(from his book “The Marriage Altar” 1898)
God’s plan for every marriage is happiness.
Marriage is meant to be a miniature of heaven—a fragment of the celestial blessedness, let down into this world.
Marriage is meant to be a little sanctuary, into which husband and wife may flee from earth’s storms and dangers, where in love’s shelter, their hearts fed with affection’s daily bread—they may dwell in quiet peace.
Marriage is meant to be a shelter in which, covered from the frosts of the world and shielded from its cold and tempests—two lives may grow together into richest beauty, realizing their sweetest dreams of happiness, blending in whatever things are true, whatever things are pure, and attaining the finest possibilities of godly character.
Marriage is meant to be a holy ark, floating on the wild floods of human life—like Noah’s ark on the deluge, bearing to heaven’s gates, to the harbor of glory—the lives which God has shut within its doors.
A godly marriage is a little nook in the very heart of God, where faithful souls are held close to the Father’s heart, and carried safely, amid dangers and sorrows, to the home above!