The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1919-12-12
INTER-CHURCH AIM
IS EvANGELIzATION
FOR ULTIMATE END
Two Local Conditions Discussed
First: A Ban to Be Put on
a Marriage of Divorcons; at
the Outset.
SECOND: MARRIAGE ONLY
BY 'MEN OF THE CLOTH"

The average minister and church
worker is conscientious individual
and wishes to do the right thing.
But it does not follow that wishing
to do right they always make choice
of the best means to desired end,
even if they are conscientious. To
illustrate:
At the Inter-C Church convention in
Columbus last week two things were
advocated that will admit Of much
discussion and study. They were:
/. Passing legislation that no di-
.vorced person may marry unless the
divorce is granted for reasons laid
down in the Bible.
2. A desire that only ministers may
solemnize marriages; taking from
judges and justices this power.
Church people, same as non-com-
municants, often get funny notions in
their heads. Some often wish to 60
to an extreme. and then ask that this
extreme be made the law of the land
and any one else that does not agree
with them be forced to live as they
wish to live or they have the power to
punish such an individual if he do not
conform to what they wish and de-
mand.
In the marriage proposition they
seem to forget that for thousands of
years there was no such thing as a
"consecrated" marriage, so to speak,
that there was no marriage ceremony
whatever. They don't seem to know
and understand that the Creator
planned that man should choose his
mate, live with her and provide for
her and the progeny; that nothing
else should be thought of and that no
one, having chosen a mate, should
for a moment wish to take a back
ward step. And for these thousands
of years nothing else was thought Of.
Then people began to accumulate
wealth, their sons became wild and
married without due consideration, or
they wished to marry without the
sanction of the parents. Having be-
come rich the old man and his wife,
one or both, wanted to boss the whole
family; the old folks wanted to go
so far as to pick the wives for the
SONS and the husbands for the daugh-
ters. In other words, the sons and
daughters were not permitted to
mate, as the Creator had planned, but
they must "marry"-though this
term had not been thought of yet
without regard for the likes and dis
likes of the youths, or without re-
gard to their fitness for mating. Ma
turally it was not till "h-l" began
popping" under such conditions, and
It has been popping ever since.
Then, too, when son or daughter
wed in haste and found that there
was to be time for repentance at
leisure, father and mother began to
look around for some loophole-tha
is, the rich father and mother, with
more money than brains, and no real
love for children-through which
they could be Saved" so to speak,
from their own folly or the folly into
which stubborn parents had driven
them. And it was these rich fathers
and mothers who at once saw the
weakness" of the plans of the Gre
ator; saw the necessity for "mar-
riage" in state; set up the theory
that son, who had taken a wife &C.
cording to the Creators plans, had
simply committed a folly with the
"scum of the earth" and that, OF
course, no reasonable person could ex-
pect him to live with her. That this
"folly" had resulted in fatherhood
mattered not, for was not he of the
"salt of the earth, scion of rich
family" and could son of so great
a father and mother be expected to
live with deluded poor girl? We
wot not, verify.
AS long as the church recognizes
a difference between adultery anG
fornication; as long as it is fornica.
tion for rich son to destroy poo,
girl and not adultery for him to cast
. her off and marry a good girl later