Strangers with Thee: Covenant Intimacy and Eternal Isolation

"Let them be only thine own, and not strangers with thee." — Proverbs 5:17

This Victorian homily from the Episcopal Recorder penetrates three dimensions of spiritual exclusivity. Strangers with thee in life: Those united in Christ alone are united in truth; all other bonds fracture under ultimate scrutiny. The covenant of marriage mirrors Yahweh's covenant with His Church—no third party may breach this sacred compact.

Strangers with thee in death: When you descend alone the banks of that dark river, the hosts of darkness and sin flee terror-stricken from its waters. The Lord and His Church accompany the faithful, but the unfaithful stand isolated.

Strangers with thee in eternity: The finesses and shams by which rivalry and hatred are concealed in temporal life will be torn away. The naked energies of sin will stand isolated and single in their intense and repulsive malignity. No disguise remains. No fellowship survives.

Proverbs 5:17 speaks to marital fidelity as a threshold doctrine: what we keep sacred now determines our eternal fellowship. Elohim's design for covenant—whether matrimonial or redemptive—permits no "strangers" in the intimacy He ordains. The warning cuts deeper than morality; it addresses metaphysical isolation itself.