Year: 1878

Growing Aged Together.


There is touching little story in the
Apocrypha about young man and
woman who were Just married, and ready
to start together on their untried career,
and this was their first cry TO Heaven.
when the wedding guests were gone, and
they were left alone in their chamber.
Merclfully ordain that we may grow old
together"


The man had come long way after his
wife. and knew very little about her, ex-
cept as her father had told him they were
u good and honest stock. She was to 90
back with him and live with him under
the eye of her mother.in-law and how the
experiment would succeed, as the years
swept on, he, of course, had no idea. His
mother was woman of very notable quail
tiles. When her husband went blind
once, she turned out and made the living
with her spinning wheel, and they We're
ST. delighted with her work in one place
that they gave her a kid in addition to cher
days wages. But when she brought it
home and her husband heard il bleating,
he wanted 10 know where she got that kid
She told him it was present, but he did
| not believe her. He said she had stolen
II! Well. she could go out and work for
hlm, but she could not and would not sub
nit 10 II charge like that, so she turned on
him and gave him such piece of her
mind rs | suppose he never forgot as long
AS he lived, and after this they got along
very well, until better days came, and
there is no hint in the family history that
she ever referred to it again. She had
it out with him then and there, and made
him ashamed of himself, no doubt And
hen, as she knew he was true man, and
he knew she was true woman, in the
face Of this grim convulsion, they did not
| rush into the divorce court, or threaten to
DO so,-he did not turn brute, not she viz
EN-; the sky cleared when the storm was
over, AMI never clouded up again; and
how the story got out have no idea-per-
haps the man told it long time after,
against himself


This young man was their one child,
the pride and joy of their life, and this
was the home into which he was to bring
his wife. What would come of it he
coud not tell. Whether she would settle
kindly in the new place, or be all the time
| retting after the home of her childhood
whether such woman as his mother was,
and as his wife ought to be, could so blend
their supremacy rs to make one music, as
before, instead of discord that would
make him rue the day he brought them
together, like the elements of galvanic
battery. All this was unknown 10 him.
but ne knelt down with her and prayed
" Mercifully ordain that we may grow
aged together"


1t was one of those weddings, too, for
which we sometimes predict II leisurely
repentance. Love at first sight, followed
by very brief courtshp, and then the wed
ding, friends congratulations, kisses, tears,
laughter, and Il supper which they ate, no
doubt, looking shyly at each other and
wondering whether it could be possible
hey were husband and wife. Was it a
dream that had come true, or only Il
dream-a drama, or that out of which all
dramas are made-a mirage of sea and
mist on the horizon of their life, or the e5
sence and substance of realities? Pool
hings, they were both quite young; they
did not know much of the world they had
lived in, and nothing at all of the world
they were entering. Since they first met
| it had been Ellen unfallen, with the dew
of Heaven on it-did they wonder whether
"A brief space would find them outside ol
their Eden, in among the thorns ant
briars, with flaming sword at the gates
forbidding their return? can only won
der, | cannot tell; but this is worth mort
than all such surmse, they knelt down
there together, in tho still, sweet sanctity
of their chamber, with the light of Eden
ON their faces, with its sweetness and puri
iy like an atmosphere about them and the
man prayed and the woman said "amen
to this prayer.


1t was natural, also, coming together as
they did, that they should know very little
of each other in regard to those details ol
the life before them, on which SO very
much must depend in the course of time
There was story in their sacred books
about fore elder, who had made iusi
such match AS this, and it didn turn
ont well at all. They were unrelated
souls, and us time went on it revealed the
difference SO fatally that when he was an
old man and blind, she practiced on him
gross deception TO gain blessing fol
her favorile son he had intended to beStow
on his own. They may have thought o.
this and wondered whether their trust in
each other would ever come to such IN
end rs that. He had swept suddenly into
the circle of her life, IL fine, stalwart tei'
low, filling up the picture she had in hel
heart of the man she would marry. Bu
she really knew no more about him thar
ne knew about her. Could he hold hi:
own AS bread-winner, and she us bread
maker? Could he keep home over hel
head, and could she make it bright ant
trim, as a man loves to see his home wher
he comes home tired and wants to rest
Would he turn out selfish or sell-forgetful
or she IA frivolous gossip or II woman ht
could trust like his own soul? Would tht
sunshine break out in his face, rs he enter
ed his own door, and meet the sunshine
breaking out on hers? Would she cry
Husband, here's your slippers little An
ma has been toasting for half an hour; ;
and he reply, "Ah, wife, you're the wo
man to think of IL man. Where are th,
cbildrenpn or would he save all his snarl
until he had shut the door and sat down tt
supper, and she give him back his owr
with usuryP There it all lay before them
the vast, unknown possibility, leading t
Heaven or He'll by the time they get II
their silver wedding. There was but on'
wish resting in their hearts, come wha
would, resting there rs lark. in my oil
homeland, rests among the heather, ant
then it scared as the lark soars, singin!
into Heaven; and this was the burden o
their spring-time melody; "Merciiully or
duin that we may grow aged together"


Still we have to see how this cry woulC
he of no more use then than it is nov
sometimes, if it did not stand through al
the time to come at once rs Safeguard
and AN inspiration; safeguard agains
some things that prevent our growin3
aged together, and an inspiration to SOM
that help Us. 1t was a natural and mos
beautiful longing just then voicing itsel
out of their pure heart love. Ihey icl
sure they had been made for each other