Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/121

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

86

up to that golden ideal. Hence I repeat, have something, some lofty ideal, to believe in, to cling to, to be guided by. And nothing is more lofty than the pure love of a young man for her whom the elders have agreed, the community has consented, and God has designed, to call his 'better half.' Many of you are married; the rest will by and by be married. Then, let each one of you be attracted and wholly, attached, to his spouse. That means that you have, and shall have nothing more left of your heart to give to another. In this world hearts are gained where hearts are given ; chastity is secured where chastity is guaranteed; and love is won where love is rendered. Let me repeat, nothing is sweeter, more charming, more enduring, more transforming in life than the love which a young man feels towards her whom he makes his helpmeet and co-pilgrim through life. Let her be like the young woman in the story we started with — the agency to rescue you from the imprisonment of sense and appetite. The "maiden pas-