Page:Christian Marriage.djvu/11

Rh marriage is a sacrament, and therefore determined by a higher authority than that of the State, is the assumption of the other.

Divorce is mere matter of expediency, regulated by statute, to the first. Divorce is divinely prohibited and therefore outside the range of any human authorisation to the last. It is sufficiently obvious that between these positions there can be no harmony. One must prevail over the other.

In this little book an attempt is made to indicate the elements which must combine in a doctrine of Christian marriage, and therefore must direct the course of a Christian citizen through the difficult discussions of the practical issues concerned. I have not thought it well to embark on such questions of immediate concern as the revision of the Tables of Kindred and Affinity now apparently contemplated by Parliament, nor have I entered on the exasperating subject of clerical duty in the matter of remarrying divorced persons. These subjects seemed to be unsuitable for so brief a treatment