"A Clergyman"

“ Surely it is utterly ridiculous to call that union a marriage, either from a legal or a Christian point of view, which depends on the mere forbearance of non-objectors, or which either of the two parties may dissolve at their own bare will! ”

“ There is none in the Gospels or Epistles—there is none (as has been shown) in the translations of the Scriptures used by the Jewish, Syrian, Greek and Latin Churches. These versions are all favourable to the marriage with a wife's sister."—" Having given the concurrent testimony of the three greatest Bible-scholars of their age, and that age the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, in addition to the Septuagint, the Syraic and the Italic versions, I have done enough to show the opinion of the Church for the first 400 years. ”

“ If we may not go by "parity of reasoning,"' that is, regard no moral parallelism, make no inferences, but be bound only by the bare letter; than a man marry his own daughter or sister! for they are not expressly prohibited.
To apply this to the case in hand: Lev. xviii. 16. "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife; it is thy brother's nakedness "—repeated in chap. xx. 21 with a special curse. Here a woman is forbidden to marry her deceased husband's brother; and the strict parallel is that a man is forbidden to marry his deceased wife's sister. ”

“ The London Central Board of the Three Denominations in England adopted a resolution saying, "Such marriage (with a deceased wife's sister) is not only in itself perfectly allowable, but may often be the best which an individual may contract." The Board of Baptist Ministers in London and Westminster adopted a resolution declaring: "In the judgment of the Board, the marriage of a widower with the sister of his deceased wife is Scripturally lawful, and ought not to be prohibited by any human legislation." ”

“ We have before observed, that nothing can abolish a pre-existing fact—and therefore such cohabitation would still be incest. Though "freed from the law of her husband," as Mr. Punshon emphasises it; it does not follow that a widow is free from all law as to his kindred, as he argues, or we might have such mixtures as would rival the incests of ancient Persia. Because, forsooth, I may not marry my sister-in-law, must I cry out with the logic of a petulant will. You insist that she who was once my wife is still my wife in the spirit world! ”

“ The magazine writer, in quoting Josephus, is careful not to notice the kind of marriage with a brother's wife which was detestable among the Jews. Glaphyra had had three children by her first husband. On his being slain by his father, she took a second husband. Then the brother of her first husband divorced his wife to marry her. The law of Moses had commanded a man to marry his brother's widow only when his brother had died childless, and did not permit the divorcing of a wife in order to marry a brother's widow. Such a marriage as that of Glaphyra was, of course detested among the Jews. ”

“ Every just man must feel and say that there can be no justice or principle in an Act which declares the same marriage illegal if contracted since 1835, and which robs a child of his inheritance if born since 1835, while it gives him, if born before that period, vast wealth, the patronage of 26 Church livings, the first rank in the peerage, and even exalts him to be an officer of Her Majesty's household. ”

“ Death "departs" a man and his wife—makes a complete separation; but it does not abolish the relations which that marriage effected between the surviving husband or wife and their respective families, till he comes and touches with his icy fingers each separate one.
We will just put Mr. Punshon's objection into the mouth of the parallel relation—a deceased brother's wife. ”

“ By a recent decision of the House of Lords, Charles Armitage Brook, the issue of an exactly similar marriage, born in 1864, is declared illigitimate, and his inheritance forfeited to the Crown. We utter not a word of reproach against His Grace, or the amiable and estimable ladies of the Beaufort family; but the public welfare demands that the existence of such an anomaly should be clearly made known, in order to its being immediately remedied. ”

“ The general contempt for religious as opposed to secular law which characterizes the looseness of Colonial populations, and our familiarity with the tremendous laxness of the Marriage Laws of the United States, must, in the nature of things, precipitate a struggle between the Church and the World at no distant day ”

“ PLAIN MEANING OF THE PROHIBITION IN LEV. XVIII. 18.—THE MAGAZINE WRITER'S ABSURD EXAMPLES.
So much at present on the translation of the verse. Let us now briefly notice the prohibition, "thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, &c.," a prohibition understood in all ages, as the words expressly declare, as relating to two sisters. The law of Moses assumes the existance of polygamy, and regulated it, (Exodus xxi. 9–12; Deuteronomy xxi. 15–17) , but does not forbid it. The prophet denounced David's adultery, but directly recognized his polygamy (II Samuel xii. 8.) ”

“ A step-son may not marry his father's widow; and yet there is no kin between them, except through the woman's former marriage with his father, who is now dead. The death of the person through whose marriage the bond of kindred began, must either dissolve that bond in all cases, or it dissolves it in none. ”

“ Professor of Divinity and Hebrew Literature in King's College, London, has remarked,—"When the words, 'a woman to her sister,' or in the masculine form, 'a man to his brother,' are used idiomatically to signify 'one another,' they always have a plural antecedent of the things or person spoken of. ”

“ Let the public at large notice what the Rev. W. Morley Punshon, President of the Wesleyan Conference, distinctly says: It appears to me, and has always appeared to me that the doctrine of this passage (Rom. VI: 2) 'is that the relationship of affinity created by law, ceases when the law ceases." An astounding, a tremendous conclusion! Observe, so a man may marry his father's wife, his son's wife, his brother's wife, his wife's mother, his wife's daughter, his wife's grand-daughter—all expressly fordidden in Scripture! ”

“ Even heathen writers reproached the Asiatics with their dissoluteness: "Such is the whole barbarian race: a father has intercourse with his daughter, a youth with his mother, a maiden with her brother." (Euripides, Androm, 173) . The Law of Moses re-established holy limitations of domestic virtue, but not ignoring the civil custom of the time. The Law of inheritance applied first to the husband's next of kin; but he was not only exempt from taking the widow if she were within the prohibited degrees—he dared not take her. ”

“ The marriage of a man with a deceased wife's sister stands good, and the issue legitimate, if no objection is made ab extra, by a third party, during their life-time: otherwise, that is, in case of objection, the union is invalid, the issue illegitimate. Of course, too, the will of either of the parties dissolves the union. ”

“ If he have performed to her the ceremony of taking off the shoe, and she die, he is allowed to marry her sister; if she marry another man, and die, he is allowed to marry her sister."
The Mishna is a collection of legends and expositions said to have been learned by Moses in the mount, and handed down by tradition. It was compiled in the second century, and testifies what was the common and received sense of the law among the Hebraizing Jews. The Magazine writer says, "it is the most exact representation of the ancient Jewish opinion;" ”

“ How then could the father's death undo a pre-existent fact, and thereby cause the relation between step-mother and step-son to cease?" Does the maxim admit of controversy that any person with whom, at any time it would have been incest to cohabit, will forever remain forbidden? The question seems unequivocally determined by the principle of affinity arising out of the nature of the marriage union.", (Professor Bush) . Ah, but this places us in a "dilemma," says Mr. Punshon. Many dilemmas are wonderfully spectral, and frighten more a good deal than they hurt. ”

“ The great bulk of English Churchmen are against any alteration of what is and has been the law of the Church and the law of the land, and which forbids a man to marry his deceased wife's sister. The Presbyterian bodies are all pledged against it. ”

“ The sixth of the Apostolical Canons, allowed by all to be ante-Nicene, says "He who hath married two sisters, or his brother's or his sister's daughter, cannot be a clergyman." St. Basil, in the 4th century, as noted in Bishop Wordsworth's Commentary, says: "Our custom in this matter has the force of law, because the statutes we observe have been handed down to us by holy men; and our judgment is this, that if a man has fallen into the sin of marrying two sisters, we do not regard such an union as marriage, nor do we receive the parties to communion with the Church until they are separated." ”

“ Destroy not him with thy marriage for whom Christ died"—as he now runs the risk of doing manifoldly, by encouraging weak consciences to act against external laws and inward convictions in compliance with unregulated desire, under the patronage of a distinguished religious leader. A religious leader might well pause in the exercise of what he thought a lawful liberty, at the Apostle's words: "Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak." ”

“ Punshon to quote in his own defence Lev. xx. 21, of all possible arguments!
But there is another "dilemma"—a very harmless, though a very ugly goblin. "If my wife's sister is still [after the wife's decease] my wife's sister; then logically my wife is still my wife, and so far from restricting my liberty to marry to her own relations, her death—as it does not alter my relations to her [his own representation] —does not leave me at liberty to marry at all." How very "logical" indeed, where the word "wife" is plainly "equivocal"—made to represent a past and a present relation ”

“ It matters not that the daughter and grand-daughter are no blood relations of the man—enough that they are her near kinswomen." Wnat now becomes of the implied liberty on the removal of the restriction, "as long as she liveth?" Does the point need to be pressed? Do we not now see that all things are not to be concluded as sanctioned by law, which are only not expressly forbidden by it? Does Mr. Punshon "bow" to so clear a meaning? ”

“ So it by no means follows that, because a man may not take his wife's sister in marriage while his wife is alive, he may marry his wife's sister when his wife is dead. Hooker exhibits his "judiciousness" in the observation—"It is a mistake to suppose that a thing denied with special circumstance doth import an opposite affirmation when once that circumstance is expired." (Bk. v, c. xiv) . "The manner of Scripture produceth no such inference as that." (Pearson, Art. iii) . (2.) There is nothing to prove that the restriction, "her life,," belongs to the wife—see the literal rendering above. ”

“ Quite clear then it is that there may be and are relationships by affinity which preclude marriage according to God's Law, but we most unreasonably expect to find in the Scripture detailed lists of prohibited degrees. It is enough to find great principles set down with the utmost perspicuity, and numerous examples enabling us to apply those principles with certainty. ”

“ Happily, therefore, the movement in the mother country, as is well known, has been the work of a very small but very wealthy clique, who have literally lavished gold in furtherance of their selfish object. ”

“ In the treatise entitled Yehamoth the precept Yeboom or obligation to marry the widow of a childless deceased brother, and the ceremony of Chalitzah in the case of him who refuses, are discussed, with indeed the various cases arising out of Deut. xxv. 5-10. Throughout the treatise the general names "sister-in-law," "brother-in-law," are applied to the parties whatever may be the degrees of their relation. The word "brother" is used with the same latitude. The name "rivals" is applied to the several wives of one man. ”

“ These several points being taken into account, we have abundant cause for, (perhaps not alarm, but certainly for) , being on our guard; for furbishing our weapons; for awakening Clergy and Laity to the importance of the crisis, and seeing that all are alike furnished with the knowledge of those grounds on which we must defend one of the most important citadels of Christian morality.
The divine authority of the One Law-giver is that to which Christians must mainly defer ”