Furthermore, my father was four wives only after my mother, his first wife whom he loves very deeply, gave her consent and helped him choose the other three."
This brought Abigail clear out of her chair, startling Rose.
"You mean she agreed?
His foolish first wife agreed to let him -"
"Yes! Yes, Sister Blake, she agreed and I don't believe she was foolish. Neither she nor my father wanted to do it, but you see, when you have been blessed so much and given sufficient testimony of the divinity of this work, it's possible to possess a faith so powerful, one can conclude the rightfulness of a commandment and obey it, even if one is not inclined to favor it.
In other words, knowing the gospel and knowing we have it in its entirety, including the plan of salvation, we must be a faithful people.
`We accept the principle of revelation completely and honor a living prophet chosen by the Lord as His mouthpiece on earth. If the Lord tells his prophet to tell me to take more than one wife, it is as if He has told me Himself, just as He called me through His prophet to leave my home and come preach to you here."
"But your mother! Your father's first wife," Abigail argued, "How ... oh, how could she agree to something so monstrous?"
"Let me tell you about the wife of one of our current apostles, Heber C. Kimball, the one Reverend Charles talked about last night who first opened England to the gospel.
Heber's wife's name is Vilate and after Joseph Smith made known the commandment and told Heber he must comply, Brother Kimball very nearly went crazy with worry and confusion. You see, his relationship with Vilate goes clear back into their childhood and their romance and affection for each other is legend in the church.
Many's the time I've heard brethren exhort husband to love their wives and continue the courtship long after the wedding, just as Brother Kimball does with Vilate. How he feels about Vilate has always been obvious, even now when he's taken more than twenty five additional wives."
It was Rose's turn to shout,
"Twenty Five???
My God!!"
