The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-03-22

course dwelt al length upon the snbject
of " Divorces, and spoke as follows upon
that great social problem:
Il IS not possible 10 do more at pres
cit than 70 speak briefly of few topics
connected with the subject, and those
are as follows The point
aimed Al is facilitating divorce; the
theory which undeFiies these attempts
the Connection Of this movement with
some social and religious heresies; and
the position of the church on this
question.
Now of the FIRST point: z is not the
relief of persons unhapplly Joined to-
getter; that is secured under all Chris
tain statutes. Divorce is Of two kinds:
one consists in the temporary separa-
tioa # persons who cannot live 10
gether in safety, they, however, remain
ing husband and wife Ii married per
sons lind 1t impossible to live together
in peace, If one be hard, cruel, brutalS
dangerous, j. is right that the other
should be allowed to withdraw from the
peril and that they should remain apart
TIL they Come to better mind. But
this differs from another kind out of
which springs the poison, the wasting
flame. 1t is divorce followed
by a new matrimonial alliance
with some other person. Keep
these two always sharply dis
distinguished in your thought They
Gently ia the law of the state and of the
church. Divorce with the privilege of
marrying again; divorce, which abso-
IGtely separates the married, destroys
the home anu throws the road open to
other aiiiances-that is the abominaiion
which we have to deal with to-day. Ia
queStionably that is the point aimed at !:
that divorce for any cause shall carry
With it freedom to marry again: and
that the causes for which divorce may
be obtained shall be made'so numerous
tSat any married couple may easily be
parted under the protection of the law.
This is the only adequate explanation
of the movements which have at length
so startled and shocked thoughtful and
religious people. They who dare to
speak their mind say distinctly that
what they want is entire freedom in the
matter; that men shall have the right to
put their wives away for any cause, and
women to dismiss their husbands at
will. Public decency and the lingering
power OF religion forbid the concession
of that liberty as yet, so that they must
legal fornlalities in order 10 a separation
But il has been we'll pointed out, not
long since, that when we reach the state
toward which they are drifiing--whe
one marriage may be lightly set. aside
and another entered into-we shall
have reached the condition of the Nor
mon, with this sole difference: that b is
polygamy is simultaneous, and ours
consecutive. The Mormon can have as
many wives as he can maintain; the
skiiful divorcer can also have many,
only not all at once, but one after anoth-
er, as fast as he can decently or indie
Gently make the desired changes In
der such system there would be no
more wives, strictly so called, but the
wretched creatures Ia their degradation
would be simply registered concubines
And this bIings us to the second point
the theory underlying this movement
for increased facilities for divorce.
There is a theory here upon which the
whole abomination rests-that marriage
is a civil contract and nothing more.
Now the essence of all such contracts is
that they may terminate at the pleasure
of the parties. This is the idea of mar
riage which has been steadily taught for
long time; that a marriage is like q
partnership in which when the partaers
find it for their interest or pleasure to
"disselve" they ought to be left
free to do so. This theory must in the es-
seIce be implied in the position of ev-
cry advocate for easy divorce. The idea
that anything sacred attaches to marriage,
that it involves religious duties or sus-
tains any to third party, such as God
whose word and will enter into the trans
action, must have utterly vanished
away.
Now We are ready, IN the third place,
to state the connection of this evil with
some of the social and religious heresies
of the day. The civii.contract theory of
marriage is an outgrowth of that system
which banishes God from the world and
from human life. Il is principle of a
rationalized community, of q society
which has ceased to be Christian. Some
of US are reproached for not being in
accord with the spirit of the age; but
the spirit of the age and its movements
are practically aiheistic. To drop all
religious ideas; to cease to recognize
Gods will and laws; to teach men to
live without God, is the aim of the mod
ern reformer; and his views of marriage
are only one of the signs of his general
state of mind.
Marriage is not mere civil contract.
1t is a Divine institution. It makes a
man and woman one flesh. 1t binds
them together for life, in union never
20 be dissolved. 1t gives them one ma
ture, one life, one ann, common inter-
ests; they should be one IN thought,
mind, will, love; in each other they
should find their full and complete hap.
piness Nowhere is this so beautifully
brought out as in St. PauTs epistle to
AZ, Thu IF ho 5,f,e
band and the wife is effected not as a
human partnership, but by a DiyIne
power. 1t is great mystery, great
sacrament. Il man must love his wife
because she is himself, and no man ever
hated his own flesh.
Now can such union as this ever be
dissolved under any circumstances so
that the parties, or either OF them, shall
be free 10 form another? That is the
question out of which the trouble
grows. Granted that marriage is often
most unhappy; that owing to the weak
ness, the folly, the treachery, the sin,
which are characteristic of human ma
ture, come men and women find their
union to be the very contradiction Of
the. design of God, and go intolerable
that they must be parted should either
be free 10 marry again?
Now in all this far and fast drift to
the bad, it is the woman who suffers
most; her interests are more directly
involved than those of man; it is she
who should view with most solicitude
the rapid weakening of the general con-
science as to the sin and crime of these
separations; for the moral state which
they will induce will drag her down to
her former degradation, past all chance
of recovery or rescue.
Woman should remember that 1t is
the religion of Jesus Christ which has
sanctitied her person and exalted her
sex; that every word which Christ ut
tered concerning her relations to man.
as maid, as wife, as widow, is for her a
work of life; that there is not, and can
not be, work more urgent for her, or
more essential to her safety and honor,
than to see that those words of Christ
are kept perpetually before the com.
munity, blazoned and illuminated as
the very talismen of social security
When, il ever, woman attains com
plete independence, she may find her
self crushed under burdens too great
for her to bear; there are signs of that
already; they multiply; one traces them
in all directions. And the social and
moral wreck of woman viii be com
plete when the conspiracy against holy
matrimony triumphs.