to be marvelled at that the institution of marriage as we have
upheld it should be assailed. When some of our greatest writers
have treated it either in their works or on the stage with a new
freedom, we cannot wonder that experiments have been made
under the supposed shelter of modern thinking which are
subversive of moral standards. Nor again in the totally different
circles of average life, when the inadequate exhibition of a true
union between husband and wife is manifest, can we be
surprised if boys and girls grow up to think that they do not
wish to be tied to a life-long incompatibility, since these are
days in which we have swung far towards freedom in our
reaction from unreality. Also the predetermined limitation of
families, arising from various causes such as lack of consideration
on the one side or unwillingness for suffering on the other, the
increase of the cost of living, and a higher standard of comfort,
is one of the evasions of consequences which the war with its
terrible death roll has brought acutely before us.

At a time such as this and in conditions such as these we
have to work out the disturbing influences of the Women's
Movement with all it connotes as to political suffrage and
economic independence among women, whether of the well-to-do
or of the industrial classes. We need not have any fear as to
the issues. The Women’s Movement is only a part, and an
essential, inevitable, and noble part, of the whole present rush
of renaissance in the world. 1 think we ought to apply to it
some of Dr. Illingworth’s words—'“ A great historical movement
in religion or politics will often begin blindly —stuttering,
stammering, striking at random—till in process of time it awakes
to its own true meaning and grows intelligent, articulate, effective,
the recognized expression of a grand idea.”

All theories apart, we know that marriage and giving in
marriage will continue to the end. What we want to secure is
that they should continue in their highest possible form, and if
we do not strive for this we may find that marriage will take on
anew meaning. It seems that what is open to us now is to hold
with a fearless tenacity to the sacramental and ideal aspect of
marriage with all its spiritual and physical consequences as
sanctioned by the Church in all ages, and then to work out with
equal fearlessness on the practical plane, those other aspects of it
where there is room for mutual compromise, concession and the
exercise of a greater discipline. We must attempt this in the
setting of our own age. Many conceptions of twenty-five years
ago have withered—do not let us cling to their husks. We need
to lend ourselves in sympathy to our own age, maintaining
equally the extreme of generosity and the extreme of faithfulness,
for marriage is so high a thing that only extremes will meet in it.
The practical aspects of modern marriage will not be worked out