As she
stood in the gay drawing-room, and amid the gay group, the young man's
eyes filled with tears of joy as he thought that she was his. Years
passed by, and they stood at the same parlor on another festal
occasion. She wore the same dress, for business had not opened as
brightly to the young husband as he expected, and he had never been
able to purchase for her another dress. Her face was not as bright and
smooth as it had been years before, and a careworn look had made its
signature on her countenance. As the husband looked at her he saw the
difference between this occasion and the former, and he went over to
where she sat, and said: "You remember the time when we were here
before. You have the same dress on. Circumstances have somewhat
changed, but you look to me far more beautiful than you did then."
There is such a thing as conjugal fidelity, and many of you know it in
your own homes.

But, after all the good advice we may give you, we come back to the
golden pillar from which we started, the tremendous truth that no one
but God can guide you in safety about this matter that may decide your
happiness for two worlds, this and the next. So, my sister, I put your
case where Naomi put that of Ruth and Orpah when she said: "The Lord
grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her
husband."

THE WEDDING.

I imagine the hour for which you pledged your troth has arrived. There
is much merry-making among your young friends, but there is an
undertone of sadness in all the house. Your choice may have been the
gladdest and the best, and the joy of the whole round of relatives,
but when a young eaglet is about to leave the old nest, and is
preparing to put out into sunshine and storm for itself, it feels its
wings tremble somewhat. So she has a good cry before leaving home, and
at the marriage father and mother always cry, or feel like it. If you
think it is easy to give up a daughter in marriage, though it be with
brightest prospects, you will think differently when the day comes. To
have all along watched her from infancy to girlhood, and from girlhood
to womanhood, studious of her welfare, her slightest illness an
anxiety, and her presence in your home an ever-increasing joy, and
then have her go away to some other home--aye, all the redolence of
orange-blossoms, and all the chime of marriage bells, and all the
rolling of wedding march in full diapason, and all the hilarious
congratulations of you