Basic HTML Version
near future. If you are one who neglected to write in for your
free copy, do so now. You might be able to still get one of the
very few first edition copies, but if not, we will keep your
request on file, and as soon as the second edition comes off the
press we will send it. Don't put it of or neglect requesting it
again -- you might overlook requesting it later. If you can state,
in your request, that you are not under 21 or that you are married,
or are engaged to be married within three months, BE SURE TO DO SO.
Otherwise we will have to send you an application card to be filled
out and signed. If you are under 21 and not married ask your
parents to order it for you. WE feel that every person of 14 years
or older OUGHT TO READ IT. But, to avoid misrepresentation by
persecutors, or any possible criticism by parents in regard to so
delicate a subject. We must make it the parents' responsibility to
be sure this book is read by teenage young people WHO NEED IT MOST.
I would like to tell you my personal firm convictions in
regard to the sanctity of MARRIAGE -- and of the FAMILY
RELATIONSHIP. And it is the firm belief of all of us associated in
this great work of God. Had I, and also my wife, not had such
strong and unshakable beliefs in the sanctity of marriage -- and
the knowledge that it is binding for life -- our marriage might
have been broken more than 38 years ago -- before my conversion.
But we both knew that we were bound for LIFE. And this one and
only incident which ever could have broken up such a HAPPY marriage
as we have had, now for almost 48 years, was bridged because of
this fine conviction. That very crisis of misunderstanding brought
me to Jesus Christ, and a knowledge of the truth.
But as I was writing those two chapters on the true meaning of
the marriage and the family relationship -- Chapters 8 and 9 in the
book -- it seemed God brought to my mind a wonderful New
Understanding of the REAL MEANING -- of GOD'S GREAT PURPOSE --
concerning marriage and family relationships. I do sincerely hope
these two chapters helped thousands of you to realize more than
ever what a tremendous BLESSING God has bestowed on us earthly
humans in giving us these GOD-PLANE relationships. Surely we do
everything in our power to help hold together any troubled
marriages brought to us for counsel. And yet we were recently
falsely accused of breaking up the marriage by a persecutor who
presented only one side of the case, totally misrepresenting the
facts, saying nothing of our efforts to save it.
I have personally officiated at so many weddings since my
ordination as Christ's minister in 1931 that long ago I lost count
of the number. The wedding ceremony is based on the BIBLE. It is
simple, direct and brief. But I know of no ceremony so absolutely
BINDING the couple UNTIL DEATH.
Let me reproduce for you, here, one paragraph of our ceremony,
exactly as I and all of the ministers of this great Work say them
at every wedding. It is in the middle of the ceremony: "Thus it
is revealed that it is GOD, not man or the laws of man, who joins
together husband and wife as one flesh. And what God has so united
and bound together FOR LIFE, man is commanded, on that authority
which transcends and supersedes all authority, NOT TO SEPARATE and
marry to another; and any lesser codes of man granting such divorce