The Labor enquirer., 1883-01-13

There must be afhnltleS, or there can De
no coniunctions. Our souls must be
beautiful if we would be truly loved.
Have ,ou ever pondered these things?
If not, the time has come when you
should, in all faithfulness and all serious
ness, do so. If your husband be indeed
advancing toward all true manly ex-
cellencies, be growing in spiritual stature,
will he not, unless you also advance and
grow toward womanly excellence and
perfection, recede from you get SO far
beyond as to be out of sight? Are not
spiritual laws as unfailing as natural
laws2"
Mrs. Ashby's face had already lost its
gathering sternness. Her friend paused.
"Whv have you said this to me?' +
Because love you, Helen, and desire
your happiness" IL ."
Mrs. Ashby sighed deeply, dropped
her gaze, and sat looking inward for a
long time. Then sighed again, and
looked up into the face of her friend.
What have you seen, Margaret? Deal
with me honestly as a friend" H.
"A temper and disposition which your
husband cannot approve" ..... .
Margaret p
''You have asked me to deal honestly,
as with friend. Shall 1 go on?"
eyes, yes; speak of all that is in your
mind"
"Your husband is gentle and consider
ate, ready to excuse faults, free from
hardness and harshness."
"None more So"
81 saw that your impatient words,
when a servant spilled water on the
table last evening, Jared his feelings,
He was talking cheerfully at the time ;
but the change in his tone that followed
showed a depressed state. 1t was plain
to me that you hurt him by your sharp
reproof more than you hurt the servant
Then | noticed that as often as he spoke
in favor of certain persons you placed
evil against their good, and not in the
most amiable spirit. Once or twice he
tried to defend the good, and then you
set yourself against him with degree Of
asperity that must have produced in his
mind sense of pain. He did not con-
tend; though fear, had he done so, you
would have been all ready for sharp
conflict. Before tea was ended your
husband, who conversed at the begin
ming in an easy, cheerful way, was sitting
almost silent Evidently you had reacted
upon him in manner to depress his
feelings. did not comprehend this at
the time, but it iS.plain enough now"
81 think, Margaret" said Mrs. Ashby,
as her friend ceased, "that you had on
glasses last evening. A
stranger listening to your speech would
set me down as ill-natured, if not quar-
relsome. Henry would smile to hear
you. am not perfect, | know and my
husband understands this, and makes all
due allowance for infirmities of temper"
Can he in spirit, Helen, conjOin him
self 70 these or any other in6rmities?
Do their Indulgence draw him nearer or
away from you? Can he love them?
Mrs. Ashby's countenance changed.
She did not reply.
"Would he choose to live forever con-
joined to disturbing and inharmonious
spirit? No matter now feeble the dis
turbance or slight the lack of harmony,
if conjunction must be eternal would
not conjunction be avoided as a calamity?
We cannot bind the soul, my friend, by
any laws but it's own. Love is drawn by
likeness of quaIity-atfinities combine.
If you and your husb band are to reach an
eternal union you must love and delight
in the same things. You must be of like
quality. Your hearts must so beat that
the flow of life is reciprocal, and the
pulses move in unity. You must become
like him, or be must become like you.
In which contingency lies the surer hope9
Answer to your own soul, my friend. If
he is receding from you, getting all the
while to farther distance, why is it?
What does it mean? Is he rising or de-
scending? Growing better or worse?
Which is it, Helen?
""He is rising. He is growing better"
"And yet receding"
II have felt it for a long time, Mar
garet."