I might enlarge, indefinitely, upon the arguments against polygamy. I might go into the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and show that it had been, in many ways, condemned by the Almighty. That not only had Adam been limited to one wife at the creation, but when the world was destroyed by a flood, one wife only to each man was taken into the ark;--that God blessed Abraham's posterity through the issue of his first and lawful wife, and in order to do that, worked a miracle upon Sarah; thus sanctioning monogamy in the strongest manner possible. I might refer to the warning of Malachi: "Take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth." I might refer to the fact that Lamech, the first polygamist, was a murderer; and that the most prominent polygamists of old were men guilty of the most heinous crimes. And turning from the Old Testament to the New, I might quote the words of Paul,--"To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband;" and the words of Christ,--"From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh." But I choose to pass over all these things, and for my present purpose rest the moral character of this practice upon the assertion, already quoted from the Book of Mormon, that the polygamy and concubinage of David and Solomon were abominable before God. No Mormon can gainsay this testimony. In conclusion, to review what has been said. I have endeavored to show that polygamy is unreasonable, and contrary to the plain provisions and teachings of Nature; that it tends to degrade woman, and to confuse and break up the family relation, thus weakening the attachment to home and country. Other evils consequent upon this system have been pointed out. The arguments by which it is supported have been examined, and have been shown to be weak or invalid. A word further as to the case of Abraham and Sarah. Did God sanction the polygamy of Abraham? "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children; and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, 'Behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her.'" From this it appears that Sarah, and not God, was the author of Abraham's polygamy. She had lost all hope of having children herself, and was willing to adopt those of her handmaid. Hagar being her slave, she intended to own her children. She soon, however, perceived her fatal error. Hagar wished to assume the rights and privileges of a wife. This Sarah would not listen to for a moment.