BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE (concluded) happy. The happiest husbands are those who find their joy in making their wives happy and vice versa. Mem orize the verse in 1 Cor. 10:24. “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.” This is a rule which will prevent much disaster Retain Femininity Rule No. 3 I would give is for the wives, especially. Retain your femininity by all means, your tender woman liness and motherliness. Avoid the spirit of domination, coarseness, and masculinity. Don’t be loud and boisterous, and frivolous. These things are unbecoming to a Chris tian wife. And husbands, be a man. Treat your wife with utmost respect and love at all times. Never embarass her by indiscretion, either by act or in word. Cultivate Christian politeness, culture and refinement in the pres ence of your wife and others. Live Within Your Means Rule No. 4 is, live within your means. A great many broken homes result from trouble over financial matters. Learn to share your poverty as well as your wealth with gratitude. Husbands, provide that which is needed for your wife’s comfort before you think of your own. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. Wives, get along with what you have. A grumbling wife will drive any man crazy. “ Be content with such things as ye have” (Heb. 13:5), for “ a man’s life consisteth not in the abun dance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Godliness with contentment is great gain. Wealth does not make for happiness, but rather the joy of getting along, bearing and planning together, and being thankful for such things as you have. Rule No. 5 Plan immediately on raising a family. Do not put it off until you have had your own fling together for a while, but remember that youth is the time for the beginning of raising a family for the glory of God. Children alone can make the home complete. A woman’s place, remember, is in the home. Her job is with her family. Except in extreme cases, women should not be employed in men’s jobs. Her job is in the home. Statistics have shown an amazing record of broken homes as a result of married women working in stores, factories and plants where the tender, peculiar nature of motherhood and wifehood should never have been exposed to the atmosphere of coarseness and vulgarity of many of these places. Paul said in 1 Timothy 5:14, “ I w ill therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” Let me just mention in passing a few other important rules. Never have any secrets between husbands and wives. Be frank, honest and earnest together, and share all your problems and your joys, and keep nothing from each other. Your wife likes to know what happens on the job, in the factory and in the office, and a true husband likes to know what has been going on in the home. Don’t stop your expressions of love after you have been mar ried. Tell her once in a while that you still love her. She may know it, but, oh, how she likes to hear it. A pat on the cheek, a hug, a kiss, are as much in order after twenty-five years of marriage, as when you were courting her.
I would close these thoughts with one more rule for fam ily happiness. Avoid all appearances of evil. When you marry, you belong to each other, and to each other alone. Keep yourself above all suspicion by guarding your speech before others, and keeping your actions such that there will never be an occasion for suspicion or jealousy. Married men should religiously keep their hands off other women, no matter how innocent the act may seem on the outside. Remember, your hand only does what your heart already dictates. Suggestive remarks or questionable double talk is unbecoming to the Christian, the refined, and the cultured husband and wife. And wives, give no occasion for suspicion or jealousy by your conduct. Treat other men with courtesy and respect, but remember, your attentions belong to your husband first and last and all the time. No man ever loved two women, and no woman ever loved two men. Let me close, therefore with the words of Scripture. To the women we say: “ Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ARE ALL THE CHILDREN IN? I think ofttimes as the night draws nigh Of an old house on the hill; Of a yard all wide and blossom-starred Where the children played at will. And when the night at last came down, Hushing the merry din, Mother would look around and ask, “ Are all the children in?" 'Tis many and many a year since then; And the old house on the hill No longer echoes to childish feet, And the yard is still, so still. But I see it all, as the shadows creep, And though many the years have been Since then, I can hear mother ask, “ Are all the children in?“ I wonder if when the shadows fall On the last short, earthly day, When we say good by to the world outside, All tired with our childish play, When we step out into that Other Land Where mother so long has been, Will we hear her ask, just as of old, “ Are all the children in?“ —-Author Unknown For the husband is the head of the w ife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” Eph. 5:22-24 And to the husbands we say: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his w ife loveth himself.” Eph. 5:25, 28 END
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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