The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-03-27
DIVORCE LAWS.
The Rev. William Chalmers
Tells Christ's Teaching
On the Subject.
ADULTERY ONLY CAUSE
Emphasis Is Placed on Re-
marriage-State Statutes
Reason Fec Increase.

W
At the Parmly Memorial Baptist
Church. last evening. the Rev. William
E. Chalmers preached a sermon on the
divorce question. He took for his text
Matthew, 1876. Wherefore they are no
more twain but one flesh. What there
fore God hath Joined to gether let not
man put ~asunder.' He said
'A-nglo-Saxons nave maintained the
home in peculiarly sacred affection, per-
haps taught by our Teutonic ancestry;
and that this affection is wisely placed
history ~abundantly proves, for the de-
struction of the family is the certain de-
struction of the State. Gibbon has shown
us This in the case of Rome: Among the
Romans divorces became common in the
later days of the Republic. Then the
~foodgates of immortality were opened and
with divorce easy came rushing in cor
ruption of morals among both sexes and
in every walk of life. Passion, interest
or caprice suggested daily motives for the
dissolution of marriage: a word, a sign,
a message, a letter, the mandate OF a
freedman declared the separation; the
| most tender of human connections was
degraded to a transient society of profit
or pleasure. Each succeeding generation
| witnessed corruption more general. moral
degradation more profound; men ana
women were no longer ashamed of hcen-
| tiousness until a nation that became
mighty because built on a pure family
| life fell when it's cornerstone crumbled
to r~ottenness.'
Christ honored the home and showed
his affection for it. He glorifed mar
riage for all time by His presence at the
wedding in Cana of Galilee and by choos-
! ing that occasion for the performance of
His first miracle, and that a significant
one, turning water into wine. And when
| the Pharisees introduced the question of
divorce in a public discussion, He brush
ed aside their petty quibblings to declare
a great social truth, making a notable
| exception to the general line of His teach
ing.
..He teaches in Mt, 1873, there is but
| one permissible ground of divorce, viz,
| adultery. He who puts away his wife
| for any other cause is responsible for her
endangered position and guilty OF her ad-
ultery. He who puts away his wife Tor
| any cause other han adultery and mar
| ries another is guilty of adultery. He
| who marries a woman put away by her
husband is also guilty of adultery.
"It is to be noted, in Christ's teaching,
| that He places the emphasis on the re-
marriage. lIe danger of the put-away
woman is that she may be tempted to
| contract another marriage while her hus-
| band is living. The man who marries
| another after putting away his wife for
| a less serious cause than adultery COM
| mits adultery. The man who marries a
put-away woman commits adultery
| Christ does not forbid the remarriage of
the innocent party to a true divorce.
present day society is in great danger
from its disregard of Christ's law of di-
/ vorce. Statistics show an alarming IN
crease in the number of divorces, both
in Europe and America. According to the
| latest figures furnished by the Commits
sioner of Labor, during the twenty years
preceding 1856, there were s2S, ZIG divorces
granted in the United States. While the
population increased 60%, divorces in
creased about 5000. In the decade 1SlO-So
population increased 800 and divorces
70%6.
zone reason for this appalling increase
is the laxity of our divorce legislators.
One State, South Carolina, permits no di-
yorce. and another, New York, allows but
one cause, adultery. Our own State has
two, and every other more than one. New
Hampshire. for instance, has fourteen. In
the whole country there are forty-two
causes permitted.
LAX as are the laws their adj
ministration is even more lax. In
many State a mail notice to the adj
dress given by the plaintiff is the
only attempt to inform the defen-
dant of the suit. In other States, v
less effort is made for notice of the suit is
confined to the columns of the local paper.
Many times, according to Mary A. Liver
more, the defendant finds the suit decided
before there has been anyintimation OF an
intention. In every State, except two,
extreme cruelty is a cause of divorce. Ii
the 1871 cases decided on the ground OF
extreme cruelty the Commissioner OF La
Dor cites the Observation-Disclosures does
not wash himself, thereby infiicting men
tai anguish Husband accuses wife's sis
ter of stealing After twenty-sevef
years of married life a man said to MS
wife. ssYou are old and worn out. | dom
want you any more" and on the extreme
cruelty" of the remark the obliging courl
grants divorce to the woman One hus.
band smoked giving plaintiff headache a
man finding his wife sick in bed declare;
he is going to commit suicide, and in hel
presence SYSTEMATICALLY drinks a bottle oi
paregoric. She obtains a divorce on tn
ground of "extreme cruelty"
1.-THE modern novel is too often arrayet
against the home, and this attack is mos
insidlous and deadly. One OF our bes
konwn and ablest novelists has openly de-
clared that, Provided women will con
tinue to undertake the duties of mother
hood, | for one am supremacy unpreju
diced as to whether they become wives .
not, So called good society is more All
more receiving Divorces. Only a few
years ago, at a wedding of two divorced
persons in a fashionable New Yorl
church, a great number, according T.
press reports, of the wealthiest familie
az the city were represented not only D.
cost1v presents but were in attendance.
w cannot close our eyes to the grea
wrong that is being done. In twent
wears 67o,5S$ children have been deprive
Of one parent and had an undeserve
stain cast upon their names. Accordin
to prof. Sumner of Yale, a large percent
age of children in the reformatories ar
the offspring Of parents later divorced.