Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-01-11

license for holding a prize fight that is
no reason why | am compelled to &C
and witness two pugilists batter each
others face into pulp. Because Chi
cago gives a license to gamblers to open
a race track that is no reason why |
should go and patroniZe the boOsmak-
ers. Because the county clerk tells me
that | can remarry a Ebertine. who has
been sinfClly divorced. that is no rea-
son why | should tarnish the good
name of my church by placing such
black record upon the session books
No. no. my brother ministers, we cannot
thus shirk our responsibilities. You and
l are responsible before God when we
become officiating parties in the mar
riages of divorced persons. religious
marriage means infinitely more than a
mere civil contract. If not. why do
nearly all people desire to be married
by clergyman instead of by a police
justice or county judge?
Responsibility of Ministers.
We are responsible as ministers. A
legal divorce, in ninety nine cases out
of a hundred. is not sufficient ground
for a church divorce. We must remem-
Der that the minister before the world
stands as the representative of the
church. Why, legal divorces are often
obtained on the fimsiest excuses.
Bishop Fallows, in a scathing attack
upon this marital evil. quotes some of
the most absurd and trivial causes on
account of which men and women have
been divorced. One woman got legal
divorce because her husband enlisted
in the United States navy; another be-
cause her husband smoked and gave
her headaches; another because her
husband called her sister thief; an
other because her husband did not like
her front hair and cut part of it off.
One husband secured a divorce be-
cause his wife refused to sew on his
buttons; another because he told his
wife he had found another woman
whom he could love better. Think of
any minister being guilty of such
heinOus sin as to marry such divorces
to other marital partners. 1t is high
time for US ministers to band together
and rouse public sentiment upon this
question. By our actions as we'll as
by our preaching we must protest
against this national crime. We must
do this because a church marriage be-
fore God and man means that the
church gives it's sanction to the union
and regards it as sacred and indisSolu-
BILE.
lyVU for w hOl
to rescue this country from the divorce
evil, as the Holland bikes have made
a rescued ocean bed the home for the
Dutch queens subjects, is for parents
to train up their children to regard a
marital engagement as almost as sa-
cred as the marriage itself. Daughters
and sons should think deeply and long
before they plight troth to any one. 1t
is to teach them that one of the most
heinous of sins is to trifie with the
human heart 1t is to teach them that
every young woman is compromised
for life who has been guilty of engag-
ing herself to different young men
''just for fun Such actions on the
part of any young lady are less the sign
popularity than of a depraved female
heart Yet almost everywhere we see
the future tare harvest, which shall yet
be gathered in the divorce courts, now
being planted in the poisonous seeds of
engagements hastily made and just as
hastily broken:
A Hint to Parents.
l once heard of a young lady who
used to boast that she was engaged to
three different young men at the same
time. She had in her possession three
different engagement rings. After
awhile she dismissed all three suitors
and married a fourth. Do you won
der that after such perfidies her mar
ried life was unhappy? Untrue to her
fiance, of course she was untrue to her
husband A divorce scandal few
years later was the result. Her father,
noble Christian man of the west. as
a result felt himself diSgraced and re-
signed his pulpit, for he was minis
ter. His life was to some extent wreck
ed, as we'll as hers. You say such a
course as that is an extreme case? Or
course. But all evils should not he
despised because they are not mon
strous evils. The little, seemingly
harmless fiirtations during summer va
cations or at a church picnic or in the
street car or concert hall are all divorce
seed paintings. You cannot trife with
human affections in youth without be-
ing in danger, as an iconoclast. OF
smashing the marriage shrine when
you are middle aged. Let parents be
careful with whom their children asso-
ciate Let them beware of what they
are allowed to say to others and what
others are allowed to say to them. 1t
is all well enough to talk about the
Wanted freedom of the American boy
and girl; but for my own part, espe-
cially in reference to the promiscuouS
association of young people and the
careless promises they are allowed to
make think they have altogether too
much freedom.
Another divorce preventive: Finan-