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8 is an unclean thing." It is true that in Deut. xxv. 5 there is an exception made in the case of a brother dying childless. Allusion is made to this exceptional case in one of the Parables of our Lord, in which seven brothers in succession are said to have been married to one woman. The design of the exception was to preserve the inheritance in Canaan in the family to which it was attached. But us the ground of the exception has passed away, the exception ceases, and the general law remains, that a man may not marry his brother's wife. This being the general express law, it necessarily follows, according to the principle of each-distant relations being forbidden, that a woman may not marry her sister's husband. In other words, a man ought not to marry his wife's sister.

There is another principle which may fairly be applied to the interpretation of the law of marriage. When marriage is forbidden between relatives of a certain degree, it is unlawful between those who are more nearly related. Thus a man's own daughter is a nearer relative than his aunt, and the express prohibition of marriage with an aunt would, according to the principle stated, imply prohibition of marriage with a daughter. This principle is so very evident that it recommends itself at once to the acceptance of all. A man is forbidden to marry any who are near of kin—nearly related by blood or marriage. It may be doubtful to that extent "nearness" may reach. But nothing can be plainer than that if it is ascertained to reach, in various directions, to a certain degree of remoteness, it includes all nearer or less remote degrees. Let this rule be applied with reference to the case in question. A wife's sister is a nearer relative by marriage than a father's brother's wife. Now a man is expressly forbidden to mairy his father's brother's wife, (Lev. xviii. 14) "Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach his wife, she is thine aunt." In other words, he is forbidden to marry his father's sister-in-law, and therefore he ought not to marry his own sister-in-law, who is more nearly related to him. As he is more nearly related to his own sister than to his father's sister, so he is more nearly related to his own sister-in-law than to his father's sister-in-law, and is therefore less at liberty to marry his own sister-in-law than his father's sister-in-law.

There is yet another form in which the argument may be exhibited which is drawn from the law laid down in Leviticus. Whatsoever is there forbidden to a man, is forbidden to a woman in similar relations. Thus a man is expressly forbidden to marry his granddaughter, his mother and his aunt; so a woman ought not (although she is not expressly forbidden) to marry her grand-son, her father or her uncle. Dr. McCaul, of London, who strenuously contends for the lawfulness of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, virtually admits this principle, when arguing that his views may be established by fair inferences, as well as by express statements.