by example. And if the man will do that, there is
little fear but that the woman will do it also. And so, their prayers
are not hindered.

Married people cannot pray, they have no heart to pray, while they are
discontented with each other. They feel themselves wrong, and because
they are parted from each other, they feel parted from God too; and their
selfishness or anger rises as a black wall, not merely between them, but
between each of them and God. And so the grace of life is indeed gone
away from them, and the whole world looks dark and ugly to them, because
it is not bright and cheerful in the light of Christ's grace, which makes
all the world full of sunshine and joy. But it need not be so, friends.
It would not be so, if married people would take the advice which the
Prayer Book gives them, and come to Holy communion. Would to God, my
friends, that all married people would understand what that Holy
communion says to them; and come together Sunday after Sunday to that
throne of grace, there to receive of Christ's fulness, and grace upon
grace. For that Table says to you: You are heirs together of the grace
of life; you are not meant merely to feed together for a few short years,
at the same table, on the bread which perishes, but to feed for ever
together on the bread which comes down from heaven, even on Christ
Himself, the life of the world; to receive life from His life, that you
may live together such a life as He lived, and lives still; to receive
grace from the fulness of His grace, that you may be full of grace as He
is. That Table tells you that because you both must live by the same
life of Christ, you must live the same life as each other, and grow more
and more like each other year by year; that as you both receive the same
grace of Christ, you will become more and more gracious to each other
year by year, and both grow together, nearer and dearer to each other,
more worthy of each other's respect, more worthy of each other's trust,
more worthy of each other's love. And then "till death us do part" may
mean what it will. Let death part what of them he can part, the
perishing mortal body; he has no power over the soul, or over the body
which shall rise to life eternal. Let death do his worst. They belong
to Christ who conquered death, and they live by His everlasting life, and
their life is hid with Christ in God, where death cannot reach it or find
it; an