Page:Is Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Lawful?.djvu/13

Rh may not marry her sister's husband. This, of course, is sufficient to forbid a marriage with a deceased wife's sister.

Now, it is right for us, in the first place, to accept in faith the truth as given by God, and then reason will follow.

Can we see why such a marriage is forbidden?

God distinctly points out a reason for forbidding the marriages He enumerates, laying down in the first of them the same rule to be applied to woman as is applied to man.

The reason, which God gives for all, is because each is near of kin.

In the list half of the marriages are forbidden, when relationship is established by the marriage alone. Consequently, whether the relationship be by kindred or affinity, in God's sight it is reckoned as kinship by virtue of the marriage.

In the first forbidden marriage, it is stated that a woman shall not uncover the nakedness of her father so that this expression is equally applicable to marriage of woman with man as it is to man with woman. The particular reason against this marriage is that the man is her father, i.e. it is her father's nakedness.

Therefore the particular reason for a woman not marrying her sister's husband is that it is her sister's nakedness.

One might be content with this explanation. But we may see as clearly in another way from