The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-14
DIVORCE THE WASTING
 SICKNESS OF OUR LIFE
MASS MEETING IN NEW FORK
 DISCUSSES QUESTION.
Rev. pr. Greer Declares Matter Calls for Immediate and Heroic Treatment --CunOn Adopted by Episcopal Church Not Yet Strong Enough-Death Alone should End the Marriage Relation Many Homes Desolated.

should End the Marriage Relation
 Many Homes Desolated.
 New York. Nov. 1S.-''M Marriage and divorce" was. discussed this afternoon at mass meeting" in Saint Agnes chapel, in West sgd street. The Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix presided. pr. Manning, vicar of St. Agnes chapel, said that the meeting was not to De considered as a protest against the action of the recent general convention of the Episco- pac church in Boston when the canon of divorce was so amended as to make re-marriage by a clergyman of the church more difficult. He said the new canon, while not all that he and many of his brother cler- gymen had wanted, was nevertheless a step in advance and in the right direc- tion.
 It is the strongest action this church has ever taken, he said, ''and we hope soon to see the church go further and declare against the re-marriage of any man or woman who has either wife or husband living.
 The. Rev. pr. David H. Greer, bishop coadjutor of the diocese of New York, in an address said:
 This widespread divorce evil is the wasting sickness in our national life calling for immediate and heroic treat inent It is the growing and spreading cancer spot in the nations body whose only remedy is the knife. You may not temporize with it, 1t must be cut out by the roots"
 Dr- Greer said the only remedy will be for the church to insist that. once entered upon, the marriage relation may bc dissolved for one cause only death. There might be separation for other causes, but the church should sanction no separation which would make reconciliation impossible.
 That Is the ideal we must hold be- fore the American people,, he contin- ued, and strongly and consistently in- sist upon. This may not cure this aw- fui sore but It will do much toward that end. This is the Ideal and 1t is to ar ideal that the human heart ever leaps. When it comes to moral mat ters there IS nothing to which men so quickly respond as a great and high ideal.
 Francis A, Lewis of Philadelphia, who was one of the delegates in the general convention who fought against any recognition of divorced persons by the church, saiG that in the years 1869 to 1901 there had been 69 divorces in the Dominion of Canada and in the United States 700000. That meant, he said, that the homes of not less than 1, 100000 persons had been desolated in this country and that as many children had been robbed of their right to a real home. He wanted the states to make long residence necessary before di- yorce proceedings could be instituted and the passing of a law making it compulsory for the court to wait year after hearing the evidence before grant, ing a decree.
 Bishop Frederick Courtney, rector of St. James church, said that it might be possible after long years for the sev- eral states to agree upon more uniform laws of divorce, but in the meantime it was the clear duty of the church to hold up a high ideal. It was essential to first stir the church to dissatisfac- tion with the present state of affairs. dissatisfaction being the first element of real progress. He said existing con ditions of things lis simply irtoIer- able.