Be assured, young people, that no one can over-estimate the value of your resolving to act upon this advice. By doing this you secure a personal privilege of asking for guidance of the Wisest Being in the step you are about to take. For we thoroughly believe with Tupper, that "If thou art to have a wife of thy youth, she is now living on earth; Therefore think of her, and pray for her weal; yea, though thou hast not seen her." And the same may be said to the young woman. "In all thy ways acknowledge God and He will direct thy path." Remember your actions will largely decide the destiny for life of one another, and also be responsible for the weal or woe, to a certain extent, of others with whom you will have to do. Hence it cannot be gone about too seriously. IV. Look for the right sort of person. Solomon says, “A prudent wife is from the Lord," and "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her," and the same may be said of the husband. But to secure a prudent partner you will need to exercise every caution. They are not by any means to be met with without diligent search. Pause for a moment, and try and picture what you would like your future home to be. It matters not where it may be located. It may be the humble one of the hard-working man, or the struggling clerk, or even little tradesman, or it may be that of the successful professional man, merchant, or manufacturer; but whatever it may be, whether it contains but little of this world's goods, or is replete with every luxury which taste. and money can provide, if it is to be to you a source of real joy and progressive happiness, you will want in it a congenial companion to share your joys or help you to bear your sorrows. Your life will be like all who have gone before you. It will have its anxieties and struggles, its hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows. Hence you need to have such a helpmeet as the old Puritan describes when he says:- "The mate must be fit: it is not enough to be virtuous, but to be suitable; for divers women have many virtues, and yet do not fit to some men; and divers men have many virtues, and yet do not fit to some women: and therefore we see, many times, even the godly couples to jar when they are married, because there is some unfitness between them which makes odds. What is odds, but the contrary to even? Therefore make them even, saith one, and there will be no odds. From hence came the first use of the ring in weddings, to represent this evenness; for if it be straiter than the finger, it will pinch; and if it be wider than the finger, it will fall off; but if it be fit, it neither pincheth nor slippeth: so they which are alike strive not; but they which are unlike are fire and water." To have a young man is one thing, to have one who will be fit to take a husband's part is another. Let prudence dictate your choice and govern your decision, or you may rue the day. The young man to be worthy of your hand should be worthy of being looked up to for his character, worth, ability, manliness, and everything which ennobles and dignifies our being. Don't be carried away with the foolish idea that you must have a beau! "I would bestow my daughter upon a man without money, rather than upon money without a man," said a wise man when asked whether he would give his daughter in marriage to a virtuous man with a small fortune, or to a rich man who had no other qualification than his money. Hence we say to you, use every effort you can to secure one worthy of your trust, and upon whom you may hope to rely for protection during the years which are to come. People may charge you with "being too particular;" never mind; it is better than being reckless. You may then begin to talk if you like, and people will wonder how you managed to keep the secret of your engagement quiet so long, and perhaps chide you for your modesty. How you kept the secret so long is a mystery, but it is reported that you have actually got a young man-a beau. How proud you are of him too! If they ask you a question about him, you will be quite ready to answer them—" Oh! he is such a duck of a fellow. There never was such a nice young man before." You will show by every movement that you have become a changed being, and will often be seen smiling to yourself as you dream of the happy future which awaits you, when you will be claimed as a bride and become the mistress of a home. Would that it could be said with confidence that even a proportion of your expectations will be realised, or that half your hopes may prove to be true! And what shall we say to the young man but “Go and do thou likewise?" Seek and you shall find: only seek wisely. V.-Take counsel with your parents. As a rule this is a wise thing. Your future lot is no slight cause of anxiety to them. Often while you have slept they have had their minds and hearts directed to your probable future. Hence an old Puritan has well said on this matter:-" Now wherein canst thou honour them more than in this honourable action, to which they have preserved thee and brought thee up, which concerneth the state of thy whole life ?" "It is a sweet wedding when the father and the mother bring a blessing to the feast; and a heavy union which is cursed the first day that it is knit." Nothing can ever justify any young man making any serious proposals to a young woman, nor her accepting them, while she lives under her parents' roof, without their knowledge and approval. True, there may be some cases in which parents may be unreasonable, but after all, the first commandment with promise says, "Honour thy father and thy mother." It is certainly better to do this than to run the risk of a couple of whom it is said that after secretly courting and running away to get married, they came back to the bride's house, where the new wife humbly sued for the forgiveness. of her father, kneeling at his feet all tears. "Forgive, forgive me, dearest father!" sobbed the lovely suppliant. "Forgive you!" exclaimed her father; "why, I am only too glad to get rid of you. Your ill-temper and idleness have been the plague of my life, and make your marriage no loss to me, my child. So take her," he added generously, addressing the happy man; "and may you be happy!" Yes-" may you be happy!" But can any one reasonably expect, with such a beginning, anything but misery to follow? Oh, be advised, in every step you take before you marry, to be frank, honest, candid, and aboveboard in all you say and do, and then you will have no cause for regret or reproach in after days. "A union formed. in opposition to the reasonable objections of a discreet father or mother," says Angell James, "is very rarely a happy one; and the bitter cup is rendered all the more bitter in such a case by the wormwood and gall of selfreproach." ... "Very seldom does that connection prove otherwise than a source of wretchedness on which the frown of an affectionate and wise father and mother fell from the beginning." VI.-Never consent to be married on the sly. Such a step when it is to be taken ought never to need concealment, and no woman who values her fair name, or desires to realise all the happiness which belongs to married life, should listen for a moment to any suggestion to a runaway match, or to marriage unknown to her best friends. Indeed, it may be safely concluded that the man who proposes such a thing has some doubtful reasons for doing so, and he should be distrusted for shrouding in darkness an act which ought to be the crowning glory of his life. It is a step of which you ought not to be ashamed, and certainly one which you should never consent to hide from those near and dear to you. You may have good reasons for keeping it a secret from the vulgar and curious, but can never have for hiding it from those who wish you well. The man who fears to face your friends is not worthy of your trust, and ought to be shunned as a betrayer of your confidence. There are to be found many valuable instances which will illustrate the wisdom of taking this step. When Professor Aytoun was making proposals of marriage to a daughter of the celebrated Professor Wilson, the lady reminded him that it would be necessary to ask the approval of her sire. Certainly," said Aytoun; "but as I am a little diffident in speaking to him on this subject, you must just go and tell him my proposals yourself." The lady proceeded to her father, and mentioned that Professor Aytoun had asked her to become his wife. She added, "Shall I accept his offer, papa? He says he is too diffident to name the subject to you himself." 'Then," said old Christopher, "I had better write my reply and pin it to your back." He did so, and the anxious suitor read the answer to his message, which was in these words: "With the Author's compliments!" Alexander Wood, the eminent Edinburgh surgeon, was fortunate, at an early period of his career, in winning the affections of a lady whose social position was at the time superior to his He waited on the lady's father, who was known in the city as "honest George Chalmers," and made known to him that he proposed to marry his daughter Veronica. "On what do you mean to support her?" said Mr. Chalmers. Taking out his lancet, Mr. Wood replied, "I have nothing but this and a deterniination to use it." "It is enough," said Mr. Chalmers, "Veronica is yours." The admirable Philip Henry sought the hand of an only daughter in a somewhat prominent family. Her father said to her, "This young man seems to be an excellent preacher, but I do not know whence he came.' 66 True," replied the daughter, "but I know where he is going, and I want to go along with him." The marriage was a happy one and resulted in the birth of the famous author of the Commentary on the Bible. own. You have life before you, and it is hoped by God's blessing you will select so wisely, act so discreetly, and arrange so prudently, that you may never have to say in after days"When I reflect on what I is, And what I used to was, |