"Let every one in particular so love his wife even as himself;
and the wife see that she reverence her husband."--EPHESIANS
5:33.
All this good advice by a man who never married. He lived on to
fifty-eight years of age, in eminent bachelorhood. Indeed, it was
better for Paul to remain in single life, because he went on such
rapid missionary expeditions that no companion could have endured the
hardship. Celibacy in some cases is better. Such persons accomplish
under such circumstances that which could not be accomplished in the
other style of life.
I have known men who remain unaffianced in order that they might take
care of the children of a deceased brother; and what would become of
the world without the self-sacrifice and helpfulness of the maiden
aunts I cannot imagine.
Among the brightest queens of Heaven will be those who took care of
other people's children. Alas for that household which has not within
easy call an Aunt Mary! I know that there are caricatures, and
ungallant things sometimes said; but so far as my observation goes,
they are quite equal in disposition to their married sisters. The
state of celibacy is honored again by such persons as Macaulay and
Washington Irving in literature, and Florence Nightingale and Miss Dix
in philanthropy.
But while Paul remained in the single state, he kept his eyes open,
and he looked off upon the calm sea of married life, and upon the
chopped sea of domestic perturbation. He comes forth in my text to
say, "Let every one in particular so love his wife even as himself;
and the wife see that she reverence her husband;" implying that the
wife ought to be lovable, so there might be something to love, and the
man ought to be honorable, so there might be something to reverence.