Temple Marriage an Antidote Against Divorce

TEMPLE MARRIAGE AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST DIVORCE By J. M. Sjodahl One of the most important questions of the day concerns the home. The home is a divine institution. It is the foundation of both the state and the 'church. Every organization, be it social, political, religious or educational, is of value only as it helps to make the home a sanctuary of devotion, an altar of unselfish sacrifice, a school for the formation of character fit for a higher existence hereafter. In the Christian home the parents realize that God has entrusted them with a share of his own authority, in order that they may, by experience, learn how to govern according to celestial law, and to rear children to him. If we look around us at the present time, we cannot fail to perceive that our nation, and other nations, apparently are imperiled by the increasing disregard of the essential mission of the home and the sanctity of the marriage covenant. It looks as if we were on the way to national dissolution. Close students of the subject tell us that we now have, in this country, one divorce for every seven marriages. Bishop Wm. T. Manning, of the Episcopal diocese in New York, recently, in an address in Paris, indicated one source of this apparent failure of one of the most sacred institutions. He said, in part: "When such things as trial marriage and so-called companionate marriages were being openly commended to our young people by university professors and others, it is time that those of us who believe in Christ and his standards should speak our minds and call these things by their plain names." When marriage is degraded to the level of the "things" here referred to, it is no wonder that it ends in divorce. But, nevertheless, that evil is a menace to our national existence. In order to realize this awful fact, let us for a moment look upon our crime statistics: During the year 1926, the record of murders and homicides for 1 1 8 of the larger cities of the United States, according to published figures, amounted to 3,450. In Chicago alone the record of blood was 5 1 0 — more than one for every day of the year. And not only have we this terrible record of murder, but we have also the appalling record of fatal automobile accidents, largely due to disregard of traffic regulations and, in many cases, criminal carelessness. It was stated in a recent Washington dispatch that "more people have been killed by automobiles in the United States during the

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST DIVORCE 1099 past eight years than the number of American soldiers killed in the World War." The total killed on our streets and highways by the insane craving for speed, during the period from Jan. 1, 1919, to Dec. 31, 1926, was 137,017. It has gone so far that homicides by automobiles are looked upon as privileges, in the interest of modern progress! Add to this record crimes of dishonesty, violation of the prohi- bition law and similar offenses, and it will be seen that the crime wave has assumed the proporticms of an engulfing flood. Jurists, who have studied the conditions, have come to the no doubt correct conclusion, that one cause of the prevalence of crime is the divorce. This is especially true of juvenile crime, which is on the increase, notwithstanding the assertions of shallow-brained street- corner philosophers. Judge Hugo Pam, Chicago, is quoted as having said that nine out of every ten boys who have been dragged before him have been without the care of father or mother, or both. Judge MacNeille, Philadelphia, is credited with the statement that, as far as his observation goes, 90 percent of young criminals come from homes that have been broken up by death, desertion or divorce. A child that has lost either father or mother, has been deprived of 90 percent of its legitimate social heritage as regards its- chances in life. The reason why a child, who has the privilege of the care of both father and mother, has a better chance than one with only one parent to watch over it, is, the judge says, one of the psychological mysteries which he has not been able to solve. But it is a fact. The united efforts of parents complement each other in the training of the child. The home with both father and mother united is a mighty barrier against the powers of evil. When the home ties are dissolved, the powers of evil are apt to enter and carry away those who are weak. In view of this, it is evident that if the Prophet Joseph Smith had given us nothing more than the revelation on celestial marriage; that is, on the eternal duration of the marriage relation, when entered into by divine authority, and the temple service by which men and women are united in sacred bonds for both time and eternity, his life and martyr death would have been well worth while to this nation and all mankind. For through this great truth, which could not have become known without a special revelation, the Lord has shown his children the way to salvation from the corruption of the world. Mar- riages solemnized in the sacred precincts of the house of God are not likely to be lightly dissolved. The homes thus founded on the divine rock are more likely to stand in the storms of life, and the children of such unions will not, on any flimsy pretext, be bereft of their rights to the privileges and duties of a sacred home. Our Protestant friends feel keenly the curse of the divorce evil. But they have no remedy to offer. To them marriage is essentially a civil institution, even if the Lord is, as a matter of courtesy, asked

1100 IMPROVEMENT ERA to bless the ceremony. On that view, divorce is as natural as the wedding. Nor can our Catholic priests supply a remedy. True, they do not recognize a civil marriage. To them marriage is a sacrament, and they insist on ecclesiastical sanction, even where the law demands a civil ceremony. At the same time, they do not usually grant re- marriage to divorced persons. But their fatal mistake is that they consider the married state less holy and pleasing to God than a state of celibacy. Hence, their clergy are, or ought to be, they hold, too holy to marry. It is clear that in this view, the home is considered less sacred than, for instance, a dark and dreary monastery, or a nunnery. No wonder, then, that Paris has become one of the divorce centers, where rich people go and make a mockery of marriage. Let us remember that marriage, although we do not generally call it a sacrament, is a divine, sacred institution, and that the marriage covenant should be entered into in the presence of God, our heavenly Father, in his holy house, and be sealed by his authorized servant. Then it is done right. Then, if the parties to the marriage covenant begin life together with a determination to do their duty day by day, help and assist each other, live for each other, their reward will be sweet both in this life and hereafter. But life means duty, not fun. It is the performance of duty, not the indulgence in idleness and levity, that brings reward. Saviors on Mt. Zion know that they have a life-long mission to perform, and that home-building in accordance with the revelation on celestial marriage is part of that mission. President Brigham Young says in one of his wonderful sermons, that the marriage relation "lays the foundation for worlds, for angels, and for the Gods; for intelligent beings to be crowned with glory, im- mortality and eternal lives. In fact, it is the thread which runs from the beginning to the end of the holy gospel of salvation — of the gospel of the Son of God; it is from eternity to eternity." If this is, as it ought to be, our view of the marriage relation, we will enter into it in God's holy house, in his presence, and there will be no need for divorce at any time. In the sacred home, the country will then have the strongest bulwark against crime and all evil influences. Nature's God The groves were God's first temples, that doubtful man might see His handiwork in Nature and nearer to him be. The stars bespeak his glory, the sun his love divine, The rain his soothing Spirit which in our lives may shine. E. Cecil McGavin