'The Devil sets such innocent-looking traps--_spiritual traps_--to
catch young people! Ah, he is a serpent still! Beware of his devices, and
always cry to God for wisdom and strength of will to put down all foolish
tampering. You are born for greater things. God may want you to be a
leader in some vast continent, and you will want a companion and a
counsellor--a "helpmeet." The original word means "_a help
corresponding to his dignity_" This is the meaning given by the best
expositors. Oh, what wisdom there is even in the _words_ which God
has chosen to express His ideas! "Corresponding to his dignity!" Yes, and
no man ever takes one below this mark who does not suffer for it; and,
worse still, generations yet unborn have to suffer also. Mind what God
says, and keep yourself till that one comes.
'A wrong step on this point, and you are undone. Oh, the misery of an
unsuitable match! It is beyond description. I could tell you tales of woe
that are now being enacted. But I must wait till we meet.
'I have seen too much of life, and know too much of human nature, to have
much confidence in promises given under such circumstances. For my own
part, I made up my mind when I was but sixteen that I would not have a
man, though a Christian, who should offer to become even an abstainer for
my sake. I felt that such a promise would not afford me ground for
confidence afterwards. And do not we see enough all round us to show that
unless people adopt things on principle, because they see it to be right,
they soon change? Look at the folks who promise to give up tobacco and
dress, for the sake of getting into berths; how soon it evaporates! No,
my lad, wait a bit. "Couldst thou not watch with Me one hour?" Jesus
lived a single life for your sake all the way through. Can you not live
so till He finds you one after His own heart? I feel sure He will. Pray
about it in faith. I am doing so; and God will answer. But Oh, don't run
before Him! Wait on the Lord.
'A little longer and you will be saying, "Oh, how glad I am I waited! I
have now found a treasure indeed!" When God's time and person are come,
He will bring you together. How delighted and satisfied Isaac must have
felt when the servant told him the way God led him (Genesis xxiv.).'
When standing by her grave The General said she was _The Army
Mother_. He said the truth.
One of her early promises, given to her as a girl, when she only saw its
greatness and hid it away in her heart as too sacred to be spoken of, and
almost too wonderful ever to be accomplished, were the words: 'I will
make thee a mother of nations.'
When called to send her children abroad, she paid to the full the heavy
price; but she also saw the glorious outcome, and from her death-bed sent
tenderest messages to those of distant lands and far-off nations who
owned her as their Army Mother.