PRESENT-DAY MARRIAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15594, 28 April 1914, Page 10

PRESENT-DAY MARRIAGE

THE "NE TEMERE DECREE.

PAPAL ASSUMPTIONS.

CONGREGATIONAL OPINIONS.

Marriage formed the subject of an important discussion at the meeting of the Congregational Union in Sydney on April 21. The subject was investigated in the light of recent controversies on the matter of divorce and motherhood.

Dr. T. Roseby opened the debate. "What is the legal definition of marriage ?" he asked. "Marriage celebrated. by a registrar is a good marriage in law, though -there has been associated with it no religious ceremony. Practically civil marriages are the only bond recognised by the State, the parties being left to include or add any religious ceremony as thejr think best. 'it is the exchange of 'I wills that constitute a valid marriage. "But what is specifically meant by Christian marriage? Here again, wo have, to consider the wide tolerance enforced upon us by recognising bow widely variant Christian usage is for the elaborate ceremonial here to. the varied usages existing or which have existed under Puritanism, Presbyterianism, Independency and amongst the Society of Friends. In all these cases a religious ceremony has been associated with-marriage, though not in all leases regarded as forming a vital element in it. This Puritan element in regard to no religious ceremony has 'survived to this" day. Nevertheless in Christian marriage there has always been a firm recognition of the need of associating with marriage some form of religious service. That was inevitable. But there is a danger of losing touch with the reality, and wo find ourselves in the midst of a number of modern controversies. The. Temere Decree. "It was*abundantly clear to.those who had eves to see that when the Vatican Council decreed the individual ex-cathedra infallibility of,the Pope, it was taking a leap in the dark, ft was making it possible for an adventurous Pope to do and siv all manner of unreasonable things. And so we have had since a whole succession of crude and hasty deliverances on all manner of subjects from the Papal chair, which have severely taxed the faith, the credulity the'patience of serious and thoughtful Roman Catholics. Many of these recent decrees are expressly ex proprio motu of the Pope himself. Truly he doth magnify his infallible office, these ignorant and unscholarly deliverances on the subject of the Inerrancy of the Vulgate Bible— (applause)—these violent explosions of intolerance and bigotry towards modernism ; these vain conflicts with the victorious march of science and historical criticism; and finally this foolish and cruel attack on the sanctity of the extra Papal marriage—these things all hang together, and they are making it increasingly difficult for men of sane temper and adequate knowledge to continue in the bonds of the Latin obedience. (Applause.) I need not explain the new decree. It has indeed needed a lot of explaining, the perpetual effort of the Roman ecclesiastic being to explain to the Protestant man that to him . the decree means nothing, but at the same time, to explain to the Roman Catholic girl who marries him that she can never be anything but his mistress. It does not need a very long leap of inference for the Protestant- man to discover in. the case jfhat he must be" ' .:> "false Assumptions." - '• Dr Roseby here referred to the Lenten message of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds that "a marriage in a registrar office or a non-Catholic place of worship, however valid in the eyes of the law, is null and void in the eyes - of God and God's Church.". - But the Roman Church s assumption was; horribly false and wrong. And on that. Church .lay -the shameful crime of spoiling marriages that had been happily and innocently entered upon. ' "The position here to be firmly maintained is that marriage is older than priestism, that it has its roots in the whole long history of sentient life; that id is the foundation of all family life; and that, being natural and innocent in itself, r the priest has', title to interfere. Religious differences among Christians are none of them so deep, so fundamental, so .vital to human life and _ human society I as marriage is.* -It is "a fair thing co discuss the wisdom, the expediency, the pru- '.' dence, to be considered in this or that particular case, but'nature will have her own way with her children. You may expel nature with a pitchfork, •._ but she \yill always'come back. And it is best so;.. The principle of such love as ends in marriage is itself divine ; and has rights of its own beyound the jurisdiction of 'any priesthood. ,- .

. -1.,' ',„'■'„,., The Ideal. ; §S • "Consider ; what high and holy dignity belongs to ;'.marriage. '.'■■. The lark at. ;•; Heaven's -gate sings of it. In the passionate note of the nightingale you may , J 'hear the echoes of it. Every flower In the ' field and forest tells the story of it. Blot .. -wedded love out of the life of the world ■ and the whole story of it turns to dust and ashes.; Poetry, the drama, the pure f. .' well of romance, the family, the Church, the guild, the school, all of these are ruled by love. Amor vincit omnia. Blot •'; , love out and the next chapter in the - world's history would be the extinction : :': of life as well— a good thing too. •': The rule of the priest, I remind you, is not upheld 'in the final decision of Scrip- •,,.. ture on: this subject. I deprecate priestly ■; '} interference with what lies deepest in human nature? So according to the Christian idea/'marriage is a mutual compact based on mutual regard, confidence, and affection, and suitably ratified to live together as husband and wife till separated ; . . by death. Its great purpose is realised in I•'.•■.;. the ' domestic relations and affections, the -': .preservation of moral and social purity, ■ and the training and discipline of the 1%; young in virtue and godliness. '■}'-'■. - Divorce. :''"',. "On the great main issue in the problem of divorce we find no dissonance between the Christian ideal in the New Testament and the voice of nature herself. Marriage in its ideal is after all a contract. There is an exchange of ' I wills.' But when that contract is broken and the •I will' becomes a fierce 'I will not,.' what are you to say. of the marriage then? When in its very essence and reality the marriage is broken, what is the use of our saying it is still whole—still valid ? " Here is our breach v ith Rome. Rome's attitude is intelligible. Marriage with them is a sacrament, and their view of a ' sacrament is that it is irrefragable, and that its imprint is indelible. A priest is still a priest for ever, even in hell. Baptism makes a man regenerate once for all, none the Jess because he breaks every law of the decalogue. So marriage is treated as indissoluble. We cannot accept that view.- ' We follow nature's law, We are guided by our reason and common sense. We affirm the high sacred divine sanctity of marriage. ' Those whom God hath joined.' But we refuse to call things by false names. A broken marriage is broken. And there must in such extreme cases be some such remedy as divorce. We concede, as our Lord does, one great recessary inevitable exception. But we must resolutely resist the tendency to make this concession the opening of a Hood-gate to admit a host of foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men and women in destruction and perdition." Dr. Roseby concluded with deploring; the attacks on the citadel of marriage, a propaganda maintained with diabolical insistence and smooth plausibility, and infecting modern literature like a plague, end which frankly aimed at degrading ■ humanity to ..the. lowest level of the brute creation. 11 was a part of that insolent attempt to ; weave a web of sophistical philosophy around the souls of men. Civilisation, 'through thousands of years, had been occupied with the gigantic task of enabling men to look up, working out the beast, and letting the ape and tiger die, yet now came this attempt to offer this poisonous cup. But they could not reason with -the, fire.? of hell. They must be stamped out.' (Loud applause).' A discussion followed, especially on the ,v .'.; subject of-divorce. - :-i :■":'■--/.'.*:■ -V? \ f'XJ.'., ' ■ ■' ••"'''