exaltation of individuality which is implied in the religion of the Incarnation. Christianity brought into play the conscience of the individual, and that conscience must determine consent in Christian marriage. While thus marriage has been exalted at the start it is certainly the case that the whole conception of what the marriage union ought to be has been magnified by the Gospel.
When St. Chrysostom calls the Christian's house a "little church" he does but utter an inevitable reflection of Christian husbands and wives. It needed no ecclesiastical prohibitions to make clear the unfitness of marriage between persons who were not, in the deepest concerns and interests of life, at agreement. How could parental responsibility, raised indefinitely by the conviction that Christian children are "holy to the Lord," be happily fulfilled in a divided household, where the convictions underlying duty were not shared by both parents, but by one of them were denied and disregarded? What devout
