Christian herald., October 19, 1883, Page 4, Image 4

ÔTTÎIISTIA.N TTTCnAT.D
X
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Marriage and DiYflTCfia ___ are established. The fat her looks
with increasing tenderness and love
AN ADDRESS BY R. H. MO8S.
upon the mother of his children.
Read at the State Meeting, Salem, Oregon, The mother leans with increased
Sept., 5, 1883.
trust and confidence upon the father
.Marriage is a divine institution. of her children. The thousand de­
This is accepted by Christians as lights of parentage are enhanced to
axiomatic; It is evidently true each because shared by the loved
from the Bible statements; " Male one. The animal and baser propen­
and female created hethem,” "It is sities and passions are subdued and
“not good that man“sKóuld be aloné; held in obeyaAce, w.hlie tTRFTTgroF
■ ' a n d’
him,” "This is now bone of my strengthened. In such marriages,
bone and flesh of my flesh,” " and purified and enobled by the teach­
they shall be one flesh.”
ings of the Bible rest the hope of
__ Natures indications on this point lhe world to-day,
__
The complete fitness of each for
are clear and emphatic. The com­
plete fitness of man and woman for the other, and necessity of each to
each other in every respect of their the other, may be learned from the
—physical, men t al -and moral organs .. fearful. and terrible p.onsequi-nc<s
ism, can not be otherwise explained. which follow a disappointment in
These distinctly point to the indis- love, or an unmated marriage.
solveable union of one man to one Death or insanity ^or whatis much
worse than either, injury to moral
woman.
If sin had not entered into the character, almost invariably follow
world there never would have been the first. Bickering, strife, misery,
any violation of the law of God, so moral injury to both, and all these
clearly revealed in his word and consequences upon the children fol­
works... Facts are stubborn things, low the last.
God has placed all along the line
and to some facts we appeal in this
connection. There are very strong of human experience, lessons of in­
bonds of union between the two. struction upon the blessedness and
When two persons love each other, sanctity of - the marriage relation,
their happiness is found only in the but we are dull scholars, and hence
marriage relation. When so unit­ have not learned the lessons as we
ed they become more and more should. In the great majority of
’ deeply“and tenderly attached to marriages in Christian lands,-the
each other. The proud and happy divine intention is realized to some
husband finds what his nature extent, though perhaps not com­
craves, in the delightful task of pletely so in any.
To the husband and wife who are
protecting, cherishing and loving
the wife. The proud and happy even imperfectly enjoying the bless­
wife finds what her nature craves, ing of the divine intention, no great­
leaning with trust and confidence er temporal calamity than a separ­
upon the husband, and returning ation could possibly happen. If it
his love with five hundred per cent. comes by death it is an-almost un­
The husband is the stronger phys­ bearable blow to the survivor. In
ically and mentally. The wife is this also, God teaches us the bless­
the stronger morally. This makes ing and sanctity of the marriage re­
them mutually dependent upon, and lation.
helpful to each other. The husband
Divorce is & human institution,
argues to a conclusion, the wife per- It is entirely without divine sanc­
- ceives one and is more frequently tion. It originated in sin.- It is
right than het as there is no room evil and only evil and that continu­
for fallacy. The husband out in the ally. If mankind had not been
world surrounded by the rough and guilty of sin there would never have
hard things of life, needs the soften­ been a single case of divorce. As
ing and purifying influence of the far cotrary to the law of God as
wife to keep him from being soul written in his word and works, the
contaminated and hence ruined by laws of men have gone, they do not
them. The wife protected by the permit divorce unless there has
husband from these rough contacts been a violation of the marriage ob­
and occupied by the duties of home ligation by one of the parties. And
and care for the loved ones there, even then it is permitted only, not
becomes more tender and womanly. at all enjoined. The court can not
When children are added unto them, be compelled to grant a divorce in
a result which God intended should any case. The statute books of civ­
follow every marriage, new and ilized nations will be searched in
$ver strengthening bonds of union vafh for a law commanding divorce.
Hillel's school held that it meant
any thing which caused him to dis-—
like her. It is evident that Jesus
did not deny the interpretation of
the Hillel school. It is very clear
also that he taught, that the inter­
pretation of the school of Shammah
was in accord with a better under­
standing of what God intended the
marriage relation to be. It was also
or for one that allows it unless there
has Teen at least negTect of the ob­
ligations of the marriage relation.
This is also true of the law of God
as revealed in the Bible. There are
two essential points of difference
between the divine law and human
laws, upon the question of divorces.
The first is as to the degree of crime
that will justify a divorce. The
~as to ’the
vilege o f- the -
*
' IHLPDlOti-
till ttMA FFV-—
Human law recognizes many crimes
as each sufficient to justify a di­
vorce. The divine law allows it for
but one, and that one the most
heinous violation of the marriage
obligation, that it is in the power
of man to commit. ’Hbman law al­
lows the marriage of divorced per-
sons as often as they choose to be
divorced and to remarry. The di-
vine law allows only the remaniage
of the innocent party, and expressly
forbids the remarriage of parties
who have been divorced from each
other.
An examination
the Scriptures
will clearly demonstrate what I
have said in regard' to the divine
law to be true.
When the Pharisees came to Jesus
tempting him, (Matt. 16,) and de­
clared that “ Moses commanded to
write a bill of divorcement and to
put her away,” jie corrects their
statement by saying, “ Moses. be­
cause of the hardness of your hearts
suffered you to put away your
wives, but from the beginning it
was not so.” That is it was only a
permission, and not at all an injunc­
tion ; and a permission given to
them because of the influence of sin
upon their hearts, and to keep them
from the much worse customs and
practices of the nations surrounding
them. The provisions of the law of
Moses in regard to marriage and
divorce elevated the standard of
obligation in these things, far above
that of any of the nations surround­
ing the Isralites or Jews. Their
enforcement to-day would produce
great moral benefits in every civil­
ized nation.
• • *
Moses provided that, if a man
found any uncleanness in his wife,
he might write her a bill of divorce­
ment and give it into her hand and
send her away out of his house. He
expressly gave the divorced woman
the privilege of marrying again.
(Deut. 24.) It is well known by
scholars that two schools of teaching
existed among the Rabbis, as to
the uncleanness mentioned' here,
fhe school of Shammah held that
the uuclcannessmeantonly adultery’.
■the—Jaw. than—Hi 1 lel’a... . In Lev...-.-
twenty-first chap. 7th verse, speak­
ing of the priests, it is said, x<He
shall not take a wife that is a har­
lot or profane or a woman put away
from her husbandrfor KiTTF KoTy"“
unto his God.” Of the High Prests
it is said verses 13 and 14, "He shall
take a wife in her virginity. A
widow or a divorced woman or pro­
fane or a harlot, these shall he not
take. The reason given for these
injunctions ra that the priests must
be holy, and fit to offer the sacri­
fices to God. It is evident then that
there is unholiness and impurity
attaching to divorced persons, which
also attaches to any one who mar­
ries them.As the priest ministered
in the holy place which was the
type of the church, and were them­
selves the types of Christians, this
should teach us to be very careful
lest we defile the temple of our
Lord. Listen to the language of Paul,
1 Cor. 3 : 17, “If any man defile the
temple of God him shall God de­
stroy, for the temple of God is holy’
which temple ye are.” Also in
6: 16-20, " Know ye not that your
bodies are the members of Christ.
Shall I then ta|ce the members of
Christ and make them the members
of a harlot? God forbid. What!
Know ye not that he who is joined
to a harlot is one body ? for two
saith he shall be one flesh. But he
that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit. 1 lee fornication. Every sin
that a man doeth is without the
body; but he that committeth forni­
cation sinneth against his own body.
What! know1“ ye not, that your body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
which is in you and which ye have
of God, and that ye are not your
own ? For ye are bought with a
price : therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit which are
Gods. This is clear and unmistak­
able reference to the parts of the
law cited above. It clearly teaches
that our bodies of flesh and every
member of them are parts of the
spiritual temple or house of God,
and that we must keep them pure
and holy or we will defile the tem­
ple. It clearly teaches that in ths
i
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