Isaac
73
and son answered, “The thing proceedeth from the Lord. We cannot
speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her,
and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the Lord hath spoken.
And it came to pass, that when Abraham’s servant heard their words,
he worshiped the Lord, bowing himself to the earth.”
After all had been arranged, the consent of the father and brother
had been obtained, then Rebekah was consulted whether she would go
with the servant of Abraham a great distance from her father’s family,
to become the wife of Isaac. She believed from the circumstances that
had taken place, that God’s hand had selected her to be Isaac’s wife,
“and she said, I will go.”
Marriage contracts were then generally made by the parents, yet
no compulsion was used to make them marry those they could not
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love. But the children had confidence in the judgment of their parents,
and followed their counsel, and bestowed their affections upon those
whom their God-fearing, experienced parents chose for them. It was
considered a crime to follow a course contrary to this.
What a contrast to the course now pursued by many children!
Instead of showing reverence, and due honor for their parents, by
consulting them, and having the advantages of their experienced judg-
ment in choosing for them, they move hastily in the matter, and are
controlled by impulse rather than by the judgment of their parents,
and the fear of God. It is often the case that they contract marriage
without even the knowledge of their parents. And in many instances
their lives are imbittered by hasty marriages, because the son-in-law,
or the daughter-in-law, feel under no obligation to make their parents
happy.
Young men and women sometimes manifest great independence
upon the subject of marriage, as though the Lord had nothing to do
with them, or they with the Lord, in that matter, and that it was purely a
matter of their own, which neither God, nor their parents should in any
wise control. They seem to think that the bestowal of their affections is
a matter in which self alone should be consulted. Such make a serious
mistake, and a few years of marriage experience generally teaches
them that it is a miserable mistake. This is the great reason of so
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many unhappy marriages, in which there is so little true, generous love
toward each other, and so little exercise of noble forbearance toward