Milford chronicle., 1888-01-27
,et immortal affections. Oh man, oh


those who have already at the altar been pro
nounced one when they are two, or in diver
sity Of tastes and likes and dislikes are
neither one nor two but a dozen-make the
best you can Of an awful mistake And here
let me answer letters that come from every
state Of the American Union, and from
across the sea, and are coming year after
year from men and women who are terrific
ally allianced and tied together in hard
knot, a very hard knot. The letters run
something like this: ''What ought l to do,
my husband is a drunkardln my wife is q
gad about and will not stay at home.
'My companion is ignorant and hates books
and revel in them.n II like music and a
piano sets my husband crazy 81 am fond
of social life and my companion is a recluse. n
II am trying to be good and my life long as
sociate is very bad What shall dor Ny
answer is, there are certain good reasons for
enforcement. The Bible recognizes them.
Good society recognizes them. But it must
be tine very last resort, and only after all
reasonable attempts at reclamation and adj
justment have proved dead failure, When
such attempts fail it is generally because of
meddlesome outsiders, and women tell the
yronged wife how she ought TO stand on her
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how he ought 20 stand on his rights. And
let husband and wife in an unhappy mar
riage relation stand punctiliously on their
rights, and there will be no readjustment,
and only one thing viii be sure to them, and
that is a hell on earth.
If you are unhappily married, in most
cases I advise you to make the best you can
of an awfully bad bargain. Do not project
Perhaps you may have some faults Of your
own which the other party in the marital al
lance may have TO suffer You are in the
same yoke. If you pull aside the yoke will
only twist your neck. Better pull ahead.
The world is full of people who made mis-
takes about many things, and among
other things about betrothal and mar
riage, and yet have been tolerably
happy and very useful in the strength
of God, and by the grace promised
in every time of need if those who seek it
conquer the disadvantageous circumstances.
am acquainted with lovely women married
to contemplate men, and genial men yoked
with termagants inspired of the devil And
yet under these disadvantages my friends are
useful and happy. God helps people in other
kinds Of martyrdom and to sing in the flame,
and he will help you in your lifelong misfor-
tune.
Remember the patience of Job. What a
wife he had At time when he was one
great blotch of eruptions, and his property
was destroyed by tornado, and, more than
all, bereavement had come and the poor man
needed all wise counsel, she advises him to
go to cursing and swearing. She wanted
Elm to poultiee his boils with blasphemy.
But he lived right on through his marital
disadvantages, recovered his health and for
tune and raised a splendid family, and the
closing paragraph Of the Book Of Job has
such a jubilance that wonder people do not
oftener read it:
$50 the Lord blessed the latter end Of Job
more than his beginning, for he had four
teen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels,
and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a
thousand she asses. He had also seven
sons and three daughters. And he called the
name of the first Jemima, and the name Of
the second Kezia, and the name Of the third
Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no
women found so fair as the daughters of Job,
and their father gave them inheritance among
their brethren. After this lived job one
hundred and forty years, and saw his sons,
and his sons SONS, even four generations.
So Job died, being old and full Of days"
Now, my badly married friend of either
sex, if Job could stand it by the help Of God,
then you can stand it by the same divine
reinforcement. You have other relations,
oh woman, beside the wifely relation II you
are mother, train up your children for God
and heaven. If you are a member of a
church, help move Cd its enterprises. You
can get so much Of the grace of God in
your heart that all your honle trials will
seem insignificant, How little difference
does it make what your unrighteous husband
calls you, if God calls you his child and
you are an heiress of whole kingdoms beyond
the sky.
Immerse yourself in some kind of outside
usefulness, something that viii enlist your
prayers, your sympathies, your hand, your
needle, your voice. Get your heart on fire
with love to God and the disenthrallment Of
the human race, and the troubles of your
home will be blOtted out in the glory Of your
consecrated life. I cry out to you, oh woman,
as Paul exclaims in his letter to the Cor,
inthians: s'What knowest thou, oh wife,
whether thou shalt save thy husbandT And
If you cannot save him you can help in the
grander, mightier enterprise of helping save
the world. Out of the awful mistake Of your
marriage rise into the sublimest life of self
sacrifice for God and suffering humanity.
Instead of settling down to NOPE over your
domestic woes, enlist your energies for the
worlds redemption.
Some parts Of Holland keep out the ocean
only by dykeseor walls Of stout masonry.
The engineer having these dykes in charge
was soon to be married to a maiden living in
one of the villages, the existence of which
depended on the strength of these dykes.
And there was to be a great feast in one Of
the villages that approaching evening in
honor of the coming bridegroom. That day
a great storm threatened the destruction OF
the dykes, and hence the destruction Of thou
sands Of lives in the villages shell
tered by that stone wall. The oceav
was in full wrath, beating against the dykes,
and the tides and the teEror were still
rising. "Shall ! go to the feast says the
engineer, ''or shall go and help my work
men take care Of the dykesg' Take care Of
the dykes he said to himself; ~ must and
will" As he appeared on the wall the men
working there were exhausted and shouted;
"Here comes the engineer. Thank Godl
Thank Godl' The wall was giving way,
stone by stone, and the engineer had a rope
fastened around his body; and some of the
worllmen had ropes fastened around their
bodies and were let down amid the wild
surges that beat the wall. Everything was
giving way. "Glore stonesr7 cried the men
''More mortarw But the answer came;
There is no moreln "Then,n cried the
engineer, "take of your clothes and
witch them stop the holes in the
WALL And so, in the chill and dark
ness and surf it was done, and with
the worllnen's apparel the openings in the
wall were partially filed. But still the tide
rose, and still the ocean reared itself for more
awful stroke, and for the overwhelming Of
thousands of lives in the villages "Now we
have done all we can, p said the engineer;
down on your knees, my men, and pray to
God for helpn And on the trembling and
parting dykes they prayed till the wind
changed and the sea subsided, and the vii
lagos below, which, knowing nothing Of the
peril, were full Of romp and dance and hilar-
ity, were gloriously saved.
Now what we want in this work Of walling
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