Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/55

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
TEACHING OF CHRIST
39
practically remains in force. A man in whose eyes his wife, for any cause, does not find favour, may deal with her as the husband of an adulterous wife is permitted to do; and, provided he does not marry again, need not regard his vow to love his wife, comfort her, honour and keep her."[1]

Commenting on the passages Mark x. 3-9 and Matt. xix. 4-8 he makes this just observation:

"It is clear from the Old Testament quotation that the breach of the marriage does not so much consist in the marrying again as in the separation by man of those whom God hath joined together: consequently the sin is as much committed when man ordains a separation from bed and board as when a new marriage is sanctioned."[2]

The basis on which Christ makes the exception is nothing less than the destructive character of the act of adultery. Divorce was but the legal declaration of an accomplished fact; the marriage bond had already been dissolved by the act of infidelity, the sentence of a human tribunal did but certify the fact.

It has been objected to this view that an

  1. See "The Human Element in the Gospels," p. 129.
  2. See Ibid., p. 392.