end; and on the other of so-called science, which
informs us that the sun is gradually losing its heat, the result of
which will in time be the extinction of the human race.

Now there is not and cannot be such an institution as Christian
marriage, just as there cannot be such a thing as a Christian liturgy
(Matt. vi. 5-12; John iv. 21), nor Christian teachers, nor church
fathers (Matt. xxiii. 8-10), nor Christian armies, Christian law courts,
nor Christian States. This is what was always taught and believed by
true Christians of the first and following centuries. A Christian's
ideal is not marriage, but love for God and for his neighbor.
Consequently in the eyes of a Christian relations in marriage not only
do not constitute a lawful, right, and happy state, as our society and
our churches maintain, but, on the contrary, are always a fall.

Such a thing as Christian marriage never was and never could be. Christ
did not marry, nor did he establish marriage; neither did his disciples
marry. But if Christian marriage cannot exist, there is such a thing as
a Christian view of marriage. And this is how it may be formulated: A
Christian (and by this term I understand not those who call themselves
Christians merely because they were baptized and still receive the
sacrament once a year, but those whose lives are shaped and regulated
by the teachings of Christ), I say, cannot view the marriage relation
otherwise than as a deviation from the doctrine of Christ,--as a sin.
This is clearly laid down in Matt. v. 28, and the ceremony called
Christian marriage does not alter its character one jot. A Christian
will never, therefore, desire marriage, but will always avoid it.

If the light of truth dawns upon a Christian when he is already married,
or if, being a Christian, from weakness he enters into marital relations
with the ceremonies of the church, or without them, he has no other
alternative than to abide with his wife (and the wife with her husband,
if it is she who is a Christian) and to aspire together with her to free
themselves of their sin. This is the Christian view of marriage; and
there cannot be any other for a man who honestly endeavors to shape his
life in accordance with the teachings of Christ.

To very many persons the thoughts I have uttered here and in "The
Kreutzer Sonata" will seem strange, vague, even contradictory. They
certainly do contradict, not each other, but the whole tenor of our
lives, and involu