The assistant to the president of Greensboro College proposed marriage to his girlfriend of several years during the half-time of a football game on Sept. 14, 2002. It was a rather festive moment, but still the seriousness of the proposal was evident and the consequences of her acceptance of his proposal were very clear to them both. Marriage. It has the ability to change the way many things are done and many lives are led. And I should add (since my wife often reads these articles) that those changes are usually for the better.

Marriage had interesting implications for John and Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley was born four-and-a-half-years after John. During John's early ministry, Charles pretty well followed him around from place to place. When Charles married Sarah Gywnne, in 1749 at the age of 42, he appears to have become a more independent person. By 1756 Charles more or less stopped his itinerant activities and by most accounts he even reduced significantly his poetic output.

One of Charles' prime missions in life was to act as a stabilizing anchor in his older brother's life. He followed John to America in 1735 but returned to England before John. He intervened into John's romantic affairs by preventing a marriage to Grace Murray (1748). Grace is said to have been a true "soul mate" for John, but Charles -- who was more concerned with social propriety than John -- actively stepped in between John and Grace. He actually performed the ceremony that tied Grace to another. It also has been implied that Charles was concerned that the royalty payments John had pledged to his wife, Sarah, might be decreased should John marry and stopped writing so much.

It is interesting that in the United Methodist Hymnal (1989), 51 of the more than 6,500 Charles Wesley hymns are included, and more than 40 of those 51 hymns were written before Charles got married. It certainly appears that Charles' output of poetry diminished after marriage. It is certainly clear that the majority of the hymns chosen by the editorial committee of the hymnal are from his earlier days. [UMH]

Marriage, it truly can change the way we live our lives.

And, oh yes, Ashley did accept Clay's proposal of marriage. The date is yet to be set, but I am sure we are all invited.