Signs of Decay by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1912

Signs of Decay

By Editor

IN the recent Constitutional Convention of Ohio, Mr. Stanley E. Bowdle, a prominent member of the Cincinnati bar, raised an earnest warning against the great flood of immorality which is sweeping over the land, particularly as applied to the family relationship. According to the Herald of Life for June 6, 1912, he says:—

Many men talk of approaching crises. The great crisis is here. It registers itself in the decay of family life, in the wide-spread doctrines of substantial free love, trial marriages, etc. The day is dominated by menacing egoism in matters of love. . . . Does a man tire of his wife? The law instantly affords relief. Has a wife discovered an affinity? The law eases her embarrassment. Are there children? Have they no rights?—No, the law suffers nothing to interfere with the “happiness” of these individuals. It facilitates their utter separation and divorce.

But one further step remains in our national marital degradation. It is the allowance of divorce by mutual private agreement, which agreement, for the purpose of settling mutual, private rights, shall be recorded. This would accomplish two things; first, it would allow instant divorce and thus facilitate that “happiness” which Americans pursue and never overtake; and, second, such divorce by agreement would save the public from the scandalous details of marital disagreements, and the parties from much perjury. Surely, this utilitarian age will soon see the wisdom of this suggestion. Will the law in America ever descend to this? Why not? It panders now to the passions of men. It facilitates lust. To men weak in will, to men carried away by temporary desire or whim, it affords cheap and immediate relief. It cares nothing for the altar oath. “Till death [or divorce] do us part,” is the real oath taken. And this divorce situation has resulted in a grave misuse of our courts. Thousands have received their first lessons in perjury in divorce courts. No, the peril is not approaching; it is here. The national will is weakened, its convictions are badly broken-down. And this disease is locatable around the nation’s heart—its love, its domestic life.

Mr. Bowdle feels that the remedy for this condition is to return to “the old anchorage of indissoluble marriage,” but even this we fear will not bring the desired reformation. The reform must take hold of the individual life. There must be a regeneration of the individual before there can be a regeneration of society. True moral reforms work from the heart outward. They can not be truly effected by legal enactment. What the world needs to-day is not more law, but more religion.