Chapter III Marriage
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. - JESUS.
56:1 WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism,
John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus
56:3 added: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us
to fulfil all righteousness.” Jesus’ concessions (in certain
cases) to material methods were for the advancement of
56:6 spiritual good.
Marriage temporal
Marriage is the legal and moral provision for genera- tion among human kind. Until the spiritual creation 56:9 is discerned intact, is apprehended and under- stood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision of the Apocalypse, - where the corporeal sense of crea- 56:12 tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from heaven, - marriage will continue, subject to such moral regulations as will secure increasing virtue.
Fidelity required
56:15 Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge
of all races, “the pestilence that walketh in darkness,
... the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
56:18 The commandment, “Thou shalt not com-
mit adultery,” is no less imperative than the one, “Thou
shalt not kill.”
57:1 Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it 57:3 one cannot attain the Science of Life.
Mental elements
Union of the masculine and feminine qualities consti-
tutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a
57:6 higher tone through certain elements of the
feminine, while the feminine mind gains cour-
age and strength through masculine qualities. These
57:9 different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and
their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes
should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac-
57:12 tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it
is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like
the returning spring.
Affection’s demands
57:15 Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the
demands of the affections, and should never weigh
against the better claims of intellect, good-
57:18 ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,
born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore
it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
57:21 share it.
Help and discipline
Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even
though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en-
57:24 larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry
blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec-
tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance
57:27 of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to
God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases
to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for
57:30 heaven.
Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disap-
pointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify
58:1 existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to
elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of
58:3 spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy’s drooping
wings trail in dust.
Chord and discord
Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the
58:6 human mind may be different, but they should be con-
cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish
ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, -
58:9 these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute in-
dividually and collectively true happiness, strength, and
permanence.
Mutual freedom
58:12 There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the
horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of
all another’s time and thoughts. With ad-
58:15 ditional joys, benevolence should grow more
diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would
confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will
58:18 not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love;
but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant
amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for
58:21 the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on
earth, and it should be the centre, though not the bound-
ary, of the affections.
A useful suggestion
58:24 Said the peasant bride to her lover: “Two eat no more together than they eat separately.” This is a hint that a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance 58:27 or stupid ease, because another supplies her wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth- 58:30 ing can abolish the cares of marriage.
Differing duties
“She that is married careth... how she may please
her husband,” says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest
59:1 thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into
without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on
59:3 both sides. There should be the most tender
solicitude for each other’s happiness, and mu-
tual attention and approbation should wait on all the years
59:6 of married life.
Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact
which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should
59:9 not be required to participate in all the annoyances and
cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be ex-
pected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the
59:12 different demands of their united spheres, their sympa-
thies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each
partner sustaining the other, - thus hallowing the union
59:15 of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace
and home.
Trysting renewed
Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the
59:18 welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary
in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid
indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this
59:21 and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the
old trysting-times.
After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati-
59:24 bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should
exist before this union and continue ever after, for decep-
tion is fatal to happiness.
Permanent obligation
59:27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as
its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency
of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re-
59:30 lationship is losing its influence, and that fatal
mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation
never should take place, and it never would, if both
60:1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists.
Science inevitably lifts one’s being higher in the scale of
60:3 harmony and happiness.
Permanent affection
Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary
to the formation of a happy and permanent companion-
60:6 ship. The beautiful in character is also the
good, welding indissolubly the links of affec-
tion. A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her
60:9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con-
stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal
affection lives on under whatever difficulties.
60:12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness
and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will
ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined
60:15 together.
Centre for affections
Marriage should improve the human species, becoming
a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to
60:18 man, and a centre for the affections. This,
however, in a majority of cases, is not its
present tendency, and why? Because the education of
60:21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations,
- passion, frivolous amusements, personal adornment,
display, and pride, - occupy thought.
Spiritual concord
60:24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat-
ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true
happiness of being, places it on a false basis.
60:27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us
life’s sweeter harmonies.
Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind,
60:30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would
be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher
enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal
61:1 man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the
limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real
61:3 enjoyment.
Ascendency of good
The good in human affections must have ascendency
over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi-
61:6 ness will never be won. The attainment of
this celestial condition would improve our
progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi-
61:9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every
mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway
of our God may be prepared in Science. The offspring
61:12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better
balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.
Propensities inherited
If some fortuitous circumstance places promising chil-
61:15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful
children early droop and die, like tropical
flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance
61:18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may re-
produce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits
of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble
61:21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities
that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loath-
some wreck?
61:24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater
responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of
your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks
61:27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be
transmitted to children.
The formation of mortals must greatly improve to 61:30 advance mankind. The scientific /morale/ of marriage is spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con- 62:1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of gener- ating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the 62:3 period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity.
The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, 62:6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so- called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.
Inheritance heeded
If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant 62:9 amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked to, those parents should not, in after years, complain of their children’s fretfulness or fri- 62:12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned. Taking less “thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink”; less thought “for your body what 62:15 ye shall put on,” will do much more for the health of the rising generation than you dream. Children should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should 62:18 become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man’s higher nature.
The Mind creative
We must not attribute more and more intelligence
62:21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and
healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the
bud and blossom, will care for the human
62:24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal inter-
fere with God’s government by thrusting in the laws of
erring, human concepts.
Superior law of Soul
62:27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower;
if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.
Our false views of life hide eternal harmony,
62:30 and produce the ills of which we complain.
Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the
Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and
63:1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think
that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease
63:3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science
of being.
Spiritual origin
In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti-
63:6 ful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is
not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor
does he pass through material conditions prior
63:9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti-
mate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the
law of his being.
The rights of woman
63:12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization 63:15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization.
Unfair discrimination
63:18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their
discrimination as to the person, property, and parental
claims of the two sexes. If the elective fran-
63:21 chise for women will remedy the evil with-
out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us
hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational
63:24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of
society in general and the achievement of a nobler
race for legislation, - a race having higher aims and
63:27 motives.
If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the
wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be
63:30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business
agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her
children free from interference.
64:1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the
selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers
64:3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle
James, when he said: “Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and
64:6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.”
Benevolence hindered
Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to
64:9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Chris-
tianity. When a man lends a helping hand
to some noble woman, struggling alone with
64:12 adversity, his wife should not say, “It is never well to
interfere with your neighbor’s business.” A wife is
sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from
64:15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would
afford.
Progressive development
Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further-
64:18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he
declared that in the resurrection there should
be no more marrying nor giving in marriage,
64:21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul re-
joice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then
white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis-
64:24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and per-
petual peace.
Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, mar- 64:27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard of law which might lead to a worse state of society than now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of 64:30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its own, - all that really is, - and the voices of physical sense will be forever hushed.
Blessing of Christ
65:1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human
happiness should proceed from man’s highest nature.
65:3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal
altar to turn the water into wine and to give to
human life an inspiration by which man’s spiritual and
65:6 eternal existence may be discerned.
Righteous foundations
If the foundations of human affection are consistent with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces 65:9 should warn the age of some fundamental error in the marriage state. The union of the sexes suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its 65:12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.
Powerless promises
The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day
show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of
65:15 the age, struggling against the advancing
spiritual era. Beholding the world’s lack of
Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home
65:18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher
affection.
Transition and reform
There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many
65:21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of
truth, and impurity and error are left among
the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is
65:24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never
desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once
a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot-
65:27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more
spiritual adherence.
The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-
65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off
this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum
is gone.
Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
humanity:
66:3 Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
Salutary sorrow
66:6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, -
a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not
half remember this in the sunshine of joy
66:9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
proofs of God’s care. Spiritual development germi-
66:12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,
but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher
joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-
66:15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
goodness and love.
Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re- 66:18 member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on divine wisdom to point out the path.
Patience is wisdom
66:21 Husbands and wives should never separate if there
is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the
logic of events than for a wife precipitately
66:24 to leave her husband or for a husband to
leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must
always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good
66:27 company. Socrates considered patience salutary under
such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for
his philosophy.
The gold and dross
66:30 Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us
where it found us. The furnace separates
the gold from the dross that the precious metal may
67:1 be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father
hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons
67:3 He teaches?
Weathering the storm
When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds
lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds,
67:6 and the waves lift themselves into mountains.
We ask the helmsman: “Do you know your
course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?” He
67:9 answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not
sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the
Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-
67:12 standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on
and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves
on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-
67:15 ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible
propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens
the troubled sea.
Spiritual power
67:18 The notion that animal natures can possibly give force
to character is too absurd for consideration, when we
remember that through spiritual ascendency
67:21 our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised
the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to
obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other
67:24 means and methods.
The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor 67:27 of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.
Basis of true religion
67:30 Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains
and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any
such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the
68:1 understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of
true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for
68:3 fear of being thought ridiculous. They are
slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some-
time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has
68:6 created men and women in Science. We ought to weary
of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which
hinders our highest selfhood.
68:9 Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of
mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers
of Eden and scatters love’s petals to decay. Be not
68:12 in haste to take the vow “until death do us part.”
Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its rela-
tions to your growth and to your influence on other
68:15 lives.
Insanity and agamogenesis
I never knew more than one individual who believed
in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac-
68:18 ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and
a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named
her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon
68:21 the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder
and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since
salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per-
68:24 petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is
evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis
applies to the human species.
God’s creation intact
68:27 Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man 68:30 and the universe. Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, har- monious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, 69:1 not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe 69:3 are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. 69:6 Mortals can never understand God’s creation while believ- ing that man is a creator. God’s children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. 69:9 Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry or to be “given in marriage” neither closes man’s con- 69:12 tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God’s in- finite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip- 69:15 tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.
If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring 69:18 spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not conflict with the scientific sense of God’s creation. Some day the child will ask his parent: “Do you keep the First 69:21 Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or is man a creator?” If the father replies, “God creates man through man,” the child may ask, “Do you teach 69:24 that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the ques- tion?” Jesus said, “The children of this world marry, 69:27 and are given in marriage: But they which shall be ac- counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur- rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in 69:30 marriage.”