"OBEY" IN THE MARRIAGE SERVICE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1576, 7 January 1884, Page 3

"OBEY" IN THE MARRIAGE SERVICE.

In practice the word" obey," as employed in the marriage service, is perhaps already obsolete, for what woman in repeating the words ever intends to act according to her vow 1 Such things belong to the past, and the enlightened woman of to-day knows ■too well on whom, if there can be any talk of obeying, will fall that duty. Tho day is not far off when tho word will bo altogether dismissed from a vow each word of which was onco considered most weighty. America, of course, leads the way. This in the testimony of several Boston clergymen, whose opinions on the subject are collated as follows by the 'New York Daily Tribune':— No 1 said : " I always leave out the jfcvd 'obey' unless the bride or groom f it," No 2 said: " The obligation is absolutely binding upon both man and wife, I omit the word 'obey' •• Realise it has no binding forco or .ypractice." No, 4: -'I never used tho word 'obey' and never intend to use it. ■ I can sec no reason why the wife should obey the husband any more than the husband the wife." No, 6: " I never used the word, and think it not customary in tho Protestant churches of to-day, I have never been .-asked to use the word, but frequently • have been requested to leavo it out of the service," No. 7: " I say 'obey in love,' which thereby robs it of all objection." These clergymen and others expressing similar opinions represented all tho leading Protestant denominations. A majority were against tho use of the word, In England the American example has already found imitators, who plead that after all they are only adjusting formula to fact,—" Pall Mall Gazette."