the text, Ephesians vi. 10, 11, in
order "to teach that marriage is a state of warfaring condition." It was
also the custom to allow the bride to choose the text for the sermon to
be delivered on the Sunday when she "came out bride." Much ingenuity was
exercised by these Puritan brides in finding appropriate and interesting
texts for these wedding sermons. Here are some of the verses selected:

2 Chronicles xiv. 2: "And Asa did that which was good and right in the
eyes of the Lord"--Asa and his bride Hepzibah sitting up proudly in the
congregation to listen.

Proverbs xxiv. 23: "Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth
among the elders of the land."

Ecclesiastes iv. 9, 10: "Two are better than one; because they have a
good reward for their labour. For if they fall the one will lift up his
fellow."

I can imagine the staid New England lover and his shy sweetheart
anxiously and solemnly searching for many hours through the great
leather-bound family Bible for a specially appropriate text, turning
over the leaves and slowing scanning the pages, skipping over tedious
Leviticus and Numbers, and finding always in the Song of Solomon "in
almost every verse" a sentiment appealing to all lovers, and worthy a
selection for a wedding sermon.

The "coming out," or, as it was called in Newburyport, "walking out" of
the bride was an important event in the little community. Cotton Mather
wrote in 1713 that he thought it expedient for the bridal couple to
appear as such publicly, with some dignity. We see in the pages of
Sewall's diary one of his daughters with her new-made husband leading
the orderly bridal procession of six couples on the way to church,
observed of all in the narrow Boston street and in the Puritan
meeting-house. In some communities the bride and groom took a prominent
seat in the gallery, and in the midst of the sermon rose to their feet
and turned around several times slowly, in order to show from every
point of view their bridal finery to the admiring eyes of their
assembled friends and neighbors in the congregation.

Throughout New England, except in New Hampshire, the law was enforced
for nearly two centuries, of publishing the wedding banns three times in
the meeting-house, at either town meeting, lecture, or Sunday service.
Intention of marriage and the names of the contracting parties were read
by the town clerk, the deacon, or the minister, at any of these
forgatherings, and a notice of the