remarriage
Marriage and Divorce
&
The Testimony of J. M. Humphrey
Marriage and Divorce
Prof. David Engelsma
Every pastor knows how serious is the threat to marriage in the church today. That marriage is in trouble in the world hardly needs to be pointed out: many live together without marrying, or fornicate promiscuously like beasts — holding marriage in contempt; many others divorce and remarry.
But marriage is under attack also in the church. No denomination or congregation is exempt. The attack on marriage in the church is made through divorce: two who have become one in marriage split up again into two. Either the wife leaves the husband, or the husband puts away his wife, or they file for a full, legal divorce. More and more, all the members of the congregation notice the threat to marriage in the church, because their fellow members are getting divorces, where such a thing was unheard of, even unthinkable, before. The pastor knows how much more danger there is behind the scenes, where trouble in the marriage is not suspected by the membership of the church.
Every pastor also knows how snarled and horrible some marriages become, through the sins of the husband and the wife — marriages in the church. Although they live together, under one roof at least, some husbands and wives so sin against each other, over a long period of time, that their marriage is a mockery of the close, delightful bond described in the Scriptures. Either the husband is a cold, unfeeling brute who rules tyrannically, or the wife is a contentious shrew, always contradicting her husband. Or the marriage is constant criticizing and bickering. Or they pretty much go their own ways.
Every pastor has had the feeling in his difficult labor with the married that the only way out is divorce, that it would, in fact, be an act of mercy to counsel them to divorce. Woe to him if he follows his feeling instead of the Word of God, but this is his feeling. What is said in this pamphlet about divorce cannot be ascribed to the writer's ignorance of how complicated marriage situations can become in the church or of how fearfully sin can strain and tear the marriage bond.
Although our sin complicates matters, the Word of God gives clear instruction concerning marriage and divorce. In fact, the truth is so simple that a child can understand it. The Word has much to say about marriage, because marriage is important. What it says is clear. The Word speaks clearly on every aspect of marriage: the origin and institution; its nature; its purpose; and how we are to live together in it. No married person will ever be able to plead ignorance for violating marriage. No church will ever be able to appeal to Scripture's obscurity to excuse its wrong views on marriage and divorce.
We must let the Scriptures govern here; we must bow to them in the matter of marriage. As Protestants, our confession is: Scripture alone. Not our feelings, not our circumstances, not even our "tender mercies" may be determinative here, but the Word only. The issue for the church as regards her significant role in defending marriage is this: Will she speak the Word of God and do discipline according to the Word, or not?
What do the Scriptures teach?
The Biblical Prohibition of Divorce
Marriage is an institution of God. God established marriage on the sixth day of creation when He made the woman from the man and gave her to the man as his wife (Gen. 2:18-25; cf. Eph. 5:31). Because it has been instituted by God, marriage is subject to God's will. Marriage is not merely a human arrangement, to be made, broken, and adjusted at our convenience. The will of God governing marriage was revealed in the very institution itself in the beginning. Repeatedly, Christ and the apostles derive their teaching on marriage from that original institution of marriage. When the Pharisees ask Jesus, in Matthew 19, whether it is right to divorce for every reason, He answers, "Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female...?" When, a little later, they mention a deviation from the law of marriage in the Old Testament — Moses' permission of divorce — Jesus' response is: "but from the beginning it was not so." Christ's concern for the original institution of marriage is zeal for God. He does not answer questions on marriage problems in order to suit men, but with the determination to please God.
In the beginning, God made marriage as a bond of the most intimate fellowship of love between one man and one woman. The two become one flesh. Such is God's declaration in Genesis 2:24, quoted by Paul in Ephesians 5:31. There is a bodily oneness in the sexual relationship, but also a oneness of soul. Married persons share one life. The Lord Jesus stressed this in Matthew 19:6: "Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh." We must not think of married persons as two, but as one. This union of the two, the male and the female, is God's act in the case of every marriage. In marriage, God joins two persons together (Matt. 19:6). Although there is a uniquely rich aspect of the God-worked intimacy of marriage in the case of two believers, God joins two together as one flesh also in the world. Marriage is an institution of God in creation, like government. Whenever two people use this institution, they are joined by God. Hence, according to I Corinthians 7:12-17, the marriage of a believer and an unbeliever is a valid marriage, which must be maintained. A husband and wife experience and express the intimacy of marriage as unique love and communion.
Marriage is a relationship for life. This is built into the institution: one man and one woman become one flesh. Since marriage is a union effected by God, man neither may nor can "put asunder." Only God may, and only God can, divide what He has joined. God does this in death. "For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man" (Rom. 7:2, 3). I Corinthians 7:39 teaches the same thing: "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." For good reason, the marriage forms — until recently — had the couple vow to take each other as wife or husband "till death us do part."
In harmony with the truth of marriage, the Scriptures forbid divorce. Divorce is sin: a man or woman's faithlessness, i.e., hatred, towards his or her mate and revolt against the God who joined them in marriage. This is Christ's radical doctrine in Matthew 19. When the Pharisees asked whether a man might put away his wife for every cause, His answer was: No divorce! "Let not man put asunder!" The toleration of divorce by Moses was due to the Israelites' hard hearts, and divorce is not to be suffered any longer. The sin that a man commits, when he divorces his wife, is that he makes his wife commit adultery (Matt. 5:32). He exposes her to an adulterous relationship with a third party.
Even separation is forbidden. A wife may not leave her husband (I Cor. 7:10), or the husband, his wife — not even if the mate is an unbeliever (I Cor. 7:12ff.). Marriage is communion: the two must live together. Not only must they live together under one roof, but they must live together sexually: "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence (literally, 'the debt'): and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other..." ( I Cor. 7:3-5).
There is one exception in Scripture to the prohibition of divorce, namely, "fornication." According to Matthew 5:31, 32, a man does not sin if he puts his wife away because she lives in adultery with another man. This indicates the gravity of adultery. It is taken lightly today. It is joked about. It is toyed with when men enjoy the movies, magazines, and novels that present adultery as an accepted, attractive way of life. One thing is so destructive of the union of marriage, striking as it does at the heart of that institution, that it tears the two apart to the extent that the ability and calling to live together are gone: adultery. Besides this, there is no ground for divorce, not mental cruelty, not incompatibility, not a bad wife or a miserable husband — nothing. In marriage we take each other — as the old forms also stated — "for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health."
In keeping with its doctrine of marriage, as well as its prohibition of divorce, the Word also prohibits remarriage, while one's (original) mate still lives. This is the implication of the institution of marriage: one man and one woman joined as one flesh by God for life. Only God dissolves the union, and He does so by death. As long as the two are living, their union leaves no place for a third party. When churches today bring up examples of the permission of remarriage in the history of the church, we ask, in all seriousness, "What was the rule in the beginning?"
The New Testament makes explicit the teaching that is implicit in the institution of marriage. This is done in the passages already quoted from Romans 7 and I Corinthians 7: married persons are bound to each other for life; only death looses the bond, so that one may marry another; marriage to another before the death of one's mate makes one an adulterer or adulteress.
Three other passages speak directly of remarriage: Mark 10:11, 12; Luke 16:18; and I Corinthians 7:10, 11. The two former passages are absolute, unqualified condemnations of remarriage as adultery. "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery" (Luke 16:18). In I Corinthians 7:10, 11, after Paul tells the wife not to leave her husband, he conceives of the possibility that she may have to leave nevertheless; in such a case "let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband."
But what about the remarriage of the one divorced on the biblical ground of adultery? One passage in all Scripture seems, at first glance, to permit the remarriage of one divorced on the ground of fornication, namely, Matthew 19:9: "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." If this were the correct interpretation of the text, there would be one, and only one, ground for remarriage: the adultery of one's mate. The "innocent party" would be free to marry another. However, there is powerful biblical evidence to the contrary. There is the testimony of the Scriptures that only death dissolves the bond of marriage. There is the unqualified prohibition of remarriage elsewhere in the Bible. And there is the last part of Matthew 19:9 itself. The last part of the text calls the new union of the woman divorced un-biblically, whose husband has since remarried, an adulterous union. The Lord expressly states that the "innocent party" may not remarry. The exceptive clause in Matthew 19:9 ("except it be for fornication") is intended to qualify only the prohibition of divorce, in perfect harmony with the fact that the Lord is answering the Pharisee's question concerning the legitimacy of divorce (cf. v. 3).
The Scriptures draw the lines plainly. Marriage is a lifelong bond; divorce is forbidden, except on the ground of the sexual unfaithfulness of one's mate; remarriage is forbidden until death separates the two. These lines make a narrow way into the Kingdom for men and women, as regards marriage; and it is not surprising that there are only few who find it. But this is the way into the Kingdom; no adulterer shall enter. This is what the church is called to preach, publicly and privately, and when we do, we are defending marriage in the face of the all-out assault on marriage today.
The Church's Calling to Defend Marriage
The church must condemn divorce sharply and in no uncertain terms and, with it, the remarriage that usually follows. It is high time that the church call divorce what it is: sin. Today, many people, even many churches, have nice things to say in defense of divorce. They excuse it. It is due to love, really: so-and-so fell out of love with her husband and fell into love with another man. But the church, in her preaching, must adopt God's attitude and judgment with regard to divorce: "For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away" (Mal. 2:16).
Divorce is disobedience to God's law and an act of rebellious violence against His institution of marriage. It is hatred for God.
It is also hatred for one's mate and children. Rather than leave her husband for another man, a man's wife could better shoot him — and the children. Divorce causes cruel suffering; it is the destruction of mate and family. God calls it treachery in Malachi 2: "Let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth" (v. 15). A man lives with his wife for years. She has his children, cares for him, and suffers with him through the hardships of life. Then, when they are both older, he leaves her for a younger, prettier woman. This is treachery. The sin against one's mate committed by the man or woman who divorces, or leaves, is that of exposing the mate to the temptation of adultery. Such is Christ's condemnation of divorce in Matthew 5:32: "Whosoever shall put away his wife ... causeth her to commit adultery...." We are made with needs, need for companionship, and sexual needs; the man who divorces his wife is responsible for placing her in circumstances in which she is likely to sin, thus coming under the threat of damnation. This is not the behavior of love.
The wave of divorce rolling over the world and over the churches today is not, for the most part, due to complicated psychological factors — "my wife does not understand me." On the contrary, the cause is lust: "... when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife" (Jer. 5:7, 8).
If the church hates divorce and condemns it, she will discipline the guilty. She will excommunicate the man who divorces his wife; she will excommunicate the woman who leaves her husband for her neighbor's. In the Old Testament, Israel had to kill both the adulterer and the adulteress; today, the church is required to set them outside the Kingdom of heaven, and what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. There is always room for repentance; indeed, repentance is the goal of discipline, but repentance must include breaking with the sin, i.e., breaking the adulterous relationship and going back to one's mate. For the church to mouth condemnation of divorce, but to allow it to go on in her fellowship is hypocrisy. Nor will such loose dealings check the tide of divorce, teach others to fear, or defend marriage.
In our missions, we must preach the sinfulness of the marital folly and disobedience of the people and call them to repentance, which repentance includes doing works worthy of repentance (Acts 26:20).
In her opposition to divorce, the church is for marriage — she is defending and promoting marriage among the saints. She hates divorce, because she loves marriage. She says "No" to divorce in the service of saying "Yes" to marriage. Say what they will, those who tolerate unbiblical divorce and permit remarriage become party to the attack on marriage in our day.
The church's unbending opposition to divorce has practical results in the congregation. Open the door of divorce just a crack, and married people will rush through it, for it is easier to divorce than to repent, confess, forgive, and reconcile. Keep that door shut — as tightly as the Lord did — and the saints in marital trouble will realize that the only way out is reconciliation, and they will work at reconciliation. The fruit, therefore, of opposition to divorce will be stable marriages and solid homes with the untold blessedness that this means for the church, the married people themselves, their children, and their grandchildren.
The church has special reason for proclaiming and defending marriage. In doing so, she witnesses to the gospel itself. Not only is the truth of marriage an important part of the doctrine of Jesus which He has commissioned us to teach all nations to observe (Matt. 28:19, 20), but marriage itself is the symbol of the relationship of intimate love between Christ and His church — the symbol of the covenant of grace.
Ephesians 5 teaches this. From verse 22 on, the Holy Spirit calls the wife to behave towards her husband as the church behaves towards Christ, and the man to behave towards his wife as Christ does towards the church, because marriage is the earthly picture of the spiritual relationship, or bond, between the heavenly Bridegroom and His wife. This is plainly stated in verse 32. Verse 31 has quoted God's words on marriage in Genesis 2:24, words that emphasize that marriage is intimate union: "and they two shall be one flesh." Then, Paul says: "This is a great mystery." What is a great mystery? Earthly, human marriage, we would answer. No, says Paul, "but I speak concerning Christ and the church." The reality of marriage is the intimate, covenant relation of Christ and the church, because marriage, my marriage, your marriage, the institution of marriage, is the God-appointed symbol of Christ and the church.
In this real marriage, the one Man, Christ, and His bride, the elect church, are so united, by the wonder of the grace of the Holy Spirit, that the two become one: Christ is the Head, and we are the body. There is inseparable, unbreakable union. Christ never divorces us, much less takes another. By the power of His efficacious love,the church never leaves Him, gives herself to Him alone, and desires Him alone. Her love-song is: "solo Christo," "Christ alone." By the grace of God, the covenant is characterized by faithfulness, faithfulness born of love and serving the interests of love.
This constrains the church in her doctrine of marriage. As she hears the gospel of faithful love — and experiences it — so does she preach and defend faithfulness in marriage. Where the gospel of the gracious, faithful covenant is lost, there the picture is corrupted also. Always in Israel's history, two sordid things were found together: Israel went a-whoring from Jehovah after the idols, and Israelite husbands and wives committed adultery.
Do not think for a moment that this implies that the church has no eye for the happiness of the saints, or that she lacks compassion for the sinner. But compassion for the sinner never lets him go on in sin. It calls him back. Perhaps it calls the sinner to a painful action, e.g., the Lord's "sell all that thou hast ... and follow me," but love imperiously calls the sinner from sin. Nor is the church unfeeling and hard-nosed in condemning divorce. Rather, in the love of Christ she seeks the genuine bliss of the saints. Divorce means ruin and misery, now and eternally. Marriage, even a difficult one, means joy — above all, and in any case, knowledge of the approval of God.
The Calling of the Saint to Uphold Marriage
As the pillar and ground of the truth, the church is called to maintain marriage. But so is each believer. The man, or woman, for whom the truth of marriage means sacrifice, suffering, and loss, perhaps all his life, is called to uphold marriage. There are such saints. There are men wickedly deserted, who must live alone all their lives. There are women whose husbands cannot function as husbands in the home, on account of accident or disease. There are men and women with miserable mates. These are called to bear their burdens and suffer for Christ's sake. God's Word and God's institutions are not changed to fit our circumstances. Every believer must be ready to deny himself and to suffer the loss of wife and children for Christ's sake. If one is not ready to do this, he is no disciple of Jesus. Churches today are making every effort to make Christianity an easy religion. It is not. Christ expressly said that His doctrine of marriage means that some make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake ( Matt. 19:12). The people of God in such circumstances will have grace to do what God requires of them. In just this way, they uphold marriage; they witness to the faithfulness of the real marriage. Faithfulness is not easy in the covenant relationship between Christ and the church. For Christ, it meant death; for us, it means tribulation.
Every married person is called to maintain marriage, especially in these days of the undermining of marriage. He does this by actively, energetically living with his mate from day one of the marriage in the manner prescribed by the Word of God, Holy Scripture, i.e., according to the pattern of Christ and the church. It is a mistake to suppose that all that matters is that we not divorce. The husband must love his wife, day in and day out, after the starry-eyed romance has worn off, with a love that nourishes and cherishes (Eph. 5:25ff.). Live with her, the Word says ( I Pet. 3:7); live all your life through your wife (I Cor. 11:12); be understanding (I Pet. 3:7). There may be no independency, no tyranny, and no bitterness (Col. 3:19). As Christ behaves towards the church....
The wife must submit and obey, reverencing her husband ( Eph. 5:22ff.). She lives her life as a "help" to her husband — this is her life (Gen. 2:18). Her one question is: "How can I please my husband?" (I Cor. 7:34). There is no rebellion, insubordination, disobedience, or nagging; neither is there any independency, i.e., that the woman lives a certain part of her life "on her own," "doing her own thing," finding "fulfillment" apart from her husband. Does the church live any part of her life independently of Christ? The moment that we do, we find "fulfillment" with some other god, and this is what happens to many wives today — they end up "fulfilled" in the arms of another man. The woman's "liberation" movement is antichristian deviltry, from beginning to end. No Christian can make peace with it.
Living so with each other, the husband loving and the wife submitting, the married couple simply rule out the very possibility of divorce. For the husband to love his wife means certainly that he does not divorce her; for her to submit means certainly that she does not run off and leave him. Besides, when he loves and she submits, they grow closer; the intimacy becomes deeper; and the unique bliss of marriage becomes richer. The thought of divorce never even comes into their heads.
We must work at our marriages. It is exceedingly strange that we often devote our energy to other things, far less important than our marriage, and allow our marriage to drag along as best it can.
In time of trouble — and no marriage is completely free of trouble, whether it be the husband's aloofness, the wife's nagging, or the sexual relationship — the married saints must remember that there is only one way out: reconciliation, through repentance; confession; forgiveness; removal of the sin that divides; and living in the right way. Divorce is not an option! They must also remember that God has joined them together. A couple may come to the point that they feel that they have made a mistake. No matter; God did not make a mistake: He brings each man his wife, as He did in the case of Adam. There is help for troubled marriages in Christ. Christ uses pastors to give this help. Although it is not easy for the couple to come to the pastor, nor pleasant for the pastor to work at this task, it is necessary that this be done.
Married persons also uphold marriage by teaching their children about marriage. They do this by their own example. They do this also by instruction. A goodly part of the book of Proverbs is the parents' plain, pointed instruction and admonition to their child concerning marriage, fornication, the strange woman, sex, and home-life. Parents are also responsible before God to oversee the dating and to direct the marriage-choice of their children.
The calling to maintain marriage extends finally to the unmarried youth of the church. To a large extent, the battle is won or lost on the day one marries. If he marries a fellow-believer, a "sister," according to I Corinthians 9:5, with whom he is one in the Lord, and if they marry, consciously, "in the Lord," all will be well. They will still be subject to many "troubles and afflictions," as our marriage form puts it, but they will be assisted and kept by the grace of God.
When the young people date and consider marrying, let them keep in mind what marriage is, not a sexual game to play, but a divine institution symbolizing the covenant of Jehovah and jealously defended by the holy God. Let them remember that marriage is for life. With a sense of such solemnity — which in no way rules out joy — let them marry.
This is the work of the saints. We do it by grace alone. We do it willingly and cheerfully, out of gratitude to God for His covenant faithfulness in Christ. We do it with the purpose that we obey and glorify our glorious Husband, Jesus. And we do it so that we may enjoy the blessing of marriage and family:
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD (Ps. 128:3, 4).
The Testimony of J. M. Humphrey
I was born June 30th, 1872, a few miles south of Memphis, Tenn., and spent the earlier part of my life in and about that section. At the age of nineteen I was married to a young lady of seventeen. She was then an excellent girl. About four years later we moved to Chicago, Ill., where we were both converted and sanctified, and lived a happy Christian life for some time. But as time passed my wife grew cold and indifferent, and finally renounced all religious scruples, and went into open sin and uncleanness to such an extent that I was forced to "put her away," according to Matt. 5:32. However I remained unmarried, having been instructed by the Bible and my religious teachers that there were Bible grounds to put away the unclean party, but none whatever to remarry while she lived. So I believed and taught this for years, from the pulpit and through the press. But later on I read more largely on the subject and met many holy, devout men, as I went forth in the evangelistic work, who were more experienced both in Word and ministry, than I, and who believed there were Bible grounds for the innocent party to remarry under my circumstances, taking Matt. 19:9 for their authority. Also I saw in the discipline of all orthodox churches that they recognized the one ground, viz., Matt. 19:9.
So as I did not hold myself as any criterion, after weighing the matter in these different scales, I finally concluded that I was wrong, and my views on the subject were non-scriptural. So I
publicly confessed my mistake, and accepted the general view of the Christian world -- viz., one
ground for the innocent party to remarry. Matt. 19:9. So as I was the innocent party, after living a
single life for seven years, I felt as clear as heaven to take a second wife -- basing my foundation
on Matt. 19:9. However, some of my friends advised me different; but their advice came too late.
But the very next day after the ceremony was performed, I felt strangely. I did not feel that sky-blue clearness. I felt a little smitten in spirit. However, I would not allow myself to feel under condemnation, for I had (as I thought) the Bible on my side. Hence, I concluded that it was only the
enemy trying to torment me. However, the Lord was very tender and patient with me, and would
bless and pour out His Spirit upon me, knowing I was ignorant of my mistake.
But as time passed by, this annoyance became a constant thing; so I would set myself apart
for a few days of prayer and fasting; at which time my sky would clear up as bright as noon, and
all was well; but when I would resume the former routine of life, things would darken up again. So
this continued for about five months, in this alternate way. However, I was as honest as an angel in
the matter, believing I had God's highest approval in the step I had taken. But after the first five
months of our married life, the thing became a real doubt; so I resolved to set myself apart by
prayer and as much fasting as I deemed prudent, for I wanted to know from God.
First: if I had really made a mistake, -- and if there were really no grounds for divorce-marriages.
Second: I wanted to know (if it was wrong) what step to take to get out of it, as it would no
doubt be a great stumbling block to the unsaved.
However, I was fully determined to obey God in spite of men or devil, even at the loss of all things, even life itself. So we lived a separate life, for eighteen months, waiting for the clear, unmistakable mind of God. However, but little of my time was spent at home, as I was engaged in evangelistic work, with the blessing of God wonderfully upon my soul.
We read in Job 33:14-18 these words, "God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction... He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword." Truly, the Lord has verified this in my case, as He has used this special method (together with the Word) of warning, instructing and reproving me ever since I was saved.
I confess, all visions and dreams are not to be depended upon, yet God has a way of making one know when He is speaking. So I here give the reader, in substance, what God said to me, or in other words, some methods He used by dreams and visions to make me know I was wrong in my divorce-marriage. I do not force it upon anyone, I only relate it, and let you take it for what it is worth. It is to be remembered, I did not receive all of these in one night, or in one month, but from time to time, during a period of eighteen months, and upward.
1. On the night of April 13th, 1907, the Spirit came to me in a dream or vision, in the form of an eminent preacher, who lives an exceptionally holy life, (however, I do not know his views on this subject), and quoted clearly and distinctly two passages of Scripture. The first one is found in Isa. 52:11, "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." The next passage is found in II Cor. 7:1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." These came, not as other flighty dreams, but were stamped on my heart and mind by the invincible power of the Spirit. Hence, I can never forget them.
2. On September 28th, 1907, in my dream I stood on the sidewalk of a solitary street. I saw no one for miles around. But suddenly a being from another world descended and sat on the top of a building just across the street from where I stood, and began talking in loud, clear, thrilling and
awful words, such as filled me with terror, for they seemed not only words, but stuck fast in my
soul like arrows. He spake as follows:
"There is someone in this community rejecting God-given light, and if they do not stop,
God is going to send them to hell forever. He has sent me to warn them. Now you may do as you
please about this matter. I have warned you, so good-bye!"
After he was through speaking, he was transformed into the likeness of a large bird, and ascended into the sky. Immediately I awoke, filled with confusion, terror and conviction, beyond the power of language to describe. I related it to my wife, and told her that God was not pleased with our marriage. But she did not seem to see it in that light, hence the sad news almost broke her heart. So I did not leave her then, as I wanted to be sure it was God talking, and not the enemy. So I decided to pray for God to make it clearer still. However, we continued to live clean and separate.
3. Another night I saw in my dream a large white boat at sea, (which I believe represented the safe Bible way) but I had left this boat, and taken a little narrow skiff (which I believe represented that one isolated passage of Scripture, Matt. 19:9, which is the only passage in the Bible that seems to give grounds for divorce-marriage) and was rapidly drifting away from the large lifeboat. And as I drifted, my little boat became uncontrollable and rapidly leaped on, over the angry, turbulent waves, until it gradually began to sink, and I went down to a watery grave. I awoke with a sense of God's displeasure on divorce-marriages beyond the power of description. But as I wanted to be sure, and not make another mistake, I decided to still keep the matter before God, so as to obtain His clear, unmistakable leading.
I want to say right here, strange as it may seem, God kept His blessing on my soul, for He knew I wanted to know His will, and would do it. Hence the patience He had with me, in convincing me of the wrongness of this matter, was something marvelous. The great trouble was this, it was such a legalized sin, among almost all classes, even the strictest and most devout people of earth (with a few exceptions), that it was difficult to renounce and go against their smooth words and plausible arguments on the subject. I plainly saw if I took the way God was holding up I would have to take a dead stand against the majority of preachers and holiness teachers of our day. Another thing that made it so difficult to take the way the Spirit was holding up was I did not want to be a "turncoat," i. e., I had known this light on the divorce subject before, and was led by shallow teachers to renounce it; but God showed me, notwithstanding that fact, I had to take His clear, uncompromising way, no matter what men or devils would say. It is better to turn a thousand times and be right, than never turn and be wrong.
4. Another night, in my dream, I saw myself joined arms with my second wife, walking down a wide brimstone road in hell, and as we passed a large vestibule I saw throngs of voluptuous men all dressed in black, and wearing silk hats. They were all keeping time to a band of music, and waving college banners, and singing this chorus:
"In hell at last! In hell at last!
And earth and all her pleasures past.
In hell at last! In hell at last:
For aye and aye the die is cast."
And in front of these men were about a dozen large black swine (emblems of filth and
uncleanness). And they were flopping their ears and cringing to the music. In this, God showed me
that I had followed the sensual, unclean, flesh-indulging multitudes of earth, into this
divorce-marriage business. At this I awoke with that awful picture burning in my brain, and that
hellish music ringing in my ears.
But as it meant so much to make another public confession, and say I had made a mistake
by re-marrying, while my former wife lived, I thought perhaps these were only dreams, and I had
better pray some more before I made, what seemed such a fatal step. So I decided to spend some
more days in fasting, and some more all-nights in prayer before God, to know the unmistakable
truth about this matter.
5. One day, as I stood all alone in the parlor of a friend's house, in an eastern city, (while
contemplating taking up this awful cross) it seemed as though a glorified spirit descended, and
sang the following chorus to me. ( I never heard the words or the tune until then):
"Heaven is cheap at any cost,
Do gain its ports or all is lost;
For earthly gain is only dross
And naught's of value but the cross."
And with this song there seemed to come volleys of exhortations from Wesley, Fletcher, Pollock and millions of glorified saints saying to me, "Gain heaven's port at any cost:"
For several days afterward, an inexpressible heavenly melting was upon me, and that angelic song was ringing in my ears. Since then I have had the song put to music, and put into our song book, "Revival Fire In Song." It can be had at our office for fifteen cents.
After this invincible message I was not only convinced that the divorce-marriage was wrong, but also thoroughly convinced that we had to separate fully. So we began to plan and work to that end. However, we kept praying for still clearer evidence so that in after years there would be nothing to regret over taking this step of separation. Of course, after many of our friends and brethren heard that we had decided to separate, they came to us, by letter or in presence, and tried to reason us out of our conviction, etc., by defining what divorces meant, and by saying what Jesus must have meant, etc. They meant well, but their arguments were too shallow to build on for eternity. We saw one woman die in this divorce trap. She was a good Christian woman, and professed holiness too, but we have never seen such a distressed, forlorn, God-forsaken looking being before or since.
O, friends! we cannot afford to take any doubtful position in regard to our eternal welfare.
Preachers and people can reason us on to a false track, and into hell, but they cannot reason us out.
So my advice to everyone is, take the clearest track to heaven. Of course it may be the most
unpopular, and may bring lots of persecution, but after all, it is the safest way to the pearly gates.
6. One night, in my dream, two preachers came to me (one I thought was St. Paul). And as they stood near me, the other preacher read to me from a paper which he held in his hand the following in substance: "You would be all right if it were not for that divorce-marriage." At this they disappeared, and I awoke with these awful words ringing in my ear: "You would be all right if it were not for that divorce-marriage." And while lying there thinking upon these awful words, a strange feeling seized me, as if it was death. I was conscious, but could not speak or move; and as I struggled and made efforts to free myself, I found something holding me fast: and God seemed to
put this question at me: "How would you like for this to be death, and you tied up in that
divorce-marriage?" As I lay there and struggled all that I could see, filling the whole horizon of my
mind, was, "That divorce-marriage." From this, God caused me to see that a soul could not afford
to go to their death-bed with the least conviction on their heart, or a shadow of a doubt in their
experience.
Thefollowing night in my dream I was standing in a large yard all alone; and while thus standing, it seemed that God was so angry with me because of my divorce-marriage, that a great stream of lightning swept down from heaven and ran on the ground to meet me, in thousands of fiery spangles. It picked me up literally, and carried me about thirty feet to a large heap of fire burning on the ground, and held me fast in those flames. When I awoke, I still seemed to be on fire.
Even the bed seemed hot with those wrathful flames. And as I was awakening, I heard these words
out of that avalanche of lightning, "Prepare to meet thy God." This occurred while I was away in
another town. I went home and told my wife, and we mutually agreed to separate. Since we did so, I feel as clear as an angel. And I am fully convinced that divorce-marriages are wrong; no matter if every preacher in the universe says they are not. I have been in hell (so to speak) for almost two years on account of listening to false teachers. O friend! don't be deceived by any preacher or teacher! It is wrong beyond all shadow of doubt! If I had the voice of an archangel I would sound it from pole to pole. I came near losing my soul by giving ear to these false teachers, rather than to God! Of course, many of them are good, well-meaning Christian men, but they are only giving their opinions, and also what that isolated passage in Matt.
19:9 seems to mean. But I have been caught in the snare of the thing, and God has been hurling light and conviction on my soul for nearly two years, both night and day, making me know and feel that the thing is wrong. I am not writing what I think, but what I positively know; and am willing to seal this testimony with my blood. I know whereof I speak. And no matter how conferences or church disciplines may rock the conscience of the people to sleep telling them they can marry while their husbands or wives live; they are wrong, and the souls whom they are deceiving will find it out
when eternity is unveiled, if not before. I thank God that He kept conviction and light streaming
from heaven on my soul until I walked in it, in spite of all the false comforters, who were crying,
Peace: Peace: when there was no peace; but dread, fear and awful uncertainty. Now, precious eternity-bound friend, will you take the advice of one who has acted the fool, and never, never enter into a divorce-marriage under any circumstances? And if you are now in one, and love your soul, and want to gain heaven, do get out of it: even at the cost of all things, or else you will regret it throughout all eternity.