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 insists on the validity of the marriage; but so great an event is conversion, nothing less than the new birth of the individual, that a fresh act of consent on the part of the unconverted partner is necessary if the marriage is to be sustained. This act is implied in willingness to dwell with the Christian.

St. Paul does not allow the Corinthian suggestion that the contact with an unbeliever in marriage was itself polluting; rather he advances the profound doctrine that the Christian partner carried a consecration to the husband or the wife, and brought them, not less than the children of a Christian parent, within the sphere of holiness. Nor will he allow the Christian to break up the marriage which the unbeliever is willing to maintain, because to do this would be to run counter to the cardinal truth that natural relationships are confirmed, hallowed and immortalised in Christ. In the case, however, of a refusal to dwell with the Christian, St. Paul regards the marriage as null and void, and grants liberty