The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-19
MORNING STAR AND CATHOLIC MESSENGER.
NEW oRLEANs. SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 1868.
Woman's Riqhts.-The Marriage Service

understand from those who keep posted in
such matters that these WOman's Rights
publications have descended to depths
shocking to every sense of decency. This
fact, it would seem, ought to be sufficient
to put on their guard all who respect pro-
priety and good morals. But, unfortunately,
when once the whole atmosphere is tainted,
disinfectants can, mt best, be but partial and
local. When such papers as the Independent
and Tribune, and such lecturers as Theodore
Tilton and Horace Greeley-powerful pro-
pagandists of evil-spread broadcast over
the fsr,rt t4tte-seees of aoIal corruption the
fruit may lie supposed not unlike the apples
of Sodom. The influence which these papers
have over the New England, and. to a GER
tain degree, over the Western mind, is al
most incredible, and has to be witnessed to
be fully realized Next after the Bible, and,
in periods of excitement before it, they give
impulse and tone to Northern thinkers.
While this is true to great extent over all
classes, it is pre-eminently SO of females
Let the occasion be what it may,-whether
the anniversary of IL sewing circle, IL prayer
meeting, or the packing of IL box of red
part of the mental entertainment is drawn
from the papers and writer's above named.
A journal called the Adrance, started
about a year ago in Chicago, babe fair to
undermine the prosperity of the Independent,
but Tilton, throwing all his force into the
new ism-Woman's Rights-rccalled the
wanderers to their allegiance. and now he
reigns the rnapproached champion of 90 fe-
male women"
What is most dcplorable in all this is the
decentralization and utter abandonment of
divine authority which the teachings of this
school effect. The lightness with which the
marriage tie is regarded is IL matter of every
day notoriety. Courts and legislatures are
often engaged, to the exclusion of other
matters, in separating men and women upon
the most frivolous pretexts-one parsonage
having the effrontery to seek relief because
her husband shocked her nightly WITHHOLD
feet!
In this connection we copy from Il con-
temporary the following paragraph:
1t is not generally known that in some
tered to suit the progressive views of the |
times. The charge to the parties previously |
read, "I require and charge you both las |
you shall answer at the dreadful day of
Judgment, when the secrets of all hearts |
shall be disclosedl that, if either of yp1r+
know" etc. SO in the covenant the bride |
promised to " obey" and "serve" her hus-
band, as well AS to " love, honor, and keep
him." In the present ritual both the refer
ence to the day OF Judgment and the brides
vow to obey her husband are wanting. In
stead of (" wilt thou obey him, serve him.
love, honor, and keep him. as it had stood
for centuries, it now reads ':wilt thou love,
honor, and keep him. the words '.obey him,
serve him, having been eNpunged. And SO
also, i'll the words of the bride to the bride
love, cherish, and obey till death do us
part us it was up to 1864, we now read '.to
love and to CHERISH merely the I" obey
having been struck out. There seems to be
n little agitation, mainly on the part of
young husbands, it seems, to have the
omitted words reinserted.
We have heard well-informed ladies be-
longing to the Presbyterian Church declare
that they did not believe St. Paul inspired
when he wrote the fifth chapter to the
Ephesians, particularly that part which en-
Joined wives to obey their husbands. We
have known persons in undoubted, good
standing in their own church who refused
to accompany invalid husbands on short
and enjoyable trips when the doctors man
date, friends opinions, and the patients own
experience imperatively called for the step.
The strength of these instances can only he
appreciated when it is known that these la
dies are regarded in their own ecclesiastical
organizations as models of Christian women.
Yet. such is the perversion of unsanctified
reason, that the most Obvious and whole
some restraints are tortured into an infringe
ment of natural rights and-rercnge!
We ardently hope that our own people
may be saved from the baleful influences of
the unsexed of either gender