Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-12-29

L Y
gives a reason for one of the preju
dices which may hold without rea-
son; we mean the building of &
second marriage like monument on
the sepulcher of the first,
But the common voice of man.
kind replies, marriage is dissolved
by death. Now of the souls dear
est passion this may be right or
wrong philosophy. But, accepting
this universal opinion as correctly
interpreting our inherentnature, the
question arises, since marriage is
dissolved by death, is it dissolvable
10y anything else? If so, by what d?
To answer what breaks, we must
inquire what makes, the marriage
bond.
The divine moraiist who preached
the sermon on the Mount, when he
said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father in Heaven is per-
feet" held up an ideal of human
character impossible of mortal at
tainment-the despair of flesh clog
ged souls. In like manner, in the
few and fragmentary notes which
his biographers have saved of holds
up an ideal the highest ever con
ceived-beautiful to struggle after
but impossible to attain He did
not rest marriage on the mere legal
union of two persons whom the
law, uniting, enacts to be one flesh /;
but transcendiDg this tie, and hal
lowing it, he taught a spiritual union,
which should be so subtitle in its
willing bond, so exclusive in its mu-
tual allegiance and so reverent of
its married mate that ''the brief in
duigence ola single vagrant farcy'
was infidelity to such wedlock. Who
car abide this test? Judged by so
immaculate a morality, There is
none good, no, not one"
Nevertheless, as the only Just
ideal of human character is, after
all, the divine, and nothing short OF
it; so the only right ideal of true
marriage is the impossible-the
perfect picture which Christ sketch
ed But, as there is an approx
mate realization of this character,
Notwithstanding the weakness ol
human nature, SO also there is 4 rea-
sonahle approach to this marriage,
Notwithstanding the vicissitudes of
human love. Thus husband and
wife-if they have rich hearts and
generous minds-if their sympathies
interfiow like continent streams
may love each other with such dc
votion, with such exaltation, with
such coronation, as to attain to the
royal estate which Shakespeare
called "a measureless content" re
alizing in each faithfulness of love
that could not possibly betray or de-
ceive its other self, love SO infinite
that it could contain only it's own
tu!lness, q love which. like the sea,
could never depart out of its own
bosom.
Now this is the lcve aud the only
love that spiritually constitutes mar
riage, and marriage, however legal
ly enacted yet without this spirit
of unity 70 create its ''bond OF
peace" can be under Christ's theo-
ry, nothing but divorce.
The greatest question which has
been propounded to modern society
is, What is to be the legal status,
and what TIE social fate, OF persons
who find themselves married but not
mated? The common and pusil
luminous answer is, To remain in 9
bondage which it is ostr.cism to
break. But a just moral sense
piercing sham morality which i:
only andther name for custom, asks
What excuse can be given to God
and TO virtue, for keeping two bu
man beings in an enforced union
which each knows 10 be degrading
to both their souls 4 public ,opin
ion which compels the juxtaposi
ton, or which forbids the discon
nectloa OF an minated pair-who
are tied, not knit-chained, not
wedded--violates the ethics of Him
who, preaching from the mountain
top OF morals, taught so terrible s
distinction between love and lust
Marriage without love is a sin
against God, Il sin which, like Other
sins, is to be repented of, ceased
from, and put away. No matter
with what solemn ceremony the
twain may have been made one
yet, when love departs. then mar
rage ceases and divorce begins
Inis is the essence of Christ's idea
10 say that He granted divorces
only for gross and fieshy crime is
to forget that he called the eve 3
paramour and the heart a wapton's
bed. Even granting that one Of his
speeches seems to call adultery the
only divorce, yet in his other max
inns, in Illustrating what lie meant
by adultery, He set forth an ideal OF
so faithful fidelity that most mar
riages. estimated by this standard,
would be proved adulterous, and be
pronounced by his whitening iudy.
ment null and void.
How shallow, then, it is to say,
with the Roman Church, that there
shall be no divorce, not even fol
aeshy lust, or, with the Episcopal
DO divorce except for just this, and
this only; .or. with the Presbyta.
rian, no divorce except for this and
for desertion; or with the Metho
dist missionary boards, no divorce
except for these and for heathenism
or, with the civil laws of some oi
our States, no divorce except for 9
few of the more common aud hide
Gus ofienses which daily report
themselves to our courts.
John Milton was right in declar
ing we do not quote his words, but
only his meaning, that whatever
nullifies marriage justifies divorce
With faint echo we repeat the same