DR. WARDLAW ON EARLY MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Issue 105, 1 August 1843, Page 4

DR. WARDLAW ON EARLY MARRIAGE.

!I (From the Colonial Times.) ,eny not that prudence is a virtue, and that uestion of marriage.is a proper sphere for ercise. But there cannot be a doubt, that igh notions which, by the vanity and exjance of our times, have been introduced e style in which young men entering on mst set up their domestic establishment, in many instances, laid restraints on early ius love, and prevented the happy union irts in youthful wedlock. I cannot look this as at all an improvement on the ly habits of our fathers. Many are the j men who are thus tempted to remain by their felt inability to start in what is led as a somewhat creditable style, d to God I had the ear of all the youth in ty, and in our country, that I might tell of the sweets of early virtuous union; ' might earnestly and affectionately urge to consult their own best interests, and to example pregnant with the most beneresults to the community by bidding defito the tyranny of fashion; byreturning, good old way ; by finding a partner who narfy from love, and who will be willing "upon little, and by the blessing of ience to rise gradually to more. That ie way in the olden time ; and, although laker.for the (Superiority pf all that per.assuredly ,is. a ?

| days, they were better than these.” I would I sav to the rising l youth—the hopes of coming ■ generations—“-Moderate your views; defy ■ custom ; marry; fear God; be virtuous: and Ibe happy.” Virtuous love operates with a 8 most beneficial influence on the vicious princi|,ples of opr fallen nature; nor are there many I eights on earth more delightful for the eye to § rest on, than that of youth joined with' youth in honourable and hallowed union—union of heart as well as hand—and living together in all the faithfulness and tenderness of a first love. Even should their outset in conjugal life t he somewhat stinted, how much better a little mutual self-denial than that cold, calculating celibacy, which is ever looking forward to some distant 3tylisli starting point, and which in the meanwhile is so frequent an occasion of young men’s “falling into temptation and a snare,” ! and into “ foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown them in destruction and perdition.”