loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones 1."

Shall it be, then, that the Lord has so wonderfully ordered the mystery of marriage, by which so much of our life is blessed, and from which it altogether springs, to lead us, if possible, to see with what ease and natural readiness we should for Him abandon the love of the world, and every thing which is against the pure affection due to Him; and with what ardent, clinging, close desire we should cleave ever to Him, our only good, our only bliss? Shall it be that our Redeemer shall have ordered this mystery so graciously in vain for us so much in vain, that even in that very ordinance and gift, and by means of it, we should forget Him, seek Him less, love Him less? O God, forbid it! This were to turn away the more He calls; to love Him less the more abundantly He loves.

Thoughts like these will be of service at the time; and the more forcible perhaps after

Eph. v. 25-30.

wards from having been in the mind, and, it may be, upon the lips, at an hour long remembered.

(For devotions, see Appendix.)

F

CHAPTER IV.

EARLY MARRIED LIFE.

THE beginning is more than half, because that beginning has in it the type of the rest, the form which the remainder will for the most part follow. Thus it is that the boy forms the man. mencement of any affects the whole of it.

Thus it is that the comcourse of life vitally We must not despise. principle to matters

the application of this which people generally settle independently of religion, as if they were unworthy of its notice; or, at least, as if forgetfulness of it in so small a matter were very venial. The duty involved in the rule, "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," reaches far and wide. To forget it is not venial. But, if it were so, that would be poor comfort so long

as our nature is such that we are formed by little things, as well as by great; so long as circumstances, and the thousand trifling things which together make up a course or manner of life, form in us a certain character-make us more or less Christian. It is of no small moment, then, how new-married persons begin the conduct of their house. Their manner of furnishing, simple or expensive, their number of servants, the sort of position they take up, affect them for life, and this in many ways: by curtailing charities or leaving room for them; by bringing with them a household of servants quiet or extravagant, capable of religious discipline or incapable of it; by causing many cares and grievous temptations to covetousness, and worldliness, and speculation, and in some of dishonesty, in order to maintain a style adopted before children were born or grew up. Indeed, the manner of life and position at first adopted affect the conduct and character most materially, by plunging persons at once into the usual thoughtless whirl of society, leaving no time for devotion, and soon no love of it; or by gradually leading them into a soft and self-indulgent life, without any severity and self-denial. In short,

newly married persons have, at the outset, to decide whether or not they will aim at any thing like Christian simplicity; whether they and their house will take the personal life of their Saviour in any way for their pattern; or whether, careless or hopeless, they will yield to the current, be as others are around them, unlike even their immediate forefathers in many respects; and how unlike Christ and His early followers, the mere fact of their own conformity to the world, and their confessed hopelessness of carrying out the severer precepts of His Gospel, too readily declare.

Let these things be well considered, and then let those who are beginning life, as it were, do so as they will wish they had done when they are ending it; begin to Christ and their own souls as simply, as unexpensively, as quietly in all things as their station will permit in all these things, in furniture, and dress, and servants, and manner of life being

ALWAYS BELOW AND BEHIND THEIR EQUALS IN RANK, BECAUSE THE WORLD IS ALWAYS ABOVE AND BEYOND WHAT IS RIGHT, BOTH AS REGARDS GOD'S GLORY AND CHRIST'S POOR, One ques

AND ITS OWN ETERNAL WELFARE.

tion which will immediately present itself is