mind might be prepared for the reception of the
grand manifestations of the Divine character which God designed to
impart to him, he was commanded to break off all association with them;
and, the more completely to effect this, he was desired to leave his
kindred and his country, and become a stranger in a strange land. Yet
somewhat of the contamination of early association seems to have clung
both to him and Sarah, as is evidenced in the matter of Hagar. In
something very like doubt of God's power to fulfill his own promise,
Abraham yielded to Sarah's suggestion, and thus was partially drawn into
the evil current, though he does not appear to have been a willful
polygamist. It is asserted by Jonathan Ben Uzziel, the Jerusalem Targum,
and other learned authorities, that Hagar and Keturah are the same
person; but if this be a mistake, there is still no evidence that
Abraham took Keturah till after the death of Sarah. Polygamists, both in
the Jewish nation and elsewhere, have not failed to plead Abraham's
example in defense of their conduct. Early association had somewhat
obscured his moral perceptions of right and wrong. Had he waited for the
Divine command before carrying out Sarah's suggestion, no incident in
his life would have given countenance to the demoralizing practice.
Isaac was a monogamist, though Jacob, through the artifice of Laban,
became a polygamist. That Laban's family were tinctured with idolatry is
unquestionable; and with idolatry came many other vices. When Jacob with
his household took his departure from Laban, Rachel stole certain images
which were her father's, the character of which was unmistakably
indicated by Laban when he demanded, "Wherefore have ye stolen my gods?"
Yet such was the general apostasy of the times, that this family was so
much in advance of any other, that it was to it that Abraham was obliged
to send, a generation previous, for a suitable wife for the amiable and
meditative Isaac. What wonder then that many practices prevailed among
the descendants of Jacob that were not in accordance with either the
will or the word of God!

Though plurality of wives was customary both before and after the giving
of the Law, it was by no means ordained by it. A man had no more right,
in carrying out the designs of the Almighty, to have two or more wives
living at the same time, than a woman had to have two or more husbands
living at the same time. Wherever the Bible speaks of the duty of
hus