The prophet Jacob could not have intended to condemn a principle on which is based the legitimacy of our Savior, of prophets and patriarchs, and indeed of the whole house of Israel. The words "multiply," and "greatly," in _Deut_. 17. 17, evidently imply excess and unreasonable indulgence, as in the case of David and Uriah, and in taking strange women, as in the case of Solomon. The absurdity of the argument that these passages imply that a man should have but one wife, is evident from the previous verse, that the kings of Israel should "not multiply horses to themselves." No one would be so unreasonable as to suppose that the Lord designed to limit the kings of Israel to one horse. The Lord gave Joseph Smith a very important revelation on this subject. It is contained in _Sec_. 132, _Doc. & Cov_. It is entitled a "Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, Including Plurality of Wives." It commences by stating that the prophet Joseph Smith, Jun., inquired of the Lord, how it was that his servants anciently were justified in having many wives and concubines. The Lord did not answer his question at once, but tells him, in the third verse, to prepare his heart to receive and obey the instructions he was about to give him. In the fourth verse the Lord said to him, "I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant." We find the general principle involved in that covenant, directly stated in the seventh, thirteenth and fourteenth verses: "And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these:--All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power, (and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time, on whom this power and the Keys of this Priesthood are conferred,) are of no efficacy, virtue or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when men are dead. * * * * And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God; for whatsoever things remain, are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me, shall be shaken and destroyed." We find a direct application of this law to the marriage relations in _verses_ 15 and 19: "If a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me, nor by my