Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-03-19

no part IN your business NO! linen,
If that Is not so, why do you not ask
God to help you select your partners
and guide you in your great financial
deals? Is that sentence Of the Lords
prayer a mOckery, Give us this day
our daily bread?" All, my brother, as
Il business man you had better get
down on your knees and pray for wis
dom. God will guide you. Yes, he
will. He will answer your prayers
in the store just the same rs he helped
the disciples to choose Matthias for
the vacancy In the apostolatc. God
hears his children pray by the store
counter on Monday and Tuesday and
Wednesday Just as much as he hears
his minister's pray on Sunday in the
church pulpit.
But though our partnership papers
at the store are important, there ore
closer and more important human re-
lationships than even this. And this
other partnership has as much to do
with what we' financially make as 1t
has to do with the home and with the
happiness of domestic life. | am al
luding to the partnership of the mar
riage altar. Some people look upon
marriage rs a joke, but 1t Is far from
being joke. The marriage altar
should he the most solemn place this
side of heaven. for if it is not the joy
full enslavcment of love it is the most
awful tragedy of life, and it is in too
many cases the merciless rock upon
which the craft of earthly happiness
Is shipwrecked
The MARRIAGE Contract.
But, though mnrriagc is one Of the
vital pivots upon which usefulness as
well as happiness turns yet how blind
~ and ignorantly most people enter
sacred wedlock. Too often it seems to
be the blind leading the blind. And
am not alluding simply TO the young
when they get married. but to the mid
die aged and TO the old who get mar
licd as we'll Indeed, / sometimes
think it is far easier for n young man
TO pick out a good wife than it is for Il
middle aged man to make Il happy Sc
lection. The older people grow the
more expert they become in the aOil-
| ity to deceive if they are naturally mean
and contemplate in disposition. And
! some OF the mCancSt people on earth
| can make the most pleasant. fascinat-
ing impressions if you do not see them
! too often. And surely woman has
I 10 he very rcpellent specimen of Il
sloveu if she cannot dress up and make
| herself attractive for q couple of hours
a week during the time her lover Is
with her. And yet it is upon this
slight and moar"r acquaintance that
some of the momentous partnerships
of marriage are entered into for better
or for worse. Do you wonder that so
, many of the marriages are failures
and are truly made for the worse? Do
YOU wonder that so many people look
upon marriage as lottery where a
man does not know whether he will
draw as a prize a bee that will gather
honey or n wasp that finds her chief
delight in thrusting n merciless sting:
And. If It IS difficult for Il man TO Sc
lect the right kind of a wife, how much
more difficult for woman to make the
right choice of II husband! A woman
seems to be entirely helpless. Her
danger IS greater and the results to
her at least may be even more tragic.
man may make success in spite Of
an unhappy marriage, but when wO-
man marries man beneath her she
inevitably drops to her husbands level,
and there is hardly an exception to the
rule. Now, when men and women go
counting what should they do? The
most important act is to 60 to God in
prayer. God would select for Isaac a
Rebecca and for Jacob a Pachel. Sure
~ he will select for you n marital COM
panion and make no mistake. Philip
Henry used to say to- his children,
"Please God and you will please me-"
yhen at the wedding he would say:
tOthers wish you all happiness.
wish you all holiness; then there is no
doubt that you will have all happi-
ness" Was it n foolish caution? If
we please God. are we not sure to
make the right move when we plight
our troth under the orange blossoms
We have often heard ministers plead
with wives to pray for their errlng hlls-
bands If some ministers would teach
tiiclI PcoPiC w may pSioiC lhcH ch-
tered the marital yoke. there would not
he so many erring husbands to pray
ior nor so many broken hearted wives.
But where should we make pray.
erful selections more earnest and in
tense than In our church work? II
there Is any one place set apart for the
purpose of prayer and for the demon
STATIONS Of the power of prayer. that
place should be the church of God. and
, yet / am amazed to find how often q
church in the crisis of its history neg
lects prayer, and this fact Is never more
demonstrated than in the way the av'
. erage church goes about to select ;
pastor.
; Selecting 4 Pastor.
Now, how does the average church
, select new pastor? First the congre
gauioD chooses a committee to look on
for a suitable candidate. This commit
toe sends Its invitations to diiferen
I ministers to ask them to supply thu
pulpit. The candidates come befor
the congregation and preach their tria
: sermons. The congregation Is divided
! into factions or c!iques. One faction
? likes one candidate because he ha
: curly hair and creases in his trouser
l and has n winning smile and is goo
II looking. Another faction favors an
+? other man because he is endowed wit