CHAPTER IX.

AND now my whisper is nearly ended: it has been perhaps more plain than pleasant; but ere we finally part, allow me to call your recollection to that most important period of your life, when at the altar of your God, and in the presence of your fellow-creatures, you solemnly vowed "to love your wife, to comfort her, to honour and keep her, in sickness and in health, for better for worse, in poverty and in riches, and forsaking all others, to keep thee only unto her, as long as you both should live!" Let me ask, have you kept this solemn vow?

Commune with your own heart, ask your conscience and your feelings; and tremble before an offended God if you have dared to break it.

How impressive on all occasions are the words of St. Paul; and in what a sweet and tender point of view does he appear when he says, "Husbands, love your wives, and

be not bitter against them." (Col. iii. 19.) And again, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." (Eph. v. 25, 28, 29, 31.) "Wherefore," says our blessed Saviour, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matt. xix. 6.)

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In the second chapter of Genesis, this subject is mentioned with peculiar simplicity and beauty." And the Lord God formed. man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (ver. 7.) "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and he took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." (ver. 8, and 15.) "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for

him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and brought them unto Adam; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." And Adam (evidently struck with delight by the lovely being produced from his side-the very side next his heart) affectionately says, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." And then, as if impressed with the importance and sacredness of the union, what an observation is the following! “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (ver. 18-24.)

I hope I shall not trespass on my reader's patience, if I introduce what Milton so beautifully says on this subject. He first speaks of Adam, as placed among all the exquisite beauties of Paradise :

"Surrounded by fragrance and by joy,

By hill and dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,

With birds on branches warbling;

And liquid lapse of murmuring streams,
And banks profuse with flowers!"

Still he is dissatisfied: an aching void, a want of what he could scarcely define or explain, weighs down his spirits, and deprives his heart of all enjoyment. At length, he begins to understand the nature of his feelings, and thus addresses the Almighty:

tr .... Author of this universe,

:

And all this good to man! for whose well-being
So amply, and with hands so liberal,

Thou hast provided all things!—

But with me, I see not who partakes. In solitude
What happiness? Who can enjoy alone?

Or, all enjoying, what contentment find ?"

Though perfectly anticipating Adam's wishes, and quite conscious "it was not good for man to be alone," still does the Almighty seem desirous to put his feelings to the test, and points out the innumerable beauties and pleasures which surround him in this

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garden of bliss," mentioning the various birds and fishes and beasts he has brought him for his use, and asks what more he can desire? But Adam, still discontented, says he wants something like himself—

'

Something fit to participate all rational delight:
Surely the brute cannot be human consort ?"

At length, the Almighty condescendingly

answers:

"Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased;
Good reason was, thou freely shouldst dislike,
And be so minded still.-I, ere thou speak'st,
Knew it not good for Man to be alone:

What next I bring shall please thee, be assured ;-
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,

Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire!"

Adam relates the above to the angel Raphael, and thus goes on:

"He ended, or I heard no more, for now
Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell
Of fancy; by which,

Abstract, as in a trance, methought I saw

Th' Almighty; who stooping, open'd my left side, and

took

From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,

And life-blood streaming fresh. Wide was the wound,
But suddenly with flesh fill'd up, and heal'd!

The rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands:
Under his forming hands, a creature grew,

So lovely fair,

That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd now
Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her contain'd,
And in her looks, which from that time infused
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before!
She disappear'd, and left nie dark !—I waked
To find her, or for ever to deplore
Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure;
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all earth or heaven could bestow