Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-02-18
cIands.ssas aaa Runawny Masrh.,-

CIaRdsstine aad Runaway Matches.
5 The Baltimore American discusse.
:. this subject in late issue, in a mos
sensible and and striking nanner.-
We make the following extract:
1t is almost infaIIibiy Certain that
neither party to clandestine or run
away marriage has anything ap-
Proaching just es,imats,o of the fear
ful responsibilities belonging 10 the
welded stale. Under God the entire
happiness ola wife's lifetime depends
I upon the feelings and conduct of the
husband to whom she may have rash.
iy committed all her hopes. Alto
gether. aside from the requirements oi-
food, raiu1ent and shelter, there are
ten thousand indispensable elements
In every happy household. The ever
present sympathy, which cannot be
cultivated, but which must be OF
spontaneous growth, and which is moi
manifested in words, or looks, or acts,
| bat like an electric fash, passes from
one heartto to the other-the patient
forbearance. which cannot be simuia
ted by any amount of social indiffer-
ence, but which must be the legiti-
mate offspring of an unselfish love;
that rare self-denial which has no
sting, because it is swallowed up in the
sympathy with her qualification for
whom the sacrifice is made. All
these are constantly present in the
heart of the true husband, and he
who is unconscious of them, but
lamely meets the obligations he has
incurred.
In the Decalogue there is a single
commandment with promise annex
ed. sHonor thy father and thy |
mother, that thy days may be long |
upon the land which the Lord thv |
God giveth thee.' Some of the old |
divines, in observing the common di-
vision of the code into two tables, |
have included this commandment in |
the first, which has reference to our
duties to Ged-saying that the scope |
OF the precept extends beyond the |
mere literal meaning of the words
Their pharaphase is: ''Thou shalt |
honor God in his representatives."-
Ii needs no argument to show that
all runaway matches except those so
peculiar as to make them exceptions /
to a general law, are in direct opposi-
ton to this enactment. II requires
no strained and unwarranted applica-
ton of the command to prove that the
daughter who fees from her parents
house in search of happiness with the
man of her choice, in her first step in
life's journey, deliberately tramples
upon this high command of heaven-l
heedlessly rejects the blessings pronis-
ed 10 those who obey it-heaps dis
honor upon the head of the father who
begat and the mother who bore her,
and with callous indifference teaches
those to whom she is under obligations
TO render honor and obedience-'how
sharper than serpent's tooth it is to
have a thankless child. Verify she
begins life under very unfavorable
auspices.
There can be no doubt that the ia
tai cause of these wanton violations |
of divine and human law is in the de-
fective education of females of this
generation. The home lessons do
not sufficiently inculcate the stringent
force and obligation of that law which |
requires answering obedience to
parents on the part of children so
long as the parents live. The in
creasing age of the child should only
confer increasing ability to recognize /
the claims of the parents, and no ma
turity of age or power can dissolve the
relationship or weaken the obligation
evermore resting on the child. 1t is
at the freside, more than anywhere
else, that those teachings which are
founded alike upon the law of God,
and the very constitution of society
are to be enforced. But not only |
here, but also at the schools, these /!
fundamental principles of truth and
righteousness are either careleSsIy |
taught or altogether omitted; and in
their stead those merely outside ac-
compliskments, which have no value
in comparison, are laboriousIy and
ceaselessly .inculcated. Upon such a
foundation the usual superstructure
is fitly reared, and in its composition
are included the most false and frivo-
lous views of life and its responsible
ties, drawn from foolish novels, born
of giddy brains!