The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-28
"Only God knows, and they
Who have Joined his great Array"
w. H. POLLOCK,
In Longman's (Eng.) Magazine.

1t is certainly very gratifying to see
that public attention is being awaken
ed as to the immoralities, enormity and
peril of the divorce mania. It is the
duty OF all Christians to unite against
an iniquity of far greater scope than is
commonly a~pprehended. If it continues
to grow in the next decade as it has in
the last few years by 1910, half the
homes in the land will be broken up
and lust and crime and broken law
will reign with unbridled defiance and
madness. The venerable Bishop Doane,
of the Episcopal church, in the north,
in a recent address upon divorce, said
nan impressive things we would be
pleased to know were widely rea and
thought upon His address was sug-
gestive and pointed. We give this:
Perhaps it is true-I think it is
that neither gospel preaching nor legal
u enactment will control the men and
women who can avoid the sound of the
one n evade the penalties Of the
other.
but if the men and women who are
Christians in purpose as we'll as in pro-
fession, can be reached n made to
realize their duty in the matter; if So
ciety, and especially that curious mix
u L opCllo IIoCII VI " CopA
tai S, can be brought to realize the
dangers, the discomforts, the disgrace
that threatens; if this can be done,
then an influence can be brought to
bear that may yet bring back the days
when the security and purity Of the
home and the family were the charac-
teristic of a Christian nation"
While fashionable society is more or
less rotten in the north, as it is in Eng
50 TC~@~>A h~ f~~ ID
bauchery n divorce is not confined to
that class. 1t has reached the whites
of a lower grade socially. You can
see evidences of this daily in the news
papers, and ever in the courts Of North
Carolina the crime of divorce increases.
Gods own great law is defied, despised,
and lawmakers help on the mania by
putting the conditions SO low that al
most any one can jump the bars. The
eminent and gifted prelate spoke at
length. We quote again from the re-
port of his remarks:
1.-THE bishop said further that the
alarming increase to divorce had be-
come a serious threat Ito morality, de-
cency and social stability in this DUN
try and this age; that the anon law
of his church today sets a higher
standard than is set by the civil law
of the states or by the canon Of any re-
Iigious body, except the church of Eng
land, but judged either by it's effect
or by the authority on which it rests 1t
is not stringent enough.
mo one al doubt hat the frequen-
and facility of divorce is due large
ly to the thoughtlessness with which
the engagement to marry is entered
into. And no one can say how often
that is due, consciously or uncon-
~sciously, to the feeling that if a mis-
lake has been made it can be rectified
by some of the innumerable resorts to
an appeal for separation"
1t is the imperative duty of all de-
nominations claiming to be Christian
to take this serious matter in hand and
to deal with it promptly. Let no man
be sent to the legislature who favors
loose divorce avs and who will not
agree to stand by the teaching Of the
Book of books in regulation of it. 1t is
a moral question of highest import.