"Maeriage." This topic, as old as j creation, was treated with intelligence and rare good sense last evening.byRev. J Mr. Amc-. The speaker characterised j as probabl-2 failures lil unions of the 1 I sexes which were not based upon the ' "j broadest and deepest respect. He did j not believe in the lasting quality of any affection which had not the most profound respect for its basi3. He would have coortihip continued ' throughout married fife, and the attentions atten-tions by which the lover was attracted employed to increase the bonds of union between husband and wife. He ' characterised as a relic of barbaric darkness the question which the church puts in the mouth of the priest," Who gives this woman to wife ?" implying as it does that the woman Is without voice in the contract. The man or woman who violated the marriage contract, either the real one or that implied by good behavior daring courtship, deserved prosecution for damages, as obtaining valuable goods under false pretences. Towards the close of his lecture, Mr. Ames said he wished to redeem the promise made last evening to discuss the subject of polygamy. He confessed that he must of necessity be less familiar fa-miliar with it than many of his hearers, hear-ers, but stated nevertheless that he held very decided convictions concerning it. He did not wish to take back the remark re-mark which he hazarded on Wednesday Wednes-day evening, that in his opinion religi-, 0U3 polygamy was more desirable than irreligious monogamy. Still, he looked ; upon the plural state as unjust to woman because devoid of equality, in that it denied to woman the privilege it conceded to man. He criticized the practice of polygamy, but in a spirit of fairness; and strongly condemned the barbarity which would characterize char-acterize the believer in it from a religious stand-point, as a libertine, lib-ertine, or the woman who engaged in it from conviction as a prostitute. He declared that the sentiment which advocated ad-vocated dealing with the system by lo-gal lo-gal enactment or by force, as a most superficial one. Addressing believers in polygamy, he said, "If you have anything better than we have, let us havf it; don't fear to discuss it; make U3 sharers of the doctrine which you so highly prize." Mr. Ames expressed the belief that the schools, the public press and the advancing intelligence of the age, arc the weapons destined to overcome polygamy. To-night, he will, as he said, take tho roofs from off the houses of the American people and givo hisj hearersa view of "Domestic life." I