Christian Marriage Indissoluble - A Plain Sermon

Marriage, you know, was instituted in the time of man’s innocency.  God judged that it was not good for man to be alone; He therefore gave him a help meet for him.  That help was a creature formed, not separately and independently, but out of himself—bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.  And so close and dear was the union, divinely cemented between them, intended to be, that Adam was taught by God to say—and Moses to record for future men—“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”   

Thus was marriage, by Divine institution, made the first and closest of human relationships.  And fresh, and higher, and holier honours were bestowed on it, when Christ made it the glorious type of His own never-to-be-broken union with His Church; calling Himself the bridegroom, her the bride; giving Himself for her, and loving and cherishing her as His own flesh; and providing that she should be presented to Him a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; that her espousals should be celebrated by angels, and that she should be for ever with the Lord.