Christian could consent " to enter on the marriage covenant with the assurance of that fatal and continuing dissidence? How many sad travesties of marriage would never have taken place, how long a series of lamentable scandals would have been avoided, if this fundamental factor of "consent" had been determined on Christian principles!
Similarly, when we pass from the natural relationship pure and simple, and consider the social relationship, which is the subject of legal regulation, is it not clear that the indirect influence of Christianity ought to be powerful and beneficent. In so far as restrictions of choice are determined by considerations of social well-being they can command the approbation of Christianity, which insists on the duty of self-suppression in the general interest.
The difficult questions which are now being raised by the students of social science will best be answered in an atmosphere of unselfishness. Ought marriage to be permitted be-
