Hasty, Immature Marriages
55
blessing or curse, is too often taken hastily, under the impulse of senti-
ment. Many will not listen to reason or instruction from a Christian
point of view
Satan is constantly busy to hurry inexperienced youth into a mar-
riage alliance. But the less we glory in the marriages which are now
taking place, the better
In consequence of hasty marriages, even among the professed
people of God, there are separations, divorces, and great confusion in
the church
What a contrast between the course of Isaac and that pursued by
the youth of our time, even among professed Christians! Young people
too often feel that the bestowal of their affections is a matter in which
self alone should be consulted—a matter that neither God nor their
parents should in any wise control. Long before they have reached
manhood or womanhood, they think themselves competent to make
their own choice, without the aid of their parents. A few years of
married life are usually sufficient to show them their error, but often
too late to prevent its baleful results. For the same lack of wisdom and
self-control that dictated the hasty choice is permitted to aggravate the
evil, until the marriage relation becomes a galling yoke. Many have
thus wrecked their happiness in this life and their hope of the life to
come
Potential Workers for God Entangled—Young men have re-
ceived the truth and run well for a season, but Satan has woven his
[81]
meshes about them in unwise attachments and poor marriages. This
he saw would be the most successful way he could allure them from
the path of holiness
I have been shown that the youth of today have no true sense of
their great danger. There are many of the young whom God would
accept as laborers in the various branches of His work, but Satan steps
in and so entangles them in his web that they become estranged from
God and powerless in His work. Satan is a sharp and persevering
workman. He knows just how to entrap the unwary, and it is an
3
Ibid., 453
.
4
Testimonies For The Church 2, 252
.
5
The Review and Herald, September 25, 1888
.
6
Patriarchs and Prophets, 175
.
7
Testimonies For The Church 5, 114, 115
.