Oh, the loneliness of an unwedded heart! The hands may be united, but to feel that in heart you are separated must be misery indeed. To think of being obliged to associate for life with one who has not a feeling of sympathy with you, and who is, moreover, in sentiment, taste and feeling directly opposed to you—how revolting the thought! Then, let love, not ambition, lead you to form those ties that naught but death can honorably sever.
Weigh well the consequences of one wrong or hasty step in the choice of a companion for life. Walk softly here, lest you fall, to rise no more. Seek wisdom from above. “In all thy ways acknowledge the Lord, and He shall direct thy paths.” “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” at all times, and you are safe.
“Oh, happy state! when souls each other draw;
When love is liberty and nature’s law;
All then is full, possessing and possessed,
No craving void left aching in the breast;
E’en thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part,
And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.”
THE GIFT OF GIFTS—A Word to Husbands.
Husband, have you this gift of gifts? Has God in superabounding mercy given you a dear wife, lovely, virtuous, prudent, sensible, intelligent, and above all a God-fearing wife, meek, modest, humble, Christlike?—“an helpmeet” in very deed? Well, what do you think of it? Do you appreciate the blessing duly?—make suitable returns? Can you do it? Such a gift is unspeakable. How few, comparatively, appreciate the gift of a good wife?