The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1900-11-24

IdSl ouiiuety ny 'SVN. W A'l. iNiiiSeio III
the series on the Making of Happy !
Home it being the third and dealing
with "The Marriage Relation
Talks to the Heart on THE Making of
Happy Home" No. 3-'The Marriage !.
Relation" Text, Gen. 4:67. And Isaac
oved Rebecca; and he took her into his
raother's tent and she became his wife: |,
and Isaac was comforted after his moth (
er's DEATH"
Back of the home lies marriage. The I
wedding day throws it's shadow far down +
the future, and it ought to be a shadow +
OF healing and benediction. In tales of I
old medieval English life a maiden |
went before the bridal party on theirtway /
to the church, scattering flowers in their I
pathway. 1t was meant to signify that
their married life should be one of joy
and prosperity. Almost universally we'd |
ding ceremonies have some feature of
similar significance, implying that the
occasion is one of gladness. Sometimes
the flowers are worn as bridal wreathS;
sometimes they are woven into garlands
for the waist, the tying of the ends be-
ing a part of the ritual; sometimes they
are carried in the hand, or worn upon the
bosom. Joyous music also comes in, and
in some places bells are rung, their peals
being merry and gladsome. All these
customs indicate that the world regards
! the wedding day the crowning day of
highest happiness, the occasion for the
heartiest congratulations. Not always
( are these prophecies fulfilled. Sometimes
the flowers wither and the music grows
idiscordant and the wedding bells die
away into memory of gladness only. 1t
ought not to be so. 1t is not when
1.-THE marriage has been a true one. and
when the welded life is ruled by love.
Then the flowers remain fresh and fra
grant till they are laid upon the casket by
the loving hands of the one who survives.
Marriage is intended to bring joy to man
and woman. Welded life is meant to be
the happiest, fullest, purest, richest life.
1t is Gods own ideal of completeness In
the old Eden story We are told that it
was when God saw that it was not good
for man to be alone that woman was
made and brought to him to supply what
was lacking. The divine purpose, there
fore. is that marriage shall yield happI-
mess by adding to the fullness of the
life of both husband and wife, so that
> neither shall lose, but that both shall
gain. If in any instance it fails to be a
blessing, and to bring lasting JOY and to
make the united life of and woman
richer and fuller, the fault is not with
marriage, but with those who, under its
shadow, fail to fulfill its conditions. The
most sacred relation of humanity is that
lof husband and wife. 1t stands for more
than fatherhood and motherhood broth
r fountain from which these other relations
= lsrring. 1t is a relation as old as the race
itself. The old Anglo-Saxon Bible trans
:, ilates those words of Jesus in mos
beautiful and significant way: Have W
not read that he which made them a
y the beginning made them male and fe
u male--he the weapon-man, she the web
Il imam: he the defender, she the clother
:. he the warrior she the weaver; each in
Indispensable to the other, and both indis
u tdivine alchemy that tranSmutes the maj
: and woman into husband and wife. Mar
{ Iriage is a divine institution. 1t is not
c lJnere human arrangement, as so many
: people seem to think, something that ha
q lsprung up in the history of the race a
i a matter of convenience. 1t was not de
: vised by any earthly lawgiver. 1t is no
u a custom into which men fell by acci
dent. The stamp of divine origin and o
. divine purpose is upon it. Not only is /
: the most sacred relationship on earth
|. 1t is also the closest. The relation of par
Il ,ent and child is very close Children ar
e taught in the Bible to honor their fathe
}. and mother, to revere them, to brighte
and bless their lives in every way. An
yet the marriage relation is put abov
the ffIial, for, says Jesus, a man is t
n leave his father and mother give up hi
d old home with all its sacred ties an
II memories, and cleave to his wife Afte
% marriage mans first and highest dutie
are to his wife, and womans to he
" husband. The two are to live for eac
n qher. Life is to be lost for life Ever
if other interest is thenceforward second
a airy to the home interest.
a Then the marriage relation is indisso
- u5le. The two become, in the trues
sense, one. Each was incomplete befor,
a marriage is the uniting of two parts int
" one complete whole. 1t is the knittin
n together of two lives in a union so clos
and real that thpV rO in, h,
!, one; so close and real that nothing say
- death or the one crime of infidelity ca
L disunite them. Marriage, therefore,
to not simply contract which can be al
u. nulled at the will of one or both of til
n, parties. Ii is a contract it Is true; bl
= II is more; it is union. 1t Is for bette
~ for worse; and trouble or sorro
e which may arise after it's sacred vow
have been given and taken, can justif
t. it's dissolution. There is only one Grim
re says Jesus, which, committed by eithe
- leaves the guilty one as dead, the 9th,
as free. When two persons stand at II
g marriage altar and with clasped hant
Id lpromise before God and in the presen,
<e ,of human witnesses to take each 9th,
ot as man and wife, to keep and to cheris
: each the other, only death can unclas
., their hands. Each takes into sacred keel
III ing the happiness and the highest goo
he lof the other to the end of life. Marriag
We then, is more than mating for money
no position. 1t Is more than bargaining Fl
~ a housekeeper, or for food and CLOTH
'e and shelter; it is more than owning
n pretty face as one owns a gem, or a pi
ur ture, or an exquisite piece of statuary
We is the holiest of all relations. There is
do nobler estate than that of matrimol
-, rightly entered into; when a man and
cn woman have so entered into It. belle
III they stand the nearest to God
To illustrate my theme this evening
if US now spend little while in the tie
no OF one of the old patriarchs when Z
- world was young. AS the story of I
wooing OF Jacob, which we consider
od last Sunday evening. so the story
ur the wedding of Isaac, his father, is o
it's OF the most beautiful and tender 10
we stories in the Bible, If not in all liter
80 ture. Abraham sends his trusted Sc
W want to Major in Mesopotamia to choo
IN from his own kinspeopIe a wife for
son Isaac. We are not to infer fro
this that fathers should always choo
ist wives for their sons. or entrust SO de
bs cate matter TO faithful servants, /
w. cause tastes differ and / question whet