Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-04-15
NEW MARRIAGE SERVICE.
The Form Proposed by one of the women.
women.

women.
In the last number of the Independent
Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps takes excep-
lion to the usual form of the marriage GER
emony, and proposes the following as an
improvement:
Which beginneth with the words " Let
us pray
at the close Of brief prayer the minis
ter shall say:
"In the presence of God and of these
witnesses, we are now come to solemnize
he covenant of this man and woman in
marriage. Are you, Charles True, prepared,
Of your own free willis inclining and whole
hearts desire, to take upon yourself the
vows which shall make and Keep you the
husband of this woman as long az death
shall spare you one to the other?n
(He shall say !" l am."
Are you, Charlotte Tender, prepared,
Of your own free willis inclining and
whole hearts desire, to take upon yourself
the VOWS which shall make and keep you
the wife of this man as long as death shall
spare you one to the other?"
(She shall say 1 am"
" Is there TO your Utmost consciousness
any hidden reason why you should not
charge your,lips with the utterance of these
words? Does the voice of your secret soul
cry to you-by any reproach of memory,
by any uncertainty of hope-to forbid
these banns? If there be such q reason,
il there be such a voice. in the presence of
God and of these witnesses, regard it before
10 be too late"
Both: "There is none such"
Unto the man he shall say " If you
feel within your honest heart that any other
woman ought to hold-or, in the sweet
mood of your affection, that, any other
could hold-the place which this woman
occupies to-day, for your SOULS sake, &C
knowledge it before it be too late"
unto the woman he shall say }: "If you
feel within your honest heart that any
other man ought to hold-or, in the sweet
mood of your affection, that any other could
.nold-the place which this man now oc-
cupies to-day, for your souls sake, &C
knowledge 1t before it be too late"
lReceiving no responses, the minister
shall proeeed):
"Then reverently do 7 offer you, and
loyalty may you take upon yourselves, the
covenant of true marriage"
"Do you, Charles True, take this woman,
whose hand you hold, to be your lawfully
welded wife?n
(He shall say) d" do"
do you, Charlotte Tender, take this
man.. whose hand you now hold, to be
your lawfully welded husband?n
(She shall say :"I do"
- You promise to cleave unto each other
in sickness and in health, in prosperity
and in adversely through trial and triumph,
N temptation, peril, joy, sorrow, through
life, unto death. You promise to be faith
Gul each to the other, in deed, word and
truth. You promise to assist each other in
your mutual and individual life's work,
rendering each to each such tender
thoughtfulness and such large estimate OF
the others nature that neither shall absorb
in petty eXactions or in selfish blindness
the others subject life You recognise il
to be the duty of every woman to live a
life of individual service to an individual
God, and you hold it to be the special aim
of marriage to assist men and women in
the pursuance of such service, by union
which brings mutual responsibility, mutu-
n forbearance and mutual comfort, to re-
place solitary labors and lonely failures and
lnshared successes. You, therefore, promise
to regard each the others preference in al
your plans of life, and 20 consider any
claim of one to legislate for the other, as
foreign to the spirit of q righteous marriage
and the letter of your vows. You believe
that the sweet restraints and large liberty
of mutual love shall serve you in the set
dement, of all difference of opinion, anC
that your happiness will be increased 10y
YOUR recognition each of the others free
dom of personal judgment and action
Your promise to reverence in each other al
that is essentially different in your natures
and to meet generosity upon all that j
common, and to elevate, each, for tn
other and each IN Cne otneri your luealS q
manhood, of womanhood, and of marriage
DO you thus believe and promise ,"
Both shall say: q" do"
"Then do / pronounce you to be husban!
and wife. The great necessity of love
laid upon you. Love is no longer its own
but each others. You have set yourselve
90 learn the longest lessons of human eX
perience. You have entered upon cor
iition of the highest duties, as well as {
the deepest joys. AS earnestly as you hay
come to it may it come to you. AS solemn
as you have chosen each other, ma
Gods blessing choose out you. Even 6
tenderally as you are drawn to each othe
may his heart be drawn unto you. A
sacredly as you cherish each other may h
protection cherish you.
Love- we read, is stronger tina
Death OF whatever there shall be ]
human love which outlives human lii
may the love of this man and woman
found worther to partake!
For all that the love of man and W.
man may mean, in world where the
neither marry nor are given in marriag
.liod grant that this earthly marriage, ms
1T these two heaven-born souls.
Amen"