When a man by anticipation, or after marriage, breaks the marriage vow; when a

woman acquiesces in the crime thus perpetrated, it is murder aimed at the collective life
of the family. Madness for society to make light of such a crime, which, if permitted,
must destroy society. For notice, the family, not the individual, is the ultimate social unit.
…
Tree covered with foliage: individual leaves and blossoms are connected with twigs
and boughs; you may kill a leaf without injury to the bough, but kill the bough, and what
about the leaves? … Individuals are leaves and blossoms on the tree of life; it is through
the family that they belong to the tree at all. Adultery poisons the bough, and through
that withers the leaves and blossoms. … A pure home is a sound spot in the social
organism; corrupt its purity, and it becomes a centre of corruption. …
According to the Divine ideal, “man” is “male and female;” it is in the union of the
sexes that the “image of God” is reflected. According to the human ideal, woman is
rather man’s play-mate than his help-mate; he chooses her as he would a picture, because
he likes the look of her. She is thought his toy, his doll.
In unchristian countries this low ideal of woman is universally prevalent, but even in
Christian countries it is too often tacitly if not verbally accepted. Such an ideal cannot
but be mischievous. … Woman must exert influence; place her high and it will be
ennobling, set her low and it will become degrading. …
If woman is a toy, then that part of a man’s nature which can require such a costly
toy, will be the most important. The animal nature will be uppermost. The desires will
rule. … Man cannot live above the level of his own ideals. If man is a mere animal,
woman a mere toy, then marriage is a mere convention. All its sanctity has evaporated.
A man will marry if he can afford a wife, if not he will take some cheaper substitute.
In the light of the Divine ideal, marriage becomes a duty and a privilege; the
completion of that Divine idea of which man unmarried is a mere torso. ... By the help of
God’s grace, let man reverence woman, and woman reverence man, and each reverence
in himself and in the other that ideal which is their common glory.

The Pulpit Commentary, Exodus II p. 158-159, Exodus 20:14, (C. A. Goodheart)

Gold Nugget 283

Their Common Glory

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