Marriage with Unbelievers
325
and grace to meet the cares, responsibilities, and sorrows of life. She
should make Him her strength and her guide. Let woman give herself
to Christ before giving herself to any earthly friend, and enter into
no relation which shall conflict with this. Those who would find true
happiness must have the blessing of heaven upon all that they possess
[363]
and all that they do. It is disobedience to God that fills so many hearts
and homes with misery. My sister, unless you would have a home
where the shadows are never lifted, do not unite yourself with one who
is an enemy of God.
As one who expects to meet these words in the judgment, I entreat
you to ponder the step you contemplate taking. Ask yourself: “Will
not an unbelieving husband lead my thoughts away from Jesus? He is
a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God; will he not lead me to
enjoy the things that he enjoys?” The path to eternal life is steep and
rugged. Take no additional weights to retard your progress. You have
too little spiritual strength, and you need help instead of hindrance.
The Lord commanded ancient Israel not to intermarry with the
idolatrous nations around them: “Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daugh-
ter shalt thou take unto thy son.” The reason is given. Infinite Wisdom,
foreseeing the result of such unions, declares: “For they will turn away
thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the
anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.”
“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God
hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people
that are upon the face of the earth.” “Know therefore that the Lord thy
God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand
generations; and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy
them: He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him
to his face.”
In the New Testament are similar prohibitions concerning the mar-
riage of Christians with the ungodly. The apostle Paul, in his first letter
to the Corinthians, declares: “The wife is bound by the law as long
as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to
be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” Again, in his second
[364]
epistle, he writes: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbeliev-
ers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and