ge which Mr. Newman contends is the only
thing Paul thought about, is very properly urged; for from the
constitution of human nature, (as every comprehensive philosopher
and legislator would admits) as well as from the horrible condition of
things where marriage is neglected, prominence is very justly given
to the preservation of chastity as one of the primary objects of the
institution. But the question as between Mr. Newman and Christianity
is this: Is this the only aspect under which the relations of man and
woman are represented to us? That every thing is not said in one passage
is true enough. From the desultory manner in which the ethics as well
as doctrines of the New Testament are expounded to us, and especially
from the casual form which they assume in the Apostolic Epistles,
where the particular circumstances of the parties addressed naturally
suggested the degree of prominence given to each topic, we must fairly
examine the whole volume in order to comprehend the spirit of the whole,
and not take up a solitary passage as though it were the only one.
Now, if we examine other passages, we cannot fail to see that the New
Testament consecrates married life by enjoining the utmost purity,
devotion, and tenderness of affection. Look at only one or two of the
passages in which the New Testament enjoins the reciprocal duties of
husbands and wives; what sort of model it proposes for their love.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and
gave himself for it ..... Let every one in particular so love his
wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, .... giving honor
unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life."

Is this like condemning women to be "elegant toys and voluptuous
appendages"?

Admitting, for the sake of argument, that the whole of Christianity
is a delusion; that Christ never lived, and therefore never died; that
he is a more palpable myth than even Dr. Strauss contends for; still
it is impossible not to see that the writers of the New Testament
represent his love for man as the ideal of pure, disinterested,
self-sacrificing affection; this appears whether we listen to the
words which the Evangelists have put into his mouth, or those in
which they have spoken of him. "Greater love hath non man than this
that a man lay down his life for his friends." Now, l