CANON KNOX-LITTLE IN MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8264, 24 May 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

CANON KNOX-LITTLE IN MARRIAGE.

THE DEFILEMENTS OF DIVORCE. Can'o* Knox Little preached to a large congregation lately in Sr. Paul's Cathedral. Taking for his text, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved His Church, and gave himself for it" (Bphesians v., 25), the rev. gentleman said : " There is the practical pagan in London, who founds marriage on interest and money. There is the fine West End lady, who sells her daughter for a title or for an income. There is the smart young man, who sells himself for a position or a place. Cursed are they. That has nothing to do with the Passion of the Cross. What is the outcome of that practical paganism ? Your vile divorce courts, your filthy stories in the newspapers, and all the other degradation and despair that make Christian sociotv in England a disgrace to Christendom. Try your theoretical reforms ; they are no better than the practical ones. You can find them in the magazines ; you can find them on the railway bookstalls, with ingenious statements about the Bible, and even about Christ. The outcome is this—marriage, on which human society, on which society in eternity is to be based, is a contract, not a union. There are two classes. I had always thought there were two sexes. The two classes are to fight it out as rivals. I had always imagined the two sexes were to be companions. And so this is the modern opinion—the husband is to retain a wife for her work ; she is not to be a mother of children, for that seems to be degrading to the advancing sense of the times ; and then, above all things, when they don't quite agree, they are to separate ; there is to be a temporary contract, which seems the most advisable coarse. The teaching of the new gospel is this—that if you have a happy marriage it must come from softening of the brain. I pray there may be much softening of the brain in London ; I pray that there may be much softening of the heart. Compare the practical and theoretical paganism with the teaching of the Lord, and then in the name of common sense, and then in the name of our dear, great England, and then, my brothers, in the name of your manhood, act accordingly. And then, finally, remember this, dear young man — remember that society is shattered if marriage is impaired. Remember that as your Master is united to His Church, marriage is indissoluble. And if it be so, then remember that the defilements of divorce and the miserable invention for allowing all sorts of marrriagea which we have never allowed before, are breaking up the unity of Christ. Set your face against them. Go further. Remember the greatness, the beauty, the sanctity of an English home. Remember that if that home is to be to us what it was to oar forefathers, if England is to be the great England that she has been, then that home must be blessed by religion. And, finally, remember thiscultivate moral purity."