As a bigamist, Elkanah, who had two wives, became the father of Samuel, the Prophet; he being a child of promise, obtained by the fervent prayer of Hannah, his mother, in the Holy Temple, and by her vows devoted to the service of the Temple from his childhood. While, on the other hand, had he been a child of whoredoms, instead of a child of bigamy, he would have been excluded from the house of the Lord, and his children after him, for ten generations. The first revelation ever given to this child of bigamy rebuked the priests, the sons of Eli, _Hophni_ and _Phineas_, for their whoredoms and other sins, and revealed their dooms. In fulfillment of his words these two fornicators fell in battle while bearing the very Ark of God. As a polygamist, David, the anointed King and Prophet of Israel, was called a man after God's own heart; and God Himself expressly declares, by the mouth of Nathan the Prophet, that he gave him his wives. While, as an adulterer with the wife of Uriah, and the murderer of her husband, he is reproved by the word of the Lord; and, although he sorely repented, yet the child of his adultery died; and his punishment was, that the sword should not depart from his house; that his wives should be taken from him and given to another; and his own salvation was suspended for ages--the Apostle Peter himself declaring, in his day, that the patriarch, David, had not yet ascended into Heaven. As polygamists, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are approved and commended by Jesus Christ, who expressly declares that, "many shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south; and shall set down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God." While, at the same time, he declares that, "those wicked and adulterous persons, who, in that age, considered themselves the children of the kingdom, should be thrust out." I sincerely hope my mistaken friends here will learn, ere that eventful day, to distinguish between a house of Polygamy and a crowd of adulterers; but they might by mistake consider the kingdom of God a house of ill fame, and go with the wrong crowd. Sir, the Apostle Paul sets forth Abraham, the polygamist, as the father of the faithful; worthy of all imitation, as heir of the eternal covenants and promises; in whose seed all nations shall be blessed. He shows, most clearly, that the gospel introduces us into the family of polygamists; makes us children of Abraham, and heirs to the same covenants. On the other hand, this same Apostle declares that adulterers and fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, sir, John the Revelator describes the eternal Jerusalem of Heaven, the Royal City of our God, as peopled and governed by the great family of polygamists; which, in its _lineage_, includes Jesus and the holy prophets and apostles of all ages. The pearly gates are embellished with the names of twelve polygamists, the sons of four women by one man.