3. Desertion, from the nature of the offence, is a dissolution of the marriage bond. Why does death dissolve a marriage ? It is because it is a final separation. So u desertion. Incompatibility of temper, cruelty, disease, crime, insanity, etc., which human laws often make grounds of divorce, are not inconsistent with the marriage relation. A woman may have a disagreeable, a cruel, or a wicked husband, but a man in his grave, or one who refuses to recognize her as his wife, cannot be her husband.
It is said, indeed, that this doctrine makes marriage depend on the option of the parties. Either may desert the other ; and then the marriage is dissolved. The same objection was made to our Lord's doctrine that adultery destroys the marriage bond. It was said that if this be so, either party might dissolve the marriage, by committing that crime. As the objections are the same, the answer is the same. As adultery is a crime, so is desertion ; and both should be punished. The question is not what these crimes deserve, but what are their legitimate effects, according to the Scriptures, on the marriage relation.
That desertion is a legitimate ground of divorce, was therefore, as before mentioned, the doctrine held by the Reformers, Luther, Calvin, and Zwingle, and almost without exception by all the Protestant churches.1
Doctrine of the Church of Home.
Marriage is thus defined in the Roman Catechism : " Matrimo- nium est viri, et mulieris maritalis conjunctio inter legitimas personas, individuam vitae consuetudinem retinens." The clause "inter legitimas personas," is explained by saying, " Qui a nup- tiarum conjunctione legibus omnino exclusi sunt, ii matrimonium mire non possunt ; neque, si meant, ratum est, exempli enim gra- tia : qui intra quartum gradum propinquitate conjuncti sunt, puer- que ante decimum quartum annum, aut puella ante duodecimum, quae aetas legibus constituta est, ad matrimonii justa foedera in- eunda apti esse non possunt." The clause, "Individuam vitaa consuetudinem retinens," it is said, " indissolubilis vinculi naturam declarat quo vir, et uxor colligantur." 2
Marriage is to be contemplated under two aspects. It is an institution founded in nature, and therefore exists wherever men
i See the elaborate article on " Ehe " in Herzog's Encyklopddie, and President Woolsey's recent Essay on Divorce, New York, 1869, chap. rv. President Woolsey does not, for him- self, understand 1 Corinthians vii. 15, to teach that desertion justifies divorce.
2 Catechismus, ex Decreto Concilii Tridentini, ad Parochos, Pii V. Pont. Max. Jussu editus, n. viii. quast. 3; Streitwolf, vol. i. p. 448.
398 PART in. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
exist. It is a lawful institution among the heathen as well as among Christians. But as it is an ordinance of God ii Las a character among those who know the true God and thus regard it, far higher than it has for those who are the worshippers of false gods. And, therefore, marriage, under the old dispensation, had a much higher character than it had among the heathen. Never- theless, among Christians marriage is something far more sacred than it was under the Mosaic economy. Christ had raised it to the dignity of a sacrament.1
Marriage a Sacrament,
The word sacrament is one of vague and various meaning. Sometimes it means that which is sacred or consecrated ; some- times that which has, or is intended to have a sacred meaning ; i. e., an external sign of some religious truth or grace ; sometimes a divinely appointed external rite instituted to be a means of grace; and sometimes a divinely appointed external sign that contains and conveys the grace which it signifies. It is in this last sense that the word is used by Romanists ; and it is in this sense they teach that marriage is a sacrament. The principal Scriptural authority for this doctrine they find in Ephesians v. 32, where, as they understand the passage, the words to fxvo-Trjpiov tovto fxeya eortv, rendered in the Vulgate, " Sacramentum hoc magnum est," are spoken of marriage. According to this version and interpretation, the Apostle does indeed directly assert that marriage is a mystery. But (1.) The words do not refer to marriage, but to the mystical union between Christ and his people as appears from the Apostle's own explanation in the following clause : "I speak concerning Christ and the Church.,, The two subjects, the union of husband and wife and the union between Christ and his people, had been so combined and interwoven in the preceding verses, that it would have been difficult to determine to which the words, " This is a great mystery," were intended to refer, had not the Apostle himself told us. But (2.) Even if the Apostle does say that the marriage union is a great mystery, which in one sense it clearly is, that would not prove that it is a sacrament. The word " mystery," as used in the Bible, means something hidden or unknown ; something which can be known only by divine revelation. Thus the Gospel itself is repeatedly said to be a mystery (Eph. iii. 3-9) ; the future conversion of the Jews is said to be a mystery (Rom. xi. 25) ; the incarnation is
1 Catechismus Romanus, n. viii. quaest 14, 16 ; Streitwolf , vol. i. pp. 454-457.