Marriage in Christian preaching symbolizes the sacred union of husband and wife, reflecting God’s covenantal love and grace (Ephesians 5:25-33). Illustrations often use images of enduring bonds, heartfelt communication, and mutual care to show how love, forgiveness, and spiritual unity strengthen and preserve this lifelong commitment.
A lifelong Christian marriage grows stronger and more beautiful through shared grace.
There is no greater blessing on earth than a good marriage. A young couple was visiting with an older couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. "Fifty years!" the young husband exclaimed, "That is a long time to be married to one person." The old gentleman looked over at his wife with love in his eyes and said, "It would have been a lot longer without her."
In Christian marriage, two people grow more and more one with every passing year. They are "fellow heirs of the grace of life" and they are more than happy to share. Each is helping the other on the way to eternity.
Someone asked, "Is there anything more beautiful than a boy and girl clasping clean hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage?" The answer is "Yes, there is a more beautiful thing: it is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey on that path. Their hands are gnarled, but still clasped; their faces are seamed but still radiant; their hearts are tired and bowed down but still strong. They have proved the happiness of marriage and vindicated it from the jeers of cynics."
Marriage thrives when spouses nurture each other with love, devotion, and care.
Be careful in your selection.
Once selected, give your entire thoughts to preparation for domestic use.
Some wives insist upon keeping them in a pickle, others are constantly getting them into hot water. This makes them sour, hard, and sometimes bitter. Even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good, by garnishing them with kisses, wrapping them in a blanket of love, keeping them warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion, and serving with peaches and cream.
Thus prepared they will keep for years!!
Expressing love and appreciation regularly strengthens marriage bonds.
Amid the cares of married life,
In spite of toil and business strife,
If you value your sweet wife,
Tell her so!
There was a time you thought it bliss
To get the favor of a kiss;
A dozen now won't come amiss-
Tell her so!
Do not act as if she has passed her prime,
As though to please her were a crime-
If e'er you loved her, now is the time;
Tell her so!
Never let her heart grow cold;
Richer beauties will unfold.
She is worth her weight in gold;
Tell her so!
Effective communication is essential for a joyful and blessed marriage relationship.
Pastor Charles Curtis stresses the importance of really communicating:
"My husband does not talk to me," is the complaint of 80 percent of American wives. It has been claimed that "One hundred percent of the people seeking professional help for their marriages have problems of communication." In our world, the power to send and receive messages reaches around the globe (even out into space), and this information is available in seconds! Yet, husbands and wives are unable to successfully communicate across the breakfast table. "Please talk to me" is the request and basic need in many homes.
Communication is a rich source of blessing. What a joy it is to talk and listen! Recently, I had a sore throat and was to preach that night. In order to save my throat, I wrote notes and did not speak for the entire day. It was maddening and frustrating. "A word spoken in season, how good is it" (Proverbs 15:23)! "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver" (Proverbs 25:11).
The lack of communication multiplies our problems as it destroys bridges over which we need to travel. An old farmer had trouble guiding his mule, but said nothing. When asked why he didn't speak to the mule, he responded, "That old mule kicked me five years ago and I ain't spoke to him since." Marriage offers companionship, and this is impossible without communication. People can be lonely in a crowd or in a marriage. Lines of communication should be carefully built and maintained in the home. "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges" (Joseph E. Newton).
Communication is more than just speaking. How well do we listen? The Scripture admonished us: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19). While a senator, Lyndon Johnson had this sign in his office: "You ain't learning nothing when you're doing all the talking." Listening is essential to communication. Parents often fail to really hear what their children may be saying. Teenages run away from home "because it is the only way they know how to cope with a family that has forgotten how to listen" (Fred Gross). Listening has a way of saying-"To me, you are an important person. I appreciate you, I accept you, I love you, and I want to hear what you have to say." It is only by listening that we can correctly respond.
Forgiveness, communication, and avoiding criticism are key to healing a struggling marriage.
Never consider divorce an option. It is not a solution to your problem. Divorce is not an acceptable alternative because God says it is not.
Do not compare your mate or your marriage to others. There is not another person on earth like you. Your mate is also unique. This means that your marriage is unique. Let God make it what He wants it to be. He will make it perfect!
Forgive your mate. You are to forgive as Christ has forgiven you. You are a sinner. He or she is a sinner. You are not perfect-so be willing to forgive one another. And do it right away before any bitterness can build up.
Stop all criticism. Love does not criticize and find fault. Therefore, if you are critical of your mate, you do not have a heart of love. Stop all criticism. Instead, try a little praise. It works like magic!
Start communicating with your mate. Communication is completely broken down in many homes and marriages. Start listening to what your mate is saying as well as to what he or she is not saying. Break down the barriers by being vulnerable. Try saying, "Honey, what is the biggest fault I have?" Then say, "Would you please help me, by the grace of God, to gain victory over that fault?"
Refuse any relationship outside your marriage in which affection is sought or given. This substitute could even be a relative, a friend, or a neighbor. Do not seek to make someone else a substitute for what you are not getting in your marriage. You will never solve your problem doing this.
Trust your mate. Trust your spouse, even if he or she is wrong -you are right in trusting. A marriage must be based on trust. It cannot survive without it.
Do something every day to please your mate-something that you know will bring your partner joy and happiness. This is not asking much-to do one thing-but it pays big dividends.
Thank God every day for the 25 best qualities in your mate. Write them down. Concentrate on them and the positive will soon outshine the negative.
A strong walk with Christ strengthens marriages and reduces marital difficulties.
Some people think that courtship is when a man spoons, and marriage is when he must fork over. It is tragic to realize that in the church of Christ there are constant marital difficulties. Christian mates ought to be among the happiest of people on the face of the planet! Why should a man and woman who profess to be in love with the Lord continue in misery because of a rocky marital relationship?
The closer husbands and wives walk with Christ the easier their lives together will become. But show me a husband and wife who are unfaithful to the Bridegroom, Jesus, and I will show you a couple in deep trouble. Will a Christian wife nag and complain and bemoan everything or will she be a radiant help-meet for the man with whom she chose to live out her life? Will a husband come home and sequester himself behind the evening newspaper if he really wants to demonstrate Christian love?
Once a housewife asked her husband if he minded escorting her out to the garbage can. He asked why she would make such a silly request. She replied, "I just want to be able to tell the neighbors that we go out together once in a while." Marriage is a give-and-take proposition, and a wise couple soon realizes that each must give more than was thought during courtship.
Too many mates fritter their lives away and burden others by supposing they have insurmountable problems within their marriages. But Paul reminds us: "Wives, submit to you husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them" (Colossians 3:18-19). Unselfish love is the key to successful Christian marriages.
Couples who attend church and pray together have a significantly lower divorce rate.
Although one in every two married couples ends up divorced, certain categories of marriages have a much higher success rate. A national survey revealed that when two criteria are present-the couple attends church, and they pray together at home-there was only one divorce in one thousand marriages!
Husbands must provide emotional affirmation to meet their wives' deep needs.
When did you last tell your wife, "I love you?" When did she last hear those words that are music to her ears-"I really do need you"? Have you recently told her, "Honey, I think you are a really good mother for our children?"
The vast majority of wives are starving for verbal affirmation from their husbands. And most men are so thoughtless and insensitive that they will not give their wives what the wives desperately want and deserve.
We husbands gladly encourage our wives to buy food and grudgingly encourage them to buy clothes, but most who come to counseling just cannot dig deeply enough to give complimentary words. So, marriages are unfulfilling, wives feel unappreciated, and many marriages wither and die.
Husbands, speak up! God expects you, as the head, to do more than provide financially for your wife. He wants you to also provide for her emotional well-being.
Whisper it, write it, or shout it-just get those words of affirmation to the ears of your wife.
True unity in marriage is like perfectly polished glass surfaces that cannot be separated.
Dr. Joseph Henry said that during the Second World War, two physics graduate students heard their professor say that someday a method would be devised for polishing glass that would replace steel as the flattest surface known to man. When this was done, he said, a revolution in technology would take place.
After graduation, these two young physicists formed a partnership and set out to prove their professor's theory. They established a laboratory and went to work. Several years later, after a very complicated process, they had a great breakthrough. They produced such a flat surface that it could be used to measure objects within two-millionths of an inch-a great improvement over anything previously developed.
When Dr. Henry visited their plant, one of the owners said to him, "See these two squares of glass? They have been put through this new process, and I want to show you something." Then he simply placed the two pieces together, handed them to Dr. Henry, and said, "Now take them apart." After he pulled, pushed, twisted, turned and exerted all of his strength, Dr. Henry still could not budge them.
The young physicist explained, "Two surfaces are held together by a certain number of points of contact, but ordinarily there are so few they easily come apart. The points on these two pieces of glass, however, have been ground down until they are almost completely flat surfaces. They are held together by so many points of contact that it is almost impossible to get them apart."
If you let God rub down the rough edges in you and your spouse, nothing will be able to tear you apart.
Character is more valuable than wealth in choosing a husband.
An Athenian who was hesitating whether to give his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with a small fortune, or to a rich man who had no other recommendation, went to consult Themistocles on the subject. "I would bestow my daughter," said Themistocles, "upon a man without money rather than upon money without a man."
— Percy
Kindness and love can overcome threats of separation in marriage.
The wife of a pious man told him, one day, that, if he did not give over running after the missionaries, she would certainly leave him. Finding that he continued obstinate, she one day sent for him from the harvest-field, and informed him that she was about to go; and that, before she left the house, she wished some articles to be divided. "No, no!" said the husband. "You have been, upon the whole, a good wife to me. If you will leave me, though the thought greatly distresses me, you must take the whole with you: you well deserve it all." The same answer was given to a similar proposal respecting some other articles. At last the wife said, "So you wish me to leave you?"—"Far from that," said the husband. "I will do any thing but sin, to make you stay; but, if you will go, I wish you to go in comfort."—"Then," said she, "you have overcome me by your kindness: I will never leave you."
A smile and kindness can restore love and faithfulness in a husband.
It is related in the life of William Hutton, that a country-woman called upon him, one day, and told him that her husband behaved unkindly to her, and sought other company, often passing his evenings from home, which made her feel very unhappy; and, knowing Mr. Hutton to be a wise man, she thought he might be able to tell her how she should manage to cure her husband. "The remedy is a simple one," said he; "but I have never known it to fail. Always treat your husband with a smile." The woman expressed her thanks, dropped a courtesy, and went away. A few months afterwards, she waited on Mr. Hutton with a couple of fine fowls, which she begged him to accept. She told him, while a tear of joy and gratitude glistened in her eye, that she had followed his advice; and her husband was cured. He no longer sought the company of others, but treated her with constant love and kindness.
A true husband supports and holds the household together, not scatters it.
It means literally "the band of the house," the support of it, the person who keeps it together, as a band keeps together a sheaf of corn. There are many married men who are not husbands, because they are not the band of the house. Truly, in many cases, the wife is the husband; for oftentimes it is she, who, by her prudence and thrift and economy, keeps the house together. The married man who by his dissolute habits strips his house of all comfort is not a husband. In a legal sense, he is, but in no other: for he is not a house-band: instead of keeping them together, he scatters them among the pawnbrokers.
A mercenary husband values money over his wife's well-being.
Dr. Franklin, with a party of his friends, was overtaken by bad weather on one of the West-Indian islands (which they had put into on a voyage to Europe), and took shelter in a public-house kept by a foreigner. Upon their requesting that more wood might be brought and put on the fire, the inhuman brute of a landlord ordered his sickly wife to go out in the storm and bring it, while a young sturdy negro-wench stood by doing nothing. When asked why he did not send the girl rather than his wife, he replied, "That wench is worth four hundred dollars; and, if she should catch cold and die, it would be a great loss to me: but, if my wife dies, I can get another, and perhaps money into the bargain."
Choosing late from remaining options leads to settling for less than the best in marriage.
A man, asking how it happened that many beautiful ladies took up with but indifferent husbands after many fine offers, was thus answered by a young lady. A young friend of hers, during a walk, requested her to go into a canebrake, and there get him the handsomest reed: she must get it in once going through, without turning. She went, and, in coming out, brought him quite a mean reed. When he asked if that was the handsomest one she saw, "Oh, no!" replied she: "I saw many finer as I went along; but I kept on in hopes of a much better, until I had gotten nearly through; and then was obliged to select the best that was left."
A good wife is a man's greatest blessing and source of comfort and strength.
If you are for pleasure, marry; if you prize rosy health, marry. A good wife is heaven's last best gift to a man; his angel of mercy; minister of graces innumerable; his gem of many virtues; his casket of jewels; her voice, his sweetest music; her smiles, his brightest day; her kiss, the guardian of innocence; her arms, the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life; her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward; her lips, his faithful counsellors; her bosom, the softest pillow of his cares; and her prayers, the ablest advocates of Heaven's blessing on his head.
— Bp. Taylor
Marriage is the best state for a man and improves his character.
Marriage is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state. Johnson.
Ending a marriage quietly is less harmful than living in ongoing unhappiness.
It is a less breach of wedlock to part, with wise and quiet consent, betimes, than still to profane that mystery of joy and union with a polluting sadness and perpetual distemper. Milton.
Marry for love wisely, choosing a suitable and equal partner.
Take the daughter of a good mother. — Fuller. — Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. — William Penn. — If you wish to marry suitably, marry your equal. — Ovid. — Hasty marriage seldom proveth well. — Shakspeare. — The reason why so few marriages are happy is because young ladies spend their time in making nets, not in making cages. — Swift.
Marriage is risky because it is hard to leave once entered, like frogs fearing a well.
Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in Æsop were extremely wise: they had a great mind to some water; but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again. Selden.
Beauty often suffers an unfortunate fate, as the goddess Venus married an ill-favored god.
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, is reported to have sprung from the foam of the sea. When she appeared among the gods, all were charmed with her beauty, and each demanded her for his wife. Jupiter, the father of gods and men, gave her to Vulcan, in gratitude for the thunderbolts he had forged for him. Thus the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the most ill-favored of the gods; an illustration of the usual fate of beauty.
Marriage requires submission to all circumstances, like going to war.
The Admiral of Castile said, that he who marries a wife, and he who goes to war, must necessarily submit to every thing that may happen.
A couple's daily prayer together sustained fifty years of loving marriage.
Rev. Robert Newton, the Wesleyan pulpit orator, and his bride, began their 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. 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."
Parental forgiveness can restore peace and promote happiness in marriage.
Some years ago, a Kentish heiress eloped with a young marine; and, accompanied by a confidential friend to London, the parties were married. The next day, the happy pair were surprised at perceiving the carriage of the lady's father drive up to the house. The old gentleman soon entered their apartment. "My children," said he, "I come not to upbraid you. I opposed your union for no selfish motives. My daughter's happiness was all that I had in view; and as I once thought (erroneously I hope) that I could no better promote it than by refusing my consent to your marriage, so I am now convinced that I could not more effectually destroy it than by continuing my resentment." Perry.
Hidden conflicts in marriage are harder to resolve than open ones.
Jars concealed are half reconciled; which if generally known, 'tis a double task to stop the breach at home, and men's mouths abroad. Fuller.
Marrying for selfish gain leads to prolonged suffering and destruction.
Mothers who force their daughters into interested marriage are worse than the Ammonites, who sacrificed their children to Molocle,— the latter undergoing a speedy death; the former suffering years of torture, but too frequently leading to the same result. Lord Rochester.
Marriage is a serious commitment with lasting consequences, as many proverbs warn.
You have tied a knot with your tongue you cannot undo with your teeth. A man's best fortune or his worst is his wife. — English. — He that goes far to marry goes to be deceived or to deceive. The day you marry you kill or cure yourself. — Spanish. — Before you marry, have where to tarry. — Italian. — It is easier to build two hearths than always to have a fire on one. — German.
Spiritual growth in marriage requires both partners to strive together toward God.
Dr. Payson, meeting an irreligious lady whose husband was trying to serve God, addressed her thus: "Madam, I think your husband is looking upwards, — making some effort to rise above the world towards God and heaven. You must not let him try alone. Whenever I see the husband struggling alone in such efforts, it makes me think of a dove endeavoring to fly upwards while it has one broken wing. It leaps and flutters, and perhaps rises a little way; and then it becomes wearied, and drops back again to the ground. If both wings cooperate, then it mounts easily."
Marriage is a sacred calling, making one a spiritual leader in the family.
It is a solemn thing to be married; to have to preach to a congregation from your own loins; to have God put the hand of ordination on you in the birth of your children, and say to you, "Now art thou a priest unto those whom I have given thee." If ever the stream of life should flow like crystal water over shining stones, it should be the stream of daily life in the family. Beecher.
Marriage requires enduring trials with patience and steadfastness.
Major C. says, that, in certain Amazonian tribes, the bridegroom is subjected to a singular test. On the day of the marriage, while the wedding festivities are going on, his hand is tied up in a paper bag filled with fire-ants. If he bears this torture smiling and unmoved, he is deemed fit for the trials of matrimony. Agassiz.
Unequal marriages, like mismatched yokes, are harmful and unlawful for believers.
As the Lord commanded that an ox and an ass should not be yoked together, because the match is unequal; even so it is an unlawful thing for the faithful to marry with infidels, or to have any thing else to do with them. Caudray.
Marrying ungodly partners can lead to spiritual downfall and eternal consequences.
A consistent Christian young man became attached to a pleasure-loving and gay young lady, and married her against the advice of his brethren. Her influence silenced his prayers, estranged him from the house of God, and led him to her ways of pleasure. Sickness called his attention back to religion. Twice his wife had driven him from duty. Now, in agony and remorse, with a fearful eternity before him, he gazed upon her, and cried, "Rebecca, Rebecca, you are the cause of my eternal damnation!" and died.
Marriage symbolizes two lives joining and flowing together as one.
The Cherokee marriage-ceremony is very expressive. The man and woman join hands over running water, to indicate that their lives are thenceforth to flow on in one stream.
The word 'wife' means weaver, symbolizing her role in the home.
And now let us see whether the word "wife" has not a lesson. It literally means a weaver. The wife is the person who weaves. Before our great cotton and cloth factories arose, one of the principal employments in every house was the fabrication of clothing: every family made its own. The wool was spun into thread by the girls, who were therefore called spingters; the thread was woven into cloth by their mother, who, accordingly, was called the weaver, or the wife; and another remnant of this old truth we discover in the word "heirloom," applied to any old piece of furniture which has come down to us from our ancestors, and which, though it may be a chair or bed, shows that a loom was once a most important article in every house. Thus the word "wife" means weaver; and, as Trench well remarks, "in the word itself is wrapped up a hint of earnest, in-door, stay-at-home occupations, as being fitted for her who bears this name."
Sometimes it is right for a husband to obey his sensible wife.
A man once asked a cadi whether a husband ought to obey his wife; and the cadi answered that he need not do so. Then the man continued, "My wife pressed me this morning to bring thee a pot of beef-suet. So I have done well in not obeying her." Then said the cadi, "Verily it is sometimes right even to obey a sensible wife."
— Kelly
Various cultural proverbs give practical advice about choosing and living with a wife.
If you want a wife, choose her on Saturday, not on Sunday. No woman is ugly when she is dressed. — Spanish. — Choose neither jewel nor woman nor linen by candle-light. — Italian. — Take your wife's first advice, but not her second. — English. — You may ding the Deil into a wife; but ye'll ne'er ding him out o' her. — Scotch.
Wives' devoted love moved an enemy emperor to pardon their husbands during siege.
Guelph, Duke of Bavaria, was besieged in his castle, and compelled to capitulate to the Emperor Conrad III. His lady demanded for herself and the other ladies of the castle safe conduct to a place of safety, with whatever they could carry; which was granted. To the astonishment of all, these ladies of quality appeared, bearing their husbands on their backs. The emperor was so much pleased with the conjugal devotion of the wives, that he pardoned the husbands for their sakes.
The wedding ring's gold and shape symbolize enduring love and heartfelt devotion in marriage.
It is not without significance that the Church ordains that there shall be a gold ring used in solemnizing marriage. Of gold it must be, intimating that love should abound betwixt the married couple,—love the best of graces; and round it must be to show that love must continue to the end. Besides, this ring must be put by the man upon the fourth finger of the woman, signifying thereby, that as there is a vein in that finger which corresponds with the heart, so she should be cordially affected to her husband, having no though of any other man as long as he lives. Spencer
668 WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.
— WOMAN
Unequally yoked marriages cause spiritual distress and hinder faithful Christian service.
The Rev. S. Kilpin, of Exeter, had witnessed the awful consequences produced in the church of Christ, and in families, from those who professed to be the disciples of Jesus, forming marriages contrary to the command,—"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers,"—"only in the Lord," etc. As he never shunned to declare the whole counsel of God, this subject was presented to his congregation. The next day, a gentleman, whose name or residence he never knew, called to thank him for the discourse, adding, that his state of mind when he entered Exeter was most distressing, as he was on the very point of complying with a dreadful temptation, which would have embittered his future life. He had been a disciple of Christ, was anxious to consecrate his life to the per as well as usual—soon after, her speech faltered, her eyes closed, and before seven she was a breathless corpse, without any apparent cause.
# RIAGE.
service of his adorable Master, and had sought a helpmate to strengthen his hands in serving God. A lady, whom he deemed pious, had accepted his addresses; but when every customary arrangement was made, she had dishonorably discarded him. His mind was so exceedingly wounded and disgusted, that he had determined to choose a wife who made no profession of religion, and had fixed on another object for his addresses, with every prospect of success, although he had not as yet mentioned his intention to her. He added, "But the providence of God led me, an entire stranger in this city, to your meeting-house. You may suppose, that your subject arrested my attention. You appeared to be acquainted with every feeling of my soul. I saw my danger, and perceived the temptation, and the certain ruin of my peace if the dreadful snare had not been broken. You, sir, under God, have been my deliverer. By the next Sabbath I should have been bound in honor to an enemy of that Jesus whom I adore; for although she is moral and externally correct, yet she knows the Savior only in name. I could not leave the city in peace until I had sought to make this communication." They unitedly addressed him who can deliver, and does deliver his people. Thus, while part of his congregation thought it an unfit subject for the pulpit, at least one person received it as a message from God, by whom it was no doubt sent.
Marrying without shared faith leads to disappointment and spiritual danger.
If there is no relation in life so eminently calculated to promote the happiness of man as a union of "kindred minds," in the matrimonial state; there is, on the other hand, no condition so full of wretchedness as that of two persons who have, without any reflection, indissolubly united themselves, and who find subsequently that all their views and feelings are "wide as the poles asunder."
None can think of E. without a feeling of sadness. She was possessed of a high order of intellectual talent, a graceful person, and a heart full of those tender sympathies which cannot fail to draw around their possessor, devoted friends. She was, moreover, a Christian. Being addressed by a person who was regarded by her friends as an "eligible match," she at length consented to a union with one who had but little to recommend him, except the position which mere wealth enabled him to occupy. "Although," said she, "he is not professedly pious, he is not openly profligate, and I trust I shall be enabled to exert such an influence, by precept and example, as shall eventuate in great good to his soul." Under this delusive hope, she entered upon her duties as a wife; but soon she discovered that instead of leading her husband to the performance of duty, there was *danger* of being *herself* drawn aside.
In the daily conduct of her husband she saw an exemplification of the truth, that "the natural heart is enmity against God." Bitter was her disappointment when she saw her companion, in following the dictates of his nature, wandering farther and farther from the path of rectitude, and consequently becoming more and more callous to good impressions.
Poor E—! she lived long enough to see him who had sworn to cherish and protect her, a drunkard, a gambler, and a suicide. And though "in all her miseries" she never uttered a complaint, yet as she laid down to die, wearied and heart-broken by the sorrows of a few brief years, she was doubtless ready to acknowledge in her heart the great error of her life, in disregarding the injunction of the apostle, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?"
A Christian husband's faith was challenged by an unbelieving wife's opposition to religion.
The following significant account is condensed from a more detailed statement in one of the publications of the American Tract Society. Mr. R. A., of Maryland, with whom the writer was well acquainted, became hopefully pious at the age of twenty, and joined the church. His life for some time seemed consistent. At length he formed an attachment to a gay young lady, of great personal attractions, but an entire stranger to religion. She was by no means pleased with his religious views, but consented to the marriage in spite of them, thinking that in due time she would be able to cure him of his religious frenzy. She soon commenced the attempt. She urged him to go to places of diversion and amusement—told him that respectable persons would despise and laugh at him for having so much praying and reading in his house. “In fine,” said she, “I married you to be happy, but I utterly despair of happiness unless you give up your religion and be like other people.” He told her that he never found happiness in the way she proposed, and tried, like a Christian, to reason the case. Finding her efforts to change his mind unavailing, she refused to attend family devotion. He wept and prayed for her in secret. She continued to employ every stratagem her wicked imagination could invent. At length, wearied by her opposition, he gave up family prayer, and resolved that he would try to get to heaven alone. His wife pursued him to the closet, and at last succeeded in driving him to abandon every religious duty. And now that he forsook God, God forsook him; and the corruptions of his heart broke out into greater excesses than before. Some time after a powerful sermon roused his conscience, and he determined once more to enter upon the service of God; but he was still in an enemy’s hands, and less able to resist than at first. His wife redoubled her efforts, and gained her point the second time. Now, wholly quitting the company of God’s people, he sinned fearfully. In a few years he was laid on a bed of death. He was in awful anguish of mind—full of remorse and despair. He refused to be prayed with, insisting that his doom was already sealed. Just before his departure, after he had been rolling from side to side for some time, with horror depicted in every feature, he called to his wife to bring him a cup of cold water: "for," said he, "in one hour I shall be where I shall never get another drop." She brought him the water; he drank it with greediness, and reached back the cup with a trembling hand; then staring her in the face, his eyes flashing with terror, he cried out, "Rebecca, Rebecca, you are the cause of my eternal damnation." He turned over, and with an awful groan left the world.
