MARRIED IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 114, 10 November 1900, Page 4 (Supplement)

MARRIED IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.

One of the earliest itinerant Methodist preachers, Alexander Bolles, was sorely tried in his religious labours by the influence of a Jerseyman named John Rogers, who openly taught atheism and the abolition of marriage. The San Francisco .Argonaut tells a story of him in this connection: — On one occasion, while holding a meeting in the woods in Virginia, a young man and woman pushed ;heir way up .to the stump which served as a pulpit. The man, interrupting .the sermon, said defiantly — "I'd like you to know that we are Rogerines." The old man i looked at him over his spectacles And waited. "We don't believe in no God." "No? And then ?" "Nor in marriage. This is my wife because I choose her to be ; but I'll have no preacher \ nor squire meddlin'- with us." "Do you mean to tell me," thundered Father Bolles, "that you have taken, this girl honie as your wife?" "Yes, I dp," said the' fellow doggedly. "And have you gone willingly to live with him as your husband?" "Yes," said the frightened girl, "^hen I pronounce you man and wife,, and whom God has joined together let no main put asunder. Be off with you. You are married now according to the law and the gospel."