looked, that what woman is ready to give, in this respect, she should also be ready to receive;-nay, she should be highly desirous of receiving it. On this point, further remarks are, I suppose, unnecessary; because woman, from her very nature and circumstances, is led almost involuntarily to man as a counsellor.

In short, here, as elsewhere, we come to the conclusion that matrimony is the natural state of man; that no individual of either sex is completely educated, or, in other words, rendered perfect, without it; and that the more we are accustomed to rely on each other as educators, the more we perceive each other's importance in the work of education; and the greater our usefulness and happiness here, and the more cheering our hopes of usefulness and happiness hereafter.

Now

It is very frequently said that nothing is more difficult than for the husband and wife to converse together freely on their own religious state. if this is so, it is deeply unfortunate. Here it is, if anywhere on earth, that we ought to find the most intimate and free interchange of opinion and sentiment. If the wife cannot go to the husband with her difficulties, and seek his advice or instruction, to whom can she go? The minister is not always at hand; and if he were, would not always be the best adviser. She needs counsel and in

struction, more than authority and dictation. And the same is true of the wants of the husband.

If the husband and wife regarded each other as religious counsellors, and sought each other's aid and assistance in their religious course from day to day-if their wants, difficulties, trials, doubts and fears were as frequently and as freely laid before each other as they are, or should be, before their great Friend and Counsellor on high, what a change would be effected in the condition of our race! How soon would this dark world be enlightened! How soon would it bloom as Eden! How soon would the wilderness and the solitary place be glad, and the moral desert begin to blossom as the rose !

It cannot be denied-it must be confessed-that instead of going first to these companions for life, for religious counsel, we often go to them, for this purpose, last. We seem to dread, in this respect, each other's society. A greater anomaly in human conduct can hardly exist; and yet it is a mistake which is almost universally made.

Let there be, in this particular, a thorough reform in social life. Let it be one prominentperhaps I should say the prominent object of the husband and wife, to render each other all possible instruction and advice in the way to heaven. the wife finds that a perpetual silence reigns on

If

the subject, let her be the first to break it. Not indeed abruptly, but in an appropriate and discreet manner. She need not be an inquisitor, but only a friend.

Let her begin the work by her own example. She has some difficulty in regard to a passage of scripture. She seeks the husband's opinion in regard to its meaning. She has doubts in regard to the propriety of applying such a promise to her own case. She asks her husband to whom-to what general class of persons-he thinks it applicable. She gradually, in this way, unbosoms to him her own feelings and state, and gets his opinion and counsel. And in doing so repeatedly, he will be encouraged by her example to pursue the same

course.

How strange it is, let me again say, that husbands and wives should, in these matters, stand at such a distance from each other! How strange that three fourths of them should know less of each other's spiritual state, and hopes, and prospects, than they do of those of their neighbors! And why is it so? Is it not a great practical evil? Is it not an evil which is fundamental? And is it not one which demands immediate attention and correction?

As to times and seasons, I have little to say. If the husband's mind were not too frequently so

crazed with business as to be totally unfitted for it, one of the most appropriate seasons for these mutual friendly offices would be the last hour before retiring to rest. Such a season has its advantages, in every point of view. But let there be some hour set apart for the purpose. If it be not made the work of a particular hour, or if, when the hour arrives for attending to it, we postpone it, or make it give place to other duties, no progress, we may be assured, will be made. If convinced that it is a work of the utmost importance to our present and eternal happiness, we must have our times and seasons for it; and these times and seasons must be as sacred to us as those of secret or family prayer, or the hours of the Sabbath.

CHAPTER XXXII.

SELF-GOVERNMENT.

Difficulties of self-government. Meaning of the term. Error in education. What is to be done? Motive to be presented. Directions how to proceed. Cooperation of the husband. The results happy.

NOTHING is more difficult than the work of self-government;-and for various reasons. One reason is, we are not trained to it. It is one of the last things which are secured, in modern education. I grant it is often talked about: but to talk about its importance is one thing-to attend to it, quite another.

Solomon observes-" He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls ;" and again-"He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city." Socrates and Seneca, though without the light of christianity, or even of Judaism, appear not only to have understood this matter, but to have practised it, and to an extent which ought to put to the blush not a few who call themselves christians. "I would beat you," said Socrates, one day, to his