nd
forms one of the most effective of the influences which prevent the
world from being deluged with licentiousness, and every loathsome
form of evil. All the comforts of domestic life--the sacred and
deathless ties of the family circle--the dear delights, the
cherished associations, the hallowed memories of the paternal
fireside--spring directly from the marriage state. It is this alone
that gives us the home of our childhood, the love, the protection,
the wise counsel and advice of parents. It is this that affords the
sacred retreat in mature days, where, from the strifes, and cares,
and bitter disappointments of the business mart, the husband and
father can retire, and amid the soothing attentions and the unbought
love of wife and children, renew his strength and courage for future
struggles. It is this that furnishes the aged patriarch and the
venerable matron, with the safe covert, the quiet refuge, the warm,
snug corner, where they can pass the winter of life, surrounded by
children and children's children, who delight to rise up and do them
reverence, and minister to their comforts.

"Domestic happiness! thou only bliss
Of paradise that hath survived the fall!

* * * * * * *

"Thou art the nurse of virtue; in thine arms
She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is,
Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again."

Among all nations, wherever the marriage tie is the most generally
formed, and held the most sacred, there woman holds the highest
position and obtains her truest estimation--there civilization and
refinement--there truth, purity, fidelity, and all the virtues and
graces that can adorn and elevate humanity, bloom in vigorous
luxuriance. And in the same degree that this sacred relationship is
neglected, and its obligations disregarded, in any nation, do we
find woman degraded, and ignorance, barbarism, sensuality and vice,
in every shape, prevailing and preying on the vitals of society.

In view of these considerations, it assuredly cannot be deemed
improper, in addressing the young, to call their especial attention
to a subject so interesting as Marriage, and one so vitally
connected with all that is valuable and sacred. Indeed any series
of discourses designed to counsel them, which should omit this
all-important topic, would seem to be deficient in one of the first
essentials of salutary admonition.

In presenting this subject to the considerati