Middletown transcript., 1869-09-11

was alone the ineXpressible charms of sym
pathy and companionship were wanting to
fill up the measure of his complete felicity
and God said, II will make help meet
for him )" and when Eve, in all cher sweet
attractive grace" and gentle loveliness
Stood-before him, his heart was grateful to
that All-wise Benefactor, and worshipped
Him for this, His last best crowning gift.
And surely if in Eden the man made in
the image of God, still holy, and knowing
not the existence of evil, could have had an
added JOY i'll this companionship, how must
he not now, on this air-stained and sor-
| rowful earth, seek in it the solacc of his
griefs, the bcguiler of his ofttimes weary
pilgrimage?
And truly much lighter do his cares
become, less toilsome and weary his pill
grimage, when shared by loving and
faithful wife; and truly we believe that the
smile of our Father in Heaven rests with
forgiviness and love ON two thus Joined
together by Him-thus bravcly, patiently,
hand in hand, treading the path he hath
appointed for them; the husband, in his
lonscioqss trength and manhood, guarding,
cherishing, and protecting the treasure God
hath given him and the wife seeking not
with false and unwomanly ambition to
usurp place or assert an authority which
Gods providence neither intended nor ap-
proves, but looking up with loving and
wife-like obedience. She is content that
he should be as God has ordained, cher
head, her glory" willing in all things to
be guided by his judgment, and to sub
NIT to his direction; while he, trusting
ever to her truth and sympathy, loves
to feel and acknowledge her gentle inhu-
ence blending with and softening his
rougher and stonier nature.
Thus, types of true man and true wo-
man, che for God only she for God in
him." they pass through life-.through its
joys and sorrows, its storms and sun
shine, rejoicing and weeping with each
other, and both thanking Heaven for
that unspeakable gift He hath bestowed
upon them. That mutual love-whch.
but begun on earth, they know (for in
their perfect love there is no fear), shall
Outlive all the storms of this lower life,
pass safely arcoss the dark river of death,
and receive its full fruition and glory in
that land of blessedness where love is the
vital air of its inhabitants.
IT, then, this is marriage is that
false and daring imitation of it, which,
with hateful levity, We call az marriage,
of convenience ~
DO they think--that man and woman
who stand there, amid it may be, an ar
ray of wealth and splendor, as if striving
to conceal beneath the gorgcousness Of
the trappings the hollow skeleton beneath
-WLo are taking eqet other as they would
a partner at a ball, or the companion, of
a days journey, for convenience, or by
mere chancc-do they think that they can |
thus sin with impunity against those des-
pissed feelings of love and affection, which
are still Of that human nature, which they,
in common with all, received from their |
Creator, and which will certainly one day
make themselves felt, in spite Of all the
fettcrs of falsehood and selfshpess with
which they have bound them-that they
are evoking Nemesis who shall surely
rise up, at no distant PERIOD and most
fearfqlly avepgc them
Oh, how large portion of ynhappiness
in the world is the necessary and inevit-
able consequence of marriages of convent
ence, the bringing into close and intimate
two persons wholly unsqited to
each other.
If positive misery be not the result, they
can but hope to traverse each their soita-
ry way, their hearts growing colder and
more selfish year by year-and they pass
through the Summer and Autumn of life,
and reach the Winter of old age alone,
and uncheered by those swecteners of all
human ill, sympathy and atTection-for
with each other they have no feeling in
Their first mutnal act was one of un-
truthfulness, and they reap through life the
bitter fruit of their marriage of convent