Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/161

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UNDER MODERN CONDITIONS
145

these demands, thus certified, all good Christians must insist upon and, as far as lies their power, establish in the laws of the Empire.

The making of rules lies primarily with the specially illuminated, but all members of the Christian society, in all its sections, and under all descriptions, are called to sustain in the world the law of chastity, and to win men by their example to acknowledge the beauty of holiness. Within the Christian society itself the evangelical ideal of marriage ought to be affirmed and enforced, and the sacramental character of the natural relationship vindicated and displayed. Within the sphere of Christian discipleship the sordid and cruel profanations of the marriage covenant ought to be disallowed, and the cynical judgments they provoke ought to be disproved:

"Marriage-making for the earth,
With gold so much-birth, power, repute so much,
Or beauty, youth so much, in lack of these!"

From the hallowed enclosure of the Church