The happy day has come. The man and the woman who have chosen each other as wife and as husband stand at the altar. Taking the woman’s hand, the man says to her, “I take thee to my wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.” Taking the man’s hand the woman says to him, with slight variations, the same words. Then they twain, pronounced one, go forth, to begin their wedded life together.
How can they make their marriage a truly happy one? It can be done; it ought to be done; it will be done, unless one or the other or both shall fail in keeping the sacred covenant. How can it be done?
One suggestion is that the love and the loving ways of the wooing days must be carried over into the life of the wedded days. Why is it that so many married people, when the honeymoon is over, drop all the arts of love by which they won and held each other in affection’s thrall before marriage? The young husband comes in tired, and leaves at the door his affectionateness, sometimes even his good manners. He takes no pains to be agreeable, much less tender. A husband should be as affectionate to his wife, even when both are gray headed, as he was to the girl when he was trying to win her.
This rule applies also to a wife. You remember how you used to watch for your lover, how cordially you always greeted him, how charming you made his stay. Do you watch now for his steps when he comes home? Do you greet him with the old tenderness?
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