Marriage is like a finger pointing to the union of Christ and the Church; and what a poor-hearted
thing he must be who, with the arm of a wife pressing on his own has never thought of it as
pointing to the love of the Lord Jesus for that Church, for whom He gave Himself, and which He
is to present to Himself without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. How good to know what the
setting is in which the two jewels are locked together! It is pure gold_gold not of Ophir, but of
the divine antitype, Christ in heaven.

My arm ought to be like the wing of the hen for her chickens, the place of shelter. Christ became
the shelter of the Church. We who are masters and mistresses have a very solemn sin lying at our
door for not knowing how to form in our houses homes, that those who are with us might feel to
be places that they covet, and, when they leave, th they love to turn back to, and look to us for
counsel. I ought to be one who, they know, (be they Christians or not) had a master in heaven,
one ever a master for their blessing.

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands…. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell
with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as
also being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered" (1 Pet. 3:1,7).