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(1 Cor. vii, 2), and although the whole spirit and tendency of the Christian Dispensation is to require more of man in proportion, as it gives him immeasureably more grace. The truth is (Keble further says, p. 37), no thoughtful heart can regard this matter of the marriage laws, as a thing standing apart by itself. It belongs rather to a much greater and deeper movement, showing itself now nearly all over Christendom, by tokens very various, yet all most curiously tending the same way, i.e., toward lawlessness, the predicted forerunner of Anti-Christ”. Let us then, who may foresee the evils that would hereby come upon this land, speak out, before it is too late, and tell our Statesmen that we regard with horror the marriage of a man with his wife's sister, and all others like unto it, as prohibited by Holy Scripture, and unsanctioned by the Church of Christ. I shall not here enter into the purposes or results of the Bill introduced into Parliament by Lord Lyndhurst in the year 1835, as it has nothing to do with the proposition I have been elucidating and now maintain, that “marriage with a deceased wife's sister is not approved of, or sanctioned by the Church of Christ”.
My third and last proposition is:
That it is Detrimental to the best Interests of our Social Life.
There are two considerations, which stand in the forefront in regard to this point now before us and unless they can be answered in the negative, I would boldly claim that my proposition is proved and made good, that such marriages are detrimental. (1) What are the relative numbers of those who wish to have the marriage laws altered in this matter and of those who wish them unaltered? I should suppose there is little doubt that the minority are the claimants for the alteration, and I therefore think that until the contrary could be shown to be the case, the majority who are against the alteration should not be sacrificed for the supposed convenience, or at all events the wishes, of the few. (2) Is it at all likely or to be expected that the relaxation of the marriage laws (if this point were conceded) would stop there? Would it not be likely to be the case, that this first
