Christians must believe that it is contrary to the will of God,
inasmuch as it frustrates His will, appointment, and wish. It
is unnatural, because it is contrary to all laws of moraUty,
reproduction, and nature itself; the latter cannot be thwarted;
if it should be, troubles are certain to arise. It seems
impossible that a morally-minded couple should conspire
together against the intention of the Almighty, and nature
itself, that the lawful intercourse of marriage should be
followed by the production of other lives. In making use of
artificial checks they together compass the destruction of the
life of the germinating seed of a living soul. God has
instituted marriage for the reproduction of human life, and
also for the protection of women, in the right and lawful sense
of the word. The Divine law laid upon human nature, as
indeed on all animal creation, is that the male should be
creative and the female receptive. To fight against or resist
that by immoral means is fighting against the natural order of
the whole world of sentient beings. Have we arrived at the
period of the world's history when the natural God-given
instinct of motherhood is to be annihilated ? Is giving life to
another to be considered a repugnant and distasteful task
by the women of the present day ? It would seem like it. Is
the final issue to be that marriage and the reproduction
of human life, with all their accompanying results, the Divine
and natural order of human affairs, must be sacrificed, in
the case of the great majority, because of the unjust distribu-
tion of wealth now prevailing? Everything seems to be
trending in that direction. In consequence of the want of



'THE EVILS OF NEO-MALlHUSlANiSM 73

sufficient means to marry upon, an astounding state of things
has arisen in Germany. Max Nordau describes it as follows : —
"There is in Germany a curious state of affairs which is
actually unknown elsewhere, and which I must admit greatly
reduces the burden of a standing army. All over the country
there exists a species of free union, which really results in what
would probably be styled elsewhere a series of temporary
marriages. Money plays absolutely no part in the arrange-
ment. 