The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-04-19

swer in regard to the married. Some
Of these Christians at Corinth seem
to have thought that, because they
had become Christians, their old rell-
tons should be abandoned; and they
put to the apostle the question wheth-
er a believing man who had an unbe-
lieving wife ought not to forsake her.
Taught by the spirit of Christ, the
apostle saw that if q Christian might
separate from am unbelieving wife on
the sole ground that he was a Christ
ian such a ground Of divorce would
open the way to innumerable evils TO
both marriage and the church So lie
SAYS if the unbcheying wife wishes
to separate from her believing hus-
band, let her do so; but the change
from heathenism to Christianity was
no reason for sundering the marriage
union He, therefore, lays down the
law that the power Of separation is to
rest with the unbelieving and not
with the believing partner If Gods
4 grace has found a man in unlikely cir
4 cumstances, that is the best evidence
he can have that ne will find oppor-
tunity Of serving God and growing in
grace until he reaches the stature of
the perfect man in Christ Jesus under
those circumstances, if there be no
/ sin in them It is a great mistake
/ to suppose that we uphold virtue by
4 legislative enactment on this subject
less strict than the requirements laid
down in the scripture. The standard
I there found is the work of a divine
revelation of a perfectly unique kind,
working through long ages Of upward
movement. Man has been drawn up
ward to it most reluctantly. He has
found difficulty in living at that moral
height, Nothing is easier than to
throw away all the gain of these
many centuries. All that is needed is
a plunge or two downwards If ever
these plunges are taken, the long,
slow effort upwards will only have to
be begun again, if family life is to be
firmly established, and purity of mar
riage is to become permanent pos
session of man.
AS already minated the state
comes in for inestimable blessings
flowing from the marriage institution
If marriage is not properly guarded,
population itself will dwindle away,
even under the most favorable cir
cumstances Of soil, climate and COM
merce. If it were not for marriage,
the fairest fields and the thronged
cities would, in very few genera
tons, become desolate and without
an inhabitant. The carelessness of
health and lives of children-race sui
cide-whose parents are not lawfully
married, is so we'll established that it
is enough to only allude to it. The
real prosperity, the solid wealth, the
resistless power, the best assets of a
nation do not depend upon splendid
edifices and glittering crowns; but
upon the industry, frugality, thrift
and purity of the components of en-
pire. Families make empires. And
where are the domestic and social vir-
tues successfully taught and practiced
except in families constituted by law
full marriage? Go visit our aims
houses, our workinghouses, our pris-
ons of every description; inquire into
the history of the strolling beggars
and tramps Of the country, and what
do you find? Here and there are the
offspring Of virtuous parentage; but,
in an appalling number of cases, the
persons are, themselves, those who, in
some gross manner, have violated the
law Of marriage, or are the offspring
of parents who have forgotten, or
failed to obey, the divine law Of mar
rage. David says: Il have been
young and now am old: yet have |
not seen the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging bread"
Man is born with an innate irk-
someness under restraint. By nature
man is averse to the constraint of his
desires. Government is an artificial
state; yet, under present conditions of
society, it is necessary to mans we'll
being. The sooner he learns to recog-
nize and obey lawfully constituted
the better for him, the bet
ter for society, the better for the
country. Where are the first lessons
Of obedience learned? In the family
the we'll ordered family, where the
Joint, and just but kind, parental au-
thority of an honest and pious father
and mother subdues the obstinate will
and inculcates important lessons of
family, social and community life.
In short, view the subject as we
may, we find the state vitality CON
,erned to do all in its power to make
marriage to be reputed honorable in
all, as God has made it, to guard it
from all abuses that it may conserve
,he divinely designed end Of its insti-
,ution by furnishing with just severity
every infraction Of the wholesome
avs enacted to defend the institution
from perversion, contempt, neglect,
or abuse.
Continued next week.