The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, October 1, 1908. DIVORCE AND MORALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 438, 1 October 1908, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, October 1, 1908. DIVORCE AND MORALS.

The full text has now been issued of the Encyclical Letter in which the bishops of the Anglican Church assembled from all parts of the world, at the Lambeth Conference, embody the result ot their deliberations (says the London correspondent of the New Zealand Herald). The bulky document, of xo,ooo words, touches upon a large variety of subjects of supreme interest to the Church, and to the entire religious public. The point of most interest for the moment, however, is the action which the bishops have taken regarding the present state of the marriage law. The Encyclical Letter speaks solemnly of the growing disregard of the marriage tie, and “ calls for the active determined co-operation of all rightthinking and clean-living men and women in all ranks of life, in defence of the family life and the social order which rests upon the sanctity of the marriage tie.' ’ A

special appeal is made to ‘ ‘ all good women ” to use their influence to remedy “the terrible evils which have grown up from the creation of facilities for divorce.” The Conference reaffirms the resolution of xBBB, that in no circumstances ought the guilty party in the case for a divorce to be regarded, during the lifetime of the innocent party, as “a fit recipient of the blessing of the Church on marriage.” With regard to the position of the innocent party in divorce, there was considerable difference of opinion. Eventually the following resolution was passed; “When an innocent person has, by means of a court of law, divorced a spouse, and desires to enter into another contract of marriage, it is undesirable that such a contract should receive the blessing of the Church.” This was carried by the narrow majority of 87 votes to 84. On the subject of religion and education, it is, in the jdgument of the Conference, the duty of Christians “to make it clear to the world that purely secular systems of education are educationally, as well as morally, unsound. And no teaching can be regarded as adequately religious which limits itself to historical information and moral culture.” Members of the Church are urged practically to recognise the moral responsibility involved in their investments. This moral responsibility extends to : —(1) The character and general social effect on any business or enterprise in which their money is invested ; (2)* the treatment of the persons employed in the business or enterprise ; (,3) the due observance of requirements of the law relating thereto ; (4) the payment of a just wage to those who are employed therein. As to faith and modern thought, the encyclical says : —“ We reaffirm the essential place of the historic facts stated by the creeds in the structure of our faith. Many in our days have rashly denied the importance of these facts, but the ideas, which these facts have in part generated, and have always expressed, cannot be dissociated from them. Without the historic creeds, the idea would evaporate into unsubstantial vagueness, and Christianity would be in danger of degenerating into a nerveless altruism,” The Conference warns members of the Anglican communion against contracting marriages with Roman Catholics under the conditions imposed by the modern Roman canon law.