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Show 202 Surely there was struggle involved. Ellis herself alluded to it. When Milford married Lizzie in October of 1871, the struggle within Ellis and the zeal of her dedication were both apparent: "I do not allow myself to become low-spirited...there is but one way to be happy in polygamy and that is to keep burning in our hearts the spirit of God." What was there about plural marriage that so strongly motivated its participants? According to Stanley S. Ivins: "...the saints were told that only those who embraced it could hope for the highest 2 exaltation in the resurrection." Not all would agree with this contention. Indeed the literature on polygamy is rife with disagreements not only of philosophy but of statistics. The Ivins essay just quoted is a well-ordered and breezy contemporary narrative which is notable for the fact that it makes his statistics not only readable but entertaining. B. H. Roberts said: The Saints did not accept into their faith and practice the plural wife system with the idea that it increased the comfort, or added to the ease of anyone. From the first it was known to involve sacrifice, to make a large demand upon the faith, patience, hope, and charity of all who would attempt to carry out its requirements. Its introduction was not a call to ease or pleasure, but to religious duty; it was not an invitation to self-indulgence, but to self-conquest; its purpose was not earth-happiness, but earth-life discipline; undertaken in the interest of special advantages for succeeding generations of men.3 One attitude which made polygamy possible was the natural cohesiveness of Latter-day Saints. This characteristic, according to Leonard J. Arrington, Church Historian in 1983, preceded the persecutions and had its roots in their commitment to the law of |
