MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE'S
SISTER.
Having been occupied, as so many of us were, in our recent meetings of our Representative Church Council in October at Glasgow, in discussing the purely local affairs of our own Church in their financial and semi-ecclesiastical aspects and prospects, it is, I think, of great advantage to ourselves, as Churchmen, that is, as members of the Catholic Church of Christ at large, to take the opportunity which is afforded us, of turning from ourselves to the consideration of a question of the deepest ecclesiastical importance to the whole Church, and as regards Great Britain in particular, one of the gravest concern; and therefore of the deepest importance not only to individuals but to us all in the aggregate—in our corporate capacity, in our imperial and national condition. The opportunity which I allude to is contained in the certainty that the question on which I am to address you this evening, namely, "Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister," is certain, as matters at present stand, to be again brought before Parliament; and therefore it behoves all who are opposed to that measure becoming law, to exert themselves to the utmost, before Parliament again meets, to counteract the influence which will be brought to bear in favour of that measure; and there is no saying what counter-influence, meetings and petitions against any change in the marriage law, might not have, both in giving better information on the subject as showing that it would infringe the Law of God, and in showing also the probable direful effects in a social point of view that would result: further, it is quite possible that the energies of our opponents might be relaxed, and so our own task would
