Deliberate and pray. Pray and deliberate. As I showed you in my former
sermon, a man ought to supplicate Divine guidance in such a crisis;
how much more important that you solicit it! It is easier for a man to
find an appropriate wife than for a woman to find a good husband. This
is a matter of arithmetic, as I showed in former discourse. Statistics
show that in Massachusetts and New York States women have a majority
of hundreds of thousands. Why this is we leave others to surmise. It
would seem that woman is a favorite with the Lord, and that therefore
He has made more of that kind. From the order of the creation in
paradise it is evident that woman is an improved edition of man. But
whatever be the reason for it, the fact is certain that she who
selects a husband has a smaller number of people to select from than
he who selects a wife. Therefore a woman ought to be especially
careful in her choice of life-time companionship. She cannot afford to
make a mistake. If a man err in his selection he can spend his
evenings at the club, and dull his sensibilities by tobacco-smoke; but
woman has no club-room for refuge, and would find it difficult to
habituate herself to cigars. If a woman make a bad job of marital
selection, the probability is that nothing but a funeral can relieve
it. Divorce cases in court may interest the public, but the
love-letters of a married couple are poor reading, except for those
who write them. Pray God that you be delivered from irrevocable
mistake!