The Washington herald., 1916-09-10
YOUR WEDDING DAY
September I0-Richard Baxter and
Margaret Charlton.
And the Famous Men and Women
who Have shared Ii.
BY MARY MARSHALL.

September 10 stands out on the calendar
as a wedding day of particularly gooo
auspices, for II was the day CHOSEN
by Richard Baxter and Margaret Charl-
ton for their wedding. And the mar
riage of those typical English Puritans
stands out as one of this happiest mar
riages of which we have any record,
Richard Baxter was certainly not
a character to figure very strikingly In
a romance, however. He was forty-seven
at the time of his marriage and. be-
cause of his religious scruples, he had
hitherto put far from him any thoughts
of marriage. He was a man much more
deliberative and studious than passionate
although he possessed the gift OF COM
peliing eloquence. His methods of SER
mon writing are still regarded as worth
careful study by English preachers, and,
what is much more interesting to most
folk, the memoir that ne wrote OF MS
beloved wife after her death Is regarded
as one of the most beautiful and tender
written tributes ever paid by an Eng
lishman to his wife.
Margaret Charlton was very much
younger than her husband and. as Bsx-
ter explains in the memoir she was
from one of the chief families In the
country" while he was but a mean
freeholder, called a gentleman for his
ancestors sake"
Margaret's home was with her father
and mother at Apsley Castle, which was
demolished partly by the Royalists,
against whom Richard Baxter preached
SO eloquently. But though a Puritan
maiden, Margaret was not as sedate
In her youth as her elderly suitor might
have wished. I'm her youth" he quaint
Iy writes, pride and romances and COM
pany suitable there to did take her up
And he goes on to explain that when she
and her mother first came to kidder-
minister, where Baxter first met the fair
Margaret, she had a great aversion TO
the poverty and strictness Of the people
there, gIittering herself in costly apparel,
and delighting in her romsnces."
Before many weeks had passed. how
ever, Margaret had a change of heart
and. giving up her frivolous ways. de-
voted herself to the more sober task of
listening TO BaXter's sermons, reading
devout books and working for the poor.
That she found much to admire in her
PuritanIc teacher and not little to her
taste In the new life she was leading
seems evident for 1t was the fair young
Margaret herself quite as much as BaX-
ter who first thought OF the suitableness
, of their marriage.
The unsuitab bleness Of our age" writes
against marriage, and against the con-
veniency Of ministers marriages, who
have no sort of necessity. made our mar
riage the source OF much public talk and
wonder" However the marriage did take
place two hundred and nfty-four years
ago today. and thereupon began one Of
the happiest marriages OF Puritan Eng
! land.
When we were married" Baxter
quantity says, her sadness and melan-
choly vanished; counsel did something
| to It, and contentment something, and
being taken up with our household af-
fairs did somewhat And we lived in in
violated love and mutual complacency
sensible OF the benefit OF mutual help.
These near nineteen years I know not
that ever we had any breach in point
of love or point OF interest. Among other
troubles that her marriage exposed her
TO, one was over oft necessitated re-
movaIs. which 10 those who must take
| houses and bind themselves to landlords
and At and furnish them is more than
! for single persons that have no such
| clogs and cares. and the women
have most OF that sort of trouble. But
she easily bore it all
Copyright 1851