from it, unto the third and fourth
generation. You are stimulated to do so by the divine promise that when
they grow old, they will not depart from it.

Such unequal matches are not made in heaven. "God's hand is over such
matches, not in them." "What fellowship hath light with darkness?" If love,
in Christian marriages, is holy and includes the religious element, then it
is evident that the Christian alliance with, one between whom and himself
there is no religious affinity whatever, is not only an outrage against the
marriage institution, but also exposes his home to the curse of God, making
it a Babel of confusion and of moral antipathies.

Both the old and the new testaments give explicit testimony to the law of
spiritual harmony in marriage. Thus the law of Moses forbid the children of
Israel to intermarry among heathen nations. "Neither shalt thou make
marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son."--Deut. vii., 3. Abraham obeyed this
law in the part he took in the marriage of his son Isaac, as recorded in
the twenty-fourth, chapter of Genesis. His obedience was reproduced in
Isaac and Rebecca, who manifested the same desire, and took the same care
that Jacob should take a wife from among the covenant people of God. See
twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis.

The evil consequences of the violation of this law may be seen in the
history of Solomon,--i. Kings, chap. 11; also in the case mentioned in the
10th chap.; and in Nehemiah, chap. 13. Paul upholds this law when he
exhorts the Corinthians to marry "only in the Lord." Reason itself
advocates this law. The true Christian labors for heaven and walks in the
path of the just; the unbelieving labor for earth, mind only the things of
this world, and walk in the broad road to ruin. Can these now walk
together, live in harmony, when so widely different in spirit, in their
aims and pursuits? "What fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the
living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them; and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters."

The primitive Christians