The age-herald., 1901-12-08
SOCIETY MARRIAGES,
BY ALFRED SETON.

special blessing. It simply means that society has not as yet sufficiently broken away from religious superstition to re- gard the marriage by magistrate as on a social parity. In fact. 1t would seem that they possess the desire to make the minister of the gospel party to their adulterous int ent, and thereby give a touch of decency to their enterprise
 l. But why should 1t be otherwise? When the conditions surrounding first marriages are weighed and considered on the scales of reason and justice, the surprise is that divorces are not more frequent. Young women are educated In certain circles to
 regard entrance into the marital rela. tion much in the same light as her broth
 CT may be taught to regard his entrance
 into a business or profession. It is
 something to be done in order to estab-
 fish them Those dreams of love and TO-
 nance, which sincerely trust all girls cherish in secret as maidenly and nat ural, are disturbed by the ambitious mother. If little voices whisper in the
 maids heart that she is to be loved for
 herself and that he who will win her
 must be noble, brave, intelligent; her
 mother breaches in her ears that he
 must be rich, of good position and with
 excellent connection. It makes no mat ter if his manners are effeminate, his
 morals atrocious, his bearing offensive.
 And she-well, she becomes the adept
 pupil. Marriage is stripped of it's TO-
 nance; love the alchemist that refines
 lust, is crushed, and the girl becomes a bride. Bedecked in the fineries of the
 bridal trappings, she stands at the altar
 and hears the words pronounced that
 gives her a legal right to her bride
 grooms name and property Her place
 is that of fashionable girl performing
 a social function to which she has been trained; 1t Is not that of maiden giv-
 ing herself for better or for worse to
 a man, and humbly asking Gods bless
 ings on her choice and determination. l If there be immortality in the second | marriage in what degree does it com- | pare with the immortality of the first? l Second marriages are much more apt | to natural selection than the first. In 1 the first marriage there exists the undue | influence of the family forcing the girl l by gentle coercion into a state of eohab- | itation with a man for whom she has
 no love, and in the second 1t is to be
 assumed, she acts freely and of her own
 will. What sanctifies the marital re-
 lation? A virgin selling herself at the
 altar cannot stand on a different moral l plane than the virgin selling herself for l gold without the priestly benediction. It
 must be an insult to heaven for a maid I to seek at the altar the blessing she does
 not ask for from the heart. Nothing I sanctifies the marital relation save the l love that binds woman to man and man l to woman. The relationship is then pure and natural, commended by the saints | and in accordance with the laws of God
 and man. Such may truly with pended knees ask upon their union the blessings
 of God These are marriages. No man | car put them asunder. All others are | civic contracts and nothing more. The relationship is not merely bestial; it IS | lower-sinful.
 l It is not for the house of Bishops to l fume over second marriages. If they are hunting sin, let tkem point their javelins at first marriages. Let those who seek
 the altar the first time approach it in the right spirit. Do priests and ministers | and bishops holding marriage to be a | sacrament, examine those who approach the marriage altar as they do those who kneel at the communion table? Nay | Social custom has made them lax. They
 see sin in the second marriage, but none
 in the first Society has yelled it's eyes l to the adultery in second marriages and
 become totally blind as to the lust of the l first.