HOW TO MAKE THE MARRIED LIFE HAPPY.
When Robert Newton, the Wesleyan pulpit orator, * married, he and his bride began the married life by retiring twice each day to pray with and for each other. This practice they kept up, when opportunity served, to the end of life. Mark the result! When an old man, Mr. Newton remarked: “In the course of a short time, my wife and I shall celebrate the jubilee of our marriage; and I know not that, during the fifty years of our union, an unkind look or an unkind word has ever passed between us.” That was certainly a happy married life. What made it so? Did not that hour of daily prayer make the bond of peace so strong that none of the manifold trials of a long public life could even strain it? Had religion been stricken from their lives, would not pride, vanity, or passion, have grown into a power of discord in their hearts? Did such absolute peace ever reign over the married life of any irreligious pair for half a century, since the fall? Does it reign over the reader’s married life? Is not the religious element needed in his married life to render it even tolerable? Consider the claims of religion, dear reader, from this standpoint, and you will conclude that religion is needful, not only for your present and eternal happiness, but also for your domestic enjoyment. The godly husband and the godly wife are true help-meets, the one to the other. They belong to the same family, speak the same sweet language, are traveling the same happy road, and are journeying to the same blissful home. Finally, to all the dear children of God, we would say, Marry “only in the Lord.” Let his word be your guide, your rule, his glory your aim, and he will direct your path through life, will sustain you in death, and conduct you safely to his heavenly kingdom.—Apples of Gold.