greater labour, more time, more alms, more undistracted zeal we may work in His vineyard; and yet it may not be against our own salvation to marry. God may call us, by talents given to us, and by opportunities of good offered to us, to a higher calling of greater usefulness, self-denial, unearthliness; and we, without sin, may be blind to the call, marry, miss a high grace and privilege, yet not endanger our souls by the mere act of marriage. But when a person has decided to marry, then the two principles may be considered practically one. They then unite in calling on men to marry "only in the Lord" only such persons as will make their marriage truly Christian before God and man, and to their own souls.

Oh, how sad these words are! how unlike the practice of God's people! Even the second principle, that most plain and homespeaking motive, the winning heaven and escaping hell, for our very own souls, our very selves, is so little really regarded, that to press the higher motive-the pure glory of God-seems almost hopeless. Let those, then, who can receive it, receive, and thank God. But now, in this cold and loveless time, well

meaning persons pass over, not only God's glory, but even the consideration of their own salvation in the first instance. They do not weigh the step beforehand, and with prayer decide whether or not marriage itself will be for their growth or decay in grace; but they act without any such thought. They may say, indeed, that it is unnatural to weigh such things coolly before the occasion; that the movement to marriage is by feeling and through the affections. But how is it, then, that worldly ends are so constantly regarded simply and independently of the affections? Men consider their means; they consider their comfort; they consider their position calmly beforehand; and can they not consider their souls ?

Well, then, must we take the least and lowest ground, and ask them, at any rate, to consider well the persons to whom they would unite themselves for life. Shall they regard beauty, and sweetness of manner, and birth, and property, and connexions, and not rather, before all things, the soul; the soul of the person who is sought; for the soul's sake of the person who seeks? "Seek thou for beauty of soul. Imitate the Bridegroom of

the Church. heaven?

... What better, tell me, What better than the stars?

than

Tell

me of what body you will, yet is there none so fair. Tell me of what eyes you will, yet are there none so sparkling. When these were created, the very Angels gazed with wonder, and we gaze with wonder now; yet not in the same degree as at first. Such is familiarity; things do not strike us in the same degree. How much more in the case of a wife! And if, moreover, disease come too, all is at once fled. Let us seek in a wife affectionateness, modest-mindedness, gentleness; these are the characteristics of beauty. Let us not look for wealth, nor for that high birth which is outward, but for that true nobility which is in the soul. Let no one be looking to get rich by a wife, for such riches are base and disgraceful; no, let no one look to get rich from this source'."

We have temptations enough within us and around us without adding this of having an evil influence ever present, ever quenching our little dying flame of piety, ever catching away the word out of our hearts, tempting us to sin.

1 S. Chrys. Hom. on Eph. v., Lib. of Fathers, pp. 317,318.

Is the way to heaven too broad, that we would make it narrower ? Is earth so high up, or is heaven so low, that there is no ascent, and that a weight, ever clinging to us and dragging us down, may be despised? "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" is written in history as well as in precept. It was part of Esau's downward course to join himself to the stranger and idolater. The wisest man of all time became as a fool, and died as a fool, through marriage. The holy line of Judah was first corrupted and led into the worship of Baal by unholy marriage: and usurpation, dyed in the blood of grandchildren, was the firstfruits. Christians can hardly place themselves in greater temptation and danger of spiritual declension than by uniting themselves, by affections and bonds so intimate as those of marriage, with persons whose worldliness, or lightness, or other unholy habit of mind, like a continual dropping, will wear away their resolution for good. The petition, "Lead us not into temptation," belongs not to those who wilfully run such risks. And

2 2 Kings viii. 26, 27; xi. 1-3.

not only are personal devotion and holiness perilled by such an unhallowed union, but the earthly love, which led to it, is endangered. We cannot love them so well whom we believe to be less beloved of God 3. If the piety of the one stands, and the ungodliness of the other does not yield, there is a continual want of sympathy where sympathy is most desired. Solitary devotions, solitary walks to church, solitary communions, are so many declarations and sources of division. They cannot continue without occasioning differences; and they constantly suggest an agonizing thought which occurs, and is cast out only to recur again and again, that the union of such a marriage is only earthly, that wanting, as it does, the only centre of all eternal unity-a common God-it exists but for a time, and must be followed by an everlasting separation.

The misery of such division has been well described by the contrast of unity in faith. "How can we find words to describe the happiness of that marriage, which the Church joineth together, and the oblation confirmeth,

3 Bishop Taylor's Marriage Ring, Part I.