The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-09
DIVORCE EVIL GROWS RAMP ANT Churches Will Begin Campaign to Secure New Laws, CHILDREN MUST BE TAUGHT Holiness and sanctlty os the Marriage Vow Should be Impressed
 Upon Them from Early
 Youth.
CHILDREN MUST BE TAUGHT

Philadelphia, May s-The inter-church conference on marriages and divorce, a body representing officially fourteen lead- ing denominations has issued through it's secretary. the Rev. William Il. Rob- erts, D. D.. an appeal to the public call ing attention to the several aspects of the divorce question.
 The paper is the beginning of a national campaign of education on the subject to be followed by efforts to secure the en- actment of laws in the state legislatures and ultimately 1t Is thought of an amend ment to the constitution Of the United States.
 Already action has been taken by the conference looking toward the preven- ton of the remarriage by ministers of other communions of divorced persons whom clergymen of their own faith have ] refused to marry.
 This movement is the first occasion of any sort on which the representatives of the great denominations officially come together. The members of the confer ence include:
 Protestant Episcopal the Presbyterian church. Methodist Episcopal church, Methodist Episcopal church, south; Re- formed Church of America, Reformed church Of the United States, United Presbyterian church, Evangelical Luthe- ran church. the Baptist church. the con- gregational churches, the ITniversalist churches. the Unitarian churches the Reformed Presbyterian, the Cumberland Presbyterian church. the Alliance of the Reformed churches holding the Presby- terian service.
 The abstract of the appeal is as fol- lows:
 First General Address and Appeal.
 "On behalf of the Representatives of , the fourteen churches composing the n- i terchurch conference, which during the l past two years has held frequent meet ings for the consideration of the import , ant subject of marriage and divorce we have been instructed to issue this first general address and appeal Tt Is proposed to issue other appeals . as occasion may require, in the hope that the influence of this representative con ference may be brought to bear effect lively upon ecclesiastical and civil courts and legislative bodies for the securing of better conditions and for the deliverance of the church and the state from inn pending evils.
 Before any civil legislation can be enacted which will be operative and quite apart from the accord which we are seek. ing to secure in the marriage regulations of the Christian churches. must come the , leavening of the minds of men and women which shall lift them toward a recogni- l. tion of the noblest dignities of life
 First of all we plead for the cultiva- r ton of the grace of purity, for the care II ertta rfltp of ,bI |. 4t.a mosphere of home by parents and for the realization of the dignity of our physl- cal nature lifted to such high honor by the incarnation
 We plead for n recognition of the sanctity of marriage We are facing a 3 condition in our country today which threatens danger to the most sacred things. The very sanctuary of human life and of human love Is assaulted and profaned Manhood. womanhood and childhood, the home and the family are involved, and neither civil legislation nor ecclesiastical discipline can save them until and unless the conscience of Christ ian humanity is reached. Behind the monster of polygamy, behind the spectre of the law divorce court, with its collu- sons. its corruptions and its contaglon. stands the sad fact of the low ideal of marriage.
 Element of Mutual Consent.
 Tt Is true that the element of mutual consent and the element of legal con- tract enter into 1t; but underneath and behind these, as the sure foundation. stands the revelation of Gods Holy Word. God at first brought woman to a man, one woman to one man. to whom he shall cleave, so that in Gods purpose and Gods sight they are one flesh. The primal marriage was followed by cen turies of hardened hearts and laws low cred or lost, until at last Christianity was connected by the voice of the Divine Law Giver with the old law which He laid down at the creation: 'have ye not read that He which made them at the begin nlng made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shll be one flesh
 Marriage is holy thing Marriage is the institution of God Himself and is sanctihed under the soiemnities of the old sanction by our blessed Lord. This Is the root of the matter. Reformation must begin here. Children must be { taught it. Young men and young women l must be made to feel if. Protected in purity, boy and girl. man and woman 5 alike must be trained to look with rev. erent eyes upon the horness of this tate: upon It's mysteriousness as some thing higher and deeper and larger than ? can be measured or reached by the low ideals or eOINeHieHc'f UT HRAAtiS oatdh7. tage of the qualification of passion, or by the light and easy estimate of the con sent of the passing personal fancy and the mutual recognition of the civil con- tract.
 Shall be consecrated.
 ''The hope of curing and crushing the horrible tendencies to facile and frequent divorce rests we believe. upon impress ing and incucatlng such an intense con- viction of what marriage is and of what marriages means. that 1t will cease to be entered into 'unadvisedly or lightly; that the festivity which accompanies 1t shall be sobered and consecrated by the con- scious presence of Him who adorned and beautified the marriage at Cana in Call lee by His presence and first miracle that He wrought that neither man nor wom- an shall dare to enter the precincts of betrothal without the tested certainty of love; without the full recognition of the T |
 Continued on Second Paae.)