The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-19
HOW TO SANCTIFY MARRIAGE.
By REV. GORDON CALrBRop.

By Rev. GORDON CALTHRop.
You have met together to establish a
Christian household, which shall be,
God helping you, home of holy peace
and happiness to yourselves, source
and center of usefulness and blessing to
others, and more especially to those
who belong, or shall belong, to you. l
take for granted that your first care
will be to set up family altar. 1t is
difficult to understand how people call
ing themselves Christians can excuse
to themselves the neglect of the plain
and simple duty of meeting together
for family worship. know that our
modern life, in these days Of railways,
is hurried. But surely some few min
utes might be spared for God in every
family, in the morning, to praise him
and to ask his help for the day in the
evening to meet him once more ere they
retire for rest. And surely, the divine
benediction cannot be expected to rest
on prayerless household. But here 1
will not dictate. / know you well
enough to know that I carry your as
sent with me, and that, therefore, my
urgent insistence on such point would
be as unnecessary as it would be out Of
all proper taste.
May be permitted, also, to recon-
mend the maintenance, amid the hustle
of life which will SOON come upon you,
ofunited prayer, and of united reading
II should like to say study /" if study
be possible) of the Holy Word of God :?
When occupations multiply, there may
come in also temptation to give up
this quiet time, or at least to allow it to
yield somewhat to more urgent and
clamorous engagements. But the temp
tation is one that you will do well to
resist. We married people are not only
heirs together of the grade of life, !"
but in a peculiar sense fellow laborers
in the work of life, fellow travellers
towards the Eternal City, the City
which hath foundations j; and anything
that may tend to keep in us the recol-
lection of the endearing closeness of
our spiritual relation to one another, it
is our wisdom to maintain and to cher
ish as well as we can, and certainly not
at any time to cast aside.
1t may be well also to remember that
in all married life the imperfection of
human nature may possibly give occa-
sion sometimes for mutual forbearance j;
for tender and gentle consideration
now on the one aide, nos She athar.E
The question Of temper is often regard
ed as trifing one-but it is not really
so. Few things have more to do with
the comfort, and therefore with the
usefulness, of our daily life, than tenn
per. And the first little "rift in the
lute," the tiny, unimportant-looking
crack that may spread and ultimately
destroy all possibilities of harmony, is
worth our thinking about. Here, again,
1 do not dictate. speak merely from
my experience of human nature, and
not with any side-glance at the two
persons whom see before me. Taught
by the Spirit of God to understand
yourselves, you will not take in bad
part any advice, even if it should seem
to you to be almost, If not altogether,
uncalled- for and unnecessary.
And now, my dear friends, what is it
you are expecting :? What vision opens
up before you as you stand here in
Gods presence, ready to start hand-in-
hand, heart joined with heart, on the
journey of life ? What is it you look
for in the future which you are to spend
together ? A sky not all sunshine, nor
yet all cloud but one tempered for you
by the gracious skill of him who doeth
all things we'll a road in which the
roughness shall be smoothed, and the
smooth places made smoother by your
loving companionship; a course under
the eye Of the Almighty Father; a
life (God grant that it may be long
and prosperous one } so spent as that
when the shadows gather round, and
the end comes at last, you may leave
this world of ours not a little the better
and the brighter, not little the holier
and happier for your presence and your
joint work in it Go forth, then, dear
friends, on your new path, confiding in
your God, confiding in each other and
may the blessing of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, rest henceforth abun-
dainty and abidingly upon you
SPIRITUAL WORSHIP.