THE TURKISH MARRIAGE.
A cmuzons point of Ecclesiastical law has been raised in the Exeter diocese. An English clergyman, at the instigation of his curate and by the order of his bishop, is to be prosecuted for marrying a. Darkish gentleman professing Christianity, after the curate of the 'swish had. forbidden both banns and baptism. We have seen the East India Company defending itself against the charge of repelling Christian converts, but we have a High Church curate, with his obedient bishop, shutting the ohurch against the neophyte. The moral of the simple tale seems to he, that a man's profession of Chrietianity is not to be accepted if there is any coneeivable motive far his profession. In India, it ts assumed that his conviction must be the appetite for place.; in Devonshire, a suspicion of being "in. love" disqualifies him from being believed. on his word that he adopts the true religion. The test might be applied to some over-righteous amongst our own countrymen, who derive no small worldly advan.tage irom,profes- sian,of overflowing belief. The ease is. whint toomstionarioef and a. rebuke Act tb.eir statistics.
Previous page
