es, but to provide things
useful and comfortable for him, and like himself in temper, in
disposition, and destiny. One to whom God shall be a loving Father,
and heaven a common home. One with whom soul can join with soul in
worship and love. A kindred spirit. A spirit having a common love, a
common purpose, a common aspiration, and a common interest.

This longing for companionship was the earliest recorded emotion of
the soul. It comes earliest to us and stays longest. In childhood,
very often, instinct and desire rule wisely, and matches formed in
heaven are recognized in life's morning on earth far oftener than we
are accustomed to think. This longing never ceases. The child wants
companionship, and old age, shattered and broken, feels the need of
this loving support which God provides in the opposite sex quite as
much as does the youthful heart. Our perfect humanity is made up of
the two, and is not complete without this union.

The most magnificent scenery is tame, unless you can point out its
beauties to the one you love. The picture gallery is worthless, unless
some other lip can press the goblet of your pleasure, and sip
nectar from the flower of beauty which blossoms in your thought or
imagination. It is not good for man to be alone, even in Eden. Eden is
not Eden without its Eve. Before Eve came, Eden was the pastureland of
beasts; after it, the place took on home-like properties, bowers of
love were formed, and the place became the house of God, and the gate
of heaven.

The characteristics of woman as a helpmeet deserve our notice.

1. _Consider this word "Woman._" Woman was the name given to our
mother because she was taken out of man. The word itself means
_pliant_. In this definition we discover the first characteristic of a
womanly nature. She is pliant. She adjusts herself to circumstances.
She is adapted to meet man's wants, because she finds it in her nature
to adapt herself to meet them.

It is gentlemanly to avow an opinion. We feel that it is womanly to
waive one. We never think less of a woman for not forcing her opinions
upon a company. We do not desire her to be without opinions, nor is it
expected that she will desist from expressing an opinion, but if one
must yield, it is womanly in woman to do so.

Indeed, oftentimes a woman of strong mental calibre, whose opinions
are derived from thought and study, has built her husband up by
permitting his expression to stand even though her own jud