riest under
the old Jewish church. There is much more form and ceremony than is
found in our system under the Mediator, Jesus Christ.

The civil law has absolutely nothing to say on the marriage question.
All this is held in the domain of the Church. In truth, the Divine
Family has always regulated this question. If the legality of a marriage
is called in question, all that the civil authorities try to determine
is whether the marriage ceremony was performed in accordance with the
laws of the Divine Family. If this point can be established, the
marriage is declared legal; if not, it is declared to be null and void.
This one subject of matrimony has caused more friction between the
Church and the infidels than all other issues combined. The infidels are
bitterly opposed to take their marriage vows before the minister, yet
this must be done to make their marriage legal. Divorce laws are
unknown, although, in rare cases, papers of separation are granted by
authority and under seal of the Divine Family.

The religious devotees of Holen look forward to a happier existence when
their mortal life is ended. Their ideas of this future life are quite
similar to our cherished ideas of Heaven.

In their moral life they have reached a higher plane than we. This is
due to the fact that the Divine Family wield an influence in the civil
realm that cannot be broken.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Mute World.

I proceeded on my journey until I had reached Alcyone in the famous
constellation of Taurus. On one of the planets revolving around Alcyone,
I found a distinctive class of human beings faintly resembling creatures
that I had seen in several other constellations, but of which I have, as
yet, made no special mention.

Among these people no audible language is used as a means of
communication. One might think that high civilization would be
impossible without such a vehicle of thought. But on this Mute world
humanity has pushed far along in the great interstellar race for
supremacy.

A description of the physical features of these Muteites would not only
seem absurd, but would be distorting. Can you imagine a beautiful person
without ears and void of vocal sound, having a head totally out of
shape compared with ours, and with a bodily framework ridiculously new
to us? Such would be a brief word sketch of these far-away mortals of
unusual intelligence.

These people hold all their conversation by pure thought transmission.
The