Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-30
THE FAMILY.
ITS IMPORTANCE AND iTS PERIL
SERMONlZEO.
Reform Needed in the Celebration OF
Neutrality-suspicious. of Rev. LIoyds
Interesting Letters.

Marriage is the most important act of any
human being between the cradle and the
grave. More depends upon it than upon
any other single act of life. ii is fraught
with issues that involve the happiness of
the parties interested, not only for time,
but in many instances for eternity. y mis-
ster here is fatal. and may result III a
blighted life on earth, and eternal misery in
the world to come. God made men and
women for each other, and life on earth
cannot find its completion except in the
marital state-the union of one man and one
woman into - one flesh" In such union
wisely made there is complement in each
for each others lack, and the issue
is untold happiness. Marl iage nor
only concerns the two who unite their des
TIMES. but it concerns their offspring ana
society as well. 1t lies at the foundation of
the social system, and more than we can
perhaps at first believe, does the well being
and good order of the social body depend
upon well-regulaJed marriages. There are
three orders or conditions of people inter
ested in every marriage and that need to be
protected in the matter of marriage by the
forms CT law. They are the parties them
selves. the parents or guardians of the par
ties who marry, and the state or society 1t
large.n
Very young persons frequently desire to
marry long before they are sufficiently ma
tured in judgment to weigh all sides of the
question, and to make a wise cnOice of
partner for life. Besides, physical or men-
tai infi.mities may incapacitate for the
proper discharge of the functions of mar
red life, or for the rearing of & family. For
these and other reasons, parties who desire
to marry should be protected by the forms
of law so that they cannot hastily contract
Il union that brings only harm instead of
good.
Then the parents or guardians who have
reared children and who are Vitally inter
ested in their well-being, and who perhaps
need the support which their children give
them, or it may be, feel unable to take upon
themselves additional burdens in the way
of an increased family, they must have pro-
lection afforded them-at least until such
time s their sons and daughters arrive at
IN age when they become by law master of
their own actions. Moreover the state
organized society-must have such protec-
ton as viii secure its members from the
disorder and confusion that result from
libertiniSm and uncontrolled marital
unions.
Every careful student of our social status
and OF the laws regulating marriage can
hardly have failed to note how surprisingly
inadequate our laws are for the proper con-
Jrol of this fundamental fact of society, and
for afforc:ng the needed protection to all
parties interested. Not only is the prevail
ing Interpretation of our common law (the
Kent doctrine that parties can marry them
selves a fundamental error of the first
magnitude, but there is in nearly all of the
United States distressing lack of attention
in the existing laws to the details of the
subject Our lawmakers must have thought
that either marriage was not matter of
much Importance, or else that the people
were so universally wise and good that mis-
takes would not be made nor wrongs pe-pe-
trated. When We read the laws in Europe
and note how carefully every point is
guarded, and then think how loosely our
own are drawn, we wonder, not that we
have so many unhappy marriages and d.
vorce suits, but rather that VIC have so few,
all things considered.
. To afford the needed protection referred
4o above, the marriage laws of the state
should aim at three things: l. Simplicity:
.. Certainty: g. Publicity. In proper
sense of the word, marriage should be en-
couraged. not discouraged. Hence the laws
that regulate 1t should be few enough and
simple enough to be remembered under
stood and easily obeyed. This much for the
parties who marry. Viewed from the stand
point of society, marriage is civil contract,
and so the state is specially concerned as to
the certainty of its occurrence If there,is
doubt here 1t matters not from what cause
it arises, there is trouble ahead for the par
ties themselves and for the state Then. in
the interest of certainty, and for the bene-
fits of all concerned, the third element of
the law, publicity, should be carefully
sought. This is of the highest importance.
as on it depends nearly every fact of conse-
quence connected with the marriage cele-
bration. And just here is perhaps the weak
est point in the laws of most of our states
on this subject. In the European coun-
tries, whose laws on marriage have been
previously quoted IN these papers. it was
seen that IN every possible way publicity is
sought.
If banns are published they must be an
in the parish church for three sue
cessive Sundays-not in one church only,
but if the parties live in different parishes,
then in the church where each lives. If a
license issought the application must give
a full description OF the parties. their
names, age, where they live, names of par
ents, etc. In England if the marriage is to
be solemnized by certificate of the registrar,
the certificate, giving all the facts concern
ing the parties, must be posted conspicu- |
ously for twenty-one days before the mar |
riage. The application is entered in book |
open to the inspection of the public at al |
times. In addition to all this |
the marriage can only be celebrated be- |