cases.

If each of the contracting parties, as they might properly be called, have large possessions, so that the disposal of property does not often arise, the evil is less. But with the great majority of families that compose the body-politic, the spending of a little of their very little money is a question of moment, that comes up from day to day, and almost from hour to hour: and if a garment cannot be bought, or a meal provided, without raising the question of separate pecuniary interests between the heads of the family, and that too in the presence of the children, the unity of the home, its sacred peace, and its hallowed lessons, are at an end; and it may be that the strong passions so constantly appealed to, will rend the family asunder. We have heard of a legacy of seven hundred dollars to a wife, that led to a divorce.

In accordance with the effect of such legislation, made to cover exceptional cases, but which is ominous of general corruption, are those laws of divorce which, in several of our States, practically tend to make marriage a contract dissoluble at the will of the parties; thus encouraging persons foolishly to rush into it, and madly to break from it. It is said that in one New England State, one marriage in ten is thus dissolved! The State thus presumes, for causes that the Church does not hold to be sufficient, to put asunder those whom God hath joined together.

Our object is by no means to discuss these subjects, but merely to glance at them as illustrations of a strong tendency to innovate without due regard to the sacred oneness of the family. Even education is an evil, so far as it may tend to infringe upon this unity; and it is of the highest value, only as it may tend to secure it. This is the true ground of the principle which we before laid down, and which we would extend to every grade of society, from the highest to the lowest, viz., that the wife should have as good an education as the husband; and, what is of equal importance, the mother should have as good an education as the children.

Whatever breaks in upon the oneness of the family, brings with it evil for which it cannot furnish any sufficient compensation, either to woman or to man. The destruction of the family is the destruction of woman: it is that of man also.

The destruction of the family is likewise the destruction of the State. The family is the foundation stone on which the higher edifice rests; and if this stone be removed out of its place, or ground to powder, the more imposing fabric of government falls to ruin. The no-family and no-government fallacies are the same in principle; and they complete themselves when they add, no Church, and no God.

The profligacy of our cities, like the poison of the cholera, infecting the whole of the country; the frenzy of fashion, bewildering the minds of women; the lust of gold, gnawing at the hearts of men; these things of themselves might lead us to fear that the family and the home might become things of the past; and if so, our civilization would vanish, "like the baseless fabric of a vision." But we look for better things: Christ, the Word of God, "by whom and for whom are all things," laid the foundations of the family so deep, that they cannot be removed. We may disregard them, to our destruction, as did Babylon and Rome of old, but whatsoever He hath decreed, He will finally bring it to pass.

That ideal of woman which we would fain behold realized, is His ideal. He ordained that the place of woman should be by the side of man, as his equal; and this ideal, which He foreshadowed in the Scriptures from the beginning, He will accomplish. His religion is a religion of far-continuing purposes; it is one religion, from the first promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, to the end of the world.

It may be an appropriate close to these somewhat discursive, yet related, remarks, to