How was it at the time of the Savior? The teaching of the synagogue was, that "whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement." When it entered a man's mind to get rid of his wife, all he needed to do was to write upon a piece of parchment: "I divorce myself from my wife," have it signed by two or three witnesses, and the wife had to go; or if it occurred to a woman to sever herself from her husband, she demanded a writing of divorcement from him, and if he refused, life became miserable, or she would simply run away, as Herodias did from her husband, Philip, and married her husband's brother, Herod Antipas. And these occurrences were not done with blushing reserve, those guilty of it boasted of it. Beloved, are we not rapidly falling upon such times? The miserable revelations that come from our courts are veritable cesspools reeking with stench and bestial filth. As one eminent jurist has expressed it: "Broken marriages are as common as broken window-panes." Divorce, what is it practically, in effect, but enabling men and women to live in successive polygamy? Now, over against this and all like influences and evils that would break down the honor of marriage, our Lord clearly and emphatically laid down God's Law. Here it is: "They are no more twain, but one flesh." "What, therefore, God has joined together, let not man put asunder," and again, "Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery, and whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth adultery." These words are as clear as language can be. Only one exception does Christ give to the rule, Matt. 5, 32: "Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication." Fornication means unfaithfulness to each other in the marriage relation. Illicit intercourse with another person, that is given as the exception, as a just cause for severance. As for other causes, the Bible recognizes not one. And even in cases of fornication it does not _demand_ a divorce. That, then, is the position of the Scripture and of our church. This is the practice of her clergy.