But when forgiveness and patience have failed and either husband or
wife has found another connection or has even ceased to have any vital
relation to his or her partner in marriage, then I feel that that
marriage is morally dead. And dead things should be buried if possible.

There remains the question of remarriage.

If the law allows this and if Christianity says "There is a higher way
to which God calls you," I do not think there is here an indefensible
contradiction. It is a case of a higher and a lower way.

The law says "I will not compel you to remain unmarried." Christianity
says "I will not compel you at all, but I call you in love's name."

That is exactly the situation we must accept in connection with many of
Christ's precepts. Giving alms. Loving enemies. Refusing to judge.
Refusing to swear, etc., etc. These are all clear Christian duties. But
law cannot deal with them. All this seems to me quite plain. In common
honesty, however, I must confess that it is not clear to me that the
spirit of Christ does forbid the remarriage of a divorced person in all
cases. Christian marriage always has love in it. It is not always there
in actual marriage. We must think the whole matter out afresh in terms
of love before we can understand the Christian way. Some things the
world calls marriages are not really marriages at all to the Christian
mind.