ELASTIC MORAL LAWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 June 1918, Page 3

ELASTIC MORAL LAWS.

The Bishop of Birmingham, is of opinion that we should revert to the old betrothal ceremony in order to give a much-needed formality to our marriage preliminaries (says a writer in the “San Francisco Argonaut”)• The ordeal of a ceremony would not be i lightly encountered if there were no serious intention to follow it up, so to speak. A certain amount of stigma would attach to young people who figured too frequently in such ceremonials says every Tuesday and Friday. Another ecclesiastical reformer was Bishop Wclldon, who thought that marriage to a German or Austrian ought to be sufficient grounds for divorce. Then Sir Arthur Conan Doyle joined in the fray. He said if there 'were 200,000 graves in France it was necessary to have 200,000 cradles at home and something appropriate to put in them Divorce, said Sir Arthur ought to be more simple. There ought to bo some way other than murder by which the mlsmatcd could remedy their wrongs. It is strange to note how clastic the moral law becomes at tho hands of churchmen when they are faced with an emergency. They discover that they have completely misunderstood the moral law, and we may hope that this ,may lead to a wholesome humility in days to come.