The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-27
THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE.

THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE.
Marriage ought to end with affec-
tion,' says the Socialist in whose
philosophy the word Ought" has no
place.
Marriage is a failure says the
Divorce.
Marriage is lottery with the
chances against both the gamblers,
says the unbelieving philosopher.
Reverend Charles Alfred Martin of
the Ohio Apostolate has a different
view of the subject, which he presents
in his excellent brochure, Cana, or
Little Chapters on Courtship, Mar
riage, and Home"
For most young men and women,
with health in their blood and life's
fair prospects before them, he says,
the love that makes 1utter the youth
full heart looks forward to holy we'd
lock as the state in which it will re-
ceive stability and meaning and con-
secration Marriage is not the ending
of love, the last chapter of the TO
nance as the story books have it; it
is not the aftermath of the enchant-
ment, of the hoping fearing heart
throbs, the bright colors and soft
lights and warm bouyant life with
which love beautified the world and
drugged away every pain. No, the
story books lied! Marriage is but the
beginning of love; its realization and
enjoyment; as courtship was its pur-
suit and conquest
Marriage is the rounding out, the
perfecting of the individual life. 1t is
the bringing to his side mans other
half: his better half if you will. 1t
is the bringing together of two
souls who were made for each other
and who need each other for the COM
pletion of their lives. Male and fe-
male He created them" From the
beginning the same God said: ut is
not good for man to be alone" so
most men have vocation to the mar
ried life: or perhaps better said, mar
riage needs no special vocation; and
it is only a peculiar call to work
whose sacrifices make it impossible,
that may exempt from the divine in
junction written as we'll in nature as
in the Holy Book, Increase and null,
tiply."
1.-THE Two Shall Be One.
The youth not drawn by the spirit
of God to live and labor in higher
spheres such as that of divine minis
tration or self-sacrifice for others, nor
handicapped by sickness or misfor-
tune, is prompted by the instincts of
his nature to marry. A student OF
human nature thus analyses the call:
even in the midst of home and
friends and companions he feels a
loneliness which none of these can fill;
a yearning for some one who will be
more to him than comrades, closer
than sister or brother who will fill a
void in his life left vacant by the
nearest of kith and kin; heartburn
ger for one who can be altogether his;
one who will complete his confused
and meaningless life; will be part
of himself; will be one with him"
The Scripture gives expression to this
longing of the human heart for its
complement when it says: "The two
shall be one"
And when the youth realizes that
affinity, flashing of sudden into his
life, like the grace of God striking
Saul, or mayhap grown into it quietly
and unrecognized till now, what new
ness and purpose life takes on. The
old Greeks were right when they said,
Eros created the world out of chaos.
Love is the soul of the world and
all things have life from it. All the
world loves a lover, because he
smiles his love upon all the world
AS Emerson says: The same pas
sion has a power over his own ma
ture; it creates for him all things
anew. 1t expands and ennobles his
sentiments 1t makes the clown gen
tie and gives the coward heart. Into
the most pitiful and abject it puts a
courage to dare great things, to defy
the world, so only it has the appro
baton of the object loved. He is g
new man; with new perceptions, new
and keener purposes and a religious
solemnity of character and aim. Now
he is a person, soul, man. Nc
longer can he merely appertain tC
family and brethren; but he leaves
father and mother and friends, ant
cleaving to his wife, becomes a new
social unit"
"Love in a Cottage"
If the home that marriage has built
to settle down to lifes keen realities
falls below the rhapsody of twenty il
fever and poetry it makes up for it il
peace and satisfaction.
If, as the years go by, the hear
beats more slowly, the diviner ele
ments of duty and virtue enter in