TEXT: EPH. v. 22-31.
IN completing lately the annual round of our Christian holy-days, I expressed to you the wish that the holy emotions which our hearts experience at such seasons might not pass away with them; but that the impressions then made might accompany us during the other half of the year, so that without any extraordinary festival incitement we might constantly retain a more lively sense of communion with the Redeemer, and a fuller enjoyment of what the eternal Father has done through Him. Now if we find that this is not the case, and inquire for the reason, we usually hear this answer, That it is the pressure of daily life that continually draws us back from elevating communion with God into the tumult of the world. And yet, my friends, what constitutes the life on which we would so fain lay the blame of our waning feelings of devotion, of our instability and our transient impressions? It consists, in fact, of just those natural relations which God the Lord Himself has established, out of which the Christian community must be built up, and in which, in their turn, all the blessings of true Christian piety are to take root, that they may be more and more widely extended. How then can this life draw us away from communion with God and the Saviour, when it is really His own holy body winch ought to be thoroughly pervaded by His own living power? If this does take place, must it not be because we have lost sight of the real meaning of these relationships, or because vain and false ideas that have become associated with them have hidden from us their true nature?
I have therefore thought it might not be superfluous to take a survey of the most important of our life-relationships, and to study them in the glass of the divine Word, in order both to revive in our minds the Christian meaning of them, and that we may more consciously realize that, far from drawing us back from communion with God and devoted love to the Saviour, they are fitted greatly to confirm those graces in ourselves and through us to call them forth in others.
We will begin this series of meditations with the relation ship which is the foundation of all others, namely, the holy bond of marriage, which we must regard as the first appointment of God after His almighty Word had called man into existence. Out of this sacred union are developed all other human relations; on it rests the Christian family, and of such Christian families Christian communities consist. Moreover, on this union depends the propagation of the human race, and the transmitting of the power of the divine Word from one generation to another. Therefore let us to day consider this foundation of the whole Christian Church in the light of God’s Word.
The leading idea in this representation of Christian marriage is, that while the apostle reveals to us the inmost depths of love on which the whole fabric of the Church is founded, he at the same time draws our thoughts to the holy relationship between Christ and His people. I say it is the leading idea; for we thus see clearly that in marriage, as the original root of all social life, there should be nothing that could draw us away from Christ our Lord; rather we are taught to refer everything belonging to it to that great union of our hearts with the Saviour. We shall best under stand the apostle’s ideal of Christian married life by considering two points in his description of it: first, an earthly and a heavenly view of it, which are yet one; and secondly, a difference which resolves itself into a most perfect likeness.
I. First, then, let us see how the earthly and the heavenly view of Christian marriage which the apostle presents to us are thoroughly one, and cannot be separated.
He gives us first the earthly view in the words, A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Certainly it could not be more clearly and strongly set before us than in these words, and we could find no clearer rule by which to judge of the many and varied phases of the married state which we see around us, even in what calls itself refined society. For, alas, how often among Christians does marriage assume, even from this earthly point of view, a truly dreadful aspect! How often do we see the two who should be one giving way to anger against each other, separated by dissension and strife, and sometimes even so embittered against each other that, instead of trying to avoid quarrels, they wilfully seek out occasions for them. In such cases it need not be said that two have not become one. Again, how often has the married state a troubled aspect, when, for want of any glad assurance of being one in heart, both parties keep watchful guard over themselves, seeking by the most obliging and compliant manner and behaviour, and by self-denying sacrifice, to avoid all occasions for dispute, and trying by the most tender considerateness to make up, if possible, for the absence of true love. And here also, even if it is only one of the parties who is obliged to exercise this self-constraint, while the other is in the right position, it is easy to see that the two have not become one—that there is no true union, but only a carefully maintained contract. Once more, how often has marriage a repulsive aspect, when married people live, it is true, in peace and harmony, but only because in course of time they have become accustomed to each other, and because, while they make as little demand as possible on each other, both find their real satisfaction in other relations of life and in other companionships! That in a connection so indifferent and dead the two are not one flesh is certain, for that implies a living union; and it is equally certain that in this case there has been no heart impulse constraining to leave father and mother and cleave to husband or wife, and that therefore even the earthly side of a Christian marriage is wanting. But why should I go on to multiply these illustrations? Let me rather say in a word that, in so far as each has separate joys and sorrows (even supposing that they have much more regard to the interests of each other than to their own); in so far as the wife needs to remind herself to be submissive, and the husband to remind himself to give honour to the weaker vessel; however faithfully they may obey those admonitions of conscience; and in short, wherever there are opposing wishes and aims to be adjusted, fully and generously as those mental concessions may be carried out; just in so far as these conditions exist, the word of the apostle is not yet fulfilled,—the love that makes truly one is not and never has been enthroned there.