Chapter III - Marriage
Blessing of Christ
65:1
Experience should be the school of virtue, and human
Experience should be the school of virtue, and human
happiness should proceed from man's highest nature.
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
eternal existence may be discerned.
Righteous foundations
65:7
If the foundations of human affection are consistent
If the foundations of human affection are consistent
with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces
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
harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.
Powerless promises
65:13
The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day
The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day
show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of
the age, struggling against the advancing
spiritual era. Beholding the world's lack of
Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home
happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher
affection.
Transition and reform
65:20
There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many
There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many
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
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-
ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more
spiritual adherence.
65:29
The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-
The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-
jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off
this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum
is gone.
66:1
Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
humanity:
66:3
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
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, –
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
and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germi-
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-
cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
goodness and love.
66:17
Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
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
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
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
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
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