The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-03-22

ITO see her was to love her.
Love but her, and love forever"
I And God married them there meath
the nature-woven festoons and gar
lands Of Eden's rosy bower, and amid
the sweet melodies of the mocking
birds carol. Although upon Eden
Nature had lavished her beauty and
strewed her ornaments with a prodi-
gal hand; yet mans happiness is in
complete. In vain does the rose-tinted
flower emit its sweet fragrance, in
vain does the aerial songster trill his
| nlelodious notes amid Eden's hang
ling Wreaths;
l HMan a hermit signs
~ Until wonaan smiles.
Marriage, zen, is a solemn and life
long covenant between one man and
one woman to live together in the
most affectionate, endearing and sa-
cred state of social existence known
on earth 1t is associated with the
magic charm Of home, end all that is
pleasant, attractive, tender and sa-
cred in social life.
The bible speaks of it as a covenant
of which God is a witness. See Mala-
chi, 2:14. With the exception of the
engagements by which one binds his
soul to the service of God, there is no
other covenant of more solemnity.
This covenant is of perpetual oblga-
ton, so long as the parties to it live.
Exceptions to this statement will be
made later) Other covenants may be
set aside, sometimes by mutual con-
sent, sometimes by the payment Of a
specified amercement, and sometimes
by casualties rendering payment inn
possible, But the marriage covenant
is not even weakened, much less de-
stroyed, in these ways. Without a
great and heinous sin in the one or the
other party, death only dissolves the
\ relation. The covenant of marriage
is binding so long as the parties to it
live. See Romans, 7:1-3. Whoever
properly, enters the marriage state,
enters it for life Thus only can the
divine design of its institution be
maintained.
The marriage covenant is between
one man and one woman. This was
the form of the institution in Eden. In
Matthew, 1889, our Saviour teaches
that the law Of institution in Eden is
still of binding force. The pharisees
came to Him with their entangling
question concerning divorce, rs it
lawful for a man to put away his wife
for every cause2" In answer to this
question, the Lord Jesus Christ said:
"Have We not read, that He which
made them at the beginning made
them male and females, for this cause
shall man leave father and mother
and shall cleave to his wife: and they
twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore
they are no more twain, but one flesh
What, therefore, God hath Joined to-
| gether, let no man put asunder." Our
Saviour goes back to the beginning
to the original law, which sets forth
the divine purpose of the institution
of marriage. Their question drew
from Him, happily for the intelligence
and guidance Of the world, great
revelation: "What God hath joined
together, let not man nut asunder"
the grand bulwark of virtuous home
Fooled in their first attempt to en-
trap, they ply Him again with the
question: "Why did Moses then COM
mand to give writing of divorce
ment, and to put her away?" He
saith unto them, "Moses, because of
the hardness of your hearts, suffered
you to put away your wives: but from
the beginning it was not so. And ]
say unto you, whosoever shall put
away his wife, except for fornication,
and shall marry another, committeth
adultery: and whatsoever marrieth her
which is put away doth commit adul-
terry" There is double fallacy Turk
ing in their question which our Lords
answer exposes He says that Moses
did not command, he only suffered it,
1t was not to further divorce, to legal
ize it, that Moses made the regulation
about the writing of enforcement"
it was because of the hardness of
your herats that Moses suffered you
to put away your wives. The writ
ing of divorce was not mere matter
of sufferance; it was a sufferance
granted because of the hardness of
your hearts" From the beginning it
was not So" They were not to mis-
take temporary arrangement for an
original purpose, or pervert an exped-
lent into a rule, or law.
The original law of the institution
Of marriage makes the wife of mans
youth his wife by covenant and his
companion for life. See Malachi, 2:14,
/ Is. 1t was never intended that wives
should be divorced. Marriage is in
itself indissoluable, except by death
or that which in its very nature is the
rupture of marriage.
The marriage covenant binds the
parties to it to live in the most affec-
tionate and endearing state of social
existence known on earth. All other
relations give place to this. 1t takes
precedence over the tie of parent and
child. From the beginning the law Of
marriage required a man to leave his
father and mother and cleave unto
his wife. By parity. of reason, the
woman is required to leave father and
mother and cleave unto her husband
Not only the divine law, but the civil
law, enacted on the basis of the divine
regards husband and wife as, in an inn
portant sense, zone flesh" The great
jurist, Blackstone, says: Husband
and wife are one person in law, so that
the very being and existence of the
woman is suspended during the COW
erture, or entirely merged, or incor-
porated in that of the husband" DR.