Death alone dissolves the marriage tie! - J.C. Philpot’s

“The marriage union is the closest and most sacred of all earthly unions. Woe be to anyone who interferes with its sanctity!” “Alas! that today the marriage bond should be considered by many as temporary, casually undertaken and soon released upon flimsiest pretexts.” “The happiness of thousands of lives has been shattered through thoughtless entrance upon matrimony.” “Now we fearlessly assert that, according to God’s word, nothing but death…can dissolve the tie between man and wife. The Lord Jesus has settled this point with his own lips.”

“We assert, therefore, that neither by the law of God or man can a woman marry again in the lifetime of her first Husband, without committing adultery. How express – is Paul here! “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” (Romans 7:2-3)

“Absence or desertion is cruel and ungodly conduct, and most truly pitiable is a woman’s case, to be abandoned for years and left in ignorance whether her legitimate husband and protector is dead or alive; but neither his desertion nor her uncertainty dissolves the tie.”

“But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.” (1 Cor 7:15) that is, to follow him and, press to live with him if he have deserted her. But does he say anything about or sanction her marrying again? Where does he say that desertion dissolves the marriage tie? On the contrary, in the very same chapter he decides the exact opposite: “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but,if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 7:39) How clearly he decides the matter that death alone dissolves the marriage tie!