The marriage ceremony is one of the most interesting spectacles in human life. It is also one of the most misunderstood. When two rational creatures cone to the altar voluntarily, to bind themselves to each other in a sacred bond of trust and perpetual friendship, before witnesses, and before God: it is indeed a solemn and sacramental moment. Little do they know that the vows they make are “until death do us part” whether they intend it or not. Man may unite, but only death can separate them for they are bound together “the two becoming one” in the sight of God, and all the laws of man cannot break that bond.
What really occurs here is: the two are united in the beginning of a new kingdom of peoples on earth. He is the king, and she is the queen of that kingdom. There will have never been a people like this new kingdom, and there will never be another like it on earth. Out of this unity “this Adam and Eve” as it were, will emerge an entirely new clan of peoples. Their lineage will stretch ultimately until time is no more. From this union and within this kingdom, proceed some of the deepest joys life can bring, and also from it can come some of the deepest of sorrows. It is all entirely dependent upon the citizens that make up this new kingdom, and it begins with the king, and his queen.
When one considers it, there is nothing more touching than to think of a maiden, her life, coming from a joy filled and vibrant childhood, leaving happy and carefree surroundings, to enter upon a life of demand and responsibility; from which her only guarantee is the promise of a young man she hardly knows. It is an awesome undertaking, but is repeated a thousand times each day across the land.
Shame and woe to the man that would dash such hopes and crush the illusions that she has had built up in her heart all her life. It is so true that marriage often destroys the finest of friendships. Yet nothing on earth can so effectively wreck the life of another human being than a boorish husband with little or no regard for the sacrifice his trusting wife has placed in him. She is basically at his mercy, in so many cases. How tragic when she awakens one day and sees that her life having been uprooted, is now ruined; and she has no place to turn, all because of a boy that got big; is still a boy, and calls himself a man
Shame and woe to the man that would dash such hopes and crush the illusions that she has had built up in her heart all her life. It is so true that marriage often destroys the finest of friendships. Yet nothing on earth can so effectively wreck the life of another human being than a boorish husband with little or no regard for the sacrifice his trusting wife has placed in him. She is basically at his mercy, in so many cases. How tragic when she awakens one day and sees that her life having been uprooted, is now ruined; and she has no place to turn, all because of a boy that got big; is still a boy, and calls himself a man
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