There are some matters in which human advice is always partially wrong. Sound guidance in such matters can be had only as one rises above the mortal sense of things and is guided by Spirit, God.

Many individuals today give advice on subjects pertaining to marriage through published articles or through personal conversation. Before accepting such counsel, one must ask himself whether or not the words being spoken or written represent spiritual wisdom.

Such wisdom turns one directly to God, the only Mind of man. It begins with obedience to the moral law. God gave us this law in the form of the Ten Commandments. If one expects to demonstrate the law of God in the overcoming of sickness, lack, discord, limitation, and death, he must walk "not in the counsel of the ungodly" (Ps. 1:1).

Many of the discords experienced in marriage cause individuals concerned to seek counsel on the subject. Christian Science does not offer personal advice, but it does offer the very best counsel by pointing to spiritual truths, which are practically applicable to such problems. These truths include man's perfect relationship to God, Soul— a relationship each one of us can claim.

On pages 60 and 61 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in her chapter entitled "Marriage," Mrs. Eddy writes: "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment."

Joy is a quality of Soul, and Soul is Principle, God. As we seek joy through lifting our thoughts above corporeal sense, beholding our marriage partners, as well as ourselves, as spiritual ideas, our thought is spiritualized. This spiritualization of thought causes discords to yield, conflicts to disappear, and brings out the unity of all individuals in the one Mind.

If we believe that physical relationships and the stimulation of the senses are a source of happiness, we should not be surprised if they appear also to be a source of discord. But if we regard Soul as the source of happiness and seek that happiness through the exercise of the qualities of Soul, physical relationships will progressively take their proper place in human experience. We shall find that we are governing our bodies instead of our bodies governing us. Christ Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). Harmony in marriage is among the added things.

One who has practiced freedom from the belief that his sexual impulses can govern him finds himself after marriage proportionately strong in working out with unselfed love a harmonious and beautiful relationship with his marriage partner. But one who has believed that happiness comes from indulgence in sex without regard for the moral law and has practiced his belief will find after marriage that he has much work to do to purify his thought and purge it of error.

Every wrong thought and act must be repented of and replaced in consciousness with the joys of spiritual sense. This may mean a mighty struggle with oneself, but by honestly seeking and applying the power of the Christ, the divine idea of Truth and Love, one can win the battle.

Marriage is not spiritual perfection, but its legal and moral provisions provide men and women with the opportunity to make an honest effort to live good lives and to practice progressively living the qualities of Spirit, Soul. As one seeks spiritual joy, he gains in the ability to make wiser human decisions.

When one is making important decisions it is helpful to consider these words of Mrs. Eddy's in her article entitled "Wedlock" in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 289): "From a human standpoint of good, mortals must first choose between evils, and of two evils choose the less; and at present the application of scientific rules to human life seems to rest on this basis."

One who studies thoroughly what Mrs. Eddy has written pertaining to marriage will find that she has given the only reliable basis for working out the problems of married life. In her article, "Prevention and Cure of Divorce," which appears in her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany," she says (p. 268): "Two commandments of the Hebrew Decalogue, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' and 'Thou shalt not kill,' obeyed, will eliminate divorce and war. On what hath not a 'Thus saith the Lord,' I am as silent as the dumb centuries without a living Divina."

In the next paragraph we read, "Truth, canonized by life and love, lays the axe at the root of all evil, lifts the curtain on the Science of being, the Science of wedlock, of living and of loving, and harmoniously ascends the scale of life."

Carl J. Welz