and female to make the âdâm—the man—that is the whole man. Therefore God called the name of the two conjoined—the male and female—their name, âdâm. And the Adam, including both sexes, is said to have been in the likeness of God. The reason is, that the female was created to be an image more especially of the Divine Love, and the male to be an image more especially of the Divine Wisdom. And as the union of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is eternal, the conclusion is irresistible that the marriage of the male and female, whose union images that of these two principles in the Divine, must also be eternal.
We are further taught by the Lord, that "for this cause," that is, because we were created male and female, "shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;" which shows us that the conjugial relation is to endure when the parental, or the tie that binds parent to child, has ceased to exist. And endure how long? How long shall a man cleave unto his wife? Clearly so long as their distinctive natures remain what they are, and there exists such a mutual and organic adaptation of soul to soul, that they twain, by cleaving to each other, are no longer two but one.
The Bible, therefore, teaches that man and woman were created for union in heaven, as truly as it teaches that they were created for each other and belong together during their earthly sojourn. And if it teaches that marriage on earth was designed by Him who made us, it teaches with equal clearness that it was intended for man's highest or heavenly state, and that its duration will be coterminous with that of the soul itself.
