"A Clergyman"

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Magazine writer's next testimony "as to the judgment of the church," is "St. Basil, in the 4th century," (pg. 16) , as saying, "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 a union as marriage, nor do we receive the parties to communion with the Church until they are separated." It will be recollected that these words of St. Basil occur in a controversial letter against an opponent. ”

“ The words of Maimonides, in the English translation, are as follows:
"When a man has betrothed a wife, there are six women of near relations prohibited to him, and each one of them is prohibited for ever: and those are they, her mother, and her mother's mother, and her father's mother, and her daughter, and her daughter's daughter, and her son's daughter, and if he approach any one of these in tho life-time of his wife, they are burnt, . . . . . . and so his wife's sister is prohibited to him until his wife die." ”

“ 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. ”

“ The great bulk of Englishmen 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 translation is as follows:
"If his wife die, he is allowed to marry her sister. If he divorce her, and she die, he is allowed to marry her sister. If she be married to another man and die, he is allowed to marry her sister. ”

“ Our first remark is, that this writer's professed rendering of the verse above quoted is self-contradictory. On page 5 he says—"I add a literal rendering of the Hebrew, as it will be useful for reference:" "And a woman to her sister thou shalt not take, to rival, to uncover her nakedness, besides her, in her life time!" But on page 8, to support his theory, he renders this same verse as follows: "And one with the other thou shalt not take, to uncover her nakedness besides her an long as she liveth." ”

“ II.—One of these novel illustrations is, the denial that Moses ever commanded a brother to marry the childless widow deceased brother, "and raise up seed to his brother; or that the seven brothers mentioned in Matthew, xxii. chapter, verses 24 and 25, were own brothers. Moses said, (Deuteronomy xxv. 5, 6) , "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. ”

“ The late Chief Justice Story of Massachusetts,, said:— "Nothing is more common in almost all the States of America than second marriages of this sort; and so far from being doubtful as to their moral tendency, they are among us deemed the very best sort of marriages. ”

“ But, further, the suffixes attached in the singular to the subsequent words (her nakedness, besides her, in her lifetime) show, decisively, that even such a solution is inadmissable; and these of themselves limit the words to two specific individuals (who have no mutual action one upon another,) in the same literal sense as in the preceeding verses, viz., a wife to a sister."
It is thus as plain as day that two sisters are mentioned in Leviticus xviii. 18, as this writer's own first "literal rendering of the Hebrew" declares ”

“ Whether the question is considered in a religious, moral, or social point of view, such marriages are unobjectionable, while in many instances they contribute to the happiness of the parties and to the welfare of motherless children, and among the poor, have a tendency to prevent immorality. ”

“ But it is to be remarked that in every such instance, this phrase, whether of the masculine or feminine gender, has a reciprocal distributive power,—that is, a number of persons or things are said to do, or be so, one to another. ”

“ His statement is not true as to the Presbyterian bodies in the United States, nor as to a large number of their members and most distinguished ministers in Canada, nor as to such illustrious names as those of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Eadie in Scotland; it is not true as to English Nonconformists generally. Cardinal Wiseman said the Roman Catholic Church did not hold that such a marriage was prohibited in Scripture, but "is considered a matter of ecclesiastical legislation;" ”

“ The section of the Lords spiritual and temporal, having most sympathy with Rome, finding that they could not successfully resist the powerful influences brought to bear in favour of Lord Lyndhurst's Bill, prepared an amendment, as a ryder to it, declaring illegal all future marriages of that kind. Lord Lyndhurst was strongly opposed to the amendment or ryder ”

“ His reply was, "In the Apostolic Canons, canon 19, one had so married, or had married a niece, was forever excluded from the clergy.' Question 445,—"What is their date?" Answer,—"I can only say that it is in Ante-Nicene collection." On this Dr. A. McCaul remarks:—"This is a vague reply. 'Ante-Nicene' takes in 325 years. How long then before the Council of Nice were these Canons collected, one year or 300 years? Some make the collection Post-Nicene. ”