LETTER TO A SISTER ON HER MARRIAGE

^[p. 548] LETTER TO A SISTER ON HER MARRIAGE

July 18, 1892.

My dear —— I am sorry that I cannot be with you at your marriage and therefore I write to you. May you and dear —— enter on this step with the Lord - a good beginning is essential. You may veer or be diverted from it, but the Lord does not forget and will recall you to it. The step you are now entering upon is God’s appointment for the natural man, and therefore it is for him the happiest and best, but remember that the best order of things before the fall has suffered most by the fall. Man is utterly incompetent to preserve marriage in its original suitability. In a word, it is only by the power of God that marriage can be preserved according to God. If it were of man’s invention it could be maintained according to man’s mind. It requires the power of Christ in heaven to make marriage up to the mind of God. The better you understand the church’s relation to Christ the better you will understand your relation to your husband. The more the church is merged in Christ, the happier and more effective it is in every way. The more you are identified with your husband in his interests, the more you will help him when he is right, and the more influence you will have in dissuading him when he is in error. It is the one who supports me best when I am right who has weight with me in correcting me, because I am sure of the interest he or she takes in me. If you wane in devotion you will wane in influence, and to maintain this influence you must make your company necessary to him, and he will not act without your co-operation. If Rebekah had been more of a companion to Isaac she might have preserved him from Esau’s venison! The Lord help you both much. Begin with the Lord and He will end with you. With much love to you both.

Ever your affectionate friend,
J. B. STONEY.