Connecticut western news., 1881-04-20
HUSBAND AND WIFE.
The Spirit in Which Matrimon
 Should be Approached.

The Spirit in Which Matrimony Should be Approached.
 Marriage was the subject of a dis course by the Rev. Robert Collyer, who took for his text Hebrews, xiii. i.,- Marriage is honorable" After an nouncing the text Mir. Collyer said:- The most sacred relation of human life is that of wife and husband. Wife and | husband stand for more than father and mother or parents and children, because their blended life is the fountain from which all these relations spring; and changing the mere man and woman into these sacred names makes that glory which is otherwise shame Ac- cording to the Bible it is @ relation as old as our human history, counting that history as you know the Bible does count it, from the time when man ceased to be 0 mere wild wandcrer and began to plant things and dress himself, and came to the knowledge of good and evil and began to be aware of the presence of God in his life. And nothing outside of the Bible that I know of, contradicts this testimony. Other ancient books cast the matter into other forms, as they themselves are the pro duet of other races. But the whole story amounts to this, when 1t is told thnt in the beginning the divine power made the man and woman and set them on the throne of the world and gave them the grace to become husband and wife and to find in each other the counterpart and completion of their own being and the true condition through which we people the world forever with new life. So, while the creation, over which man was given dominion, followed its special instinct, sought it's lair or made its nest, brought forth their young, and before another spring knew them no moro for theil own than if they were on another con- tinent. This husband and wife made themselves, reared 8 family and were steadfast to them, not for few months but for lifetime sent them out to dt as they had done, but still counted them as their children, born of thei
 body and intimately one with the oll homestead And so it is that thi
 human race has never evened itsel touching it's offspring with the beast
 that perish, except when it has becom
 lower and worse than the beasts tha perish. In the grossest savager, marriage as 8 rule is as rude and bruta as possible. As we rise ill the scale 0 life it takes nobler and better form and on the summit of life it is sacra ment, the truest sacrament know oi and the surest, if we take it unworthily
 to living damnation.
 THE ESTIMATE OF MARRIAGE.
 A true marriage is always religion
 act in itself, because religion mean
 the binding of one to another in pun
 and true union. So the Scripture
 never command this relation, so far (
 can remember; they only recogniz
 and guard and bless 1t. The man an
 woman in true wedding become hu
 band and wife because their Create
 made them for each other, just as
 made Adam for Eve and Eve for Ada
 ill the garden. I say the true match
 the rule, and in the vast majority of i
 stances those who come to be husbar
 and wife were made to be husband a1
 wife. Yes, and very often in the ia
 of our sins and follies, and not at ;
 by our discerning, the great sacred g. is given which makes a heaven for s- when we would make @ perdition f le ourselves. To believe, as some do, th ar disappointment and misery come ve most marriages. is very much like | "- lieving that in this world the devil h ho dominion over most souls. Thomas a If Mary sit in their home and wonder ht od John and Susan manage to get alo re on so small a stock of esteem, O CT Thomas and Mary shake their hea bo, over John and Susan. But you if en that somehow there is better with nd worse, as there is worse with the bett en Very tender and true they are apt to le- when sickness takes the children ve oy1 sore. They weep together over ,ct little graves. We see only the surfa e. we note only the dissonance. It is l t. the chimes of Trinity, which fall no sweetly about the life below that tn ,er ,nr to whom they are but the accompa ed ments of life do not heed them and ur but dimly aware they are pulls it. through the busy marts. But let tn rec strike harsh discord and thouss
 faces will be turned to Trinity spire ou. wonder. They hear that, and tha ep- the truth about our life. Still go llls' to say that what you are saying to yc otI selves just now is quite true; there great deal of trouble in this land of O,
 rising directly out of th1s relation Try husband and wife, and trouble .us' cannot be brought within the lines pti aet have tried to draw, but breaks out s1 flames up in quite an internal way
 fors the world, 50 thst we hsvs te