Page:The Truth about Marriage.djvu/49

 Everyone knows that girls marry a man oftentimes simply because he is wealthy, or supposed to be. It is too bad for a girl to have to sell herself for luxury, but if she does so, and can retain her own self-respect and the consideration of the man she marries, we shall say nothing against it. Sometimes the girl finds out after marriage that she ought to have waited for the right man to come along; but then she did not want to take a chance.

We all remember the famous couplet from the poem of "Maud Muller:" "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, it might have been." Yes, "God pity them both, and pity us all," who plunge into matrimony because of sordid reasons, or for any reasons except the highest and best.

I repeat, Love, mutual love, is the true basis for marriage; and it is the only basis for a perfectly happy one.

Another requisite for happy marriage is love to God and man in the hearts of both partners.

The self-centered life is apt to be a selfish one.

The acknowledgment of the Divine seems to be necessary to keep us properly centered and related to the world in which we live.

It is essential for husband and wife to believe alike in order to be happy, and there must be the