Chapter III - Marriage
66:1
Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of
humanity:
66:3
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
Salutary sorrow
66:6
Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, –
Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, –
a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not
half remember this in the sunshine of joy
and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germi-
nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,
but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher
joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-
cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
goodness and love.
66:17
Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-
member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal
infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on
divine wisdom to point out the path.
Patience is wisdom
66:21
Husbands and wives should never separate if there
Husbands and wives should never separate if there
is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the
logic of events than for a wife precipitately
to leave her husband or for a husband to
leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must
always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good
company. Socrates considered patience salutary under
such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for
his philosophy.
The gold and dross
66:30
Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us
Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us
where it found us. The furnace separates
the gold from the dross that the precious metal may
67:1
be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father
be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father
hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons
He teaches?
Weathering the storm
67:4
When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds
When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds
lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds,
and the waves lift themselves into mountains.
We ask the helmsman: "Do you know your
course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?" He
answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not
sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the
Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-
standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on
and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves
on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-
ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible
propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens
the troubled sea.
Spiritual power
67:18
The notion that animal natures can possibly give force
The notion that animal natures can possibly give force
to character is too absurd for consideration, when we
remember that through spiritual ascendency
our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised
the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to
obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other
means and methods.
67:25
The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration
The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration
of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor
of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is
needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death
presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.
Basis of true religion
67:30
Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains
Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains
and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any
such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the