The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-17


 tells me that I can remarry a libertine,
 who has been sinfully divorced, that is no 1 reason why 1 should tarnish the good
 name of my church by placing such a 1 black record upon the session books. No, no. my brother ministers, we cannot thus
 shirk our responsibilities. You and I are l responsible before God when we become
 officiating parties in the marriages of l divorced persons. religious marriage
 means infinitely more than mere civil
 contract. If not why do nearly all peo- l pie desire to be married by clergyman
 instead of by a police judge or a coun-
 ty judge?
 Responsibility of Ministers. l We are responsible as ministers. A legal divorce, in ninety nine cases out i of hundred, Is not sufficient ground for 1 a church divorce. We must remember 1 that the minister before the world stands l as the representative of the church. Why 1 legal divorces are often obtained on the I flimsiest excuses. Bishop Fallows. in
 scathing attack upon this marital evil. | quotes some of the most absurd and l trivial causes on account of which men 1 and women have been divorced. One l woman got a legal divorce because her
 husband enlisted In the United States
 navy; another because her husband i smoked and gave her headaches; an- other because her husband called her 1 sister a thief; another because her hus- 1 band did not like her front hair and cut l part of it off. One husband secured | divorce because 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 a heinous
 sin as to marry such divorcees to other | faa arf al ftn Ia
 us ministers to band together and rouse
 public sentiment upon this question. By
 our actions as well as by our preaching
 we must protest against this national
 crime. We must do this because church
 marriage before God and man means that
 the church gives its sanction to the un- ion and regards it as sacred and indissolu- ble
 Another breakwater which may help to rescue this country from the divorce evil,
 as the Holland dykes have made a rescu ed ocean bed the home for the Dutch
 queens subjects, Is for parents to train | up their children to regard marital en-
 gagement as almost as sacred as the
 marriage itself Daughters and sons should think deeply and long before l they plight troth to any one. It Is to teach them that one of the most heinous of sins Is to trihe with the human heart. |
 woman Is compromised for life who has
 been guilty of engaging herself to differ ent young men just for fun" Such ac- l tions on the part of any young lady are 1 less the sign of mental and physical grace l and social popularity than of a depraved l 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 poison l lo Ia
 and just as hastily broken.
 A Hint to Parents.
 l I once heard of young lady who used ] to boast that she was engaged to three 1 different young men at .he same time.
 she had in her possession three different 1 engagement rings after awhile she dis 1 missed all three suitors and married l fourth Do you wonder that after such
 perfidles her married life was unhappy? 1 Untrue to her fiance, of course she was | untrue to her husband. A divorce scandal i few years later was the result Her fa- 1 ther, a noble Christian man of the west, 1 as a result felt himself disgraced and re- signed his pulpit for he was minister. 1 His life was to some extent wrecked as
 well as hers. You say such course as ! that is an extreme case? Of course, but 1 all evils should not be despised because they are not monstrous evils. The little, | seemingly harmless firtatons during 1 summer vacations or at a church picnic or in the street car or concert hall are all divorce seed plantings. You cannot l trife with human affections in youth
 without being In danger, as an iconiclast, 1 of smashing the marriage shrine when 1 YOU are middle aged. Let parents be l 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 It Is all well l enough to talk about the vaunted freedom l of the American boy and girl; but for my 1 own part especially in reference to the l promiscuous association of young people | and the careless promises they are al- | lowed to make. I think they have alto- gether too much freedom.
 Another divorce preventive: Financial expenses in the gerat majority of homes should be curtailed and greatly dimin- ished The income should not be made to meet the outgo. The outgo should be contracted until there is sufficient mar gin left for unexpected expenses, such as sickness or loss of work or financial re- verses. The proverb says, When poverty comes in at the door love flies out of the window" That is not true when all mem bers are systematically trying to do their best. But when husband and wife go upon the supposition that marriages are made in heaven and then, with blinded eyes, run needlessly into debt, there Is nearly always marital friction. The wife planes the husband the husband the wife. Per- petual friction, then, on account of the money question ignites the divorce fires. Then the family altar goes up in a Satanic blaze.
 Another divorce preventive: The puri- fication of the American press both in book form and in periodical and in the morning newspaper. The pestiferous trash which every day and every week and every month, like winter blizzard, is flung into our faces by the snowstorm of the printing press is enough to destroy the healthy heart throbs of any young person who Is allowed to read it. am. of course. not speaking against good pub lications. but bad publications Go to sl- most any book stand that you see and open some of the books at random and read There we find the authors make their heroes out of bad men and their her pines out of bad women, with here and there a redeeming white spot to offset these black characters. Broken marriage