May Both be Fired with One Concern

Yesterday morning, I came down to the fair city of Coventry in old Warwickshire. I am here to support one our members, Dan, who marries Emma at 11am. I am appointed to preach the sermon, so for a second time this year, I found myself in a hotel room poring over potential texts knowing that my last few wedding talks were heard by a number of those present. Perhaps unusually, I elected to speak on Job’s marriage. His wife is unnamed, and gets a generally bad press, but it is worth remembering that she shared much of her more famous husband's pain. Furthermore, when he was ill during his second term of affliction, who do we think nursed him and fed him? And when he had a second round of children, from whose womb did they spring? From Mrs Job’s, that’s whose. She stuck by him through those dark times. She shared his pain, yes, but also his pleasure. And most importantly of all, she shared his Saviour, the God who came down in the whirlwind and doubled their wealth. Mr and Mrs Job were made to suffer, but they came out of it better off, and still together. Job's marriage is a better advert for the sacred institution than several other, more famous examples from the pages of scripture. 

On this joyous day, therefore, I turn again to that richest vein of Christian poetry and hymnary, William Gadsby’s Hymns:

Look on the now united pair,

And O, the union bless;

Here may true friendship ever reign,

In firmest bonds of peace.

May each the other kindly help

To run the shining road;

Join with delight in prayer and praise,

And ever cleave to God.

May both be fired with one concern

For one eternal prize;

And warmest zeal their souls inflame

For joys beyond the skies.

One be their views, their aim, their end,

Pure heavenly bliss to prove,

Meeting at last around the throne,

To reign in realms of love.

-Richard Burnham (1749-1810), No. 1153

We at Salem Chapel pray not just for a wonderful day down here in Coventry, but a blessed and useful marriage till death them do part; and after that, to be united again before the Throne in God’s good timing and in Christ’s good company.