I. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE ROMAN LAW.-- Prof. Z. Hazard Potter, M.D., Cornell University (continued) VI.--AMONG THE BOOKS.-CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 333 I. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE ROMAN LAW.— Prof. Z. Hazard Potter, M.D., Cornell University (continued) III. THE HOUSE OF GOD.-Mr. Edward F. Brown, Stamford, Coun. IV.—THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, 666.-Rt. Rev. J. T. Holly, D.D, V.-AMERICAN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCO- PAL CHURCH IN THE U. S.-Rev. G. W. Ridgely, Chester, Pa. 291 VI.-PAPERS ON CHURCH UNITY.-PAPER III.-By a Layman - VII.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.—ADMONITIONS-ORNAMENTS AND DEC- ORATIONS-THE CLEWER CASE-CONSECRATION OF A BISHOP FOR MEXICO. 311 VIII-AMONG THE BOOKS.-BARTLETT'S EGYPT TO PALESTINE-SPENSER- NEWTON'S ESSAYS--SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS--BISHOP STEVENS' SER- MONS--BIRKS' SUPERNATURAL REVELATION--PUBLICATIONS OF THE S. P ᎪᎡᎢ . PAGE. I. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE ROMAN LAW. - 321 348 II. MESSIANIC PROPHECY.-Rev. Henry M. Stuart, Philadelphia, Pa., 341 V. THE "ROMAN METHOD" OF PRONOUNCING LATIN. IS IT A N. Y., VI.-RT. REV. W. H. ODENHEIMER, D.D., VII. THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE FAR WEST.-Rev. F. M. VIII-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.-CANONS ON RITUAL, IX. AMONG THE BOOKS.-GREAT ENGLISH CHURCHMEN-THE COMPRE- 360 NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER. ART. PAGE I—SOME LETTERS OF ST. BASIL (Concluded).—Rev. John H. Egar, D.D., Nashotah, Wis. 401 II-THOUGHTS ABOUT SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.-Rev. Everard P. Miller, Perth Amboy, N. J. 421 III-PAST AND PRESENT METHODS OF PROPAGATING CHRISTIANITY. Rev. Daniel M. Bates, China 433 IV. A BRIEF HISTORY OF HYMNOLOGY-Rev. John Anketeli, Austin, Minn. 443 V. THE WORD "CATHOLIC" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.-Rev. George G. Hepburn, Eatontown, N. J. 458 VI-ON THE PROPER OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY.—Rev. E. B. Boggs, D.D., Newark, N. J. 462 VII-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.-ON THE RIGHT USE OF GIFTS-AT HOME -BISHOP WHITTINGHAM 473 VIII. AMONG THE BOOKS-THE FAITH OF OUR FOREFATHERS-CREED AND GREED AFTERNOONS WITH THE POETS-BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 478 AMERICAN CHURCH REVIEW. VOL. XXXI.-JANUARY, 1879. THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE ROMAN LAW.* PART THIRD-CHAPTER VII. The Celebration. The nuptial benediction was certainly a custom of the primitive Church; Tertullian declares it in several passages, and many authorities concur in the opinion.' Marriages, not solemnized by ecclesiastical authority, were regarded as clandestine and unlawful; it went much farther than paganism; for the ancient religion had only lent, but had not 1 See the passage before cited on Monogamy. He says, moreover, de Pudicitia, "Ideo penes nos occultæ quoque conjunctiones, id est, non prius apud ecclesiam professæ, juxta mæchiam et fornicationem judicari periclitantur." Saint Ambrose Epist. 70; the 4th Council of Carthage, canon 13, and Chardon, Histoire des Sacraments, t. vi; du Marriage c. ii. Art. 2. *(Copyright Secured.) imposed its intervention. But the philosophy of marriage had been expressed by Christianity, with a profundity to which no other religious system could approach. We have already seen several features of its theory; but there is another which I cannot here forget. If the attraction which brought the sexes together were abandoned to the frenzy of sensuality, the degradation of the species would soon be proportionate to its depravity. Guilty nights load the soul with their pollution, and the body with the burdens of excess. They stultify the intelligence, poison the sources of health, and enervate life by a fatal cup which shortens its duration. The children which it begets, attainted in their very constitutions by the precocious infirmities of their parents, in their honor by the illegitimacy of their birth, and in their personal security by their false position in the family, are an affliction rather than the hope and reparative element of Society. Montesquieu has also said with great force, that "illicit unions contribute very little, while public continence is naturally connected with the propagation of the species." It is not that we adopt the prejudices of the vulgar with respect to monstrous conformations; for we know that they are repelled by sound physiology. But we believe, that as a general rule, it is the chaste unions that are productive of 'Pothier....Pand. t. ii. p. 17. "The book of Wisdom says with even greater elegance. iniquis somniis filii qui nascuntur.' "Ex 3 Voluptas nocet nimia.-Senec. de vita beata 13. "For children illegitimately begotten, when we inquire into their characters, become the witnesses who testify against the crime of their parents." La Sagesse, iv, 6. Spurious offspring shall not put forth a deep root, and their race shall not establish itself. La Sagesse, iv, 3. Esprit des lois, liv, xxiii, ch. ii, |