put away his wife for every cause?" Our Saviour in answering drew from them the legality of divorce under the law, and then without the least hesitation He abrogated it: "He saith to them: What did Moses command you? Who said: Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away. To whom Jesus answering, said: By reason of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept."

Here our Saviour touched them to the quick. He could not elevate woman without disclosing the sensuality of man. God through Moses had permitted divorce for grave reasons, interpreted by the most reasonable school of Jewish Scribes as meaning adultery or its equivalent. Under more lax interpretation abuses had grown up, until in our Lord's time the wife might, under cover of the law, be made the victim of the husband's caprice, or of his lust for another woman. There was in His day no plurality of wives, which though lawful in the letter had been gradually abolished by the spirit of the Mosaic dispensation. But the evil of divorce was general and notorious. It was, indeed, protested against by the better-minded and led to much controversy among the doctors of the law, which sometimes waxed furious; but the miserable fact remained, however much the doctors discussed: men put away their wives without any serious difficulty. To involve Jesus in the dispute, and to openly array Him against the licentious men in power, was the purpose of this questioning.

Marriage questions are often complicated. But the Christian foundation principle is simple. Christ taught it plainly, and, furthermore, He thereby reaffirmed the original teaching of God to man in the marriage of Adam and Eve. It is the twofold quality of

matrimony, that is to say, monogamy and perpetuity. One man and one woman make the marriage state as God wills it in the kingdom of His Son, as He willed it at the beginning. That these two, once

validly joined, shall possess exclusive right to each other until separated by death, is the divine law of perpetuity. Both of these rules had been relaxed under the old dispensation, which permitted divorce for cause of adultery, and allowed remarriage, and also permitted a plurality of wives. Jesus put an end to this. He restored monogamy and perpetuity to the marriage relation. The main question was about divorce, because, as we have noted, polygamy had long ceased among the Jews.

The affirmation of perpetuity was solemn and decisive: Have you not read, that He who made man from the beginning made them male and female?" We are struck by the use of the word man, in the singular number, in the first clause of this sentence, in the plural number in the second clause. So that literally Jesus makes the one man to be the union of the male and female-a singularly powerful style of teaching the law of marital unity. He continued: "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh." He drives home His doctrine by the emphasis of repetition, and by the invocation of God as the author of the union,-the imprecation of God's anger upon separation: "Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."

Men may unmake human contracts according to the conditions agreed upon by themselves. But marriage is God's work, and its perpetuity is unconditional; it can be broken only by God Himself in

the decree of death. The Jews felt this to be both an innovation and a hardship. If union with a single woman in perpetual wedlock be difficult to the cold-blooded European, it is much more so to the Oriental : "They said to Him" (once more appealing to their ancient lawgiver): "Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce and to put away?" Our Saviour insisted on the reason already given : "Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."

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"THEY ARE NOT two, BUT ONE FLESH." And there came to him the Pharisees, tempting him and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? But he answering, saith to them: What did Moses command you? Who said: Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away. To whom Jesus answering, said: By reason of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept. Have you not read, that he who made man from the beginning made them male and female? And he said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They said to him: Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce and to put away? He said to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart

permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so; and I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery. And in the house, again his disciples asked him concerning the same thing. And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

And now, as our Saviour continued His explanation, He forestalled an objection. For, it might and would be asked, shall there be no relief for a husband or wife injured by the adultery of an faithful partner? Yes, every relief consistent with the perpetuity of the marriage relation. Adultery, the fornication of one or other of the parties, if it does not sever the tie, yet forfeits all rights of support, of affection, of company, and allows the putting away of the guilty one. The honor due to marital purity is honor due to God. While insisting, therefore, upon the sanctity and perpetuity of the marriage bond, our Saviour allows separation for cause of infidelity: "And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth.

adultery." So far St. Matthew reports the Master's teaching on this very grave subject.

From the Evangelist's narrative many have fancied that divorce in the extreme meaning of the term, totally annulling the union, was allowed for the one cause of adultery. But the Church of Christ in all ages has taught otherwise. It is plain that the Church is right. For we do not find our Saviour allowing a second marriage either of the guilty or innocent party after the "putting away" for cause of adultery. No such leave is anywhere given in the New Testament. This is furthermore plain from St. Mark, who pieces out St. Matthew's account and fills it to its complete teaching. Read it, and see a simple rule laid down more privately to the disciples after the general instruction. One cannot urge an implied doctrine in contravention of an explicit one: “And in the house, again His disciples asked Him concerning the same thing. And He saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery."

This teaching in St. Mark was given immediately after that recorded in St. Matthew, and was intended as a further explanation of the marriage dogma; the omission in St. Mark of adultery as a reason for separation is, therefore, conclusive that adultery did not break the bond of marriage, though it allowed the putting away of the guilty party. Read, also, St. Luke's (xvi. 18) version of the Master's rule: "Every one that putteth away his wife and marrieth another committeth adultery, and he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." So, also, taught St.

Paul (I. Cor. vii. 10, 11, and Romans vii. 2, 3), and the discipline of the Church has ever maintained as the authentic meaning of Christ the unconditional perpetuity of the marital relation during the life of its parties, allowing for mutual right of separation on account of adultery or other grave causes, though never the right of marrying again during the lifetime of the other party.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

CHRISTIAN VIRGINITY AND CELIBACY.-JESUS AND

LITTLE CHILDREN.

Matt. xix. 10-15; Mark x. 13-16; Luke xviii. 15–17.

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HEN Jesus taught the sanctity of marriage He appealed to the original revelation of God, and to the happy unity of man and wife in the unfallen humanity of our first parents. He also opened the brightest pages in the book of nature, those which tell of the human heart glowing with the highest natural joy in that union, one with one, which consecrates the best of man's gift to the best of woman's, ennobles both at the expense of neither, and provides in the Christian home the sweetest and strongest training of our souls for good lives and happy deaths. His doctrine of marriage put an end for ever to divorce, for ever anchored fast in His religion the dignity of wife and husband, father and mother. He legislated for all ages and all races in the interests of the one only earthly paradise, the Christian family.