Page:Marriage Its Origin, Uses, and Duties.pdf/31

. Marriage is thus the expanded blossom of conjugial love, where the beauties of its refined intelligence are displayed, where the odours of its delicate perceptions are exhaled, where the nectar of its pure, delights is distilled, and where new affections and perceptions of the good and the true are continually produced.

If such a state of marriage is rare, it is in consequence of the rarity of genuine practical religion, and of not immediately approaching in worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Such was its state once upon earth, and such is its state in heaven. If we would enjoy it ourselves, let us cultivate with all the heart that practical religion which consists in loving the Lord and keeping his commandments. Let us from the inmost convictions of the soul approach in worship the Lord Jesus Christ, as one with the Father and the only God. Thus cultivating the state from which conjugial love descends we may hope to enjoy it in its purity, in some degree, here, and fully hereafter.