"He is altogether LOVELY." --Song of Solomon 5:16b
--Part V
"Marriage should always be formed with a due regard to the dictates of religion. A pious person should not marry anyone who is not also pious, It is not desirable to be united to an individual even of a different denomination, and who, as a point of conscience, attends her own place of worship. It is not pleasant on a Sunday morning to separate, and go one to one place of Worship, and the other to a another.
"But, oh, to walk separately in a still more important and dreadful sense! to part at the point where two roads to eternity branch off, the one to heaven, and the other to Hell; and that for the believer to travel on to glory with the awful consciousness, the other party is journeying to perdition! If, however, the comfort of the parties only was concerned, it would be a matter of less consequence but it is a matter of conscience and an affair in which we have no option. ‘She is at liberty to marry whom she will,’ the Apostle, speaking to the case of a widow, ‘but only in the Lord.’
"As to the other passages, where the Apostle commands us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, it does not apply to marriage, except by inference, but to church fellowship, or rather to association and conduct in general, in reference to which professing
Christians are not to symbolize with unbelievers. But if this be improper in regard, to other matters, how much more so in that connection which has so powerful an influence over our character, as well as our happiness! For a Christian then to marry an individual who is not decidedly and evidently a pious person, is a direct opposition to the Word of God.
"And as Scripture is against it, so also is Reason: for ‘how can two walk together, except they be agreed?’
"...And as it respects individual and persona1 assistance in religious matters, do not we all want helps instead of hindrances? A Christian should make everything bend to religion, but allow religion to bend to nothing.... To place out of consideration the affairs of his eternal salvation, in so important an affair as marriage, shows either that the religion of a person who acts thus is but profession, or likely soon to become so.
"No one should contemplate the prospect of such a connection as marriage without the greatest and most serious deliberation, nor without the most earnest prayer to God for direction. Prayer, however, to be acceptable to the Almighty, should be sincere; and should be presented with a real desire to know and do His will. Many, I believe, act towards the Deity as they do towards their friends: they make up their minds, and then ask to be directed."
-John Angell James-
2, 1872 --Samuel Morse dies in New York City. He has invented the telegraph, and the code that bears his name. His confession is simple: "It is His work, and He alone could have carried me thus far through all my trials and enabled me to triumph over the obstacles, physical and moral, which opposed me." He has studied art in England under Benjamin West, and has come under the influence of William Wilberforce who has led him in early manhood to Christ.
3, 1646 --Presbyterianism is made the state religion by the English Parliament.
4, 1819 --Adoniram Judson begins public worship in the language of the Burmese. Fifteen people are present in addition to children.
1848 --Andrew Bonar marries Isabella Dickson in her home. She has nursed her mother until her death last year.
6, 1528 --Albrecht Durer dies and Martin Luther eulogizes him. He will be buried in the churchyard of Johanniskirchhof in Nuremberg, Germany. He is noted for his paintings, and engravings but he is best known for his sculpture entitled, "The Praying Hands."
9, 1761 --At King’s Cliffe, Northamptonshire, England, William Law dies. When 2000 pastors were ejected from their pulpits over their political stand, he turned to the to writing, believing such was the will of God for him. Perhaps his most famous work is his Serious Call To A Devout and Holy Life.
10, 1606 --The Royal Charter of Virginia will today declare its intention to be "...for the furtherance of so noble a work which may by the providence of Almighty God hereafter to the glory of the Divine Majesty, the propagation of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to settle a quiet government."
1806 --Leonidas Polk is born in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a West Point cadet, choked with emotion, he will enter the quarters of chaplain Charles P. McIlvaine carrying a religious tract he has found. He will want to hear more about Christ, about life after death, about religious duty. Following his conversion, he will be the first cadet to be publicly baptized; a religious awakening will sweep the corps. He will astound the corps by becoming the leader of a "praying platoon." An Episcopal, he will become the only bishop to be made a General in the Civil War.
1829 --In Nottingham, England, the poor and uneducated Samuel Booth has a son born whom he names, William. As a young man, William will be led into Methodism, but will later leave it to found the Salvation Army.
1834 --Adoniram Judson marries Mrs. Sarah Boardman, a widow of three years. Mr. Judson’s first wife has died eight years ago.
11, 1713 --The Peace of Utrecht is signed and so ends the wars of Queen Anne. Protestant succession is secured for England and France separates from Spain.
12, 1691 --"I have been this day doing a work I never did before --burying a child!" so wrote Matthew Henry on the death of his first child which is born today. The child will live a year and a half. Mr. Henry will make his will today.
1850 --Adoniram Judson dies as restfully as one falls asleep. The time is 4:15 in the afternoon. We are three days from the sight of the Burmese Mountains, therefore, tonight at 8:00 his body will be committed to the waves.
13, 1648 --Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte, otherwise known as "Madame Guyon" is born at Montargis, France. Her mystical approach to the Scriptures will result in her imprisonment, but will be a source of inspiration for generations to come.
1742 --Georges Frederich Handel introduces his oratorio, "The Messiah", at the Music Hall in Dublin, Ireland.
15, 1598 --The Edict of Nantes grants Huguenots equal political rights in France with Romanists.
1661 --The Council of Savoy begins. As a result of this council, all ministers who have not been ordained by bishops will be commanded to receive episcopal ordination; declare themselves unreservedly to the prayer book, and take an oath of obedience to the Church of England; and finally to reject the doctrine of the lawfulness of taking up arms against the king or any of his commissioners for any reason. Two thousand ministers will refuse.