Again he read, “Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.”

Still again, “For there shall not be any man among you have save it shall be one wife.”

Then he turned to the revelation on celestial marriage given years after these words were written, and in the first paragraph read: 

“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David, and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives—­”

He turned from one to the other; from the many explicit admonitions and commands against polygamy, the denunciations of the patriarchs for their indulgence in the practise, to this last passage contradicting the others, and vexed himself with wonder.  In the Book of Mormon, David was said to be wicked for doing this thing.  Now in the revelation to Joseph he read, “David’s wives were given unto him of me, by the hand of Nathan, my servant.”

He recalled old tales that were told in Nauvoo by wicked apostates and the basest of Gentile scandalmongers; how that Joseph in the day of his great power had suffered the purity of his first faith to become tainted; how his wife, Emma, had upbraided him so harshly for his sins that he, fearing disgrace, had put out this revelation as the word of God to silence her.  He remembered that these gossips had said the revelation itself proved that Joseph had already done, before he received it, that which it commanded him to do, citing the clause, “And let my handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me.”

They had gossiped further, that still fearing her rebellion, he had worded a threat for her in the next clause, “And I command my handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph and to none else.  But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law ... and again verily I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses.”

This was the calumny the Gentile gossips back in Nauvoo would have had the world believe,—­that this great doctrine of the Church had been given to silence the enraged wife of a man detected in sin.

But in the midst of his questionings he seemed to see a truth,—­that another snare had been set for him by the Devil, and that this time it had caught his feet.  He, who knew that he must have nothing for himself, had all unconsciously so set his heart upon this child of her mother that he could not give her up.  And now so fixed and so great was his love that he could not turn back.  He knew he was lost.  To cling to her would be to question, doubt, and to lose his faith.  To give her up would kill him.