Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/147

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UNDER MODERN CONDITIONS
131

argument is that in all cases there should be a frank and thorough consideration of the situation, to which the State is necessarily required to address itself, before there is issued a declaration of war between Church and State.

On the subject of divorce there are some excellent observations by Dr. Newman Smyth, which may well be quoted here:

"Jesus undoubtedly laid down an absolute ethical principle concerning the marriage relation in what he was called to say in view of the loose divorce customs of the Jews. That principle from which his precept proceeded should be law in Christian ethics. Moreover, the particular instance which was the only one considered in Christ's declaration of the true principle of divorce, required the simplest and most unequivocal assertion of the sanctity of the obligation of marriage. For adultery, the instance considered, is the direct breach of the marriage relation. It is the one sin which immediately and unmistakably illustrates the only valid reason on which divorce, according to Christ's teaching, may be legally allowed-the ground that the union between husband and wife has already in fact been criminally destroyed. There is no other legitimate principle for divorce than that presented by the nature of the sin of adultery. If, however, we can say with a good conscience that some other sin (some sin which possibly in Christ's