A SERMON ON MARRIAGE.
In preaching on the subject of marriage and divorce in Christchurch on Sunday night, Canon Wilford emphasised the fact that the individualism of the present day had done much to destroy home life (reports the Lyttelton Times). The desire of amusement and gratification of self was making people unwilling to face the burdens of family life. And yet one had to approach the subject with sympathy, really a violent reaction from the time when the joys of life were kept from many. The message needed to-day was that joy and discipline must go together. No man had any right to think of marriage just for his own hapipness. The question for him to ask was: Could he make a surrender of himsejf to the girl ? Was their love such that they would be able to understand one another and live as good comrades? Marriage was not a contract, but a state entered into by contract. In nothing was the Church teaching more definite, and in no other direction had it met with such violent opposition. It could be best summarised under five headings: (1) The priest was not the minister of marriage. Marriage was brought about by the consent of ijhe man and woman. Marriage at the Registry Office was therefore a valid marriage. But-married life was so difficult that the grace of God was needed for it. Christians were married in church to receive the blessing of God’s priest. (2) The married couple began a new “joint life.” The two became one flesh. The union was so close that the wife’s sister became the husband’s sister. (3) Marriage was indissoluble except by death. Marriage brought about a natural union which was indestructible. It was just as impossible to unhusband a husband as to unmother a mother. (4) The teaching of the Book of Common Prayer was conclusive. It allowed no concessions to the “innocent party.” The Church allowed separation but no divorce from the bond of matrimony. (5) The home life of the nation depended upon the security of marriage. Those who aimed at loosening the tie of marriage ignored the child’s most fundamental right —the right to possess a father and a mother.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3013, 20 March 1926, Page 1
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369A SERMON ON MARRIAGE. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3013, 20 March 1926, Page 1
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