The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-05-10

and dignity in fond-lovmg subsection.
The phrase, "as unto the Lord, in
Ephesians, 5:22 furnishes the pattern
and the principle of the Christian
wife's submission to her husband. The
subsection Of the Christian wife to her
husband reserves for Christ Che FIRST
place and The unimpaired rights Of
His saviourship in her heart "For
the husband is the head Of the wife.
even ais Christ is the head of the
Church. and He is the Saviour Of the
body. Therefore, as the Church is
subject unto Christ, so let the wives
be to their own husbands in every
thing" (Eph., 5:23,24.) As a Christ
submits, not because she has found
spiritual sphere. AS a wife, she is
subject to her husband in the married
relation. The duty is enjoined in Gods
word and is binding whether it was
openly acknowledged and promised or
not at marriage, and it is sin to
withhold it. Her love will tighten the
yoke of obedience, will check the dis
content that masculine exactions pro
woke, and will teach her to win by
gentle submission her influence in the
home that is her queenly crown.
And what of the husbands duty?
He is to love his wife, and, because he
loves, he is not to be bitter against
her in look, word, or act. The paral-
lei passage in Ephesians adds the sol
emn, elevating thought that mans
love to his wife is to be like Christ's
love to the Church: patient and gener-
Gus, self-forgetting and self-sacrifc-
ing, Withholding nothing and giving
all, shrinking not from suffering and
death, itself. Such was the Lords love
to His church. Such is to be the hus-
bands love to his wife. Christ's ex-
ample lifts the husbands love high
above mere passion and teaches a
great lesson as to the connection be-
tween the husbands love and the
wife's subjectionT
The husbands love is to evoke the
wife's subsection just as, in the hea-
yenly pattern, Christ's love melts and
moves human wills to loving obedi-
ence, which is liberty. We do not say
that wife is utterly absolved from
obedience when her husband fails in
self-forgetting love; although certain
ly it does not rest with him to accuse
when his fault is greater than, and the
origin of, hers Without going so far
as that, we may recognize the true
order to be that the husbands love-
self-sacrifcing and all-bestowing, is
well calculated to evoke the wife's
love, delighting in obedience and re-
joicing to crown him her lord.
Where there is such love, there will
be no question of mere command and
obedience, no tenacious adherence to
rights, or jealous defense Of independ-
enee. Law will be transformed into
liberty. Generous love will be the
natural expression of the heart: obedi-
ence will be Joy. Love uttering a wish
speaks obedience to love listening.
Such sacred beauty may light up we'd
ded life, if it but catches CLEAN from
the fountain Of all light and shines bv
reflection from the love that binds
Christ to His church as the links of
the golden beams bind the sun to the
planet.
The realization Of such an ideal be-
speaks law deeply seated in nature
and the feminine constitution, which
shows, according to the Apostles
view Of matrimony, that subordna-
ton is fundamental, when he says the
head of the woman is man, the head
of the man is Christ, and the head of
Christ is God. Whether these teach
ingss square with our modern concep-
tons or not, there they stand, and
their import is unmistakable. They
teach that in the divine order of things
it is the husbands part to love and
rule and the wife's part to reverence
and obey. His rule is to follow the
dictates of love. Her subsection is to
follow that confding reverence which
love makes pleasing.
Let young men and women remem-
Der that the nobleness and heart re-
pose of their whole life may be made
or marred by marriage. Then take
heed to whom you plight your troth.
If there be not unity in love to Christ,
the sacredness and completeness will
fade away from any love. But if
man and woman love and marry "in
the Lord, He will be Sin the midst,
walking between them third one who
will make them one flesh, and that
threefold cord will not be easily brok-
en-. Whose findeth wife, fndeth
good and obtaineth favor Of the
Lord" "a prudent wife is from the
ord "