MAY 2
Let marriage also be sanctified or made holy by prayer. Solemnly pray for the blessing of God. … As therefore it is a brutish profaneness for any man to sit down to his table, as a horse to the manger, without asking the blessing from God first, and to return from it as a fox from his prey, without praising him that gave the food and appetite; so it is a great licentiousness for married persons to come together, as it were, brute beasts, without either prayer or thanksgiving.
This yields a good instruction to young unmarried people, not to rush unadvisedly into this state. A thing of so difficult a nature should not be so hastily undertaken. If they get not first their hearts full of grace, and their heads full of wisdom, they will find their hands full of work, a house full of trouble, and a life full of woe. … He that leaps over a broad ditch with a short staff, will fall into the midst; and he that enters into marriage without grace, shall fall into disquietude and vexation.
The Duties of Husbands and Wives
Little things contrary to our wills may be great blessings.
Letter, 2nd December, 1778
