ADVICE ON MARRIAGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11452, 28 February 1931, Page 9

ADVICE ON MARRIAGE.

“MARVELLOUS PARTNERSHIP.”

ENGLISH BISHOP’S COUNSEL

SOLEMNITY. OF THE TOWS

A remarkable pastoral letter on Christian marriage, from the Bishop of Chichester; addressed to those who desire to he married in any church or chapel of the Church of England in the County of Sussex, appears in the New Year issue of the Chichester

Diocesan Gazette. The Bishop said: “Marriage is the happiest ol all human experiences lor the man or tho woman who enters into it with the right partner in the right 'spirit. I trust that you have each made your choice of the other ior this wonderful new life together with consideration and prayer. . .

. “First, let me say this. Alan'!ago, like every great enterprise in lib:, makes a very serious demand on those who embark upon it. At this moment each of you thinks the other a very wonderliit- being. You do r’glit. But each is human, and with the long, life together to which you look forward it docsn t do to iorgetthat. Nothing really, worth while can bo done without effort.

“Marriage is a calling which asks for constant and unselfish effort. It is a calling for the whole of life.

and not a little temporary affair to be taken up and thou put down as a passing fancy or selfish pleasure dictates. But if there is that effort, and a real unselfishness all life long, marriage becomes a marvellous partnership, both doubling your jc.'s and halving your troubles! “You are asking to be married in church, and by that very act you admit special obligations by which you are bound as Christians. Hie marriage service of the church is definitely intended for those who accept the teaching of Jesus Christ. If i-, a very solemn service, very solemmy performed between the man and the woman in the sight of God. “At the centre of the service come

the solemn and binding vows which each makes, to the other, that the one takes the- other, 'lor bettei, lot worse . . till death do us part.’ . . . “Bead those vows, read them again. and think about them and all that they mean. Don’t take them idly. It is clear that the vow taken by each party to the marriage is for life, whatever may happen in the future. Thus it is ‘for better for worse,’ even if one of the parties proves unfaithful to the other or u turns out in the course of time that husband and wile prove wholly unsuited to each other. “Again, ‘for richer for poorer includes the total loss of material possessions: ‘ln sickness _ and in health’ includes the possibility that one of the parties may become incurably ill in body or in mind. “ ‘Till death us do part, implies

that until one of tlie parties dies

the other is not free, ior any cause whatsoever, to take another partner. “Once you have taken such vows you are bound, as an'honorable man or woman, to keep them at all costs. If you are not both honest or settled in your resolve to maintain them ioi life”; if you are among those who think that marriage is merely an experiment, and that if it does not answer it can be brought to an end, [ beg you do not come to be married in church*. “To take vows you/are not absolutely determined to'keep is making a mockery alike of marriage and of the service and of its witnesses in

church. 4 “Those who are not prepared to regard marriage as the Church regards it can obtain legal sanction for their union by being married at j a registry, office. “Even marriage before a registrar ig a binding ceremony, not to he lightly set aside, but the service in church- puts before, you the meaning of Christian marriage, and no Act. of Parliament can alter its charactei no man-made law can free from thou vow s a man and a woman who have solemnly pledged themselves before God to be true to one another, ‘till death us do part.’ “You will find that the recollection of your solemn Vows will' help you mightily to meet the inevitable rubs of' married life in a right

spirit. .... The Bishop added some advice regarding the 'responsibilities :of parenthood which lie described as* Ihe Glory of Married Life.