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-9-
The
Marriage Ring
It is certainly under the wise instruction and the impartial sceptre of a father, and within the little family circle, that the son becomes a good citizen; it is by the fireside, and upon the family hearth, that loyalty and patriotism, and every public virtue, grows; as it is in disordered families that factious demagogues, and turbulent rebels, and tyrannical oppressors, are trained up, to be their neighbors' torment, or their country's scourge. It is there that the thorn and the brier, to use the elegant simile of the prophet, or the myrtle and the fir tree, are reared, which are in future time to be the ornament and defence, or the deformity and misery, of the land.
But has the domestic constitution a reference only to the present world and its perishable interests? By no means. All God's arrangements for man view him, and are chiefly intended for him, in his relation to eternity. The eye of Deity is upon that immortality to which He has destined the human race. Every family has, in fact, a sacred character belonging to it, which may indeed be forgotten or disdained; but the family is constituted, and ought, therefore, to be conducted with the prospect of the rising generation following that which precedes it, not only to the grave, but to eternity.
Every member of every household is an immortal creature; every one that leaves the circle by death goes into an eternity of torment or of bliss. Now, since all the institutes of God look to another world as their chief and ultimate reference, surely that institute which is the most powerful of all in the formation of character must be considered as set up with a special intention to prepare the subjects of it for "glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life."
When religion is wanting as the basis of the marriage union, the happy fruits of it cannot be expected. How many interesting households are to be found where all the mere social virtues are cultivated with assiduity, where the domestic charities all flourish, and public excellence is cherished; but which, on account of the want of vital godliness, are still losing the highest end of their union, and carrying on no preparatory course of education for the skies, and are destined to be swept away with the wreck of the nations that knew not God, and with the wicked who shall be turned into Hell. Alas, alas! that from such sweet scenes, such lovely retreats of connubial love and domestic peace, to which learning, science, wealth, elegance, have been admitted, religion should be excluded; and that while many wise and interesting guests are continually welcomed to the house, He only should be refused, Who blessed the little family of Bethany; and who, wherever he goes, carries salvation in his train, and gives immortality to the joys which would otherwise perish forever.
Precious, indeed, are the joys of a happy family; but, oh, how fleet! How soon must the circle be broken up, how suddenly may it be! What scenes of delight, resembling gay visions of fairy bliss, have all been unexpectedly wrapt in shadow and gloom, by misfortune, by sickness, by death! The last enemy has entered the paradise, and, by expelling one of its tenants, has embittered the scene to the rest. The ravages of death have been in some cases followed by the desolations of poverty; and they, who once dwelt together in the happy enclosure, have been separated and scattered to meet no more. But religion, true religion, if it be possessed, will gather them together again, after this destruction of their earthly ties, and conduct them to another paradise, into which no calamity shall enter, and from which no joy shall ever depart.
Happy then would it be, for all who stand related by these household ties, if the bonds of nature were hallowed and rendered permanent by those of Divine grace. To found our union on any basis which does not contain religion in its formation, is to erect it on a quicksand, and to expose it to the fury of a thousand billows, each of which may overturn the fabric of our comfort in a moment: but to rest it upon religion is to found it upon a rock, where we shall individually still find a refuge when the nearest and the dearest relations are swept away by the tide of dissolution.
It is a pleasing reflection that the domestic constitution depends not for its existence, its laws, its right administration, or its rich advantages, either upon family possessions, or the forms of national policy. It may live and flourish in all its tender charities, and all its sweet felicities, and all its moral power, in the cottage as well as in the mansion; under the shadow of liberty, and even the scorching heat of tyranny. Like the church, of which it is in some respects the emblem, it accommodates itself to every changing form of surrounding society, to every nation and to every age. Forming with the church the only two institutions ever set up by God, as to their framework, like its kindred institute, it remains amidst the ruins of the fall, the lapse of ages, and the changes of human affairs, the monument of what has been, the standing prediction of what will be.
Domestic happiness, in many respects, resembles the manna which was granted to the Israelites in the wilderness; like that precious food, it is the gift of God which cometh down from Heaven; it is not to be purchased with money; it is dispensed alike to the rich and to the poor and accommodates itself to every taste; it is given with an abundance that meets the wants of all who desire it; to be obtained, it must be religiously sought in God's own way of bestowing it; and is granted to man as a refreshment during his pilgrimage through this wilderness to the celestial Canaan.
By Thee
Founded in reason, loyal, just, and pure,
Relations dear, and all the charities
Of father, son, and brother first were known.
Far be it, that I should write Thee sin or blame,
Or think Thee unbefitting holiest place,
Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets!
—Milton