The Flaw in the Wedding-Link
The wedding was a pleasant one, and full of promise. The bride was as clearly formed for “attractive grace” as Milton’s Eve. Her bright face glowed with the white and red which “Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on.” The man at her side was every inch a man; and his face flushed with honest pride when her softly spoken “Yes, I do” fell upon his ear. The link, that day welded before God with prayer, seemed so bright, and firm, and strong, that no eye could detect a flaw.
A few weeks after, when the bridal tour was over, we saw them at church, side by side. A good beginning, thought we. It was the Sabbath for celebrating the Lord’s Supper. When the time came for distributing the bread and wine, the non-professors either changed their seats or left the church; not all, but many of them. The young bridegroom rose reluctantly, halted a moment, then took his hat and went over to a side pew, and sat by himself. The bride was left to commemorate the love of her Saviour alone. It was their first separation, and in a moment a “great gulf” seemed to open between them! Ah, thought we to ourself, there is a flaw in that wedding link already; they are one toward each other, but toward God they are two! How can two walk together toward eternity when they are going in opposite directions? Which of them will draw the strongest? If God gives them a household to rear up, which will the children follow soonest, the praying mother or the irreligious father? Will it not be a house divided against itself?
Looking around the church, we saw other separations just as wide and melancholy as this one. Husbands and wives were there that day who, during the previous week, had dwelt lovingly together. They had sat at the same table at home; they had wept and rejoiced together in the sorrows and the joys of one common fireside. But at the table of their divine Lord and Redeemer they parted. To human eyes, but a narrow church aisle divided them, yet in God’s sight, they were spiritually as wide asunder as the poles. Looking at this scene of separation, the question came up to our mind, “In the great day, when Christ the Judge shall separate souls, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, will the wedding tie hold then? Or will there be found a fatal flaw in the link that will leave husband and wife to break asunder with a parting that shall never again be followed by a meeting?”
To many a loving wife who will read these lines this a sore and tender subject. What shall I do to save my husband’s soul? has been the burden of her own soul for more than one anxious year. We would reply to such as she, You can pray for him, But to make your prayer of any avail, be careful not to contradict it by your life. Do not ask God to direct him to the Saviour, and then yourself stand in his way. You can do more than pray for him; you can draw him. By driving, you cannot move him one inch heavenward. You cannot force him to the church, to a prayer meeting, to his Bible, or to the Saviour. But if, in the name of Jesus, you fasten the silken hawsers of affection to him, and apply the persuasions of earnest lips, still more of a holy, sweet-tempered, noble life, you may be delightfully surprised to see how he will “go after you.” As the huge man-of-war, on its way down out of the harbor, seems to say to the little steam-tug, “draw ?ne, and I will go along with you,” so has many a resolute will and carnal heart been won along steadily toward Christ, by the gentle power of a sweet, prayerful woman’s life. The positive efforts that you make for your husband’s conversion must be made wisely. There is a sort of holy tact in this business. Watch your opportunities. Do not approach him with it when he is out of temper. Do not worry him with teasing talk, or with taunts; do not assume the tone of pity, — it will only irritate. Watch your chances and aim to cooperate with the Spirit of God when you see the heart moved by the truth, or moved by affliction, or by any event of Providence; then work with the Holy Spirit.
One good illustration is often worth a hundred counsels. And an actual incident we have some-
-where met with fits our case exactly. During a period of general religious interest in the city of
B, a wife of devoted piety persuaded her
husband to go with her one evening to her church. He tried to think himself an infidel, and made sport of religion on every opportunity. “I will never go again,” said he, angrily, to her. “I was provoked and insulted; that sermon against infidelity was aimed at me.” She saw that the shots were striking, and said nothing. But prayer was made for him, without ceasing, by herself and a few friends.
One evening the wife kindly said to him, “Dear, will you grant me one little request? — go with me to-night to meeting.” “I will go to the door, and no further.” With true womanly tact she says, “Very well, that will do.” He goes with her, parts from her at the door, stays out in the cold, while she goes in, and breaks into fervent prayer for him as soon as she reaches her seat. She is trying not only the strength of her marriage link, but of that mightier link that binds her faith to the God of Promise.
Presently the door slowly opens; a man walks straight to her seat, and sits down beside her!
He listens; goes home quietly she, meanwhile, talking more with God than with her husband. The next evening, after tea, as they sit chatting by the fire, he rises, and with some emotion says, “Wife, isn’t it most time to go to church?” She springs from her chair; it is entirely too early, but she will not risk delay; and hurrying on hat and cloak, they are off. A happy evening was that to her yearning, loving heart! For his stubborn soul melts down under the truth like wax in the flame; his infidelity is conquered where it only can be vanquished — at the cross of Christ!
From that evening he is a new man. His home is a new place. There is an altar at his fireside. Behold, he prayeth! And ever after, through their happy lives, there was no flaw in the link that bound them in their daily walk toward heaven. “What knowest thou, 0 wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?” 12