Palestine: Its Present and Future [pp. 296-301]

296 THE LADIES REPOSITORY.
nature and destiny are distinctly recognized.
No wonder that where all moral and religious
i principles are neglected, marriage should fail
in many of its most beautiful and beneficent
results; it is simply expecting the best results
of an institution, while the very elements by
which those best results are produced are left
out. The irreligious household can not be a
happy one; and the fault is not in marriage,
nor in the divine organization of the family, but
in the simple fact that an essential element in
the organization of the household is religion.
It is not difficult to see at how many points
religion touches the vital interests of the family.
A recognition of the immortal life, and of the
relations of the marriage union in time to the
endless life in eternity, gives dignity and sub limne import to marriage; the recognition of
God as its author and of our responsibility to
him gives solemnity and weight to the obliga tions of marriage; the divine grace and help
secures cheerfulness in bearing its burdens; a
grateful heart gives sunshine and happiness;
obedience to God's laws secures order and har mony; pious examples wear away asperities
from childhood, and mold the lives of children
into goodness; the consolations of religion are
the only sure supports under those trials and
bereavements which are sure to come to every
home; and the Christian spirit is the very at mosphere of peace and good-will in which do mestic happiness must grow.
Religion in the family culminates in the family
altar; without this the piety of the household
is incomplete, however sincere and fervent it
may be in personal or private manifestation.
The piety of the family should express itself in
a common prayer; that is, in a prayer which is
the prayer of the whole family. When all bow
together, and the father as the priest of the
family offers up the one prayer of the whole
family, then we have before us the crowning
glory of domestic piety and devotion, and we
may be sure the divine blessing is resting on
that home, and that love, harmony, order, and
happiness are reigning in that household. Such
a daily scene creates a peculiarly sacred atmos phere in the family. It becomes one of the
most sacred and precious recollections of child hood. These pictures come up in fancy and
stir up within us the dear home-feelings in after
years, brightest among all the bright scenes
which sin has spared to our world. When
religion sits like an angelic presence by the
fireside; when calm content is nursed in the
lap of simple trust; when the world is con quered by the love that bears all and endures
all; when all home duties are cheerfully per
formed, and the everlasting home is kept ever
in view-then it is that marriage rises to a sublime type of the union that exists between
Christ and his own body, which is his Church.
How this interesting relation, this tenderest
of all earthly ties, this link that will be a precious memory at least in eternity, should inspire
a deep and abiding interest in the spiritual welfare of each other! Strange that in the midst
of the confidences and intimacies of married
life so much reserve is so often found on this
subject. Why should the forbidden topic in
this most sacred relation so often be the hopes
and prospects of a life that is future and eternal?
How many deep and poignant regrets are left
behind, like poisoned arrows in the heart of the
survivor, when ruthless death has come to sever
this endearing union? And death must come.
This union, sacred as it is, must be broken!
"One muist be taken, and the other left "-left
overwhelmed with a desolation and sorrow to
which nothing else is comparable. How bitter,
then, the thought that all had not been done
that might have been dclone to secure the eternal
interests of the one that now is still in death!
To saint or sinner the most fearful thought that
mingles with the solemnities of death, is the
terrible fear that all may not be well with the
one that has gone before; while, on the other
hand, the sweetest thought and most powerful
consolation are found in the well-grounded hope
that the loved one is not lost, but has gone
before to the place of greater joys and more
enduring unions. How glorious is the hope
that they who have walked together in the
commandments of the Lord here, will meet
together again in the bright mansions above,
where sin can not enter to mar their happiness,
nor death to sever the bond of union! And
this, in God's design, is the end and final consummation of true marriage. "Wherefore, let
us exhort one another daily while it is called
to-day, and so much the more as ye see the day
approaching."
PALESTINE: ITS PRESENT AND FU TURE.
i HE name of Jerusalem, which has now
been enshrined for so many centuries in
all Christian hearts, and which has repeatedly kindled a warlike enthusiasm in entire
nations, still exerts its wonted magical influence
over the civilized world. The former inhabitants of Palestine, once completely isolated from
the rest of mankind, but now dispersed over the
whole earth, and controlling to a certain extent
I
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THE LADIES' REPOSITORY.