Page:Marriage Its Origin, Uses, and Duties.pdf/7



"The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a 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 together, let not man put asunder." Matthew, xix., 3–6.

is intimately connected with the spiritual as well as with the temporal welfare and happiness of man, and therefore has high claims on our attention as a subject of religious contemplation. So intimate is this connection, that the state of marriage among the professing members of the Church is at all times an index of the state of the Church itself; for as this union corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the Church, the state of the one must always keep pace with that of the other. This connection and correspondence are, however, so obscurely seen in the present day, that marriage is but little regarded in a spiritual light, or in relation to eternal life. That such is the fact, will not, however, appear surprising if we consider how much the Church her self has done to stamp upon marriage a carnal and earthly character, by having so early adopted, and