y
was presented to the bride.]

STYLITES says, "On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among
Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture." In
reply to this I venture to say, that the Divine will on this matter was
sufficiently indicated at the creation, when one woman was appointed for
one man, as expressed in Gen. ii. 24., and quoted by Our Lord, with the
significant addition of the word _twain_: "They twain shall be one flesh"
(Matt. xix. 5.). _Twain_, i.e. two; not twenty, nor any indefinite number.
Moreover, the law of nature speaks, in the nearly equal numbers of men and
women that are born, or, as in this parish, by making the men the more
numerous.

But STYLITES starts a most interesting question in a practical point of
view. It is admitted that the Gospel is not very explicit respecting
polygamy; and why so? Possibly the Gospel was purposely kept silent; and
the Church allowed some latitude in judgment upon a very difficult point,
because it was foreseen that the custom of polygamy would prove one of the
greatest obstacles to a reception of pure Christianity. This difficulty is
of constant occurrence in heathen lands at the present day. The Christian
missionary insists upon the convert abandoning all his wives, except the
one whom he first married. This woman was probably childless; and because
she was so, he formed other and _legal_ connexions. But before he can be
received as a Christian, he must dissolve all these later ties, and
bastardise children who were innocently born in lawful wedlock. The
conditions are very awful. An act of cruelty and injustice has to be
performed by one who is on the point of entering the threshold of
Christianity!

Perhaps these considerations may serve to account for the comparative
silence of the Gospel upon a subject which seemed to require the expression
of a direct command, whilst they will in no way obscure its
universally-admitted meaning.

ALFRED GATTY.

Ecclesfield.

* * * * *

POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS.

(Vol. ix., p. 58.)

The subjoined lines address themselves to the traveller, as he looks on the
sign of "The Rodney's Pillar" inn at Criggirn, a hamlet on the borders of
Montgomeryshire and this county:

"Under these trees, in sunny weather,
Just try a cup of ale, however;
And if in tempest or in storm,
A couple then to make you warm;
But when the day is very cold,
Then taste a mug a t