News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-04-12

| erence, that his pOlygamv Is slmultane
ous and ours consecutive. The Mormon
can have as many wives at once rs h
can maintain the slilIfuI divorcer cI
also have many, only not all at once, bu
one after the other. as fast rs he ca
decently or indecently make the desired
changes. Nay, under that system, wcr,
it generally established, there would ht
no more wives, strictly so called; bu
these wretched creatures, each taken by
some form deemed sufficient by the law
each dropped by some other form apt fol
that purpose, not bound to man for life
hit only during his pleasure or her own
these degraded and Inundated being
would not be wives, but simply regis
tered concubines.
After a brief statement of the ''civi
contract theory of marriage DIR. Din
showed the connection of the evil with
some of the social and religious heresies
of the day. ''The civil contract theory
of Marriage Is dn outgrowtn u that sys-
tenn which banishes God from the world
and from human life. It is a principle
of Il ratiOnalized community, of a society
which has ceased to be Christian Some
of us are reproached for not being in ac-
cord with the spirit of the age and its
movements, but the spirit Of tho age and
its movements are practically atheistic.
To drop all religious ideas, to cease to
recognize Gods will and law, to teach
men to live without God, is the aim Of
the modern reformer, and his views of
marriage are one among the signs of his
general state of mind. Unfortunately,
we cannot stop here. The truth must
be told. This is not only sign Of an
infdel society; it is also an upgrowth
from the system known rs Protestant
ism. There can be no doubt as to the
genesis of this abomination.
After an exhaustive consideration Of
the subject, under the differing Protest
ant and Catholic theories and doctrines.
enforcing the postulate that marriage is
not merely civil contract, but a divine
in its nature sacred and in
violable, the lecturer concluded rs fol-
lows: LET the woman remember that
it Is the religion of Jesus Christ which
has sanctitied her person and exalted her
sex; that every word which Christ uttered
touching her in her relation to man, as
maid, as wife, rs widow, Is for her a
word of life; that there is not, and can
not be, a 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 commu-
nifty, blazoned and illuminated as the
very talisman of social security. Harm
enough has come to her already under
the pretense of Il lettering of her condi-
ton. The law of God makes the man
and the woman one flesh; it gives her
rights which he must recognize. But
the law of man in revolt from God tends
TO divide the man and wife, treats them |
Is two Independent persons, gives the |
woman a separate position and separate |
interests. From this state If is an easy
f ever, woman obtains a complete indie |
Dendence, she may find herself crushed |
mder burdens too great for her to bear |
Then this viii be the history: That she
whom God lifted up from the state Of
and slavery, aud crowned
with honor and glory as Christian wife,
will, after having turned away from God
to follow her own desires, sink back to
be once more mans slave and concubine
The conditions may vary to match the
altered aspects of the world; the thing
viii be the same; the lapse will be into
the old misery and bitterness, and once
more shall the iron enter into her soul,
and the fetters be riveted to her limbs,
and there shall be weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth"