Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1902 — MINISTER WHO REFUSES TO ASK BRIDES TO OBEY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MINISTER WHO REFUSES TO ASK BRIDES TO OBEY.

-Many brides have refused to make the marriage vow to obey their husbands, but now comes a minister of the gospel who refuses to ask .a bride to promise to obey her husband. He is Rev. Francis Edgar Mason, pastor of the First Church of Christ, Brooklyn. “Although I’m a clergyman,” said Mr. Mason in a statement which he gave out explaining a lecture, “and by law permitted to perform the marriage ceremony, I have refused to marry many couples because the prospective husband wanted

me to make the bride promise to obey hdm. I never have and never will charge a woman to obey a man. The superiority of man is equaled only by the superiority of woman. The man must develop the feminine qualifications and the woman must develop the masculine elements, and then co-operation is bound to become the law and the gospel of life. “It would be a good thing if man would develop sufficient of the feminine qualities in himself to make it a delight for him to remain at home. Because he has not, the club room is often more sacred to a man than his home. His masculine elements are too dominant. He lacks the mental feminine.”

REV. F. E. MASON.