mises. Husbands and wives have engaged in
coitus _ad libitum_, utterly regardless of whether it was right
or wrong for them to do so! They have taken it for granted that
_marriage_ conferred on them the _right_ to have sexual intercourse
whenever they chose, (especially when the man chose,) and they have
acted accordingly. This is especially true of men, and the practice
has been carried to such length that the right of a man to engage in
coitus with his wife _has been established by law_, and the wife who
refuses to yield this "right" to her husband can be divorced by him,
if she persists in such way of living! It is such a fact as this which
caused Mr. Bernard Shaw to write: "Marriage is the most licentious
institution in all the world." And he might rightfully have added "it
is also the most brutal," though it is an insult to the brute to say
it that way, for brutes are never guilty of _coitus under compulsion.
But a husband can force his wife to submit to his sexual embraces, and
she has no legal right to say him nay!_ This doesn't seem quite right,
does it?

Now there are several different ways of viewing this new and added
sexual possibility in the human family, namely, the act of coitus for
other than reproductive purposes. The Catholic church has _always_
counted it as a sin. Popes have issued edicts regarding it, and
conclaves of Bishops have discussed it and passed resolutions
regarding it. There has always been a difference of opinion upon the
subject amongst these dignitaries and authorities, but they all
agree in one respect, namely, that it is a _sin_. The only point of
difference has been as to the extent or enormity of the sin! By some
it has been reckoned as a "deadly sin," punishable by eternal hell
fire, if not duly absolved before death; by others it has been held
to be only a "venial sin," one that must always be confessed to the
priest when coitus is engaged in, and which can be pardoned by the
practice of due penance. _But, always, it was a sin_!

The Protestant church has never issued edicts regarding this matter,
but, for the most part, it has tacitly held to the Catholic teaching
in _theory_, while universally _practicing_ the reverse, in actual
married life. Protestants have looked upon it as a necessity, but have
taught that it was _regrettable_ that such was the case. They have
held, with Paul, that, "it is better to marry than to burn." And most
of them have chosen the marriage horn of th