Connecticut western news., 1891-04-08

the better, o voyager for eternity-the firefy or the ighthouse2

the better, o voyager for eternity-the frefly or the ighthouse2
 What a mission inffdelity has started onl The extinguishmento of lighthouses. the breaking up of lifeboats, the dis missal of all the pilots. the turning of the inscription on your childs grave into farce and a lie. Walter Scott's Old Mortality, chisel in hand, went through the land to cut into plainer letters the half obliterated inscriptions on the tolnbstones, and it was beau, tifui mission But intidelity spends its time with hammer and chisel trying to cut out from the tombstones of your dead all the story of resurrection and heaven. It is the iconoclast of every village graveyard, and of every city cemetery, and of Westminster Abbey. Instead of Christian consolation for the dying, freezing sneer Instead of prayer, grilnace Instead of Pauls triumphant defiance of death. going out you know not where. to stop you know not when, to do you know not what. That is infidelity.
 FOLLY OF THE PoLyaAM1sT's CLAIM.
 Furthermore. l cannot be an intidel because of the false charges intidelity is all the time making against the Bible. Perhaps the islander that has made the most impression and that some Christians have not been intelli gent enough to deny is that the Bible favors polyg:my. Does the God of the Bible uphold polygany, or did he? How many wives did God make for Ada1n7 He made one wife Does not your common sense tell you when God started the marriage institution he started it as he wanted it to continuet { If God had favored polygamy he could have created for Adam five wives, or ten wives. or twenty wives, just a. easily as he made one.
 At the very first of the Bible God shows himself in favor of monogalny and antagonistic to polygamy. Gen esis ii. A. ''Therefore shall man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife" Not his wives, but his wife. How many wives did God spare for Noah in the ark2 Two and two the birds; two and two the cattle; two and two the lions; two and two the human race. If the God of the Bible had favored multiplicity of wives he
 would have spared a plurality of wives When God first launched the human race he gave Adam one wife At the second launching of the human race he spares for Noah one wife, for Ham one | wife. for Shem one wife. for Japhet one wife Does that look as though God favored polygamy7 In Leviticus xviii IS. God thunders his prohibition ot more than one wife.
 God permitted polygalny. Yes; jus, as he permits today murder and theft and arson and all kinds of crime. He l permits these things. as you we'll know but he does not sanction them Who
 would dare to say he sanctions them Because the presidents of the United States have permitted polygamy ill Utah you are not. therefore, to con clude that they patronized it. that the! 1 approved it. when, on the contrary. l they denounced it. All of Gods an cient Israel knew that the God of the Bible was against polygasDy, for in the four hundred and thirty years of their | stay in Egypt there is only one case of polygamy recorded-only one.
 All the mighty men of the Bible 1 stood aloof from polygamy except those who, falling into the crime, were ] chastised within an inch of their lives Adam, Aaron, Noah, Joseph, Joshua
 Samuel lnonoyalnists But you say
 Didn't David a.ii solomon favor polygany" Yes. and dil they not get l we'll punished Tor it2 Read the lives of those two men, and you will come to 1 the conclusion that all the attributes l of Gods nature were against their be l havior David suffered for his crimes l in the caverns of Adulla,n and Massada. in the wilderness of Mahanaim, in the
 bereavements of Ziklag The Bedouins after him. sickness after him. Absalolu after him, Ahithopel after him, Adoni jah after him, the Edomites after him,
 the Syrians after him. the Moabites after him, death after him, the Lord God Almighty after him. The poorest
 peasant in all the empire married to the plainest Jewess was happier than
 the king in his marital misbehavior. | How did Solomon get along with
 polygamy Read his warnings in Proverbs, read his self disgust in Ecclesi
 astes. He throws up his hand in loath
 ing and cries out, Vanity of vanities. all is vanity" His seven hundred wives nearly pestered the life out of him. Solomon got we'll paid for his crimes-well paid. I repeat that all the mighty men of the Scriptures were aloof from polygauly, save as they were
 pounded and failed and cut to pieces
 for their insult to holy marriage. If the Bible is friend of polygamy why
 is it that in all the lands where the Bi-
 ble pr dominates polygamy is forbid
 den, and in all the lands where there is
 no Bible it is favored. Polygamy all
 over China, all over India, all over Ali,
 rica, all over Persia, all over heathen-
 dom, save as the missionaries have
 done their work; while polygamy does
 not exist in England and the United
 States. except in defiance of law. The
 Bible abroad, God honored monog
 amy. The Bible not abroad, God
 abhorred polygamy.
 BEAUTIFUL BIBLE PICTURES OF WO | MAN.
 Another false charge which intidelity
 has made against the Bible is that it is
 antagonistic to woman; that it enjoin' l her deoradation and belittles her miS