When yielding to constant solicitations of husband or wife to give, to one or the other, advice concerning difficulties and the best way to overcome them, we have done this to the best of our ability,--and always with the purpose to restore harmony and prevent dishonor. In such cases we have said, "Take no counsel of a mortal, even though it be your best friend; but be guided by God alone;" meaning by this, Be not estranged from each other by anything that is said to you, but seek in divine Love the remedy for all human discord.

Art thou a child, and hast added one furrow to the brow of care? Art thou a husband, and hast pierced the heart venturing its all of happiness to thy keeping? Art thou a wife, and hast bowed the o'erburdened head of thy husband? Hast thou a friend, and forgettest to be grateful? Remember, that for all this thou alone canst and must atone. Carelessly or remorselessly thou mayest have sent along the ocean of events a wave that will some time flood thy memory, surge dolefully at the door of conscience, and pour forth the unavailing tear.

Change and the grave may part us; the wisdom that might have blessed the past may come too late. One backward step, one relinquishment of right in an evil hour, one faithless tarrying, has torn the laurel from many a brow and repose from many a heart. Good is never the reward of evil, and vice versa.

There is no excellence without labor; and the time to work, is now. Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful

Questions and Answers

Is it wrong for a wife to have a husband treated for sin, when she knows he is sinning, or for drinking and smoking?

It is always right to act rightly; but sometimes, under circumstances exceptional, it is inexpedient to attack evil. This rule is forever golden: "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Do you desire to be freed from sin? Then help others to be free; but in your measures, obey the Scriptures, "Be ye wise as serpents." Break the yoke of bondage in every wise way. First, be sure that your means for doing good are equal to your motives; then judge them by their fruits.

Whatever is not divinely natural and demonstrably true, in ethics, philosophy, or religion, is not of God but originates in the minds of mortals. It is the Adam-dream according to the Scriptural allegory, in which man is supposed to start from dust and woman to be the outcome of man's rib,--marriage synonymous with legalized lust, and the offspring of sense the murderers of their brothers!