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quaintance press for an opportunity of testifying their good-will, and offering their congratulations. Friends and relatives vie with each other in expressions of regard and sympathy. The full expression of conscious gladness lights up the countenance of the happy bridegroom; while on that of the bride, mingled perhaps with a shade of pensiveness, plays the placid beam of confiding love.

Among the party there is one, whose mature, perhaps venerable forehead, bears traces of deep thoughtfulness accompanied by a smile of genuine benignity and tender affection. It is the mother of the bride. Deeply indeed is she interested in the scene: but it is not the little festive arrangements of the day; it is not the dress of the bride and bridesmaids; it is not the order of the procession, or the etiquette of the table, that occupies her mind. No: in all these, though she has lent the willing aid of liberal hospitality and domestic skill, she perhaps left the arrangement to others: let the young people please themselves, and they will please her. Times and fashions are altered since the day that she figured in such a scene. Her eye is fixed on the beloved child she is about to consign to the care of another: perhaps a thought glides athwart her mind of the sacrifice she is making, of the loss she will sustain, in giving up one who has been her companion, her solace, her tender nurse in affliction; and she half admits the inquiry, "What shall I do without her?" But in an instant the thought is dismissed; a mother's love is not selfish. She has a Friend who has said, "I will never leave thee, nor for

sake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be," Deut. xxxiii. 25. I will make all thy bed in thy sickness, Psa. xli. 3. It is enough; she chides herself for the momentary parenthesis of anxiety for herself, and again concentres her feelings in the welfare of her child. The wedding day of a daughter is to a mother a day of interest indeed. It is the title-page to the eventful history of her daughter's domestic life. She desires not to turn the folded leaves, and pry into the cheerful pages of domestic bliss, or the gloomy lines of domestic sorrow, that may be written there. "My God," is the language of her inmost heart, "I leave it all with thee. Thou shalt choose her inheritance as thou hast chosen mine: goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life, so let them follow her. I say for my child, as I have often said for myself,

Let the sweet hope that she is thine,

Her life and death attend;

Thy presence through her journey shine,
And crown her journey's end.'

"But”—and as the thoughts press upon the mother's mind, she casts on the bridegroom an inquiring, piercing, yet gentle look, that seems to say-" do you duly appreciate the boon I this day bestow on you? Will you be to my child all you have promised to be? Will you, by the devoted kindness, constancy, and affection of a husband, supply the lack of a mother's tenderness, love, and care?" Then her eye fixes on her child, and with deep seriousness of expression, her mind seems to be revolving the thought, "And is she

qualified for the important duties of the relation on which she this day enters? Has she wellestablished principles, that will sustain her in all the arduous trials and perplexities of a married life? Will she be one whom her husband may justly praise, and safely trust? Will she do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life? The Lord be surety to thee, my child, for good. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," Numb. vi. 24-26.

The parting moment arrives, and with feelings 'to which neither words nor tears can give utterance, the mother puts into the hand of her child some written or printed token of maternal love, containing hints for her guidance in her new relation; and then retires to weep and plead that God may indeed be with her in the way whither she goes, and bless her, and keep her, and give her bread to eat, and raiment to put on; and keep her near to the Friend of her father and her mother, and bring her to her heavenly Father's home in peace, and be her God and guide for ever and ever.

Let it not be supposed that the feelings and counsels of a pious father are overlooked or slighted. They, too, will be in full exercise on this interesting occasion; and happy is the bride who is privileged to have both parents spared to sanction her connexion, to bestow upon her the united stores of parental wisdom and experience, and to mingle on her behalf their supplications to the Father of mercies, and the God of all grace. But

there is a peculiarity in the sympathy and counsels of a mother which belongs to her alone, and as such they will be valued, and cherished, and regarded by an affectionate daughter. Often will the remarks and the example of her mother suggest themselves to her mind. In moments of hesitation they will whisper in her ear, with a voice of gentle authority, second only to that of Heaven, "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," Isa. xxx. 21. And when the lips that first uttered the injunction and the precept, or the hand that wrote them, have long lain mouldering in the grave, still she will be found adhering to the practices, and teaching her children, and her children's children, in the words that her mother taught her, Prov. xxxi. 1.

CHAPTER II.

PERSONAL PIETY.

"Now that my journey 's just begun,
My course so little trod;
I'll stay, before I farther run,
And give myself to God."

YES, gentle bride, leave not the home of your childhood, and the guides of your youth, to enter on the duties and trials of married life, without engaging the friendship and guidance of One, who will accompany you through all your earthly pilgrimage-One who will be your director in difficulty, your shield in danger, your strength in weakness, your supply in destitution, your comfort in sorrow, your "all in all." Are you ready to say, "Yes, I expect all this from the husband of my affections?" Dear young reader, far be it from me to infuse one drop of bitterness into the brimming cup of felicity which you just now press to your lips; to check your rising hopes of connubial happiness, pure, abundant, and long continued. Expect much from the society of your husband; you ought to do so, and in affectionate, confiding, exulting, domestic intercourse, seek your highest earthly enjoyment. But, I must remind you, that you will need, that you do need,

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