Wholesome variations may well mark the introductory part of the marriage service, prior to the wedding vows. The following remarks, used by Dr. Andrew N. Nelson (now president of Philippine Union College) at an impressive and wholesome ceremony at the time of his daughter's marriage, were requested for publication in, THE MINISTRY as an, example of variation and adaptation to individual circumstances. —EDITOR.
From the pristine purity of the Garden of Eden, two divine institutions have been passed on to the generations of mankind. One of these is the Sabbath, which comes to us regularly week by week, often introduced by gorgeous sunset colors. The other is the marriage institution, which ushers two young people into the love and blessings of a home and into an eternal companionship.
The Maker of the unnumbered worlds whose glittering suns stud our night-time skies, Himself honored the marriage institution by performing its first service in the bowers of the ancient garden. It is our privilege tonight to follow our Lord's example in uniting these two young people in the sacred bonds of matrimony.
Not only does our kind Creator grace the weddings of His children by His presence, but He also takes a deep interest in all the affairs affecting their welfare. He delights to listen when they call, and to answer their prayers, including those for guidance in the great step of choosing life's companionships.
We witness tonight the culmination of one interesting chapter in the story of God's guidance of Christian youth. He chose a young man whose paths have led him through such distant lands as Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and Turkey; He chose a maiden to whom the cities of Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in the lands of the Orient are more familiar than the large cities of the Occident. In His strange providence He called them into a lifelong friendship and into the sacred experience of wedlock, which occasion we are celebrating tonight.
God is calling these young people into a life-of service here on earth. Ere many days have passed they will be busy preaching the gospel in a near-by State. After this their paths are destined to return to those mission fields whose strange customs and problems and joys have long been familiar to them as they grew up with their parents in distant lands. There they will devote their lives to the proclamation of the love and kindness of the Lord, who means so much to them.
Tonight God and His angelic host are putting the finishing touches on a:beautiful home in the heavenly Jerusalem, a home that will be the permanent and eternal possession of this new family. The leadings of the Lord are wondrous indeed, and the rewards of a life of service are great.
God has had a close Associate in His great work of creating and upholding the worlds, and His even greater work of calling out His eternal sons and daughters from a world that has gone astray. This close Associate of God's is the Man Christ Jesus, whom we see gracing the ancient wedding in the Palestinian village of Cana. He is the Saviour of Calvary. He is the living Christ, who delights to dwell in the hearts of those who have chosen to follow. Christ loves His people. He loves His church, and this love is held up to us as a model for the love that should characterize the homes of Christians. He says:
"Husbands, love, your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
"So ought men also to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. . .
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."
Into this holy estate of matrimony these two persons come now to be inseparably joined.
And now, Kenneth, before God and in the presence of these witnesses, do you promise to take Dorothy to be your wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the sacred estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her in sickness and in health, in prosperity or adversity, and forsaking all others, keep you only unto her so long as you both shall live? Do you so declare?
The groom: I do.
And now, Dorothy, do you promise to take Kenneth to be your wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the sacred estate of matrimony? Will you love, honor, and cherish him, in sickness and in health, in prosperity and adversity, and forsaking all others., keep you only unto him so long as you both shall live? Do you so declare?
The bride:I do.
Forasmuch as Kenneth Samuel Oster and Dorothy Gertrude Nelson have consented to be joined together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have given and pledged their troth, each to the other, and declared the same by joining hands, I, as a minister of the gospel and by authority of the law of the State of Maryland, do pronounce that they are man and wife. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
Andrew N. Nelson
