The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-03-21
The Tie That Binds.

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"We can't tell you, Constant Reader,
what days are unlucky to be married on.
Authorities differ; some say 365." The
skeptical number of the family who had
passed beyond the probable, although not
the possible, matrimonial limit, read the
'joke," as he termed it, aloud and in
dulged in hearty fit of laughter over it
and pronounced it ''good.''
1t might have passed in the mind of the
general reader as good joke, but to the
more thoughtful it was suggestive of the
spirit of the age. Nearly ali the light lit
erature of the present day read by the aver
age reader savors of unhappy marriages.
| The heroes and heroines figure as men and
women who have made mistakes in their
selections Of partners and find their true
afinities later.
Our young people who read these books
get their ideas of marriage largely from
these pernicious stories, which make mar
riage anything but the tie that binds.
1t is because of the light manner in
which that tie is held, that there is so
much of unhappiness in the marriage rela-
ton, and the reason we hear so much and
so often Of petitions to dissolve that rela-
tionship. There is no other more endur-
ing tie than that of marriage when it is
made of love and founded on the sacred
principles which our Lord intended it to
be. There is something radically wrong
in the restlessness of our married people
Why is it that the environment of home
life seems to be so easily wearied of? Why
is it that there are so many things to take
husbands and wives away from the peace
and quiet of their own fresides? Is it
not great question whether club life is
not breaker up of the old home life,
which the husband and wife should hold
as the best and pleasant of all possessions
St. Paul. in his letter to Titus, incul-
Gates the idea that the wife should be a
keeper at home. But to be a keeper of
home the wife must be lover of home
and make it as attractive as possible for
her husband A writer has said that the
chief instruments of human reformation
and transformation must be steady and
| constant
"You have been married nearly thirty
years." said one friend to another.
eyes, and feel so happy to think that
in all that time he never tired of me.
There was so much in his outside life to
attract him from his home, yet he has al
ways held that as the dearest spot on earth,
and kept his love for me just as true and
pure as when we were lovers in the long
ago.
The husband could have given the same
testimony to his wife's devotion. She
never tired of him. Even after thirty
years of being together, bound by the
closest tie, he never left the wife without
a goodbye kiss, and on his return he al
ways met her with CHEEKY welcome which
always made the home coming such de-
light to her. To her he was the one man
of all the world, and to him she was the
one woman. They were united in tie
that would bind through all the changing
seasons and scenes of life. To be true to
each other and to make each other happy,
had been the high aim of their married
life.
The person is guilty of great wrong
who does in any way weaken the tie that
binds two hearts together. 1t is not al
ways done by the destinations of evil
minded men outside; oftentimes those of
our own households, insinuations or fault
findings, disparge the husband in the eyes
of the wife, or the wife in the eyes of the
husband The daughter may have mar
ried man in whom the father and mother
can see no special attraction, although
there is nothing Objectionable in him. But
the young married couple love each other,
and woe to anyone who in any way casts a
shadow over that love! A son may bring
home a wife, who, if the mother had
chosen for him, would have been some
other maiden; but their love is true and
the aim of the new life is to make each
other happy, and why should the mother
weaken that love or make their lives un-
happy because she does not see wherein
that son found his affinity.
1t is the duty of every one to help make
the sacred tie of marriage what it should
be; and people who get up this scheme or
that one to induce married people to find
their highest pleasure somewhere else ex-
cept at their own firesides and each others
company, will do well to consider whether
they are not undermining the peace and
happiness of the home life.
After ''the old order changeth, and
those who have walked together, bound by
the tie of true love, for years, are separated,
how hard it is for the one who is left to
finish the journey alone! As she journeys
up the heights without that companion
ship which had been her greatest joy in
life, she cannot refrain from telling those
who are behind her to clasp hands tighter
and make the tie of marriage one that binds
in true, pure love. Let us all be careful
that we do not, by word, or pen, or act,