This does not, of course, involve a right to
compel him to yield to the parent's arbitrary will. He can exert but a
moral control over him; and it is the child's duty to yield to this, so
long as it is consistent with scripture and the maxims of sound reason and
conscience. He should consult his parents, receive them into his
confidence, and give priority to their judgment and counsels.
Parents have the right to use coercive measures to prevent an imprudent
marriage by their children before they have arrived at age; for until they
are of age they are both legally and morally under the authority and
government of their parents, who are responsible for them. Hence the child
should recognize and submit to their authority. But this right to the use
of coercive measures extends only to the prevention of unhappy
marriages,--not to the forming of what the parents may regard happy
alliances, against the will of the child. No parent has the right to
compel a child under age to marry, because the marriage alliance implies
the age and free choice of the child.
But when the child reaches legal maturity, the coercive authority of the
parent ceases. His interposition then should not involve coercive, but
persuasive measures. Then a mere mechanical prevention of an unhappy
marriage would have no good moral effect, but would be productive of great
evil, inasmuch as it not only involves parental despotism, but the
restriction of a manifest and conceded right of the child.
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