52 INDIAN MARRIAGES. 



the Hudson's Bay Company's territories.* 

 And if a colony is to be organized, and 

 established in the wilderness, the moral obliga- 

 tion of marriage must be felt. It is " the 

 parent" said Sir William Scott, " not the 

 child of civil society." Some form, or religious 

 rite in marriage is also requisite, and has 

 generally been observed by enlightened and 

 civilized nations. It is a civil contract in civil 

 society, but the sanction of religion should be 

 superadded. The ancients considered it as a 

 religious ceremony. They consulted their 

 imaginary gods, before the marriage was 

 solemnized, and implored their assistance by 

 prayers, and sacrifices ; the gall was taken out 

 of the victim, as the seat of anger and malice,, 

 and thrown behind the altar, as hateful to the 

 deities who presided over the nuptial cere- 

 monies. Marriage, by its original institution*^ 

 is the nearest of all earthly relations, and as 

 involving each other's happiness through life, 

 it surely ought to be entered upon by professing 

 Christians, with religious rites, invoking 

 heaven as a party to it, while the consent of 

 the individuals is pledged to each other, rati- 

 fied and confirmed by a vow. 



* 3 Corin. vii, 12, + Gen. ii. 24 



