Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-04-28
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

and the extreme laXity of the marital
laws in some states. God never
intended the end of marriage should be
divorce, neither did he intend that the
beginning should be based on selfish
ness, falsehood, or dollars and cents.
AS God is love, finite and infinite, so
a holy marriage has God in it, based on
finite love, truth, honor and tenderness
for such a marriage there need be no
divorce legislation. The elements of
divorce are laid at the marriage altar.
Harm is done by everything that tends
to vulgarize marriage. 1t is, it must be,
the highest and most solemn concern
Of man, and he who enters into it
without pure and elevating motive,
lays the foundation of discomfort
Most Of the divorces that are granted
would find a happier solution Of
troubles by a kindly consideration for
the faults or weaknesses of the COM
panion, a respect for the rights Of such
1t is manifestly unjust to large number
of grand, heroic souls, who are living
lives made dark and unspeakably
miserable by the tyranny or vileness of
wife or husband to condemn them to
life long servitude. On the other hand
the easy divorce has proved the most
stupendous wrong that undermines the
home and social structure of our
government. The browning disgrace
of our country is the lax marriage laws
and lack of uniformity in them. Better
thousand times the rigid rules Of the
church, and the blighted lives of the
martyrs to the cause, than the democrat
izing effects of divorce laws that mean
license to marry and unmarry as caprice
directs, marry in one state, divorce in
another letting the latitude and longi-
tude determine the sacredness of the
relation. We need, above all things,
uniform divorce laws. Laws sanctioned
by church and state. It is under holy
orders to take up the work as one of, if
not the most holy ordinance of the
church.
The church allows separation, sane
tons separate maintenance sometimes.
1t is such cases that have a right to ask
the sanction of the church for absolute
divorce. When church and state are in
harmony of opinion on the right of
separation, let divorce annul the legal
chains that bind. Then let the worthy
ones still find hope and encouragement
in a new life. When one has honestly
tried in kindness and consideration and
true dealing to make a home and life
worth the name, but failed through
reasons that humanity, religion and
justice count as intolerable, in Gods
name let them try again holly. Some
times a woman marries for home, evil
in temper, false in principle, selfish to
the very care Of her nature she makes
the sacrament of marriage a hideous
dream. A case in point is when there
were children, by former marriage,
who were in the way. A girl of
fourteen after enduring torture and
cruelties unspeakable went insane. A
little three year old boy had his feet
put against red-hot stove for CRYING
because his little feet were cold, but
according to New Jersey laws, where
the crimes were committed, no divorce
could be obtained because the woman
had not committed one certain crime
Bosh Is the body more than soul? Is
the one cause the highest claim we
recognize for marriage? Habitual lying,
thieving, drunkenness, brutality, vile
ness, murder, do they all count of less
degrees of heathenism than infidelitv?
No! by all that makes life dear, and
safe, and precious, no! Let adultery be
a cause for divorce, stand first on the
list; but murder, the hate and brutality
that would kill but for cowardice stand
as paramount. Let not one cause rule
but let holy causes. Where selfshness
rules the life and has eaten the heart
out of the family relation, the craven
coWardice of the individual, man or
woman, who care only for their own
contemplate desires, will build fires
that will doom the home to ashes If
will be the seeds of discord, envy and
rebellion, or a lack of mental and
moral stamina fit to carry them through
the world in the enjoyment of honest
happiness.
Many Of our highest characters in the
human world, who have studied the
question from many points of view,
argue ''there should be but one cause
for divorce" They see overwhelming
evil of the one cause, find in divorce a
temptation to enter the marriage
relation with a mental reservation. A
caprice, convenience, deep trouble,
or chance of radical benefit makes
a reason for breaking the relation,
hence they think rigid laws will prevent
the great tide of divorce from breaking
down the sacredness of the home
and IN a measure it is so, but we must
remember the holiness of the sacra-
ment rests on mental as well as physical
reasons. To many man or woman
their own physical desires or selfish
pleasures count for less than naught by
the side of loved ones comfort. A
incompatible in seeing their children
cruelty treated Drunkenness is
desire, sickness is a calamity, extrava-
gance is a misfortune, jealousy and
envy and hypocrisy are grievous faults,
but intidelity, inhumanity, lying,
thieving, habitual cruelty, are crimes
that are in themselves a breaking Of
the marriage vow. Love, cherish and
protect. Love, honor and obey 1t
means a semblance of it in daily life, at
the table, in the living room, in the
intercourse of the family, or it means
living a daily lie. Those whom God
hath joined together let no man put
asunder. We believe it, but we also
believe God never joined together the
low, the cruel temper, the selfish
egotist, the vile companion with its
negative. God never meant either
party should degrade house by vile
speech, vile habit, by cruel tyranny or
unkindness, by falsehood, stealing,
murder, bearing false witness; by envy
jealousy, rage, or kindred inhumanity.
4 smile was Oh the linS of the man who