LENTEN PASTORAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 6, 6 February 1902, Page 3

LENTEN PASTORAL.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON ON CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.

The following Lenten Pastoral has been issued by his Grace the Archbishop of Wellington :—: — Dearly belored brethren and dear children in Jesus Ohrigt,— The subject of this Lenten Pastoral is the Restoration of the Family by Jesua Christ and His Church, The most God-like gift of man is his personality. The great revelation of Christian faith was that this personality shall meet with everlasting reward or punishment. Hence faith first laid hold of man's individual heart, and then, from that first conquest and inmost fortress proceeded on its course of victory. It counted the outward work as nothing, as mere hypocrisy, without the inward intention. No other religion was worthy of Him who made the heart. But the Christian Faith was intended to form a society. In the Divine idea, man — Adam — was a race, not a mere individual, nor a collection of individuals. The first man was the sum of the whole race ; in him the race was supernaturally endowed, in him the race fell ; and in One Man again of whom he was the first copy, the race was restored. The Divine government being perfect, deals with man aa an individual and as a race. Man, who is essentially a social being, never stands alone, but is touched by his brethren on all sides. Of all animals the infant man is the most dependent and helpless. Man, the highest as a compound of matter and spirit among creatures in this visible world, is the least able to stand alone. His Very Eminence Surrounds Him with Relations. I. The first of these relations, and the root of the others, is that between man and woman. It is the germ of the larger society, and upon it the whole development of man in society depends. What Ood intended that relation to be is conveyed to us in an immutable record. The divine prophet, to intimate the fulness of knowledge imparted to Adam, says that he gave to each of the creatures brought before him the name proper to its habits, instincts, and purpose. Here was a wisdom as superior to that of Solomon aa the fountain is superior to the drop. But neither his dominion over these oreatnres, nor his magnificent science could satisfy his natural needs and desires. Created for society, it was not good for him to be alone. And, as it were, a ' second ' Divine oouncil was held. The ' first,' concerning his nature, ran thus : ' Let Us make man after Our image and likeness,' the ' second,' concerning his social relations, ran similarly, ' Let Us make him a help like unto himself.' Here, then, woman's relation stands thus : Bhe was given to form society and to help man, and especially in the pro-creation of the race, ani that whioh is involved therein, companionship, sympathy, education of children. Thirdly, she was made subordinate to man ; for a state of innosence does not exclude inequality. There is the subjection of house or state in which the superior uses the subjects for their advantage ; and this was the subjection in accordance with which man was, in the beginning, made the ' head of the woman.' Else human society would lack good order, if the wiser did not gSvern. To still more emphasise the nature of this subordination, bear in mind that the order followed in the creation of the other animals was not followed here. In them there was simultaneous creation of the sexes ; but not bo in man. Adam was created, alone, and from him Eve, his help, was taken. First, says St. Thomas, in order that man, like God, might be the beginning of all his species, as God is the beginning of the universe. Secondly, that his affection might be perfect, and the union inseparable, when he saw that woman was formed from himself. Thirdly, beoause, beyond the ordinary sexual tie, there is in man the sooiety of domestic life, in which each has distinot works, but in whioh the leadership belongs to man. And fourthly, beoause of the great sacrament hidden under this formation (St. Thos. Summa I. q. 92 a 2). Further, she was formed, not from head of man, for in the social union with him she was not to rule ; nor yet from his feet, beoause her part is not servile subjection ; but from" his eide nearest his heart. 'He built up,' aays the golden-tongued saint, ' not He moulded ; but He took a portion of what was already moulded, and built up a perfect creature, able by community of nature and of reason to snpport him for whose comfort she was made ' (St. Chrys. Horn. xv. in Gen., p. 118). And when the Divine Architect brought the last and best of His gifts to man, that man Bpoke words which, aa the greatest authority tells us, were the words of God Himself. He completed the union of man and woman by bestowing upon it three qualities, indissolubility, unity, and inviolable sacredness. The Original Relation of Woman to Man consisted in these seven points. It was the fount of the race, and so the starting-point of human Bociety ; it was made for man's help and support in society ; it consisted in subordination to him, but a subordination tempered and exalted by perfect affection ; it was a union indissoluble ; a union between two only ; a union to be respected and maintained by both alike, beoause it was not founded in mutual compact, but originated and consecrated by the act of God Himself. , . Such ia the perfeot picture of the primary human relation as given in the most ancient of all existing books. Tou will searoh in vain among the wisest men of Greece, or Rome, or Persia, or India, or Egypt, or China, or any other nation, for any teaching comparable to what the great Hebrew prophet has conveyed in a dozen lines. Yet in these nations, and the more distinctly the farther back we go, you will find institutions maintained with more or less purity, but bearing witness, even in their debased and ragmentary state, that such nations once possessed the doctrine

here set forth, inasmuoh aa their civil life in its very origin wm based upon it. As an instance may be cited the sacred marriage of the Romans, ' per oonf arreationem,' a patriarchal inheritance from the oradle of the human race, and a qualification for the higher priesthoods. Thus God, the author of human society, established it upon a perfect law of marriage. As Adam is the father and head of the race, bo Eve is its mother and nurse. This is the key to her position among all the nations, their descendants Therein lay a rich gift for the present, and a richer prophecy for the future ; for this relation is not merely an institution founding society, but a secret picture and pledge of the dealing of the Creator with the race created. From the beginning the natural covers and includes the supernatural, and what is last executed is first intended. 2. Now pass over an interval of several thousand years, and take a short view of The Actual State of Woman in the Various Countries of the Western World during the last years of the Emperor Auguttua on the very eve of the Christian era. In Greek life woman held an honorable position— the companion, not the slave of man, as in Eastern Asia. The Greeks possessed a Bound and well-ordered political life, because they had a true family life grounded on monogamy. Polygamy was foreign to them ; bigamy extremely rare. Polygamy was practised by the Macedonian monarchs as infected with Eastern customß. The Greeks did not keep woman under look and key in harems ; still less guarded by eunuchs. Within her home she had defined rights secured by law and custom ; she ruled as mistress over slaves and children. But there was a dark reverse side of the picture. The wife was looked upon, not as the human creature, man's like and companion, but as a means to an end, aB an evil which could not be escaped, in order that there might be house and children. Her intelleotual education was disregarded, and hence her influence over husband and children was slight. Even the rich were not taught the accomplishments which form the charm of home. Hence Socrates admits that the society of the wife wm the last thing sought after by the husband. If he invited a gueit, his wife did not dine with him. She was left to the solitude of her apart* ments, never entered by a stranger. There were accomplished women at Athens, whose society statesmen sought ; but remember that they had lost the first ornament of their Bex. Aspwria and Phryne play a great part in Grecian history, and lower prodigioußly the standard of domestic life. With these the relation was free and intermittent ; but marriage in Athens had to be made compulsory, as a duty to the State, for the propagation of its citizens, a duty which, as Plato admits, was most unwillingly performed. Voluntary virginity was unknown ; but, if involuntary, was considered a great calamity, At Sparta marriage was a mere breeding institution for the supply of healthy and vigorous citizens. Wives were lent. The State was a breeding-place for human cattle. Then, moreover, the domestic life of the Greeks was eaten up by the fearful miasma of unnatural immorality, which seemed like the curse of the Hellenic race. While the extent of this evil cannot be exaggerated, it cannot be detailed. Further, after the Peloponnesian war a great moral deterioration set in, which continued unbroken down to the time of Plutarch. Families became extinct through the desire to have no children. This was a result deplored by Polybius a hundred and fifty years earlier. Speaking of the beginning of the Roman dominion over them, he sayß : ' It is the accordant opinion of all that Greece now enjoys the greatest comfort of life, and yet there is want of men, desolation of cities, so that the land begins to lose its fruitfulneas through want of cultivation. The reason if, out of softness, love of comfort and of ease, men, even if they live in the state of marriage, will bring up no children, or only one or two, in order to have a good inheritance. Thus the evil becomes even greater, as, if war or siokness takes away the one child, the family diea out ' (Polybius, Bxc. Vatic, cd. Geel., p. 105). Now, considering the widespread dislike of marriage and of children from marriage, the slave population with their number, condition, and influence ; considering, also, the terrible prevalence of unnatural immorality, we may safely conclude that no people in history labored more effectually for its extinction than the Greeks. Originally the Romans had a far higher standard of domestic life than the Greeks. Monogamy prevailed, marriage had a certain sanctity, and the wife was taken into the lifelong communion of joys and sorrows. If what is said to be true, that even for 500 years Rome had not a single instance of divorce, then the Romans in their estimation of wedlock stood above any nation of antiquity. On the virtues of the family their oivil polity was founded. They were noble husbands and fathers before they became conquerors. But, from the second Punic war, a great deterioration ensned. It advanced with the progress of conquest. In the time of Augustus the very mention of ancient Roman family virtues would seem a bitter satire upon the actual corruption. Slavery had wrought its dire work in every relation of the family. The vices of all nations had invaded Rome, and the characteristic Grecian vice reigned supreme. In short when the Roman Empire had reached its height, as the virtues of women were never so rare, so the respect for women had sunk to its lowest point. Among the Persians marriage had been debased by Polygamy. The desire for numerous children was general, and the law, too, enjoined them. To attain this end the intrinsic dignity and worth of women were utterly disregarded. The Persian would have as many concubines as his means allowed, and abhorred nothing so much as voluntary celibacy. A maiden of 18 years who remained unmarried was threatened with the heaviest punishments after death. Their domestio life was full of abominations. Among the Israelites, who possessed the then true religion, woman

as well aa man was recognised as made after the image of God, intended for man's companion, destined to eternal life, and, therefore, needing a moral freedom for the practice of virtue. Iv their language the word expressing woman did not, like the Greek and Roman name, mean a ' bearer of children,' but another self identic in nature, bat varied in sex. She was honored, with the father, as the mother, and hai to instruct her children in the fear of the Lord. In common with man, she was to hear the public reading, and so to learn the spirit of the Bacred doctrine. These great privileges made her social position higher than in any ancient nation except the Germans, But there were great drawbacks also. When the Law was given, polygamy and divorce were already customs, and, while the former was tacitly allowed, the latter was expressly regulated by the Law. Thus, on account of the hardhearted ness of the people, the pure idea of marriage was defaced. In the ages preceding the Advent of Christ and at the time of His ministry, the unlimited abuse of divorce had become the scourge of domestic life, and threatened even the existence of the nation. Of course, there was no place for the higher meaning and rank of voluntary virginity. In all other nations of the East and South The Degradation of Woman was Universal. Only in the far North was there a streak of light, fitful indeed as a Bunbeam in Northern storms. The noble German race were almost alone among barbarians in having but one wife and in being faithful to her. No youth, no beauty, no wealth could make up in their eyes for the loss of virtue in woman. Fashion was powerless there, says Tacitus ('Germania,' 18, 19, 20) to make vice merely ridiculous. These Germans supplied later on the raw material of Christendom. Whence came the great social revolution which reversed the servitude of woman and enabled her to share in equal degree the restoration of man ? From the cave of Bethlehem. When the Creator and Redeemer, coming in man's own likeness, living and dying, teaching and suffering for him, claimed him as His own, and disclosed to him his inheritance, woman recovered her rank too. When man had been discrowned, she had been enslaved ; for the discrowning had been in some sense her special work, and she had been the mother by her own fault of a degraded rase. In virtue of that birth in the cave of Bethlehem, and of that Child who was Man Himself, but Son of woman alone, the Christian woman at once took a rank no longer merely relative and dependent, but absolute and her own, as co-heiress with man in all Christian rights and promises. In th.3 beginning of man's history, the messenger of darkness bad tempted and overcome the first woman, and severed the bond which united her race wiih itd Maker ; many thousand years later, the messetigei of light appeared to that second Woman. Once more the whole lot of man huug upon a creature ; but she did not shrink under trie burden ; rather, 'im.ed with incomparable humility, she bore th« destiny <>t' the r<MJ« entrusted to her up to the very throne of Goi ;aD vie IVraon became her Son. and ahe, by accepting the ra»k of Vigin Mother, restored to her sex, ho long a byword for weakness and utitrusrednesp, far more than the honor it had lost. Eve, the occasion of her husband's disinheritance and her childrens' fall, marks the position h-ld by woiu.ui through all the centuries prior to Christ, which are simply the carrying out of the Fall in its consequences. Mjtv, the Vi gin Mother of the Redeemer, establishes through all generations of her children the absolute rank and place of woman. Iv the society founded by Mary's Son woman takes equal rank with man, as a human being, joint partner with him of the promises made aad the inheritance bequeathed. Man and woman then being first restore-l in themselves, marriage, the primary relation of society, is restored in them. Marriage in its first idea was not a civil contract, the work of man naturally yearning for Bociety, but the institution of God created in view of the Incarnation as futuie in time, but pre-deterinined before all things ; so that thy words npoken by Adam under Divine inspiration when first beholding his wife brought to him by his Creator, had a secret but a certain reference to the act of that Creator in Himself espousing human nature And the seven attributes which belong to its original institution, as stated above, were given to it as an image of the Incarnation, yet future and undisclosed. For the restoration of marriage it was only requisite to unfold the latent Sacrament. Thus the natural society ot man and woman was viewed as the germ of the sacred society of man redeemed ; the natural propagation and education of the race became the nursery for the corporeal increase of the Church. Because it would not profit the offspring to be born unless it were reborn, since in the worcfe of St. Augustine, it is born into punishment uuless it be reborn unto life. The subordination of woman to man is consecrated by the relation which the woman bears to the Church ani the man to Christ ; and so their mutual affection represents the mutual affection of the , Bridegroom and the Bride. The bond of marriage is indissoluble, because the Church is the spouse for ever, who may never be repudiated ; it i& one, because there cannot be two Churches or two Christs ; it is holy, beciuse holiness is the end of the whole union between Christ and his Church. In all these the natural relation becomes supported by supernatural a-sistance, and is the image of a Divine original ; and so all the qualities of marriage as it exists in the law of nature obtain by virtue of the Sacrament their highest perfection. This is that Great Sacrament of Marriage which the Church first eet forth to the world at its age of utmost impotence and incontinence, under Tiberius and Nero, the wife murderers ; which she impressed on all the Divine society in the face of the degenerate heathen and luxurious carnal Jew ; which she guarded against the wild force and untamed passions of the Northern barbarians when they broke in upon the civil polity of the Empire ; which the Sovereign Pontiffs, at the first creation of

modern society, made the public law of Euiope ; which they maintained unbroken and respaoted against reluctant kings, ever rea y to throw off a yoke that bound them to an equality with the weaker sex, and repelled the caprice of paision and the appetite of cbangre. ! ' ' Thus the restoration of the society of man and woman rested on tbu Incarnation, being in all its partß a copy of that great fact. I Marriage in the transition point from man as individual to man as a rao*. The Incarnation put the seal on the individual and on socisty. Christ, acordiug to St. Cyril, came to the marriage feast of Cana, to blt>s the beginning- of human life, and, being the joy and delight of all men, to reverse the former punishment of woman that she should bear children in Borrow. (In Joan., o. 2, I. Tom., iv., 135.) And it was most fitting that He wrought His first miracle at the intercession of the Virgin Mother. But theory is widely different from practice. The (statements of the Church concerning marriage were no dead letter in her sacred records, to gain the admiration of the Btndent or the praise of the philosopher. They were printed on the minds and actions of men ; they formed the tissue of every-day life. She grafted the natural properties of marriage upon a Divine Sacrament, and she declared the marriage of Christians insoluble. Hence she came at once into ' collision ' with the heathen Roman in which the repudiation of the marriage-bond was a most ordinary occurrence, and in which the unity of marriage was broken by the universal license practised by men with slaves and others. The Church had to oppose public opinion, universal custom, degraded nature, and the Btrongest human passions. She had to eliminate, from society a host of abominations, all tending to diminish the fertility of the human race, and to de3troy life in its earlier or later stages. She undertook the gigantic task and Bhe succeeded— the strongest teat of her might and influence as a society, in the face of the utmost possible preponderance of material power, wealth, and authority. She rolled back the tide of pollution, she established the basis of all social life, the unity and inditsolubility of marriage. She took each soul in the secret of its conscience, held before it a Divine Original, won its love for an uncreated beauty, and its imitation of a transcendent example. With the power of a Sacrament Bhe knit together the decayed, the well-nigh pulverised foundations of sooial life, and built them up with the solidity of a rock, able to bear the whole superstruction of the City of God. Three centuries after Tacitus had denounced Christians as the enemies of the human race and despaired of Rome's moral life, St. Augustine tells us : ' A marriage once entered upon in the City of God, where, even from the first union of two human beings, nuptials carry a Sacrament, can in no way be dissolved, save by the death of one.' And again : ' The good of marriage consists, among all nations and all men, in the generation of children, and in the fidelity of chastity ; but as respects the people of God likewise in the Panctity of the (Sacrament, by virtue of which it ia a crime cv. i n for a repudiated woman to marry another whilst her husband lives, though it were done only to have offering ; for this being the only object of marriage, yet even if it uid not ensue, the nuptial bond is not dissolved pave by the death of the spouse.' (St. Au£. 'de bouo Coxiagii, 17 and 32.') At the disruption of the Roman Empire by ths barbarian hordes and the destruction of most of its civilisation, The Church Stood Unbroken amid the Ruins. All things fluctuated save her Divine hierarchy, her teaching, and her Sacraments. After a varied and terrible struggle, whose details no one can trace, she brought the long-haired Kings to wear Christian Crowns and to be anointed witLin Cathedrals ; and, in spite of their savage instincts and passions, she caused them to Btoop to the gentle Sacrament of Marriage, and to acknowledge the nuptial bond as one, holy, and indissoluble. Throughout Spain, France, England, Germany, ia the halls of the Kings and in the cottage of their serfs, one wife was recognised, in rank her husband's equal, whose place during her life none could take Then for a period of 500 years these new monarchies formed a Btable alliance with the Church older than themselves, frequently they exerted their utmost power aud the alliance of their sovereignty with the Church, in order, if it might be, to corrupt the judgment of their Father, the Pope, in the affairs of their domestic life reserved to his coguisance. One slighted Queen appeals from her husband to the universal justice of Rome for restitution of her conjugal rights ; another, wrongfully divorced, fears to be supplanted by a younger and fair rival ; a third has to defend the sterility of her marriage against a husband greedy for heirs ; in all these, and similar cases, never did the Popas consent to sacrifice the indissoluble bond of marriage for fear or for reward. It stands recorded to their eternal honor that they suffered a powerful kingdom, and still more powerful race destined tj dominion, to break away f rooa their obedience, rather than surread. r tue right of one deserted wife ; for in her right lay the right of all wivea and th« sanctity of all marriage. And now we live in a piriol of entirely different tendencies. Not Kings only, not the rich an i the nobl- , bat society as such is striving to emancipate itself from any law but one nelf -imposed— a law, not of Christ, but of its own, with parts gathered from paganism, and parts retained from Christianity, the end of which, as it conceives, would be social ease and com fore material wealth, and worldly prosperity. Humanity, with the resources bestowed upon it by centuries ot Christian faith aud practice, rises up aj/aiaat anything above ittself. It calls la>v the expression of the general will, not tfte command of One rtveranced as superior, n r t the choice of One loved as good. Bdfore this spirit of self-will assuming the guise of liberty, and swe»ping over modern nations aa the flame over the prairie?, the Cnurch. maintains still the self-aann law of marriage, as the last defence of the weak against the strong, the last rampart of the family a->d ot society against their invaders. When that mighty and couiin-ndiug genius, that Cteaar of modern

times, the pymbol and embodiment of his age, Napoleon, culled upon Pope Pius 71 1. to annul the marriage of his brother, Jerome Bonaparte, with Mi«R Pat'erfon, &* beneath his Boa ing ambition, the Sovereign Pontiff, after thorough examination of the oircum-tances, declared that it was impossible for him to annul it ; thus proclaiming again, in the noblest manner, that no ne<luction ttnd no threat could induce him to dissolve a legitimate marriage, though the mightiest ruler on t arth w:vf> the postulant, and a Protestant of humble degree the wi'e assailed. (See letter of Pius VII. to Napoleon, June 27, 1805.) l Now to complete the demonstration by contrast. Look ar r u d )and outside of the one Church, you will find no civilised naium, no uncivilised tribe of man, in possession of The Comple'e Christian Marriage, in its unity, sanctity, and indissolubilify. The Turk, tho Hindoo the Chinese, are polygamists. Their domestic life inspires one with horror. 'I he Jew, wherever the law of the land permits it, as far as bis own law is concerned, is a divorcer. JSo much fur the civilise i non-Christian mm. Among 1 the uncivilised tscoh the old heathen abominations prevail. Nay, take nations which boast of being in the van of civilisation, and leading the march of progress in science and art, who-e pride is ssl f -govern men t, liberty, but which have rejected the gentle rule of the Church. We see them all incapable of maintaining the perfect Christian marriage, its unity, sanctity, and indissolubility. Already three centuries ago the very patriarchs of the revolt met in council in order to allow a princely adherent, who dutifully laid before them the confession of his incontinence, the privilege of a eecond wife. And now divorce prevails in a frightful degree, and with appalling increase in Protestant nations. Even the Greek and Russian communions allow it ; so that there is no marriage sacred and indissoluble upon earth save where, to use again St. Augustine's words, 1 from the first union of two human beings nuptials carry a Sacrament, in the City, among the people of our God.' As the ancient civilisation was powerless to prevent unspeakable abominations, so the modern — forthwith when it leaves the sanctuary of the Church — becomes unable to sustain the idea and practice of Christian marriage ; and only the one, the holy, the perpetual Spouse of Christ can uphold the nuptial bond of which she bears the mystery in herself. To sum up, the Church has restored the position of woman in four great points : (1) As a human creature she has taken a rank by man's side unknown to the Greek, to the Persian, the Roman, the co-heiress of all his hopes, of all the Divine promises. (2) As a wife and companion of man, her subordination has been preserved, but an impress of a glorious likeness, full at once of exaltation and tenderness, has been set upon it. (3) As the mother of the family, the creatrix of that home so dear to man, which neither Athens in her soience, nor Rome in her power, possessed. (1) As the nurse and educator of her race and man's, in that primary and precious education upon which the future growth and perfection of man depends. Marriage is the germ of human society ; tho family, tribe, nation are but expansions of it in one line; the village, the town, the city, the league, the empire are but aggregations of it. It is the spring of man's social growth, the point at which individuals combine to make the race. Accordingly, a false idea of it oorrupts the whole social structure. Never was there a people great or good in which the marriage-bond was defective. In the work of Christian marriage the Creator and Redeemer was revealed together ; the same who established it in innocence restored it after the long night of the Fall as part of His organism for the renewal of all things. Therefore, when a nation repudiates the indissolubility of marriage, it repudiates the basis of human society as given to man before the Fall, the basis of human society as restored by God when He becama man. So far as it can, it removes the foundation-stone of Christian civilisation, and resumes the errors and immorality of the heathen as to the two sexes. The only security against this is the unerring voice of God's Church repeating from age to age : ' What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.' The Social Plague of Divorce calls for a radical cure ; and the remedy can be found only in the abolition of our mischievous 'legislation regarding divorce, and in an honest application of the teachings of the Gospel. If persons contemplating marriage were persuaded that once united, they were legally debarred from entering into second wedlock, they would be more circumspect before marriage in the choice of a life partner, and would he more patient afterwards in bearing the yoke and in tolerating each other's infirmities. Besides leading to ill-assorted and hasty marriages, divorce stimulates a discontented and unprincipled husband or wife to lawlessness, quarrels, and even adultery, well aware that the very crime will afford a pretext and legal grounds for a separation. It raises fierce litigations between the parties about the custody of their offspring. It deprives the children of the protecting arm of a father, or the gentle care of a mother, and too frequently consigns them to the cold charity of the world ; for lack of conjugal affection usually accompanies lack of parental love. In short, it fills the household with blight and desolation, which no wealth or luxury can repair. Nor is the Catholic Church, in proclaiming the absolute indisBolubility of marriage, open to the charge of cruelty. She merely enforces the observance of the law of her Divine Founder, and His law, however rigorous, is mercy compared to the cruel consequences of easy divorce. It is spurious philanthropy and false philosophy for legislators, in their insane endeavor to improve on Divine teaching, to lose Bight of the interest of the race and of society while they devise means to alleviate the hardships of individual cases. Cases of married infelicity are indeed plentiful, but it is better to legislate for the good of the community, than to degrade the community to the level of the individual. Our duty, then, in common with all Christian believers and

true friends of civilisation, i« to deplore the havoc wrought by divorce lawn of this and other couu tries— laws which are fast tokening the fouudation of foci* ty. Our duty is to inculcate that such .livohmr are powerless in conscience. Our duty is to teach Catho lea to enter into marrinse through worthy and holy motives and with the b.esding-s of religion, tspeoially with the blessing of theNupunl Mass Then, far from wishing for means of £Ln* d'atn Unl ° D> 7 W retrr6t that {t Can be Solved e V ?n by In concision Dearly Beloved Bre.hren, remember that all Cb.nsti.in society , the wbolo magnificent fabric of Christian civilisaJ'^; 9^'™ th « Christian family, the Christian home. Kemember that tho basis of the Christian home is Christian marriage which • »nr L,M W .a^.i to the dimity of a sacrament. £2>ml that horn Wo nottldH ,be character of men more than an/SEr-R>'«..«-y. Reuvmb.r truo n li tf i (luS) pnre peaCe f ul and Bwee t hom ehfe cau o* v „ hffrow.h <-f all the virtue which haHow and adorn life hke flavors ,„ pe nul ►pun*, whereas, if the bud of childhood » • bl V h ted ,n rim ,ts ea.lW, sar.c.u.ry, tL«n farewell the hopTof fragrant blop-oms and r.pe truit in alcer life. Remember, in fine that ev-ry Chris ian home ought to be a sanctuary abeauK ye*r%™ :ZfwT " lhi9 3rd ** of^r Q ary,i n the »£ FRANCIS, Archbishop of Wellington.