Through gathering clouds and stormy Fate, Two golden watch-words guide and comfort me; I cling to Patience and Fidelity. In all the weary changes of my day I strive to follow duty faithfully; With subtle influence Patience strengthens me. LOVE MUST BE UPRAISED. Love must be disentangled from the net-work of ignorance. It must be upraised as the spirit of God in man. Love cannot be deep unless it is also pure. None of the loves are truly wise unless educated, and naturally unfolded. The sex-love and philoprogenitiveness are the basic loves, and the rich soil whence springs luxuriant after-growth of myriad joys and pleasures. The subversion of love is hatred or repulsion. Its inversion is selfishness, arctic rigidity and misanthropy. From its unrestrained and extreme energies issue all violence, passion, vice and consequent misery. Mere sexualism forms no motive in true marriage relations-physical intercourse is the least of all the attractions and endearments of a high marriage of love. There is much harm, and less happiness, in sexual indulgence. High born natures, the spiritually organized and harmonially exalted cannot bear to think that the spirit should yearn through the flesh; yet we respect the body as the temple wherein our love dwelleth, to perfect the soul. Actual marriage can only be realized by healthy souls in healthy bodies, inspired by healthy love, fitness, respect, tenderness, and reciprocalness, all of which must conjoin; for in the truly married the very essence of their souls enters each other, as a lifeprinciple, and fills them with consciousness of perfect repose. Into this dwelling-place distrust and unrest can never enter; from this vestibule the soul gazes upon the boundless possibilities of a future celestial union. Its attractions They love beyond Genuine love is dual, normal love is pure. are mental. Each loves the other's soul. measure to walk, talk and be together, and interchange thoughts and emotions; but the love of each for the other's spirit principle so far transcends that for their persons merely, that the latter is hardly recognized. Conjugal love being but one-twelfth part of the individual's life and being. The reign of this pure mental love forestalls even conjugal discord, much more infidelity-both being precluded by the very nature of the love element itself. For love so magnifies the excellences and is so totally blind to the faults of its objects, that each sees only the good traits of the other. My heart I bid thee answer How are love's marvel's wrought? And tell me how love cometh? "It comes unsought-unsent!" And tell me how love goeth? "That was not love which went!" Where there is true love there is reverence. The mission of marriage is more to the soul than the body. adjustment of the conjugal parties constitutes the only true and blessed marriage. This is termed the unity of marriage, the consummation of cultured love. Superlatively happy beyond conception-in heaven though on earth-is she whom man makes happy. Marriage and the relations that grow out of it are the central, vital relations of our being. From this, result our deepest responsibilities, our most sacred duties, the holiest endearments and experiences of life, and the influences that are most potent in shaping our destiny. L Love is the unfolding of immeasurable cares, which are yet better than any joys, outside our love. They who truly love others will always be loved in return. There is a pure and tranquil bliss when heart communes with heart. Our happiness in this world depends on the affections we are enabled to inspire. Affection, kindness, the sweet offices Of love and duty, are to us as needful No affection, save friendship, has in it any sure eternity. By friendship in marriage is meant companionship of inner lives, community of aims and efforts, the lofty concord of aspiring minds. Many a husband and wife are made friends, above all their mere love, by sharing in some earnest and condign social ambition, which produces that wondrous identification which is the type of complete friendship. Friendship is a species of nobility. The history of friendship is made up of continual reflections and thoughtful scrutiny and sympathetic watchfulness. Every new friendship is another rill of heavenly refreshment poured into the heart. There is a necessity of intimate relations of affection with the worthiest persons. The time is short for soul's acquaintanceship. It is only a few years we have to aid each other in this life. Let us be kind and tender in our affections; and, if discord does come in, let us not speak and act impetuously. Oh happy you! who, blest with present bliss, Change is the lot of all. Ourselves with scorn And wonder whence the fancied charm was born, The worth of life lies largely in the fact that the spirit is always hungry, and finds its happiness in being fed. True dignity, happiness and peace are to be found rather in the quiet region of personal culture and the affections. To have richness and peace of soul, we should have less of vague passion and ambitious activity, and more of dedicated sentiment to the inner life. If any soul has a healthy thirst unslaked or a healthy hunger unappeased, be sure it has not drank of every fountain nor eaten of every fruit in the illimitable gardens of the Lord. We have no loves which have not their objects; no feelings which have not their friendships; and there is not any matter, nor any spirit, nor any creature, but it is capable of unity of some kind with other creatures, and in that unity is its perfection and theirs. The spell of mind on mind, once formed, can never be broken. It is sweet to feel by what fine-spun threads our affections are drawn together. Thou art to me all things under heaven! Earth holds no other like to thee-my fixed mind shall still gaze on thee through all space and through all time. Asleep, awake, by night or day, The friends I seek are seeking me. Soul crieth unto soul! Than this law, by which soul answereth unto soul, through great mountains and distances, there is none more positive, unalterable, universal or divine. Hiawatha Hiawatha! And the desolate Hiawatha, Miles away amid the mountains, Heard that sudden cry of anguish, Calling to him in the darkness, Perfect love and perfect happiness practically annihilate time and space. This world would be inexplicable, did not certain sentiments have a little of eternity in them, that when souls touch they put off all the poor conditions of earth, and, happier and freer, already obey the laws of a better world. Oh, souls dissevered far and wide, By ocean or by inland sea, A kindred spirit waits for thee. Each day the same fond memories will command the soul's attention. There are teachings on earth, and sky, and air, But louder still than voice beneath, above, He is heard to speak through a mother's love. Unselfish love makes mothers missionaries in their homes and in their hearts. of a beloved mother. God is present, embodied in the form Backward, turn backward, O Time! in your flight- Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue; |