Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/58

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CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE

It is a sound rule of law that no man shall profit by his own crime, and that rule appears to be violated when the adulterer is enabled to gain by his offence the very freedom which he desires. The French law of divorce in this respect appears sounder than our own. "There is this limitation on the power of re-marriage of divorced persons, that the party to the marriage against whom the decree has been pronounced is not allowed to marry the person with whom his or her guilt has been established."

The direct teaching of Christ, then, as preserved in the Gospels, does not carry us beyond this point; and so far, save of course for the supreme authority which He, and He alone, could add to moral teaching, Christ does not seem to carry the doctrine of marriage beyond the point reached by the prophet Malachi. The inference seems to be equally clear and important.

Just as in the case of the other human relationships the mind of Christ was to be