THE LIFE OF HAPPY SOCIETY. CHAPTER XI. THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY MATRIMONY, ов, The Seventh Pillar of the House of Wisdom. THE SOCIETY OF THE EARTH, AND THE BLESSING, OUR Lord Himself distinguishes between the life of men on earth and that of the Angels in heaven, that the Angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage. This is not the case on earth, for God in the beginning created them male and female, and blessed them and said: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." And when the Lord God brought Eve to Adam, Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh." This society is matrimony. It was created by God in the beginning and received His especial Divine bene F THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE AMONG THE HEATHEN NATIONS. diction: "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." It was therefore from the beginning a most holy state, acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God, because God Himself had so made this world, differing in this point from the society of the Angels, viz., that it was to increase and multiply by marrying and being given in marriage; marriage therefore was from the beginning the law of God, and received His blessing. After the fall of Adam and Eve and their banishment from Paradise, marriage still remained the institution of God, and its sanctity continued to be protected and enforced by the natural law. The legislation of every known people bears testimony to the sanctity of marriage; and the history of fallen man shows how the infernal enemy has in all ages of the world endeavoured to subvert and ruin its sanctity, and to make the weaker sex, by whom he brought about the first disobedience, the perpetual instrument of his diabolical work in degrading and dishonouring the society of earth. The Greek poet Homer represents Ulysses uttering a beautiful sentiment, with regard to marriage: "There οἱ μὲν γὰρ του γε κρεισσον και ἄρειον ἢ ὅθ' ομοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον THE TESTIMONY OF HOMER. is nothing on earth better," says Ulysses to the princess Nausicae," than when man and wife keep house together in perfect unanimity, to the confusion of their enemies and to the joy of their friends." Notwithstanding the fall of man, and the infernal malice of the enemy, a sentiment of this kind occurring in one who is so truly a poet of the people, shows that the original blessing of God upon His own Divine institution had not been wholly withdrawn even from the heathen people. When Ruth was married to Booz, all the ancients of Bethlehem and the people in the gate said: "The Lord make this woman that cometh to thy house like Rachel and Lia, who built up the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and a famous name in Bethlehem." may have The original contract of marriage upon which it pleased God to provide for the increase and multiplication of the family of mankind, has been exalted to still further dignity and honour under the covenant of grace by being made a sacrament of the church. And those who hold the faith of the church are precluded from being lawfully united together otherwise than by receiving the sacrament of matrimony according to the laws of the church. For the protection of the weaker sex, the bond of CHRISTIAN MATRIMONY INDISSOLUBLE. matrimony which God has joined together, and which the church has blessed in His name, can be dissolved by the act of God alone taking one or other of the contracting parties to Himself. God in Paradise brought Eve to Adam and blessed their union, and in the holy sacrament of matrimony it is God who joins together and who blesses the holy estate of married life into which the contracting parties enter. No human law therefore can separate or put asunder what God has joined together. In the life of grace it is true that the state of holy virginity is held in higher honour than that of holy matrimony, inasmuch as it has in its favour the example of our Lord Himself, and is the state of the Angels in Heaven; but the choice of either state is left open to the faithful, and it is sufficient that in either state grace is abundantly given, by which the soul may sanctify itself and fulfil the Apostle's precept, to work out its own salvation in fear and trembling. To minister to this end, indeed, all the seven sacraments of the Church have, as we have now seen, been instituted, and continue to be maintained for this end by the ever watchful power of our Lord in His Church. "Ecce non dormitat neque dormiet qui custodit Israel." |