ence between lust and love, that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment, and the reason is, that one springs from a union of souls, the other from a union of sense." Thus lust from its very nature is the deadliest foe of marriage. Its existence makes home joys and home affections impossible. It is only through the "union of souls" in wedded love, chaste and true, that GOD SETTETH THE SOLI

TARY IN FAMILIES.

By all that makes home precious and

sacred, by all that makes children a joy, and the family a school of virtue, and

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marriage a Holy Estate, we should guard vigilantly against every influence that would obliterate, or even make less clear and distinct by a single shade, the

everlasting distinction between Lust and Love.

66 'Abject and licentious doctrines destructive of the conjugal tie have been often spread abroad in the world. Reject with horror and disgust these hideous teachings of depraved minds, that would degrade man to the level of the brute, and even below the brute; for we plainly perceive in several species of animals a faint shadow of that which becomes, when more ennobled, the holy union upon which the perpetuity of the human race depends.

"Give yourself no reason to blush before the chaste and faithful dove, nor degrade the sacred character imprinted on your brow by the finger of God."

"Inviolable faith! unspotted chastity!

This is the marriage ring. It ties two hearts by an eternal band. It is like the cherubim's flaming sword, set for the guard of Paradise.

"Chastity is the security of love. Under this lock is deposited security of families,— the union of affections, the repairer of accidental breaches. This is a grace that is shut up and secured by all arts of Heaven, and the defence of laws, the locks and bars of modesty, by honor and reputation, by fear and shame, by interest and high regard; and that contract that is intended to be for ever, is yet dissolved and broken by the violation of this."

Verily, verily, it is the pure and sacred union of one man with one woman in conjugal love, faithful, chaste, inviolate, that

BRIDAL WREATH.

is the only basis of those deep and lasting affections and sympathies that belong so peculiarly to a Christian home.

Home! We were created for it. We are social beings. God made us for companionship. We crave sympathy, the fellowship of kindred souls. We crave a Home, where the heart may find repose and joy in mutual love, where the lone dove can find its mate.

"The solitary man is a reed yielding none but plaintive sounds to the various winds by which it it is agitated." He needs the sacred influences of a loving, virtuous home to tune his soul to the harmonies of a serene and peaceful joy and praise.

We think too little of the sacred char

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acter of home. Based as it is upon the marriage relation, it partakes of the sacredness of that "Holy Estate." As sure as marriage in its origin and end is holy, so sure is Home holy. The seed of Home, like that of marriage, is planted in man's nature by the hand of God.

HE MAKETH HIM FAMILIES

FLOCK.

LIKE A

The Maker of heaven, and earth,

and man, is the Maker of families, the

Maker of Home. O that all homes might bear the impress of His forming hand in their spirit and influence, as truly as in their origin!

But as neither plighted vows, nor wedding ring, nor ceremony of minister, can make a true marriage when there is no union of hearts, so living beneath the