Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-04-25

should result in our divorcement loIesel IN
And the woman was right. Ii alteI an
that Christ and Christianity nave uoHe
for woman, she can go again ana "sa,h
to hear such assaults, she is an awllli 10 ia,
ture, and you had better not come ne az
such a reeking lepress. She needs TO p1
washed. and for three weeks to be soaked
in carbolic acid, and for whole, year
fumigated before she is fit TOR decenC
society. While it is not demanded tnat
woman be a Christian before marriage,
she must have regard for the Christian re-
hgion or she is bad woman ana I'M
worthy of being your companion IN HLe
charged with such stupendous soiemhity
and vicissjtudes. .. :
What you want, o man! in wife, IS
not butterfly of the sunshine, not a
giggling. nonentity. not painted uoli:
not a eossiping gadabout, not mixture of
artifcialties which leave you IN DOUBT as
to where the humbug ends and the woman
begins, but an earnest soul, one that can
not only laugh when you laugh, hut weep
when you weep. There will be wide, deep
graves in your path of life, and you VIII
both want steadying when you come TO
the verge of them, tell you When your
fortune fails you will want some one to
talk of treasures in heaven. and not charg,e,
upon you with bitter, Il told you So
AS far as l can analyze it, sincerity. and
earnestness are the foundation OF all
worthy wifehood. Get that, and you get
all Fail to get that. and you get moth
ing but what you will wish you never had
got
Don't make the mistake that the man
of the text made in letting his eye settle
the question in which coolest Judgment
directed by divine wisdom are all-lm-
portant. He who has no reason for his
wifely choice except a pretty face is like
a man who should buy farm because OF
the dahias in the front dooryard. Beauty
is talent, and when God gives 1T He In
tends it as benediction upon woman's
face. Whon the good Princess Of Wales
dismounted from the rail train last sum
mer. and I saw her radiant face, I could
understand what they told me the day
before. that, when at the great military
hospital where are now the wounded and
the sick from the Egyptian and other
wars. the Princess passed through, all the
sick were cheered at her coming, and those
who could be reused neither by doctor nor
nurse from their stupor, would get up on
their elbows to look at her, and wan and
wasted lips prayed an audible prayer,
"God bless the Princess OF Wales. Doesn't
she look beautiful
Bill now uncertain Is IUt lying VI
beauty in human countenauce, Explosion
of a kerosene lamp turns it into sacri6ca
ton. and a scoundrel with one dash of
vitriol may dispel it, or Time will drive
his chariot wheels across that bright face,
cutting it up in deep ruts and gullles. But
there is an eternal beauty on the face OF
some women, whom a rough and ungal,,
LIANT world may criticise as homely; and
though their features may contradict all
the laws of Lavater on physiognomy,, yet
thew have graces of soul that will keep
them attractive for time and glorious
through all eternity.
There are two or three circumstances
in which the plainest wife is a queen OF
beauty to her husband, whatever her
stature or profile. By financial panic or
betrayal of business partner, the man goes
down, and returning to his home that
evening. he says: Il am ruined; L am
in disgrace forever: / care not whether
I live or die 1t is an agitated story he
is telling in the household that winter
night. He says: '"The furniture must
90. the house must go, the social
position must CO." and from being
|. sought for obsequiously they must be
cold-shouldered everywhere. After ne
ceases talking and the wife has heard all
in silence, she says: 'Is that all? Why.
YOU ndu nOJUluS WDCu iiOu wy ""N
YOU have only come back to where you
started If you think that my happiness
and that of the children depend on these
trappings. you do not know me, though
we have lived together thirty years. God
is not dead, and the National Bank OF
Heaven has not suspended payment, and
if YOU don't mind, | don't care cent.
What little we need of food and raiment
the rest of our lives we can get, and |
don't propose to sit down and nope and
groau. Mary hand me that darning-
needle I declare! have forgotten, to
set the rising for those cakes! And while
she is busy at It he hears her hummlng
Newton's old hymn. Tomorrow"
The husband looks up in amazement,
and says "Well, well, you are the great
est woman ever saw. I thought you
would faint dead away when | told YOU"
And as he looks at her all the glories of
physiognomy in the Court of Louis XIV,
on the modern fashion plates, are tame as
compared with the superhuman splendors
of that woman's face. Joan of Arc, Mary
Antoinette, and La Belle Hamilton, the
enchantment of the Court of Charles III,
are nowhere.
There is another time when the plainest
wife is a queen of beauty to her husband.
She has done the work of life. She has
reared her CHlluTeu lOI OOu anu hSdNCh,
and though some of them may be little
wild they will yet come back, for God has
promised. She is dying, and her husband
stands by. They think over all the years
of their companionship, the weddings and
the burials, the ups and the down, the
successes and the failures. They talk
over the goodness of God and His faith
funess to children's children. She has no
fear about going. The Lord has sustained
her so many years she would not dare to
distrust Him now The lips of both OF
them tremble as they say good-by and en-
courage each other about an early meeting
in better world. The breath is feebler
and feebler, and stops. Are you sure of it?
Just hold that mirror at the mouth, and
see if there is any vapor gathering on the
surface Gone AS one of the neighbors
takes the old man by the arm gently and
saws: Come, you had better 60 into the
next room and rest" he says: "Wait a
moment I must take one more look at
that face and at those hands," Beautiful.
Beautiful!
Nv friends, I hope you do not call that
death. That is an autumnal sunset. That
is a crystalline river pouring into a crys-
tai sea- That is the solo of human life
overpowered by hallelujah chorus. That is
a queens coronation That is heaven.
That is the way my father stood at eighty
two, seeing my mother depart at seventy
nine Perhaps so your father and mother
went. I wonder if we will die as well.
Bear Broke UP the Dance.
LII f,Nv