The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-08-04
voLUME.--NUMBER $50.
Thoughts on Marriage.

There comes time when the maiden departs
from her fathers house. She 10 called, she an
swers, and departs. All how many visions of
angels have there been! but they were not Gods
angels. How many have gone out walking on
| flowers, but they were changed to thorns How
many have gone out from their fathers house,
borne on the seraphic experience of love, scarcely
touching the ground for joyfulness, to find, little
by little, that love flowed away like a summers
brook, and left in its place but the bare channel
and the gravel! How many have gone out to
build fiction which perished faster than the
immage fashioned in snow, which melts in the
handling! How many have had their plans
perish as they handled them And yet every
maiden must 60 forth in her appointed time.
Blessed are they who know how, when they 60
forth, in the first day as it were, to behold, as
Jacob did in his vision, Gods angels ascending
and descending, and behind and above all him.
self. See to it, tl.en, you that are going, and
you that are gone, that you do not forget to have
your earliest plans in married life, your first
hopes include true love of God, and q true
purpose of serving him. 1t is not enough that
you love your husband He is your head in the
Lord; he stands for the hour, as it we're, inter.
preting to you Gods love; but he is not God
Otherwise, your ladder will be upon the ground
and too short to reach further than the storm.
Of all the sad things in the world, think, the
saddest is the leaf that tells what love meant to
be, and the turning of the leaf to tell what love
has been. All blossoms-all ashes; oil smiles
and gladness-all tears and sadness. Nothing
is so beautiful as the temple that love builds; and
nothing is so miserable as the service Of that
temple.
My young maiden friend love is not poases.
sion but growth. The heart is lamp with
just enough oil to burn for the hour, and If there
be no oil put into it again, its light will 90 out.
Gods grace is the oil that fills the lamp Of love
And if there be one thing that every woman,
above all others, should say to herself, it is this
Il cannot be respected and loved as must needs
be to be happy, unless can bring something
more than myself. 1t must be good in me that
shall maintain me in that dignity and excellence
Of proportion, and nobleness and impressivencss
which shall win and hold love-" And Goddess
woman entering into the marriage relation, goos
as a lamb to the slaughter. Wreaths of flowers
are about the neck but the knife is not far off,
1t is sad-the dCsecration of live. 1t is tho
saddest thing on earth. There is nothing that
touches, 1t seems to me, the contemplative heart
more than that. To see what it might be, if
these early days or prophets of possibility, and
then to picture what it is, is sad indeed. And
more than anything else in the world, it fails for
want of food. No other food is there for love
but goodness. Love cannot any more burn
without goodness, than fame without fuel The
sorrows that must go with you all your
life, Or break suddenly upon you somewhere, can
not be borne without the help of Gods minister
ing angels upon the heart. AS your household
grows around you, and your children begin to
feel the tides of life, and you begin to become 10
turn their guides as your parents were yours,
you will find that no one can bear life we'll who
has not God somewhere, present help in time
of trouble.
If there be anything that young welded love
should have its first vision it is the ladder be-
tween the earth and heaven, and the angels of
God ascending and descending, and God over
all, blessing it. Begin your household life be-
gin your welded life, with frm hold on God,
on purity, on heaven Then, there will be hopes
for you. Otherwise take winter fate