This obligation to make this public confession of
repentance, has given to many a handle for heavy charges against them.
Indeed I scarcely know, in any part of the Quaker-system, where people
are louder in their censures, than upon this point. "A man, they say,
cannot express his penitence for his marriage without throwing a stigma
upon his wife. To do this is morally wrong, if he has no fault to find
with her. To do it, even if she has been in fault, is indelicate. And
not to do it, is to forego his restoration to membership. This law
therefore of the Quakers is considered to be immoral, because it may
lead both to hypocrisy and falsehood."
I shall not take up much time in correcting the notions that have gone
abroad on this subject.
Of those who marry out of the society, it may be presumed that there are
some, who were never considered to be sound in the Quaker-principles,
and these are generally they who intermarry with the world. Now they,
who compose this class, generally live after their marriages, as happily
out of the society as when they were in it. Of course, these do not
repent of the change. And if they do not repent, they never sue for
restoration to membership. They cannot, therefore, incur any of the
charges in question. Nor can the society be blamed in this case, who, by
never asking them to become members, never entice them to any
objectionable repentance.
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