OCR Text |
Show The Sacredness of Marriage By the Gentlewoman. IX these days of iconoclasm, when Irresponsible Ir-responsible writers of a certain school seem 'to find their chief delight In pulling down all fabrics of bollcf nnd glvinp ns nothing in their place, It Is umall wonder that one of the most ancient of all the world's ceremonies should be made the subject of a sneer. One can not but regard witli apprehension apprehen-sion thc lightness with which the mar-rlase mar-rlase vow Is held, and the growing tendency ten-dency to contract it without the sanctifying sancti-fying environment of a religious service. The flippancy with which the subject Is dlscuHsed by modern playwrights, who clulm to be in the van of the "Intellectual "Intellect-ual movement." whatever that may mean, Is nlao a reason for disqulotude. At the present moment on the stage plays are permitted to be acted in which thc whole theory of marital fidelity is made the subject of hllarlou.i banter, and audiences audi-ences arc made lo laugh incontinently al situations in which husbands and wives hold up to ridicule the sanctity of tho marriage tie. The type of playwright to which I refer docs not. It is true, pose as a teacher. He cliiim.n to mirror the tendencies of thc age. and he aoueralJy trlea to moke aa much as ho con out of it. He finds that pruriency pays,-, and it in lamentable to think that while the censor objects lo a neeuc III a play written by an ear-pest ear-pest man villi the object of stamping out n growing evil. he. will llzhtly .nass a work in., which the most sacred relationships rela-tionships of human life are treated with a disgusting levity. This form of entertainment enter-tainment naturally encourages the growth or a skeptical attitude towards marrlase and all that it means. It leadn to the belief mi) prevalent In thin country that a marriage Is not a contract within the meaning of the constitutional law or any other law; that It can be emered Into lightly, and broken s llchtly on the flimsiest of pretexts. What la thc effect of all this upon the nation? Does it tend towards an uplifting up-lifting of the home Into u sercn atmosphere atmos-phere of the domestic Joy and happiness, and to mutual respect and love btwen man and wife'. Voes It not rather remit re-mit in a soul-desttoying skepticism, in which all human relationships besides marilace. are regarded as of little value? Does It not account for the hundreds of eaucf of domeutle nnhoppln-ss which are found in our law courts, from the highest tribunals to the lowest? It marriage Is regarded as a civil act pur? and ?lmple. it Is llk"lv to become a thing of the earth earthy, a thing of laxity and lrresponslbilltv. 7f, on the other hand. It Is looked upon a It tOiould b. as one of the facred ceremonies of our Hvs. charged with mysteries emanating ema-nating from the Pivlne source of all things, carrying with It obligations not only to the participators but to the race Hiid the nation, then does its influenci; become a rlshteous one. and the nation which It builds up will hi'. ito foundation:; founda-tion:; in right ousnE.? |