nothing between them but entire affection. Heart will be open to heart-two really one.

What has been said supposes prayers offered together; and even from the first such a practice is very natural. Afterwards there will be farther objects of common interest and anxiety; but from the first it comes to the married to pray together in some portion of their devotions, for help to discharge their mutual duties, and for their household. This is simply natural. How can they who are together in every thing else be apart in this ? How, in that which is dearest to them of all subjects, can they be separate? He in Whom both trust, by Whom they were given to each other, in Whom they are undivided-He whom both seek as their portion for ever, is the subject upon which, if silent on all else, they could never hold their peace.

(For Prayers for the Married, see Appendix.)

CHAPTER V.

MARRIED LIFE.

SOMETIMES God withholds the gift of children from those who tenderly love each other, and long to be parents. Surely, when He does so, they may pray, subject to God's will, and sweetly seeking it, with the holy women of old time, that the prayers and promises of the Service by which they were united may be effectual. It is no sin to pray for that which God withholds, if we pray with affectionate willingness to embrace His holy will concerning us so soon as we shall know it. In this spirit, then, let the childless pray earnestly and perseveringly. But if God answer them. not according to their words, and refuse their request, as He refused His own Apostle his, let them not think their prayers vain, and that no blessing was in store for them, because they received not that which they desired. The highest of God's gifts are those which cross

our wishes most, cross our earthly desire with a heavenly calling and grace. He calls the afflicted to Himself the Comforter; the troubled to Himself the Rest; the childless or bereaved to Himself, taking the place of father, or mother, or wife, or child, as the sun supplies the need of the lamp, and perfect strength of the sick man's staff. Let the childless praise God, because He offers Himself to them in a peculiar manner to fill all their hearts, to take up all their desires and centre and fix them in Himself, Who can never fail them. Let them perceive their vocation to serve Him with more unearthly zeal, more bountiful offerings, more frequent devotions, more self-denying labours. As He has given Himself to them in place of children, so let them bestow on Him the same, nay rather far more, but at the least the same time and labour, and toil and expenditure, as the bringing up of a family would have entailed. Let them give all for One Who will be their All" all for all"."

But if the "merciful Lord and heavenly Father, by whose gracious gifts mankind is increased," seems about to bestow the blessing 7 Imitation of Christ, book iii. c. 27.

of children, not only hope and joy, but deep anxious thoughts must at times fill the heart, and have a right to enter, have a work to do, a work of preparation.

The Church would not pray three times each week for 'women labouring with child,' but for the 'great pain and peril of childbirth.' The hour of "trouble" is not a time for repentance, often hardly for prayer.

“Pray thou for her whose prayers to-day
In sighs of anguish died away."

She who would have the full consolations of faith should meet her hour of darkness as she would meet the day of darkness, which indeed to her it may soon become. She should diligently examine herself, and search into her life, for some time previously; and collecting all which weighs upon her conscience should disburden her soul, seek and obtain peace before the trial comes upon her. This she may do in case of any burden or scruples by confession to God's Ambassadors of peace, and by "the benefit of absolution;" or otherwise by solemn private confession to God before receiving the Holy Communion, and by earnestly desiring pardon for the sins con

fessed through the absolution of the Office and the drinking of the "Blood of the New Testament which was shed for many for the remission of sins."

And so, when pain and anguish come upon her, she can say, 'I will not fear, for God is on my side,' she can suffer patiently the punishment of sin, changed by repentance into a blessing; a suffering conforming to the image of Christ; an affliction like that of the Church when she lost Christ for a season to find Him for ever; a figure of this whole life of trouble passing away in an hour, and leaving only joy over an eternal birth: and thus whether she live she will live unto the Lord, or whether she die she will die unto the Lord, so that living or dying she will be the Lord's.

The first thought of parents after those of thankfulness should be for the Baptism of the child which is born into the world. They who have given to it a life by which it was "born in sin and a child of wrath" should never rest until it is made a "child of God" and has received the new life, the only life which is life. And herein parents should not follow the corrupt custom of deferring Baptism until the mother can witness it, however great such