MARRIAGE LAW.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16946, 22 September 1920, Page 6

MARRIAGE LAW.

THE STATE AND THE CHURCH,

At St. Luke's Church, on Sunday morning, the vicar, tho Rev. F, Taylor, began a course of sermons on "Tho Christian Doctrine of Marriage," taking as his first subject, "Tho Divergence of Civil Law from tho Law of the Church.'' Taking as his text. Acts iv., 18-20, "And tlicy (tno Jewish rulers) called them and charged them not to speak at all nor teach in tno name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it bo right in the eight of God to hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge yo;*for wo cannot but speak the tnuigs which we saw and heard," tho preacner said that recent events had foeusscd attention upon a situation which had been gradually developing during tho last seventy years. 'lho gravity of the situation arose from the fact that tho civil law in New Zealand differed* from the law of tho church in a matter which touched the very foundations of social well-being, and this divergence liad been gradually growing deeper and wider, so that now not only tuo Church, but also the State, was feeling very uncomfortable about it, and somo would have the State obliterate tho divergence by forbidding the Church to enunciato her law in order that tho State law might remain alone and unchallenged in tho cjT'S and cars of tho general public. This conflict was no new thing. On the contriiry, during tho greater part of her existence tho normal condition of tho Church had been one of conflict with tho world, and that not on one point only, but over the wholo ground of her messago and work.

After touching on tho conflict recorded in tho Book of Esther, tho preacher continued: "When Our Lord carac to earth Ho was in necessary I hostility to the world of that day, and | Ho suffered persecution and death because Ho proclaimed a higher standard j than the world was prepared to accept. | Ho taught His followers to expect tho I same experience, and His predictions ' were not falsified. With tho war-cry of 'We, ought to obey God rather than man,' they defied the world and suffered all that tho world's hatred could inflict on them. But, nevertheless, tho Christians were such good citizens that they won by degrees the respect and admiration of those in authority, and bit by bit tho world's hostility ceased, until* Church and State became two aspects of the same body, and Church law came to be adopted by tho Ststo as its own. This identification of Church and State was probably never fully accepted by tho goneral body of citizens, but the authorities of most Christian countries did their best to enforce it. . This was the ease, for instance, in England for soveral centuries, and thus it came about that tho Book of Common Prayer is a schedule to an Act of Parliament, and all its provisions have technically tho forc<*> of law except in so far as subsequent Acts have made other provision. Marriago was thus one of the things about which Church and Stato had tno Bame lawß. But in 1857 the first broach was made. | In that year the .Divorce Acts set :up I a special court with power under certain conditions to undo the marriago j of a wedded pair in such a sense'that either of tho pair waß free to contract | a civilly legal marriage with a third party. The right to re-marry is' the | essential point. The word divorce had been used before, but it signified what Iwe now call a judicial separation. It was a divorce a mensa et thoro, not a vinculo. The parties were still man and wife, and were not free to remarry. Many attempts have been made to cajolo or force the Church-to alter her laws so as to bring them into conformity With the new State law, but the Church's law remains the sanie. If a man has a wife living (even if the Divorce Court has granted a decree of , divorce) the Church cannot recognise that he may take another wife in tte life-time of tho first. The bond is binding as long as both parties live. Tho marriage service emphatically reiterates ■ tho binding nature of tho contract 'so long as yo both shall live,' 'till death us do part,' 'until your lives' end. 'Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' So there aro two laws at variance with one another—the State law, which allows the re-marriago of divorced persons, and tho Church law, which does not. From time to time divorce is made easier.

"There is now a Bill before our Parliament to make divorco easier and speedier. If this Bill is passed, it will be possible for husband and wife ■to get a divorce by arrangement whenever they like, and wo shall be well on our way towards that 'progressive polygamy' which has been attained by some of tne States of Amcrica. At the same time there's a Bill before Parliament which would require tho clergy to record divorces in the marriage registers kept at our churches; and yet another Bill which, unless it is amended, will make it a criminal offence for us to tell anybody what the Church's law is about these things. The same kind of campaign is- being conducted in England. In fact, in this matter the vvorlu is rapidly going back to its old attitude of hostility to the Church. Not only are people in revolt against' Christian morality, but they are in effect saying to Christians: 'You shall not have of teach a morality which is different froni oar own; if wo lower our standard, you must lower yours.' To this the Chjurch can only make the old answer: 'We must obey God rather than men. The duty of "the Church is to teach the world a higher ideal than any that the world itself can evolve. It cannot accept whatever ' standard tho world likes to claim for its own."

A P.P.A. EESOLUTIOir

(PSESS ASSOCIATION TELECHAJi.)

WANGANUI, September 21. , The following resolution was earned at a meeting of the Wanganui executive of the Protestants' Political Associ®" tion: —"This meeting endorses the up* tion of tho Dominion executive ij l bringing before Parliament the iniqU'.* toils work of the No Temere Decree in this Dominion. It compliments the Rev. Howard Elliott on tne able ner in which he presented our case -V> tho committee, and assures tho Minister that in upholding the vnliuiv of marriage according to civil law, WW protecting the issue of such m3rnl £, from the stigma of illegitimacy, as ais* in dealing with those recalcitrant dividuala who threatened to defy proposed law, he will have behind ajnj ~ not only the hugo membership of jf Protestant Political Association but tp whole Protestant country." • -J