Perhaps it may be your luckless lot to be united to an unkind
husband — a man who cares not whether he pleases or displeases, whether you
are happy or unhappy. If this is the case, hard is your fate, gentle lady, very
hard! But the die is cast; and you must carefully remember that no neglect of
duty on "his" part can give a legitimate sanction to a failure of
duty on "yours". The sacredness of those ties which bind you as a
wife, remain equally strong and heavy, whatever is the conduct of your husband;
and as galling as the chain may be, you must only endeavor for resignation
to bear it, till the Almighty, by lightening it, pleases to crown your
gentleness and efforts with success.
When at the Throne of Grace (I address you as a Christian
woman), be fervent and persevering in your prayers for your husband; and
by your example endeavor to allure him to that Heaven towards which you
are yourself aspiring: that, if your husband "obeys not the word", as
the sacred writer says, "he may, without the word", be won by the conduct
of the wife.
There are very few husbands so bad as to be destitute of
good qualities, and probably, very decided ones. Let the wife search out and
accustom herself to dwell on those good qualities, and let her treat "her
own" errors, not "her husband's", with severity. I have seldom
known a dispute between man and wife, in which faults "on both sides"
were not conspicuous; and really it is no wonder; for we are so
quick-sighted to the imperfections of others, and so blind and lenient to our
own — that in cases of discord and contention, we throw all the blame on the
opposite party, and never think of accusing ourselves. In general, at
least, this is the case.
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