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small
business… I do not know what we should do if we had only one wife apiece.”
(Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, April 22, 1857)
The only
men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy. Others attain unto a glory and may even be
permitted to come into the presence of the Father and the Son; but they cannot
reign as kings in glory, because they had blessings offered unto them, and they
refused to accept them. (Brigham Young, Journal
of Discourses 11:269)
And as he has here stated, as having come from the mouth of the
Prophet, this doctrine of eternal union of husband and wife, and of plural marriage, is one of the
most important doctrines ever revealed to man in any age of the world. Without
it man would come to a full stop, without
it we never could be exalted to associate with and become gods, neither
could we attain to the power of eternal increase, or the blessings pronounced
upon
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the fathers of the faithful. (Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses
21:9-10)
…if plurality of
marriage is not true or in other words, if a man has no divine right to marry
two wives or more in this world, then marriage for eternity is not true, and
your faith is all vain, and all the sealing ordinances and powers, pertaining
to marriages for eternity are vain, worthless, good for nothing; for as sure as
one is true the other also must be true. Amen
(Orson Pratt, Journal Of Discourses 21:296)
