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which is piety and philanthropy both in one, is the only religion that has inherent vitality enough to live, or is of any use in the world, or can give strength and inspiration.-Theodore Tilton.

THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE.

In the Buddhist "Path of Virtue," it is written: "If one mar conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors." This noble form of conquest is not taught by the sophistries of those who would bring "instantly the millennium" by removing all outward restraint, not only from "the higher love of the spirit," bu from the free impulses of passion. Vain effort! Freedom would at once degenerate from license and order, which is “Heaven's first law," into anarchy and chaos. Psyche must free herself from the dominion of Venus, before she can arise to the abode of celestial love. Let the soul gain a strong and steadfast mastery over sense, and the dwelling of the gods is reached, albeit hedged about by the sanctions of morality and law.

I grant that legislation on this subject is imperfect. The law-makers of the world have in some dim sense divined the "heart's ideal of monogamic marriage," and have endeavored tc make their enactments tally with this "higher law." But they have blundered: first, by creating a legal inequality between man and woman in marriage; and second, by affording too limited means of release from it to those unendurably oppressed by this inequality, or who find by bitter experience that they have wilfully or ignorantly made the fatal mistake of not conforming to the conditions of so intimate and sacred a relation. There should be a door of legal escape, and a city of refuge ir. public opinion, for the wrongly mated whose loveless lives are daily embittered by a refinement of slow torture that leaves no outward scar, but wrings the heart with unspeakable anguish for women who find themselves and their children subject to insult and injury from passionate and ferocious com

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panions, and for women with husbands made savages and fiends by strong drink, who see their homes desolated and desecrated, their children cruelly assaulted, and are themselves exposed to brutal abuse, and the horrible fear of adding other helpless victims to the domestic holocaust. The political economist, and the patron of social science, should hold it an imperative duty to see that women have the means of escape from subjection to such besotted monsters, in order that society may be saved from the imbecile, discordant, vicious, and murderous product. For all the victims of false marriages, the hand of law should be stretched out in merciful deliverance. In view of their misery, how narrow and heartless is the effort on the part of respectable moralists to create a public sentiment against their lawful and honorable release-to emphasize the doctrine that "when once a marriage is made and consummated, it should be as fixed a fact as the laws of nature."

nent.

This sweeping assertion can be made only of conjugal unions based on and fostered by affection, and then we may say, not that they "should be," but that they are by nature permaThe trouble is, there is too little love in the world. In all the relations-between brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and neighbors, husbands and wives-there is a dearth of pure affection. People do not even love themselves as they ought; if they did, they would not debase the temple of the spirit by sensual indulgence, but strive, "whether they eat or drink, or whatsoever they do," to have "the body sit lightly on the soul." Pythagoras controlled the instinct for physical gratification, aud rejected the temptation to personal aggrandizement, so as to live for the sake of wisdom, and his ear caught the music of the spheres. But too often self-love degenerates into selfishness, and the higher faculties are submerged. When this demon. presides over the conjugal relation, the angel of love is banished from the hearthstone. Love is unselfish ; it seeks the good and happiness of the beloved object. When this divine principle reigns in the hearts of the wedded, the supreme condition of a lasting union is attained. For love is

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not a fleeting sentiment that comes and passes with the hour, but an abiding presence that glorifies the object of affection, purifies, enlarges, and ennobles the heart in which it dwells, and gives its own evidence of constancy. Passion is variable, but love is steadfast. "Every heart prays and pines for that holy and protecting love which will not change." The spirit seeks the permanent, it lays hold on the eternal, the principles which are garnered in its essence are indestructible, and among them is holy love. When this is awakened the heart is at rest, "Knowing that what is excellent, As God lives, is permanent."

On this changeless affection is based the true marriage. When the wedded are discordant and wretched, it is not because love is inconstant, but because they do not mutually possess this precious treasure. Let them put away selfishness, and invite and cheris the divine guest. People fancy that they love. Do they seek the happiness of the adored object, or their own gratification? Do they treat with tender consideration the bodies and souls of their chosen, or neglect the courtesies and amenities, and self-denying services, and cordial expressions of sympathy that link friends together outside of marriage, and ensure lasting fraternity? Let love reign, and discord and desire for change will cease. Le love reign, and marriage will be a holy and deathless bond between answering souls, like that of the dual force within the mighty undulations of matter, named by true religion "Our Father and Mother God."

For the man and woman who purely and truly love each other and are guided by the law of justice, marriage is not a state of bondage. Indeed, it is only when they become by this outward acknowledgment publicly avowed lovers, that freedom is realized by them in its full significance. Thereafter they can be openly devoted to each other's interests, and avowedly chosen and intimate friends. Together they can plan life's battle, and enter upon the path of progress that ends not with

life's eventide. Together they can seek the charmed avenues of culture, and strengthened by each other, can brave the world's frown in the rugged but heaven-lit path of reform. Home, with all that is dearest in the sacred name, is their peaceful and cherished retreat, within whose sanctuary blooms the virtues that make it a temple of beneficence.—Mary F. Davis.

THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM WITHIN Us.

This kingdom is not of the external world, neither does it belong exclusively to the spiritual regions. We have had the fair fields of the Summer Land pictured to us, and the laws of that spiritual realm partially revealed; we are told of the "Debateable Land;" but these wise teachers know well that not sun or earth or stars constitute the real spiritual kingdom. Its presence is within every human soul; its certain possession is in the everlasting now. This life is only a peninsula of this kingdom; its borders and avenues lead through the faculties of the human consciousness.

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There is the development of the kindly spirit, the gentle amenities of life, the friendships, the charities, that give us some glimpse of this inner kingdom; there is love that reveals the inner sense, and if these fail to reveal its presence, there comes death. That is only one of the avenues that lead to it. It is much more important to know what this spiritual kingdom shall do for you now, than to know how much that is called you goes to the spiritual realm. It is vastly more important to know what it is doing for the world to-day, than to know if you shall wear the same lineaments and think the same thoughts there. You will surely wear your own face there and none

other.

The sun that shines in the Summer Land and through the. doorways of the spiritual kingdom illumines while it does not burn, lights you through the darkened ways of life, and reveals to you the immortal possessions that are yours as a spiritual being.

Spiritual manifestations are the avenues through which you are led to this inner kingdom. Be sure you do not make light of them. Make a fact essential, for it is as valuable as the stars that shine. Neither should you over-rate them. You love to be astonished, to be terrified, but most you should like to know what message your friend brings. It is more important that your soul should be awakened to a consciousness of itself than all else. Hail with gladness all that can do that. *

The spiritual kingdom is not limited or confined to any period or epoch. You bear it with you wherever you go. It is to you at once prophecy and fulfillment. Without it the poet's song were a dream of despair; without its love the heart would grow sere; death, that mystery and fulfillment, would be the demon's mockery to humanity. This kingdom is not born of Christ, nor of any time or any religion, but of the soul's consciousness. It is not born of states or powers, but these are born of it. Man would stand a mad idiot, a wild thing, without this supernal kingdom within.

You that have heard its voice, that have watched your own inner consciousness, know that your soul is greater than time, death and all that comes to you. The soul is greater than the body, because in it every possibilty is enshrined; within it are the silent manifestations of the Deity. There are your Franklins, your Kanes, and many more that will risk everything to find. out what open sea lies near the north pole. Livingston has been dead many times in Africa, and is not afraid of the many deaths, that he may know what lies in that unknown land and what people inhabit its unexplored countries. Man lives on earth to-day to conquer; to wrest from her bosom, scarred by the fierce contests of nature, the secret of life. The time shall come when every force shall be subjected to man.

Does this prove the soul's empire is only in matter? It is because the soul is supreme, the spirit greater than matter, that man is not afraid of heat or cold, of summer or winter. This soul that is afraid of nothing—shall it be afraid of immortality?

Nothing less than a universe will satisfy its longings. As

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