Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-09-19 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

DAVID.  "And Nathan said to David, thou art the Merl. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I annointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the bands of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house, and tby master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel, and of Judah, &c.," 2 Samuel ail, 7,8. _ _  In order to lay bare the folly, the sin, and the ingratitude of the king towards God, the prophet enumerates the favours God had shown him. He first of all had him anointed king, he delivered him cut of the murderous machinations of Saul, he at length banded over to him the property of Saul, gave him his very wives, and made him king over the whole of the tribes. The passage is meant to show the completeness of the conquest of David over the house of Saul. To take over the harem of the deposed house was of itself a proclamation of royal state and power. It was the oriental and well understood way of declaring "I now am the king." The assumption of the harem marie clear to all that David was king. It was part of a political movement, an incident of national significance, and not simply a fresh addition to a home. It is absurd to associate polygamy with the text for even Mormons would not like to have a number of women handed over to them without asking them whether the men loved the women, and the women loved the men, or otherwise even Mormons make a pretent ion to personal aft. ction, preference and selection, but in the case before us there is nothing of the kind. It has virtually nothing wl atever to do with love, with the home, or with social life. Its significance is political, and not dotnestie. There is nothing in the social life of Mormonism to correspond with this incident in the life of DAvid, and it in nowise countenances their syst Am of polygamy. It hos not one feature in common with it. How did polygamy work in the case of David? If ever there was a man who could make polygamy a social success it was David. He was brave, warmhearted, accomplished and devout, and if he could not make a plurality of wives work well other men may give the task up in utter despair. Nt arly all the troubles of David's reign arise from jealousies, and bickerings in the harem. These led to rape, murder, and rebellion and to much blood-shed. So far as we know, his wives and children gave David and the nation only trouble and turmoil. The curse of God rests upon polygamy and whoever tries it, be be " !he darling of Israel's song " or a lesser man it will becloud his life. The will of the Lord is well seen in the frui,s which a man reaps from rurming any given course of life. The natural and nee( vary consequences of any given course of life is a sufficient indication of the divine will concerning it. Nowhere is David told to take numerous wives in order that he may be the father of many children, but that which is not even named is the very heart and soul of the Mormon dogma of polygamy. The Mormons quote "Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," 1 Kings xv, 14. These words of course are nothing to the purpose, they express simply a general estimate and approval of the course and career of David, which we all can endorse. It we go into details we will find incidents—such as numbering of the people which cost the nation thousands of lives—which were wrong. David did keep the commands of God better than any other king of Israel, and as he did not receive any command restricting him to one wife it cannot be said in having more than one that he broke any specific command, so that the text is strictly correct. Be violated one of God's natural institutions in adopting polygamy and dearly did be suffer for his folly. In that reB2ect, he is a beacon and awarnins against our having a plurality of wives. The experience of David says to U 3 have nothing to do with polygamy. In other words Mormonism must be hateful and abhorrent to us.