Year: 1875

Or, II she, poor woman, is beginning
THIS welded life as so many of our girls do,
without the sturdy womanhood of the open
air, with bloom in her blessed face like
that you see on the blossom in hot-house.
while he has the strong vitality in him of
the hills, by the time she has borne those
SIN sons she had, she will have aged two
years for this one. l know, if lie has a
mans heart in his breast, he will love her
and cherish her all the more for her lost
beauty and broken health, and some bless
lngs may be found in the altered relation
which might never come to their perfect
quality, but l beg to say this is not the
question at all. This blended being of the
man and woman is first of all a piece of
exquisite mechanism ordained of Heaven
for perfect work on this earth, and it is
the very first condition that all the arms
OF its power should be equal to their de-
sign; but when this power fails by our
folly on either side, the thing in that shape
Is past praying for. We can only pray
then for power and grace to make the best
of it, and thank God that prayer can
always be answered. So hope when they
| cried, "Mercifully ordain that we NAV
grow old together" this most outward con-
dltlon was there in their nature, or else
they might as well have prayed that the
wheels of watch, one-half steel and the
other pewter, might grow old together.


So tell you, young men if you are not
wholesome clean through, and you young
women, if you will not train yourselves to
the finest and strictcst womanhood possible
to your nature, if you will not eat brown
bread, and work in the garden if you have
one, with any more grip than a bird
scratching, quit reading novels in a hot
room, and devouring sweetmeats, if you
dare not face the sun and wind, and try to
out-walk and out-run your brothers, or let
our sweet, wise Mother Nature buckle
your belt, you had better not say amen
when your stalwart young husband cries,
" Mercifully ordain that we may grow old
together"


said this Is the most outward condition.
Reaching inward, we find others more
serious. These young people have to find
each other out, and they may spend life
time in doing it. Some find each other
out as mariners have sometimes found out
the polar seas. They leave the shores of
their single life in the spring days with
tears and benedictions on them; they sail
on awhile in sunshine and fair weather.
and then, somehow, they find their way
little by little into the cold latitudes. and
see the sun sink day by day. and feel the
frost creep in and harden them until at
last they turn to ice, sitting at the same
table and sleeping in the same room.
Others again find each other out as in all
these years we have been finding out this
new world. They settle down at first
among the meadows by the spring, then
they go through belt Of shadow and lose
their way to find it again by and by, and
come out into wider spaces and a better
land than they left. They meet the rugged
hills and climb them together, strike the
deserts and cross them together, come to
the mountains and scale them together.
and then they see the other ocean and
reach it together; and so their Journey
ends. But through the shadow and shine
they keep together; they allow no disaster
to divide them, and no third person, not
even the mother-in-law, to interfere.


Sydney Smith says: "Marriage resem.
bles a pair of shears,-s joined that thev
cannot be separated, moving often in op-
posite directions, but always furnishing any
one that comes between them" The re- |
mark is as wise as it is witty, and he might |
have added: "Put the shears asunder. and |
then all you have left is two poor daggers." |
So it is possible that we may grow gray as
we find each other out, and wonder whv |
we never saw that trait before or struck |
that temper; but if there is this true heart |
between us that keeps the rivet in its place,
the years will be sure to bring new reasons
for more perfect union, and the sweet |
Scotch ballad will be psalm of life:


John Anderson, my 10 John


We climb the hill together


And many a eanty day, John





We've had WI one ane anither;


Moo we nun toddle doom John


But hand in hand wen 20,


And sleep together at the foot


John Anderson, my 10.
But in finding each other out again il is |
possible that, like my mothers old shears.
over which used to ponder when a boy.
one side will be greater than the other. |
Now, what are we to do about that? I |
found my old friend James Mott. de.
lighted one evening when went to call.
because as he was walking in his garden
two men went by and one said: "That
is James Mott" and the other answered.
sand who is James Motif" "Why, don't
you know? 1t is Lucretia Motifs hus-
band" Now, James Mott was anything
but common man. With lesser half
he would have seemed great, and he was
great in q perfect loyalty to truth and
goodness, but his wife vas the woman of a |
century, while he was so noble and proud