"There are tears for the many, and pleasures for the few;

But let the world pass on, dear, there's love for me and you.

"There is care that will not leave us, and pain that will not flee;

But on our hearts unaltered sits love, 'tween you and

me.

"Our love it ne'er was reckon'd, yet good it is and true : It's all the world to me, dear, it's all the world to you."

T has been well said by a popular author, that "when a man truly loves a woman, before he tries to win her he will have, if he loves unselfishly and generously, many a doubt both concerning her and himself." In fact, "when a man truly loves a woman, he will not marry her upon any account, unless he is quite certain he is the best person she could possibly marry." But as soon as she loves him, and he knows it, and is certain that, however unworthy he may be, or however many faults she may possess, they will cast their lot together, "for better, for worse," then the face of things is entirely changed. He has his rights, close and strong as no other human being can have with regard to her; and if he has any manliness in him he will never let them go, but hold her fast for ever and ever.

One of the primary objects we have had in

view in compiling and publishing this work is to give expression to thoughts and ideas we have long and tenaciously cherished with regard to the analogy between the devoted attachment that should exist in the case of true lovers and that connection of which it is the antetype-the vital union between Jesus Christ and all His true disciples.

We have previously given expression to the opinion that up to a certain stage in courtship young people should be free to choose or reject each other. But when the choice has been fully ratified, it should be regarded as life-long. No power on earth can force such an attachment upon the young, or break it asunder when once formed, for it is the gift of God.

In like manner this heaven-born principle signifies a great and glorious truth in connection with experimental religion. As the union between husband and wife symbolises the relation between Christ and His Church, so the betrothal of true hearts truly won, is an emblem of the everlasting covenant into which the believer enters when he surrenders himself into the keeping of the Saviour, when Jesus-the great gift of God becomes the object of the soul's affection. Before this he loves the world, and the things of the world; but when he has a higher and more glorious object before him, and he has realised its preciousness, through faith in

Christ and repentance towards God, his affections are weaned from the world and are fixed on things above.

The author of "Heavenly Love and Earthly Echoes," thus speaks of the relations of bridegroom and bride: "To conceive, and adequately to delineate, the rich fulness of love which these relations involve, would require the power of a true poetic genius. We may, however humbly, endeavour to catch a glimpse of the meaning. which these terms embody, and are designed to convey. And first, The Relation of Bridegroom. Here we may think of the choosing, the wooing, and the winning of the bride,-the gladness which fills the heart of the bridegroom when she has privately engaged herself to him,—and the still greater joy which possesses him when the nuptials are to be completed, and she is to become altogether and always his own, and if, indeed, obstacles have intervened that longcontinued and arduous toils were needed to surmount, if through fire and water a true and noble-hearted lover has had to struggle, at the risk of life itself, to secure the woman of his choice for his own, who shall describe his delight when the bridal day has come, and she is to be made his, never more till death to be parted? Will not the bride confide on such a day in her

* Hodder & Stoughton.

best beloved? As his eye rests on her with supreme complacency, and he clasps her to his heart, and calls her by sweetest and most endearing names, think you that any other in all the world can be so loved and trusted as he? Christ Jesus assumed this title of Bridegroom to Himself (Matt. ix. 15). Speaking to His Church, and to every true believer, He says by the mouth of His servant (Isa. lxii. 5) ::-'As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.' What are we taught by these and many other portions of the Word of God? That the very joy which fills a bridegroom's heart as he looks, in the day of espousals, upon his betrothed one, is a faint picture of the gladness which the God-man feels when sinners consent to be His own. By no other course but giving thyself ENTIRELY TO HIM caust thou make Him glad.

"Second, The Relation of Husband. Husband and wife are legally one, so that however poor and needy the wife may have been before marriage, her nuptials with a titled and wealthy husband confer upon her all the dignity and riches of him to whom she has been united. But husband and wife are one also in heart-love, if the marriage is what it ought to be; and in this case mutual esteem and affection will day by day increase, in place of being diminished. To ward off all threatened evil, to comfort and re

fresh his wife with every possible blessing, will be the daily, hourly care of the husband. He will bear her burdens, he will soothe her sorrows, he will gratify, as far as within his power, her every proper desire; and the unceasing exhibition of his loving-kindness will so intensify her regard for him, that she will live ever more and more only in his smile. Though faith in all the rest of the world should perish, she will still confide in her husband. Infinitely more than any man can be to his wife, is Jesus to the soul that yields to the drawings of His love; but to convey to our minds some idea of his tender and unceasing affection, He calls Himself Husband to His people.

"THE BRIDE. The Bridegroom is all the world to the Bride. If her mind is as it ought to be, there is not another on earth, in her estimation, comparable to him to whom she has plighted her troth. Whatever defects he has will be overlooked, while his personal beauties, and his mental and moral excellencies, will be magnified in her eyes. If her bridegroom is at all worthy, this is quite as it ought to be; though often, alas ! does closer converse dispel the fond illusion. Earthly love is proverbially blind; and when experience unscales the eyes, the revelation of the reality frequently gives a dreadful shock. No such sad discovery is ever in store for her who has yielded her heart to the heavenly Bride