7
Note.—I find the word "is" in italics, but that, I take it, is merely to indicate that the word is not in the original, but that in our translation the obvious sense requires it.
This verse, it will be remarked, does not precisely touch the point at issue, viz. as to marriage with a deceased wife's sister. On the other hand, the inference to be drawn from it, in face of the general prohibition against adultery, is one, I humbly think, which is directly to the contrary of what is advanced by His Lordhsip. The exposition of my point would involve considerable citation, and for the nonce I shall assume it, to be self-evident.
Verse 18: "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her lifetime." The italics are in the text. The expression, "take a wife to her sister," is, in the margin rendered "one wife to another" "This exception proves the general rule." The limitation—and the inculcation—law, "directory," is solely all to time and occasion, and is, in fact, as directly against his Lordship's proposition as any text short of direct negation could possibly be.
Verses 20 and 21 have no application, not even the most indirect to the question at issue.
But further, in connection and in perfect accord with this law, permissive, we have in Deuteronomy, chap. xxv, verse 5. the following: "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her."
Further, we have in Mark chapter xii. verses 19 to 23, the following in recognition of the same law. The Sadducees addressing Christ say, v. 19: "Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother."
V. 20: "Now there were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed."
V. 21. "And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed; and the third likewise.
V. 22. "And the seventh had her, and left in seed; last of all the woman died also."
V. 23. "In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?—for the seven brethern had her to wife?
The answer as given by Christ does not gainaay the law, but tells them:—"When they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven."
Thus we have, as a reverbation from the thunders of Sinai, the command in such case, and strange to say, it is to be found as a cardinal law in the social life of some, or at least one (the Shus-waps), of the wildest and most isolated savage tribes of the Pacific slope.
As to the difference sought to be made between a brother-in-law and sister-in-law, there is none in reason that I can convince—none at least to call for a difference and there is no law, written or unwritten, for it. I say "no law," for the prohibition wherever observed, is one of purely ecclesiastical rule.
But this I feel: That at this juncture of our national progress, when the Chinese question and others of vital and organic import are starting up. it is all important for us, the Dominion of Canada, to lay 'broad, as well as deep the foundations of our national structure, Our's is to be, in its vastness of field for honorable, varied industries, social life and national aspirations, a nature of nations, where every child of God may worship and holy live as he will, giving to God what is God's, and unto Cæsar what is Cæsar's—civil liberty untrammeled by the clogs of an antiquated ecclesiasticism or of class.
Yours, &c.,
The following eminent persons have expressed the opinion, that marriage with a deceased wife's sister is not contrary to Holy Scripture:—
Divines—Dr.Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, and Dr. Musgrave, Archbishop of York; the Bishops of Bath and Wells (Lord Auckland), Ballarat (Thornton), Down and Connor, Durham (Villiers), Heber, Jewel, Killaloe, Limerick, Lincoln (Kay), Llandaff (Copleston), London, Mcllvaine (Ohio), Maine (U.S.A.), Manchester, Meath (1842), Melbourne (Perry), Norwich (1851), Potter (Pennsylvania), Ripon, St. David's (1851): Cardinals Bellarmine, Catjetan, Cullen and Wiseman; Revs. Dr. Adler (Jewish Rabbi), H. F. Bacon, Dean Bagot, Baptist Board, T. Binney, Dr. Boothroyd, Dr. Bunting,
