Show MARRIAGE IN an eminent christian clergyman of Boston recently delivered an address before an immense and high toned audience in that city which impeaches monogamy and stamps it as a horrible failure in a clear ligh indeed the facts which be presents and the language which he uses arc eo emphatic and im believe our readers will appreciate a few quotations this eminent christian gentleman said that the people of boston are now in fear of a coming pestilence that will bring death and dc tion in the summer efforts are being made to ward off this enemy and prevent its fearful work but at the same time another pestilence is on tho way and its black fringe is touching us it is far more dang ceroua than any other one from the fact that it menaces the home the greatest of all social institutions in massachusetts in 1859 there was one divor coto fifty marriages in 1876 one to every twenty and in 1 1883 one to every fourteen in new eng land 2000 families are broken up by divorce every ceaf this alone is an ap palline ui along with the increase in divorce moral poison has increased in the period between divorce increased two and one half times in frequency while crimes against chastity and morality increased threefold three fold the question then comes has not looseness of legislation fostered looseness of social life and how long will it take to bring the ratio of divorce to marriage to an equity then the home as an institution will be destroyed and the millennium of hell will be here the marriage bond is sinking in the public esti mation to a mere civil contract and there needs to be a reassertion of the divine origin of marriage the roman catholic church is not responsible for any of this state of affairs be it said boita toita credit the difficulty is that subordinate reasons of a profane nature have undermined the sacred element marriage has become the stepping atone to improve family connections to gain admission to society gogain power and many like things the young man looks for wealth the girl to gaining her own way the meaning of the institution seems to be misapprehended apprehended mis for this process of disintegration something h needed besides prohibitory legislation Is it not the lack of a high ideal that dendera so many marriages of our day a saries of social disasters it roust bo religion and morality in the highest sense the ideal must be raised in the popular and youthful mind the underlying ideal and primeval principle is moral not physical or material the idea is that i t is not good for man to be alone and so woman waa made as his ment hii converse the funda mental principle was companionship there is nothing equal to the dreariness of a heart that ha abeen torn from its counterpart by death the unmarried roan or woman must have eo as a substitute either in greater work or larger iu cereste te reste to that self centered selfishness which makes the terms old maid or bachelor opprobrious true marriage ia the greatest good an actual and absolute sur render of the individual unit the only higher act is surrender to god true marriage is a redemptive force and is aimed to destroy and teach us the secret of living for others and not for ourselves the social value of tho institution is in evitable evit ably salutary io any social or |