responding form of the most holy of all unions, that existing between the Lord and His church.
Let married partners think of this, and remember the holy representation they are required to maintain. They have entered into a compact, which may either promote or hinder their eternal salvation. This will be determined by their conduct to each other. If they are sincere, loving, and pious, they will prove helps to each other in the way to heaven. They will ever be found to each other counsellors in prosperity, cheerers in sorrow, and comforters in adversity. Each will in turn become a kind and gentle reprover when necessary, and while they both act kindly and uprightly, each will be to the other a "CROWN OF REJOICING."
No language can adequately express the importance of marriage, in its bearing on the great business of this life, as a preparation for eternity! And how blessed is the consideration that, when genuine affection and piety unite; when the bond that unites the two in one is heavenly; when the love of the woman really joins with the intellect and wisdom of the man, and the wisdom of the man entwines with the affection of the woman—then the bond is as lasting as it is blessed—it is eternal!
It is a common saying, that death dissolves the marriage tie, and that when either of the married partners has entered eternity, the union is at an end. However this may be in the case of a merely external marriage, a mere union of body, apart from all interior union of spirit, it certainly is not the case with a real marriage. It is nowhere said in the Holy Word that death separates those "whom God hath joined together." Those whom God hath joined together in
