point which, though important, is but a fragment of the great religious question at issue, namely, to the mere translation of a single verse of the marriage code contained in the 18th chapter of Leviticus. If that verse be translated one way, the unlawfulness of the marriages in question would not be doubted; if it be translated in another way, then, at the most, a doubt only is created; and my argument throughout, in the speech referred to by Dr. M'Caul, was, that if but a doubt existed, the argument for abiding by the existing civil law, sanctioned as it is by the Church of Christ having at all times held the marriage in question to be contrary to "God's law," must prevail. That point of my argument I shall proceed to fortify in this letter. I trust Dr. M'Caul will feel that I am offering no discourtesy to him in taking this course. I had no previous intimation of his intention to address a letter to me before its publication; and I may fairly assume, therefore, that it is a form adopted by him as convenient for a general reply to the notice taken by others, much more than by myself, of his first able pamphlet.
Let me, however, as a justification of my remark with reference to the evil tendency of controversy, quote, and leave to the consideration of Dr. M'Caul in his calmer moments, the following passages of his letter to me. After endeavouring to point out some discrepancies of view in the various opponents of a change of the law, as regards the interpretation
