The Solemity Of Marriage

In these days of divorees, separations and general puulic disagreements between husband and wif'e, there is apprehension that the real dignity and soleinnity of inarriage may be frequently overlouked. It is too rapidly becoming a not uncommou belief that inarriage is an urraugement simply for the happiness of the high contracting paities, and that as soon as perfect happiness oeases the contract is virtually at an end, and needs only the sanction of ihe law to set it asido as that anction sauthorized it in the beginning. But this idea is a thoroughly miserable oih?, not only in the impiety of its disregard of sacred vows, but in the depravity of the selfishness of such disregard, not only in the theory, but in practice It loses sight of every relalion of luarriage but that between the husbaud and wifo personally ; forgets its interwoven affiliations with others, its iniluence upon society, ics obligations to the communitv ; is entirely ablivious of the fute of chiláren, one 6ide ot whose life the divoroe ot parents inevitably removes, and is thus grossly material and mischievuusin every point of view. If marriage were an institulion intended only to endure so long as peri'eet happiness under its bond endures, there would be no civil need of marriage at all, nor of any outward observance of union. But the oath of marriage is taken forbettcr or worse, aud the existence of children whose affections beloug to both pcirents, in whose veins the blood of both parents runs, ruSrks the institution as a thing intended for perpetuity. ïhe mere happiness of having oue's own way is but a crude and shallow thmg, as reflection can uot but toach ; but there comes by-and by, out of the fosteriug growth of a long discipline, a happiness born of self-denial, of patience, of duty well done, that as far exeeeds any other as the perfect blossom exceeds the sleeping bud. The one happiBöBi dies with the gratification that gave it birth: the other never knows death, f'or it has become a part of the soul perfecting itself through trial. In tact, nobody but a simpleton would look for complete happiness in marriage until its great leaven has had time to work, rad iuterunite lives, hopes, and aims. There is, indeed, the lovers' rapture in the early days, that dazzhng atmosphere of' bliss which surrounds the two, and shuts out the world beyond, as the bright and blinding sunsbine shuts out the great universe of stars, whioh folds thein in upon themselves in an ecstatie content that passes - passes pres ently and fortunately, since huinau lif'e and work would find it as unhealthy for any length of time as any hardy plant would find the concentrated warmth and light of a greenhouse. And after that hus passed coinés the real task, the assimilation in the great alenibic of marriagu, with love for the solvent, of two natures that are of different birth, of different rea.' ing and education, and frequently of different tastes. Too often the solvent gives out before the task is done ; and all too often then the end comes, and the appeal to courts of law. But it is really just here that marriage should assert its valué. Has theexpected happiness, after all, proved only a dream nd au illusion 't Has it been found imjossible tor you to have your evtry wish met, and thp other party in the case to o the same? Hs happiness fled indignantly before a compromise in which here shall be mutual yielding, or has it utterly expired in suffering? That then s the hour for principie, the hourfor duty, he hour in which to reinember that f ïarrlage is not in every Church accountd a sacrament, yet, nevertheless, at evry celebration of it God himself has been alled to witness it, to sanctify it, and to ake part in it, and that thereafter only n sacrilege can it be lightly or irreverntlv treated. We do not, certainly, pretend to deny bat there are cases where crime and inaniiy demand a different view of the iniangibility of the marriage bond ; but uch cases are exceptional, perhapsenough o to prove the rule. The ordinary inariage is that of the ordinary man and wouian, neither of whorn is criiniuaïly inane, and who are capable of reasonable nd honorable action, and who, if thoy hoos8 to look around thein, to look backward trom the beginning, to look forward o the end, will find many a prudent and jleasant way of closing any chasru that ïnay open between them. In soiue regions of Franco, where, uncr the hereditary religión, divoree is ini)ossible, but where, for all that, a couple nay have found life together insupportaüe, and so desire to live apart, the couple ive notice of their desire to the cure of he parish, who imruediately thereupon mcks his knapsack and takes up his ibode with that couple for a year, in orer ostensibly to ascertain if their dosiro s just. üf course then it very naturally and instantly beoomes the purpose of either party to prove to the priest that it is not the one to blame ; and thus the angry word remains unspoken, the angry reply ungiven ; snapping and snarling are unheard ; there is no more bickering over shameless trifles ; little attentions aie rendered for the sake ef appearances, and accepted for the same ; the two are mutually mollifled; they find there is some good in each other yet, and usually beforo the year expires the good cure takes his knapsack and departs, leaving a reconciled husband and wife behind him. It would of course, be out of the question to apply such a reruedy anywhere but with rude peasants, for, indeed, there ! is no one among superior classes receiving quite the atfections or having the authority of the village priest with his people ; and the presence in such instances of mothers-in-law or the customary relatives always does more hurt thau good. But it is everywhere possible to reinember thn.t a greater than any vülage priiist a nearer and dearer Priead, and One the fiat of whose authority is fate, is always present, and so to order ono's waya that that omnipresent eye shall soe no wrong in them. It is even possible to lay aaide injured prido or wounded sensibility, and to forget ono's self absoluto'y in a sweetness that shall win the dead love back to lifo. But if you fail to win the dead love back, if you fail to renew the whole of its oíd delightful spell, can you find no pleasure in your children, iñ the care of their present, the anticipation of their íuturei' Can you not simúlate a happiness, or at least a caliu, you do not teel, and keep a peaoeful homo about you for the sake of its influeuce upon their temperament ? And can you not feel a halfconsoling satisfaction in the fact of your atteinpt, and the consoiousness that you yourself are not poisoning your ehildreu's memories at the source, are not making home an impossible place for the one who has as much right there as yourself, are laying violent on the domestic altar, ure not injuring others by your example ? But if you sucoeed in winning back the dead love, or if, indeed, you neret lost it, what a life is yours, and within what a. chariued sphere do you move? You know the full blessing of oompanionship - of a companionship where utter confidenee exists, where interests are identical where fear is cast out, where every word and every thought meets its echo, where the smilo is always ready, the loving lip, the following eye, where ono climbs on the hand of the other, and the other urges forward with lofty cheer, and where husbaud and wifu so close'.y grow together tbat even Death cannot part them, but their spirits seem to be at one long after the sods separate the dead trom the living body. We once saw the end of snch a marriage po far as this world goeg. The half-paralyzed husband, who had been the old wife's oare for years, was in the room below, when she was prostrated with a swiftand fatal fever. But she refusod to let him be told. " He is dying too," she said, " and he will uaiss me so if he knows I die the fust." The next day they lay sideby side on one bed ; and though we had looked on many memorable sights - on men and women in all of the breathing beauty of youth, on naarble sculptures, frost-white and perfect - we thought we had never seen auy thing so beautiful as thoso two sbrunken frames, between whose animating spirits the marriage was so perfect that one could not stay without the oiher - a marriage that could only have begun in this world, and was to go forward through heavenly eternitiesl