If marriage is entered into according to God's will, it is done by a valid betrothal (q. v.). This means that the mutual promise of the contracting parties is given only with the full knowledge and consent of the parents on either side, which is to be obtained in advance. Neither children nor parents may make exceptions to this rule, which is based upon the clear ethical teachings of the Bible. The promise must be given by the free will of the persons concerned, since duress or force invalidates a promise if the protest is registered in due time. That the contracting parties have reached the physical age and possess the maturity necessary for the successful carrying out of the prime object of marriage, is not only self-evident, but is also specifically mentioned in the statutes of the several states and countries. The fact that parents give their children in marriage does not signify that the former have absolute power over their children, either in keeping them from getting married or in arbitrarily choosing spouses for them. Marriage is a natural right and therefore cannot be forbidden. And the real affection of married people is a creation and gift of God, which cannot, he set aside by absolute commands. "There is a consideration which can ratify a marriage to which a parent persistently objects, viz., when such objection is explicitly or implicitly tantamount to a total prohibition of marriage imposed upon a son or daughter, in violation of the word of Scripture. 1 Cor. 7:2." (A. L. Graebner.) The ideal situation is that pictured in the case of Rebekah and Isaac, Gen. 24:58 ; 25:20, and not that of Samson, Judg. 14:2. A physical relationship within the limits fixed by God and by the State will be an impediment to a lawful marriage. See Degrees, Prohibited.

Persons who desire to enter the holy estate of matrimony may not be bound by a previous valid promise, either by a rightful betrothal or by an actual marriage. As a valid betrothal is, in the eyes of God and the Church, tantamount to marriage, a subsequent betrothal while the first is in force does not invalidate the first, but leaves it in full force and binding on both parties. Although the State does not, as a rule, acknowledge the force of a rightful betrothal in the Scriptural sense, such broken promises or their equivalent are often brought up in so-called breach of promise suits. Of course, no person may enter into an actual marriage with a second person while still bound, before God and the State, to a previous spouse. "After a first valid marriage a Christian cannot marry again, unless the first marriage have previously been dissolved either by death or by a divorce which is valid and lawful both before the Law of God and the law of the State." (A. L. Graebner.)

Although mixed marriages, when a person of orthodox confession marries one of sectarian profession or of no Christian confession at all, are not expressly forbidden in the Bible, 1 Cor. 7:12-16, they were certainly forbidden to the Jews, and they are discountenanced both in the Bible and in agreement with the experience of earnest Christians. If, in holy wedlock, there can be no common prayer, no common worship in the home, no common churchgoing, there is an element lacking which alone can make for true happiness. And it is a fact that the majority of children of mixed marriages fall away from the Church, if, indeed, they ever become seriously interested.

Marriage is a union "unto one flesh," its avowed object being to give a legitimate and blessed outlet to the sexual impulses given by God to all normal adults. Cp. 1 Cor. 7:3-4. "The consensus which constitutes the essence of marriage, must be marriage consent, the willingness of the parties to be one flesh with each other . . . . The refusal to grant such intercourse . . . is the denial of a right and the neglect of a duty assumed by marriage." (A. L. Graebner.) In this way adultery and other sins are to be avoided, as St. Paul writes 1 Cor. 7:9. The chief object of such marital intercourse, besides that of avoiding sins against the Sixth Commandment, is that of the procreation of children. Cp. Gen. 1:28; 1 Tim. 2:15; 5:14; Ps. 128; Gen. 30:1; 1 Sam. 1:11-12; Luke 1:58. "This one fact particularly must be stressed in connection with the perverted views of sex relationship and the contempt of marriage in general, namely, the growing evil of childless marriages by design or of the wilful and criminal limiting of offspring, that is, of race suicide. . . . In many cases social ambition or other selfish considerations are the motives for committing sins which are just as heinous as highway murder; for there is not even a difference of degree between snuffing out the faint flicker of life in the womb and shooting down a man in cold blood . . . . Even if we should admit that the unnatural economic conditions of our times, together with the increasing use of luxuries, have had their influence upon women in rendering them less fit to become mothers, no man has a right to set aside God's order as it has been done in the case of thousands of marriages, where people, without valid reason, have deliberately decided not to leave children. We might mention. in passing. that the cold-blooded, calculating, mercenary marriages which are becoming so prevalent in our days may often be considered the reason, and the growing number of divorces the result, of the evil of childless marriages." (The Problems of Adolescence and Youth, 73-74. )

Marriage is intended by God to be a lifelong union, "until death you do part." Rom. 7:2; 1 Cor. 7:39; Matt. 19:6; Mark 10:9. Here it makes no difference whether the one or the other spouse, according to the regular course of nature, later becomes impotent or, as the result of some disease, is no longer capable of performing the prime duties of the married estate. The factor of mutual care and assistance becomes more prominent as the years go by, and the Scripture emphasizes this phase of married life in words of great beauty. Cp. Gen. 2:18, 20; Eph. 5:28-33 ; 1 Cor: 7:12-13 ; Col. 3:19 ; 1 Pet. 3:7. "God wishes to honor it [the state of matrimony] and to maintain and conduct it as a divine and blessed estate, because, in the first place, He has instituted it before all others and therefore created man and woman separately (as is evident), not for lewdness, but that they should legitimately live together, be fruitful, beget children, and nourish and train them to the honor of God." (Luther in the Large Catechism. Conc. Trigl., 639.) See Marriage, Annulment of; Ring; Prohibited Degrees; Divorce.