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Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce
ation with you has caused her to have an experience which has unfitted
her to do anything in my work....
I feel deeply over another matter, and that is your visiting Fannie in
her tent. I have already decided that you two cannot work together. You
are a married man, father of two children. If your wife has obtained
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a divorce from you, that does not leave you free to marry again, as I
read my Bible....
Before leaving I must lay down some rules. There is no call for
W. F. C. to visit Fannie’s tent. Fannie has not been in working order
for some time. Her association with you is largely the cause of this. I
know this to be so, and therefore I say, Keep away from her tent. When
I am away you will feel that you have a fine opportunity to get into her
society whenever you can; and I cannot go without warning you and
charging you to keep yourself to yourself. I want no reproach brought
upon me nor upon this community by imprudent, careless habits or
practices.—
Letter 19, 1896
.
To Fannie Y, November 23, 1895—I have been considering your
case in connection with W. F. C., and I have no other counsel to give
than I have given. I consider that you have no moral right to marry W.
F. C.; he has no moral right to marry you. He left his wife after giving
her great provocation. He left her whom he had vowed before God
to love and cherish while both should live. Before ever she obtained
her divorce, when she was his lawful wife, he left her for three years,
and then left her in heart, and expressed his love to you. The matter
has been negotiated largely between you and a married man, while he
was legally bound to the wife he married, who has had two children
by him.
I see not a particle of leniency in the Scriptures given either of
you to contract marriage, although his wife is divorced. From the
provocation he has given her, it was largely his own course of action
that has brought this result, and I cannot see in any more favorable
light his having a legal right to link his interest with yours or you to
link your interest with his. One thing is settled. I could not connect
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with either of you if this step is taken, for I see this matter in a light
that the Scriptures would condemn your connection. Therefore, I wish
you both to understand that from the light God has given me regarding
the past and the present, I could not think of employing either of you
if you take this step.