bands towards wives, and of wives towards husbands, as a natural consequence, were little understood. To cor- rect this state of things, our Lord sets up a high and holy standard of principles. He refers to the original in- stitution of marriage at the creation, as the union of one man and one woman. He quotes and endorses the solemn words used at the marriage of Adam and Eve, as words of perpetual significance, " a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh." He adds a solemn comment to these words — " What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." And finally, in reply to the inquiry of His disciples, he declares that divorce followed by re-marriage, except for the cause of unfaithfulness, is a breach of the seventh commandment.-'' frivolous causes, would be almost incredible, if we had not the evi- dence of their own Rabbinical writings on the subject. A full ac- count of the matter will be found in Lightfoot's Horas Hebraicse on St. Matthew v. 31. One passage quoted by him will be sufficient to give the reader an idea of Jewish customs about divorce : " The school of Hilleth saith, If the wife cooks her husband's food ill by over-salting it, or over-roasting it, she is to be put away."
* I am aware that the opinions I have expressed at the close of this paragraph are contrary to that of some learned divines. I can only say that I have arrived at them deliberately, after calm investi- gation of the parallel passage in Matt, xix. 9, and of the words of our Lord in Matt. v. 32. I decidedly believe that the re-marriage forbidden by Christ, is re-marriage after a divorce for trivial and friv- olous causes, and that His words do not apply to re-marriage after divorce on account of unfaithfulness. Re-marriage after divorce for frivolous causes is clearly adultery, for one simple reason — the di- vorce never ought to have taken place, and the divorced party is still a married person in the sight of God.— Re-marriage after divorce for unfaithfulness, by the same process of reasoning, is not adultery. "Unfaithfulness dissolves the marriage tie altogether, and places the husband and wife once more in the position of unmarried people, or of a widower or widow.