The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-12-26
Is Marriage Absolutely IndissOluble.


4 and regulations, or is it a divine insti-
I tuition endowed with authority to dis
/ eliminate and judge?
Third-There is the question Of eX-
I pediency of public policy-and this is
/ the real question in the Episcopal
/ church.
/ Comparatively few eminent men in the
church desire to pass the stricter canon,
! because they refuse TO recognize the
exception is st. Matthew'S gospel or
/ because they believe that the remar-
+ riage of an innocent person, divorced
7 fOI the cause of infidelity, is explicitly
condemned by the Bible OF the chuEch.
They hold, however, that the evils OF
our time demand an exceptional treat
ment that men and women are en-
Outraged to dishonest trihing with the
sacredness of marriage and to collision
In dissOlving it by the existence of a
law recognizing an exception, and that
therefore, the church must protect her
self by refusing to sOlemniZe the mar
rage Of any divorced person, even
though she knows that it viii work
great hardship and even injustice in
individual cases.
She viii save herself from cruelty,
however, by making the admission to
confirmation and communion of per
sons so remarked as easy as possible.
Naturally there is a division of opin-
ion on This point among those who
agree on the preceding questions. Many
men hold that eXpediency is a danger
GUS basis for ethical legislation, that
the Episcopal church is free to pass
such legislation only because she knows
that other bodies Of Christians will
take care Of people whom she refuses
to help, and that in treating the innO-
cent and the guilty without difference
or discrimination she seems to be eVad-
ing responsibility for the sake of peace.
Heretofore, these men say, the Epis-
cOpai church has occupied a simple and
defensible position, that rested on the
literal statement of Holy Scrip ture, and
that placed Ter in touch with the whole
Protestant world, and gave her an hon
Orable leadership with regard to this
matter Of divorce.
They believe, finally, that the repeal
of the canon, admitting the one eXcep-
tion and the substitution of a hard and
fast rule without any exception, would
be rightly construed as % either a
theological assertion by the Episcopal
church of the absolute indissOlubility
of marriage and the consequent invaI-
idity of all unions contracted by per-
sons divorced for any cause, and there
fore the ilegitimating of their children,
VI Csc ~ d CUl1AEoS4un that dS
I church she is not able to act as a
mother to all her children, the sick and
the well alike, but must let the limo
/ cent suffer with the guilty-sin being
! imputed where the Lord did not call
it SHIN order that appearances may
| be preserved and the clergy relieved of
difficulties.
Doubtless the moral or social prob
I lens of an age like ours are grave and
/ perpleXing. and there is more tempta-
I ton to choose what seems to be the
! easier course.
Yet the law Of Christ has ever been
| the law of mercy and we cannot be-
lieve that any body Of Christian men
| viii go far wrong in giving the unfor-
tunate and the erring, where the text
/ OF Scripture permits It. the benefit Of
I the doubt
/ Aye, even though some guilty ones
| escape punishment here those who are
/ innocent shall be protected by their
! mother. the church, who says, Bear
! We one another's burdens, and so full
| ill the law Of Christ"
THOMAS F. GAILOR,
Bishop of Tennessee.