Like the sweet happy flowers of the wilderness,

You have dwelt life to life with Nature;

And caught the wild beauty and grace of her ways,
And grown to her heavenlier stature.

In prospering calm, and in quickening strife,
Hath your womanly worth unfolden;

And sunshine and show'r have enricht your life,
And ripen'd its harvest golden.

There is good in the grimmest cloud o' the sky,
There are blessings in wintry weather:

Even grief hath its glory, since you, love, and I,
Have been husband and wife together.

O, life is not perfect with love's first kiss;
Who would win the blessing must wrestle;
And the deeper the sorrow the dearer the bliss,
That in its rich core may nestle.

Our angels oft greet us in tearful guise,

And our saviours come in sorrow;

While the murkiest midnight that frowns from the skies,

Is at heart a radiant morrow.

We laugh and we cry, we sing and we sigh,

And life will have wintry weather;

So we'll hope and love on, since you, love, and I,

Are husband and wife together"

GERALD MASSEY.

CHAPTER II.

VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP:

GOD having endowed man with all the elements of a social nature, it was indispensable to his happiness that he should have kindred beings with whom he could have agreeable intercourse and communion. Solitude and isolation were contrary to the laws of his being, so that Scripture expresses very forcibly the obvious truth, that "it is not good that the man should be alone." It is true he had been made in the Divine Image, and it is highly probable that there might be spiritual intercommunion between him and angels; but he had a physical nature, he was a compound being, in short man, and so must have some one having a similar constitution, and similar emotions, that he might enjoy true and entire communion with them. So that God in his boundless goodness provided for this want, and gave him a companion of his own nature, bone of his bone,

flesh of his flesh, spirit with his spirit, in all things the true and perfect reflection of himself-and she was to be in every sense "a help-meet for him," one who should command his esteem, attract his admiration, and be worthy of his heartiest love and most entire confidence

-a relative of the closest kin-a friend of the nearest compact a companion for all places and seasons, and one who should be the object of his heart's delight, and his most intense solicitude and joy. Here the bliss of Adam in his earthly Paradise was completed. He could sympathize, commune, converse, and mutually enjoy the bliss of Eden with his lovely other self, his wife, and the destined mother of all living human beings.

This subject is beautifully presented by the excellent and sainted John Angell James, where he says—

The domestic constitution is a divine institute. God formed it himself. "He taketh the solitary and setteth him in families ;" and, like all the rest of his works, it is well and wisely done. It is, as a system of government, quite unique: neither below the heavens, nor above them, is there any thing precisely like it. In some respects it resembles the civil government of a state in others, the ecclesiastical rule of a church; and it is there that the church and the state may be said to

meet. "This meeting, however, is only on a very small scale, and under very peculiar circumstances." When directed as it should be, every family has a sacred character, inasmuch as the head of it acts the part of both the prophet and priest of the household, by instructing them in the knowledge, and leading them in the worship of God; while at the same time, he discharges the duties of a king, by supporting a system of order, subordination and discipline. Conformably with its nature is its design: beyond the benefit of the individuals which compose it, and which is its first and immediate object, it is intended to promote the welfare of the national community to which it belongs, and of which it is a part: hence every nation has stamped a great value on the family compact, and guarded it with the most powerful sanctions. Well instructed, well ordered, and well governed families, are the springs, which, from their retirements, send forth the tributary streams that make up by their confluence the majestic flow of national greatness and prosperity: nor can any state be prosperous, where family order and subordination are generally neglected; nor otherwise than prosperous, whatever be its political forms, where these are generally maintained.

MARRIAGE IS AN INSTITUTION OF PECULIAR

IMPORTANCE.

It is of divine ordination, and almost coeval with the existence of the human race. It is the origin of families; the source of the continuance and welfare of nations. It distinguishes man from the brute creation, excludes the disorders of licentiousness, and cherishes the sweetest affections of the heart. There is no union, the quality of which is so intimate, the obligation of which is so binding, the consequences of which are so momentous. It even surpasses natural relation, "and for this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh; what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder."

Hence the opinion of those who would either banish or degrade marriage, has always been held by the wise and the virtuous, as a sentiment the most vile and injurious, equally destructive of morals, and of social happiness. Hence many of the philosophers and legislators, even in the heathen world, were peculiarly solicitous to establish, to sanction, to encourage, and to regulate this institution. But in this, as well as in every