can tell that by her face; and, on the other hand, you can
see what comes out in Freneli, and she can read it in your expression.
One almost becomes the other's mirror. In this mirror, Uli, you should
recognize your faults, and try to put them from you out of love for your
wife, because she suffers most from them; and you, wife, should assist
him in all gentleness, but should recognize your own faults too and try
to conquer them for Uli's sake, and he will help you too. If this labor
becomes too heavy for love, then God gives us child after child, and
each is an angel come to sanctify us; each brings us new lessons of how
to appear rightly before God, and new desires, to the end that the child
be prepared for a sacrifice that shall be holy and well-pleasing to God.
And the more you live together in this spirit, the happier you shall be
in Heaven and on earth; for, believe me, true worldly happiness and
heavenly happiness are to be found on exactly the same road. Believe me:
the dear God has brought you together to help each other gain Heaven, to
be prop and staff to each other on the narrow, toilsome way that leads
to eternal life, to level and lighten that way for each other through
love, meekness, and long-suffering--for it is rough and thorny. Now when
gloomy days come, when faults break out in one or the other, or both,
then think not of bad luck, as if that made you unhappy, but of the dear
God, who has long seen all these faults and who has brought you together
just so that one should cure the other and help him to mend his ways;
that is the purpose and the task of your marriage. And as love sent the
Saviour and led Him to the cross, so love must be active in you too;
that is the power which exceeds all others, which cures and betters.
With cursing and scolding, with threats and blows one can put down the
other, but not better him so that he can be well-pleasing to God.
Usually, the worse one grows, the worse the other becomes too, and so
they help each other down to hell. So never forget: God has brought you
together, and He will demand each of the other. Man, He will say, where
is your wife's soul? Woman, He will say, where is your husband's soul?
Act so that you can answer with one voice: Lord, here are we both, here
at Thy right hand. Forgive me, little wife, that I have spoken so
seriously to you this morning. But it is better that you be so talked to
now, than later, after Uli is dead, and men think him ruined