Читать книгу Our Monthly Devotions - Albert A. Lings - Страница 63

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The husband, as head of the family, owes to his wife fidelity, love, and support. Fidelity is that constancy of affection which he has promised at his marriage, and which must be preserved inviolable until death; it means that purity of soul and body which will not permit itself to be degraded by impurity and adultery. Conjugal fidelity is a great and holy duty, in which matrimony is held sacred. There you find peace, happiness, and the blessing of almighty God. Our Lord was very stringent upon this point, for He says: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.”—Matt. v. 28. Whosoever then commits adultery transgresses a most important divine commandment. In the Old Law this crime was punished by stoning the guilty person to death, and in the primitive Church by a severe public penance of many years' duration. What fidelity does not the husband demand of the wife! With the same strictness is he obliged to be faithful to her whom he has chosen as his life companion.

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Prayer.

O most loving Jesus, etc., etc.