Rejoinder

“ The kinships of this world are like a flock of birds that for a night settle on the same tree and when dawn comes disperse. Such are its ties, no more. Does any tie of relationship ensure the joy of permanent union? No. All is said. Say no more, faithful one. Return to the city and make known to all men these my words—‘When I have found the Way—that Way which puts an end to the sad endless chain of birth and death, then and not otherwise I will return.’ And if I do not obtain this victory my body shall perish in the jungle. ”

“ Here, the separation is eternal; no hope of reunion shall more exist; we shall no more have relatives, father, child, friend; no other ties than everlasting flames, which shall for ever unite us to the reprobate. ”

“ I answer that, A joining denotes a kind of uniting, and so wherever things are united there must be a joining. Now things directed to one purpose are said to be united in their direction thereto, thus many men are united in following one military calling or in pursuing one business, in relation to which they are called fellow-soldiers or business partners. Hence, since by marriage certain persons are directed to one begetting and upbringing of children, and again to one family life, it is clear that in matrimony there is a joining in respect of which we speak of husband and wife ”

“ We may join many people together in a fellowship by the bonds of a formal creed, but the result is only a piece of social furniture, it is not a vital communion. There is a vast difference between a connection and a concord.
Many members of a family may bear the same name, may share the same blood, may sit and eat at the same table, and yet may have no more vital union than a handful of marbles in a boy’s pocket. But let the spirit of a common love dwell in all their hearts and there is a family bound together in glorious union. ”

“ Now, all these relationships, which combined three men into one, would have embraced nine persons had each relationship been held by one individual, so that a man had one person for his sister, another his wife, another his cousin, another his father, another his uncle, another his father-in-law, another his mother, another his aunt, another his mother-in-law; and thus the social bond would not have been tightened to bind a few, but loosened to embrace a larger number of relations. ”

“ Family ties have their own particular sancity, and the marriage relation, its omnipotent, heaven-inspiring, all-embracing love; but friendship, independent of family ties, recognizing no external bond of union,—the spontaneous out-gushing of kindred spirits towards each other, breathes in an atmosphere peculiarly its own. ”

“ His strong and pertinacious support of the alliance imposed it on my parents as a duty. He assured them that I myself would be grateful for having it enforced upon me. He said that my ignorance and inexperience were the only motives of my opposition. He talked to me, and as, after all, my objections were to the marriage and not to the bridegroom, it was not difficult to overrule them. I consented with some girlish reluctance and some girlish pleasure in the very natural gratification of giving pleasure to others. ”

“ I pray you, remember that it will interpose between brother and brother—between mother and child—between husband and wife. "One shall be taken and the other left." And when that sword shall descend to divide, there shall never be any after union. The separation is eternal. There is no hope or possibility of change in the world to come. ”

“ Each family has its own history, personality, sense of accomplishment, and dreams for the future. The family reunion provides an ideal setting for renewing these shared riches of the spirit. It is a time to learn, to laugh, and to renew the ties of affection. Family reunions bridge generations and remind us of our roots. I encourage all families to use the family reunion to tap these roots again and to renew their pledge of love and concern for each other. I also ask families to reach out to those who lack the support of families and to share their love and spirit with them. ”

“ They no sooner perceived the same feelings in each other, than there arose in their hearts a gnawing jealousy, the bond of union was broken, and as, in general, three happy people can with difficulty reside under one roof, since union is the daughter of mutual necessity, so it fell out with the partnership, the three united inheritors for life separated, only promising to each other not to betray the secret. ”

“ Whether the disembodied souls left their bodies in the north or in the south, they will all rejoice in the society of each other. The spirits of the patriarchs of old, as well as of those who die to-day in the Lord, will meet in one large community. Console thyself, therefore, with the thought of a future, joyful, and eternal re-union; and let that consolation be also an active precept, teaching thee so to order thy daily conversation as to complete thy fitness for that re-union. ”

“ Bound to each other by the most intricate ties of relationship and by a still more potent one, the eternal bond conferred by the title compadre or godfather, they share their troubles and shield each other as though they belonged to one great family. ”

“ We have only one term used with anything approaching the wide connotation of classificatory terms of relationship, and this term is used for a group of relatives who have as their chief feature in common that they are altogether outside the proper circle of the family and have no social obligations or privileges. They are as eligible for marriage as any other members of the community, and only in the very special cases I considered in the first lecture are they brought into any kind of legal relation. ”

“ I regard this family re-union as important in many respects; not only have we come together for the purpose of eating and drinking, but that we may receive our patriarchal blessings, and that our hearts may be the more firmly united together. ”

“ Fitness of circumstances, means, and age should be also considered. Am I able to support a family? Can I discharge the duties of a household? Where there is ignorance of household duties, indolence, the want of any visible means of supporting a family, no trade, no education, no energy, and no prospects, there is no reason to think there can be a proper marriage. Thus, then, mutual love, adaptation of character, of means, of circumstances, of position, and of age, should be considered, in the formation of a marriage alliance. ”

“ Sir, when I meet my fellow citizen from the east and north, I wish and feel to give my hand as a brother, without reserve as children of the same great family, united in the sympathies of mutual affection and reciprocal interest and equal participants in all the rights, benefits and privileges that government bestows. ”

“ We are slowly forming a nobler type of family; the union of two, based on love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and use. We are even now approaching a tenderness and permanence of love, high pure enduring love ”

“ There may, perhaps, also be obscure workmen, or humble citizens—perhaps, also, alas! great criminals.
“‘However, this may be, my most earnest desire is that my descendants should combine together, and, reconstituting one family, by a close and sincere union, put into practice the divine words of Christ, “Love ye one another.”
“‘This union would have a salutary tendency; for it seems to me that upon union, upon the association of men together, must depend the future happiness of mankind. ”

“ If more acceptable to you, we should gladly form a union on the basis of either the second or the third proposition already stated. Our chief desire is for a complete and hearty union, in which, acknowledging the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, we may live and work together in the love of Christ, the Elder Brother of us all. That our Heavenly Father may graciously help us all in perfecting and maintaining such a union, is our earnest prayer. ”

“ O God! thou who hast consecrated marriage by so excellent a mystery that the nuptial alliance is the figure of the sacred union of Jesus Christ and his church; O God! by whom the woman is united to the man, and who givest to this intimate union thy blessing, the only one which has not been taken away, neither by the punishment of original sin nor the sentence of the Deluge ”

“ Is it not, too, strangely perverse to admit, that those in separation are brethren, fellow-pilgrims, fellow-heirs, to hope to meet them in heaven, and to think, and feel, and live in perfect harmony with them for ever; and yet here not to be concerned that we never can give them the right hand of fellowship—cannot journey with them, and help, and make for the inheritance together—can never even meet them in prayer and communion—must let them be as utter strangers? In earthly matters none of this would be tolerated, could possibly be. ”

“ They were, in their strange, final union—if union it could be called—very natural and very touching; but he was visibly stricken—he had his ailment in his eyes. She moved about him like a sister of charity—at all events like a sister. ”

“ You well know, Victor, that our union had been the favourite plan of your parents ever since our infancy. We were told this when young, and taught to look forward to it as an event that would certainly take place. We were affectionate playfellows during childhood, and, I believe, dear and valued friends to one another as we grew older. But as brother and sister often entertain a lively affection towards each other without desiring a more intimate union, may not such also be our case? ”

“ We are taught in the holy scriptures, the primary importance of judicious views of the nature and responsibilities of the marriage institution itself. We should apprehend it, not from its mere worldly standpoint, not as a simple legal alliance, not only as a scheme for temporal welfare and happiness, but as a divine institute, a religious alliance, involving moral responsibilities, and momentous consequences for eternity as well as for time, for soul as well as for body. ”

“ One answer is that all things are related to one another, branched out from the same beginning, just as great families grow into brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts; cousins and second cousins—differing more and more, as a rule, as they are more distantly related. ”

“ But the interests of that single person, were found, upon experience, so complicated and woven with the rest, by love, by awe, by marriage, by alliance, that they would rather confound heaven and earth, than dissolve such an union. ”

“ A daughter becoming on marriage a part of her husband’s family ceases to be a member of her own, and her descendants are no benefit to it, unless, perchance, having no brothers, one of her sons is adopted by her father. ”

“ They love each other. They wish to be married. With one exception, all their relatives desire that they should marry. It would be a union, not only congenial in the highest degree to the parties concerned, but of the greatest advantage to our family and our family fortunes. ”

“ But, Sir, if your Restrictive System prevails, it will weaken that tender relation, we shall view each other with watchful eyes and cold hearts, and with a jealousy that will tend to annihilate those friendly and brotherly affections we now feel and entertain for each other, and at last be driven to relinquish the pledge of union that so long and so happily has continued to bind us together to the present day. ”

“ Remember, children, to honor and obey your parents, that you may be entitled to the promise, "That your days may be long in the land." Treat your father's wives kindly and respectfully. God has called them to be associated with him through time and eternity, to assist in his duties and responsibilities and share his glory and dominion.
This is the last family re-union we have reason to expect this side of the spirit world. ”

“ If there is to be fraternity there must be fatherhood, and the life which, possessed by each, makes a family of all, is the life which He gives, who is 'the first-born among many brethren,' and who, to them who believe on Him, gives power to become the sons of God, and the brethren of all the other sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty. ”

“ Have we not a thousand plans to mature—a thousand things to settle, which we must settle, and none but we, and which we must discuss together? Are there not here four, six of us, brothers in arms together? I count you one, Father Jerome ”

“ For some time past, my mind has been considerably impressed with the subject of a family re-union, including my wives, my sons, my sons-in-law, my daughters, daughters- in-law and grand children, numbering considerably over one hundred, now living. ”

“ A reconciliation of the egoistic and the altruistic, of the personal and the racial trends, is thus brought about—a reconciliation which may be of the greatest value to the individual, to the family and to the larger social organism of which they both form a part.
Not only is a parent capable of obtaining through his children the satisfaction attendant upon a prolongation of his own existence ”

“ For in those days, brethren and the children of a family meet together from afar beneath a father's or a brother's roof—the grandsire and the grandson sit at the table together—and the words of the inspired royal bard, that it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity, are exemplified. ”