Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-09-22
NEEDN'T PROMISE TO OBEY.
Notable Change in Marriage Service
Of Methodist Church.

It is reported as notable circum-
stance that the marriage service pre-
sented in the new Methodist hymnal
excuses the woman about to enter tn >
holy state of matrimony from making
any promise to obey the man whom
she has chosen, or at least accepted,
as her future husband.
According to the formula prescrib.
ed for the occasion she must promise
to love, honor and keep him in sick
ness or health to the exclusion of all
other but upon the subject of ODE
dince the ritual is silent. It does not
undertake to determine who shall be
the boss of the future household, and
as things go in the United States at
the present time the determination is
perhaps unnecessary. In this impor-
tant respect it differs from the mar.
riage service embodied in the revised
report of the Presbyterian General
assembly's special committee, which
exacts the ancient pledge, pledge
more honored in the breach than in
the observance. The young woman
who stands up before a Presbyterian
minister at the hymeneal altar will
still be required to give her word that
she will recognize it as a wifely duty
to do as she is told should the occa-
sion for the issuance of a command
arise.
There can be no denying that of the
two ordinances the Presbyterian is
the most Scriptural It was st. Paul
who promulgated the rule of the
Christian church in this matter, and
he did so with his usual lucidity and
emphasis. What he said was that
wives must obey their husbands in
the Lord; but then that was a long
while ago, and not only did st. Paul
as an unmarried man lack experience,
but he seems to have regarded WON.
en- from strictly Oriental point of
view. They were not to speak III
church, they were not to do up their
hair the way they wanted, they were
not to go to church bareheaded, they
were not to do this, that and the other
That may have appeared all right
to Dorcas Priscilla. Eunice, Lois and
the other devout women with whom
the apostle was associated during the
active years of his ministry but it
wouldn't go down nowadays. The
women wouldn't stand for it. At least
lhCs NouluA III luOSC OullCu oldlSS.
1t would be accepted as sound doc
trine in Asia. where for the most part
women are content to occupy a dis,
tinctly and substantially inferior posi-
ton, but the wives and daughters and
mothers and sisters of American citi
zens wouldn't submit to anything of
the kind for minute.
This is what makes it relatively I'M
material whether the blushing bride is
required to promise obedience or not.
The result will be all the same in the
long rum 1t is not the obeying the
average American wife expects to do.
It is more generally the other thing.
It is the bossing, and that is no Joke.
This is not censure; it is a tribute
1t is a tribute to the superior attri
butes of the American woman and to
her natural capacity for command.
If she bosses her husband it is for his
own good. and more than half the
time the bossing is so adroitly done
that the subject of it is unconscious
of the circumstance And yet there
are ministers who want her to PROM
Use obedience. The idea.-Philadel-
phia INQUIRER,