on in said parties to do what
they agree. The least concealment, fraud, or deception, if
proved, annuls the contract. A boy can not contract for an acre
of land, or a horse, until he is twenty-one, but he may contract
for a wife at fourteen. If a man sell a horse, and the purchaser
find in him great incompatibility of temper--a disposition to
stand still when the owner is in haste to go--the sale is null
and void, and the man and his horse part company. But in
marriage, no matter how much fraud and deception are practiced,
nor how cruelly one or both parties have been misled; no matter
how young, inexperienced, or thoughtless the parties, nor how
unequal their condition and position in life, the contract can
not be annulled. Think of a husband telling a young and trusting
girl, but one short month his wife, that he married her for her
money; that those letters so precious to her, that she had read
and re-read, and kissed and cherished, were written by another;
that their splendid home, of which, on their wedding-day, her
father gave him the deed, is already in the hands of his
creditors; that she must give up the elegance and luxury that now
surround her, unless she can draw fresh supplies of money to meet
their wants! When she told the story of her wrongs to me--the
abuse to which she was subject, and the dread in which she
lived--I impulsively urged her to fly from such a monster and
villain, as she would before the hot breath of a ferocious beast
of the wilderness. (Applause). And she did fly; and it was well
with her. Many times since, as I have felt her throbbing heart
against my own, she has said, "Oh, but for your love and
sympathy, your encouragement, I should never have escaped from
that bondage. Before I could, of myself, have found courage to
break those chains my heart would have broken in the effort."

Marriage, as it now exists, must seem to all of you a mere human
institution. Look through the universe of matter and mind--all
God's arrangements are perfect, harmonious, and complete! There
is no discord, friction, or failure in His eternal plans.
Immutability, perfection, beauty, are stamped on all His laws.
Love is the vital essence that pervades and permeates, from the
center to the circumference, the graduating circles of all