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Show HAS BECOME' MATTER OF JEST Woman's Promise to "Obey" Husband, in Marriage Service, Perfunctory and Without Meaning. With the advent of the female suffrage suf-frage movement (the teaching of which cult may, when the movement gets somewhat stronger, be introduced Into the common 6ch04l system of the country)- the word "obey" In the ordinary ordi-nary marriage service, already in disfavor dis-favor with the leaders of the movement, move-ment, will be shaken out of the prayer book, to be heard no more on sea or shore. As it' is now the scant recognition recog-nition this word receives after the wedding service is over is entirely perfunctory; per-functory; James Douglas in London Opinion in England the revolt against the word obey has already reached formidable for-midable proportions says that the use and abuse of the word Is continual and unblushing perjury in the courts of heaven where marriages are made. To this he adds: "And nobody worries over It. It is taken for granted. Archdeacons Arch-deacons wink at it, bishops chuckle over it, deans crack jokes over it. And with good reason, for their own wives break the vow of obedience as gayly as the wives of laymen. Is there one clergyman who will venture to proclaim from the pulpit that his wife invariably and unconditionally obeys him all the year round? We know there is not. How, then, can the clergy expect from laywomen what they dare not expect from their own helpmeets? As a rule, the vicar's wife is a masterful mas-terful dame, and it is well known that sufferance is a badge of the cloth. Probably there are more henpecked husbands In orders than out of them. The traditional curate is- a mild and. timid being, who is born to obey." |