Section 23
But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth that they that have wives be as though they had none.
. . . But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried carethfor the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
But he that is married carethfor the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
The Apostle Paul
I Corinthians 7:29, 32, 33(The Rev. John Berridge was a confirmed bachelor who more than once revealed his antipathy to marriage and who in his penchant for witty expression often made remarks that were more distorted than factual. Mrs. Whitefield died in 1768, but some months later Berridge said, ". . . marriage might have spoiled John and George if God had not sent them a brace of ferrets." It is well-known that Mrs. John Wesley was ill-tempered, but the evidence suggests that Mrs. Whitefield in no way deserved the offense contained in Berridge's figure. The married life of the Whitefields was clearly as happy as most.)
