Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-02-11

nervous laugh. was asking. "Here?' and
taking a place by my side; that the light
ed altar, laden with flowers, was in front
Of me- and that the bishop in his vest
meHts, Father Dan in his surplise and
white STOLE and a clerk carrying book
and vessel of holy water, were begin
ming the service.
Surely never was there a sadder cere-
mony. Never did any girl under similar
circumstances feel a more vivid present
ment of the pains and penalties that fol-
low on forced and ili-sorted marriage.
And yet there came to me in the course
Of the service such a startling change Of
thought as wiped out for a while all my
sadness made me forget the compulson
that had been put upon me, and lifted me
into a realm of spiritual ecstasy.
The bishop began with short litany
which asked Gods blessing on the cere-
! mony which was to join together two off
| His children in the bonds of holy we'd
lock.
While that was going on l was con-
scious of nothing except the bowling Of
the wind about the church windows and
the far-off tolling of the bell on St AIarys
| Rock nothing but this and voice within
me which seemed to say again and again
and again, Il don't love HIM [ don't
! love HIM"
But hardly had the actual service corn
! menced when | began to be overawed by
! the solemnity and divine power of the
service and by the sense Of God leaning
/ over my littleness ana guiding me accord
! irg to His will.
/ What did il matter how unworthy were
the preparations that had led mp to this
marriage if God was making it? God
made all marriages that were blessed by
! f;.,
lis own good ends all human impulses,
! however sordid or selfish they might he
Bound Together
After that thought came to me nothing
else seemed to matter, ard nothing, how
ever jarring or homogeneous. was able to-
lower the exaltation of my spirit
But the service, which had this effect
upon me, appeared to have an exactly
opposite effect on Lord Raa His nerv-
BUSINESS increased visibly, though he did
his best to conceal it by "a lightness of
manner that sometimes looked like de-
| riSion.
Thus when the bishop stepped down
| to us and said:
| James Charles Munster. wilt thou take
| Mary, here present for thy lawful wife
according to the rite of our holy mother
| the church. my husband halted and
stammered over the answer. saying be-
meath his breath, 81 thought | was a
hereto"
But when the corresponding question
was put to me, and Father Dan thinking
| must be nervous, leaned over me and
whispered. Don't worry, child, take your
time" I replied in a loud, clear, unfalter-
ing voice:
81 willr'
And again, when my husband had TO
put the ring and the gold and silver on
the salver, he fumbled and dropped them
as he did so, and fumbled and dropped
them second time when he had to take
them up after they had been blessed.
laughing too audibly at his own awk-
wardness, and then repeat after the bish-
op:
with this ring | thee We'd this gold
and silver l thee give; with my body 1
thee worship, and with all my worldly
goods thee endow," he rendered the ring
slowly and with obvious effort.
But l took it without trembling, be-
cause I was thinking that in spite of all
I had heard of his ways of life this SOL
emn and sacred sacrament made him
mine and no one else's.
1t is all very mysterious: | can not ac-
count for it; / only knew it was so, and
that, everything considered, it was per-
haps the strangest fact of all my life
Father Dan read the epstle beginning
Let wives be subject to their husbands,
and then the bishop read the Gospel, con-
Guiding, Therefore, now they are not
two, but one flesh; what therefore God
hath Joined together, let no man put
| aSunder"