680 THE KING’S BUSINESS back to their own county and get divorced. These figures are horrifying. No wonder that he makes this comment: “When men and wQmen— so many of them—give little thought or con sideration to the most important relation of their lives; when even ministers of the Gospel will perform the marriage ceremony for so many of them who have been divorced on other than the Scriptural ground, without even asking a ques- tion; when persons have the audacity to go to the court for the dissolution of the relation ‘by the surgery of divorce’ on such flimsy, even absolutely frivolous, pretexts; and when judges have no more respect for their great office and give no more thought to matters then at hand than to allow themselves and their office to be prostituted to the extent that thousands of divorces are granted by them annually with no more concern than if they were ordering the filing or record ing of a chattel mortgage; when all this is manifest, is it strange that the Ameri can home appears to be going to Hades so fast that the scenery cannot be dis cerned on the way? Surely the condition is bad enough, though not hopeless.” It is a sad and startling fact that in many communities men and women can be divorced and sufifer no social stigma. The woman who has put away her husband and taken on another is treated the same as if she were a decent woman, and the man who has put away one wife and married another, if he has wealth and ability, is welcomed into what is called the best society. The home is being undermined, the sanctity of the marriage relation is being defiled, and our civilization is being attacked at its v O THE BEST WIND W HICHEVER way the wind doth blow, Some heart is glad to have it so; 1 Then blow it east or blow it west, The wind that blows; that wind is best. My little craft Sails not alone; A thousand fleets from every zqne Are out upon a thousand seas; And what for me were favoring breeze Might dash another, with the shock O f doom, upon some hidden rock. And so I do not dare to pray For winds to waft me on my way, But leave it to a Higher Will To stay or speed me; trusting still That all is well, and sure that He Who launched my bark will sail with me Through storm and calm, and will not fail, Whatever breezes may prevail, To land me, every peril past, Within His sheltering heaven at last. Then, whatsoever wind doth blow, My heart is glad to have it s o ; And blow it east or blow it west, The wind that blows, that wind is best. — C aroline A therton M ason .
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