Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1907-10-09
Sermon on The Prohibited Degrees
REV. F. j. MURDOCH. D. D.
RECTOR OF ST. LUKEs CHURCH, SALISBURY, N. {.

RECTOR OF ST. LUKEs CHURCH, SALISBURY, N. {.
LEWTlCUS 1876.
None Of you shall approach to any that are near of kin to hdm--ARv
A law has been passed quite recently in Great
Britain perm1ttlng~a man to marry his deceased wife's
sister. Such a marriage has never before been legal in
that kingdom. 1t is understood that this law does not
interfere with the freedom of the Church and that it's
ministers are under no obligation to marry such parties
nor are they required to administer the sacraments to
them. The State is to do as it pleases and the Church
as it p1eases in the matter. Yet the Archbishops and
the Bishops in the House of Lords vehemently opposed
the passage of the law and voted unanimously agalnstvlt.
They denounced such marriages as wicked and main
tanned that the State had no more right to license such
wickedness than to license any other wickedness such as
stealing or perjury.
This conduct of this Bishops has called out. an I'M
mense amount of newspaper comment in our country and
in our State. Some of it of course has been fair and
reasonable. But some has exhibited dense ignorance
and would lead one to suppose that the authors had
never looked into the Bible; and besides that have been
wanting in historical knowledge, Christian charity and
onmon sense. The general principle asserted by these
writers is that there is no reason to prevent man from
marrying any one he chooses who is not blood kin to him..
To this I reply that both the law of nature and the
will of God prohibit some marriages when the parties
are related only by marriage. That is certain degrees
not only of consanguinity but of affinity are by Gods
law bars to a marriage, and a marriage made in defiance
of them is none in His sight.
The laws of Moses are of three kinds, civil, ceremo-
NAL and moral. 1t is agreed among all Christians that
the civil and ceremonial laws do not bind Christians but
the moral laws do.
Among the civil laws which have no binding force
on us, was the law, that the punishment of him who stole
a sheep, was, if the identical sheep was restored, to
give also another of equal value; but if he stole and sold
a live sheep he was to restore four fold. The
man who stole and sold a live OK was to restore five fold.
The man and the woman who married in defiance of
some of the prohibitions were to be put to death, in an
other case they were to be burnt with fire. We are
under no obligation to inaict these punishn1ents but we
substitute for them those provided by the law of the land.
Among ceremonies that have passed away are those re-
curing the observance of the feasts of the new moon,
and of abstaining from certain foods and drinks. But
the moral laws ''thou shalt not kill - 'thou shalt not
steal" and all others never lose their binding force.
It is sometimes difficult to discern the moral laws
from the others but there are three principal tests. If
disobedlence to the law is anywhere in the Old Tesla
,nent denounced as wickedness or as an abomination,
then it is a moral law. If the same disobedience is de-
nounced in the New Testament then it was moral law.
If the heather people are denounced for not observing it
then it is a moral law, and such a moral law as might
have been known by the light of nature.
The prohibitions in this 18th chapter of Leviticus
stand all three of these tests. In this part of that book
each chapter begins with the words ''And Jehovah spake
unto Moses saying" The chapter is devoted to a single
subject and the whole of it either is or is not moral law.
This 18th chapter sets out by saying: 'After the doings
of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt ye shall
do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan
whittier I bring you, ye shall not do" After all the
specific prohibitions, it adds. ''Defle not yourselves in
any of these things: for in all these the nations are de-
filed which 1 cast out from before you,' and For who
soever shall do any of these denominations even the souls
that do them shall be cut off from among their people,
and that it is for doing these things that the Gland
vomiteth out her Inhabitants" Here the prohibitions
of this chapter stand two of theetests. They are called
aboninations and one of such marriages is also called
wickedness or enormity; and the heather are blamed
for them. In the New Testament one OF the things pro-
hibited in this chapter is charged to Herod by John the
Baptist and for continuing to charge it he lost his life.
ut is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife"
And another thing was prohibited, "a mans marrying his
step-nother is denounced by St. Paul as ''fornication
and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles.'
This whole chapter then is moral law and of eternal OBJ
legation. First then no one thing prohibited in it is
more lawful by Gods law than another. They a11stand
or fall together. If It is now unlawful for a man to
marry his own mother it is equally unlawful for him to
marry his aunt or his deceased brothers wife. All
three are expressly prohibited in this chapter.
The peculiar form of words in which the various
conjunctions of a man and a woman is here prohibited,
is used to show that such conjunctions are abominable, are
incest, whether they are made under the form of mar
rage or not.
First there is the general law: "None of you shall ap-
proach to any that are near kin to him" Then there are
thirteen examples given Of such nearness of kin. Of
thirteen six prohibit marriage with blood relations. A
man shall not marry 1 his mother, 2 his sisters his half
sister, 4 his granddaughter, S his fathers sister, 6 his