A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
INTO–the controversies aroused by the comments of the Church Times on Mr. Eden's marriage I do not feel it partic- ularly profitable to enter, except to observe that the refer- ence to King Edward VIII is completely irrelevant; the two cases are totally dissimilar. Neither is there much to be gained by discussing what the Christian attitude on divorce is. The fact is that there is no Christian attitude on divorce. There is a Roman Catholic and High Anglican attitude, but it is sharply challenged by a considerable section of the Church of England, notably the Modern Churchmen's Union, in which so respected a leader of Anglican thought as the Dean of St. Paul's is pro- minent. And almost certainly a majority of Free Churchmen —who are not to be denied the name of Christian—would agree on this question with the Modern Churchmen's Union. Neither does the citation of Scripture produce any finality. There are many other breaches of marriage than " putting away his wife and marrying another "; the case of a man whose wife deliberately leaves him is not covered by this at all. But all this has been argued ceaselessly through the centuries without any general` agreement among Christians being reached. There is somewhere a middle course between culpable laxity and pharisaical rigidity., And there is some room for charity, which has been pronounced greater than even faith or hope. _
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