n
to reform on condition of marriage should be dismissed with disdain.
If a young man will not determine to do right because it is right, his
motives are sordid; and the probability is very great that so soon as
some stronger incentive appeals to his selfishness, he will forget his
vows and promises and relapse into his former vices.

Do Not Be in a Hurry.--In conclusion, perhaps we could give no more
important advice than this: _Do not be in a hurry to marry._ There is
little danger that this advice will do harm, for ten illustrations of
the evil results of hasty marriage are seen to one in which the opposite
mistake is made. It rarely happens that a marriage made without
consideration and due deliberation on the part of both parties is a
happy one in its results. There are exceptional cases in which this
kind of matrimonial alliances result very satisfactorily; but these
cases are quite exceptional. The business of selecting a partner for
life, one who is expected to sustain the closest relation possible
between human beings, who must be prepared to share in another's sorrows
as well as joys, to sympathize with another's aspirations and
appreciate another's motives and sentiments,--such a task is certainly
one of the most serious of an individual's life and ought to be entered
upon with calmness, deliberation, and unbiased judgment and entire
self-control. When making a decision which must affect seriously an
individual's whole life-time, passion, caprice, and all motives
calculated to bias the judgment, should be laid aside. The happiness
and usefulness of a whole life-time may be marred by a word. There is
too much pending to be in a hurry.

A certain philosopher once "compared a man about to marry to one who
was about to put his hand into a sack in which were ninety-nine serpents
and one eel; the moral of which is that there are ninety-nine chances
to one against a fortunate selection." If this is true of a man about
to marry, it is probably equally true that a woman under the same
circumstances has nine hundred and ninety-nine chances against, for
one in favor of, a fortunate selection.

CHASTITY.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery." "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

In these two scriptures we have a complete definition of unchastity.
The seventh commandment, with the Saviour's commentary upon it, places
clearly before us the fact