The overture was as follows:—
To the Rev. the Synod &c ........ The Session of Knox's Church, Woodstock, respectfully present the following overture:
Whereas by the 4th article of the 24th chapter of the Confession of Faith, marriage with a Deceased Wife's sister is prohibited as contrary to the word of God:
And whereas the passages of Scripture cited in proof thereof do not prohibit the marriage in question:
And whereas other passages of Scripture teach with very considerable clearness the lawfulness of such marriage in the sight of God:
And whereas the present law of the Church on this point, consistently administered, consigns all persons so married to hopeless exclusion from Church fellowship — yea, even those who married in ignorance of such a clause in the Confession of Faith — the only condition on which their restoration is possible being a mutual agreement on their part to separate from each other — a course which few spiritual rulers in the Church would feel prepared to recommend:
And whereas the visiting of such heavy censure, if it is not warranted by the word of God, involves in great guilt those who bear rule in the Church:
Therefore, the Session of Knox's Church, in accordance with a recommendation of the Presbytery of Paris, respectfully and very earnestly overture the Synod to take up and consider this whole question, in order that, if no clear and sure foundation for such prohibition to rest on can be pointed out in Scripture, the Synod may take the necessary steps to have the clause in question removed from the standards of our Church.
(Signed) W. T. McMullen,
Moderator of Session.
Woodstock. April 4th, 1867.
In June last, consideration of this overture was resumed. On a question of order, however, it was decided that it was not competent to entertain the overture in the particular form in which it was presented, as it contained an expression — the 2nd clause of the preamble — impugning the standards of the Church. Another over-
