Women should choose men of character and of unspotted name.  It is a very old and true remark—­but one may as well repeat what is old and trite when that which is new would be but feeble repetition at the best—­that a good son generally makes a good husband; a wise companion in a walk may turn out a judicious companion through life.  The wild attempt to reform a rake, or to marry a man of a “gay” life, in the hope that he will sow “his wild oats,” is always dangerous, and should never be attempted.  A woman who has a sense of religion herself should never attach herself to a man who has none.  The choice of a husband is really of the greatest consequence to human happiness, and should never be made without the greatest care and circumspection.  No sudden caprice, no effect of coquetry, no sally of passion, should be dignified by the name of love.  “Marriage,” says the apostle, “is honorable in all;"’ but the kind of marriage which is so is that which is based upon genuine love, not upon fancy or caprice; which is founded on the inclination of nature, on honorable views, cemented by a similarity of tastes, and strengthened by the true sympathy of souls.

      Love is the tyranny
      So blessed to endure! 
    Who mourns the loss of liberty,
      With all things else secure?

      Live on, sweet tyranny! 
      (Cries heart within a heart)
    God’s blossom of Eternity,
      How beautiful thou art!

* * * * *

XVII.

JOHN PLOUGHMAN.

WHAT HE SAYS OF RELIGIOUS GRUMBLERS—­GOOD-NATURE AND FIRMNESS—­PATIENCE—­OPPORTUNITIES—­FAULTS—­HOME—­MEN WHO ARE DOWN—­HOPE—­HINTS AS TO THRIVING, ETC.

John Ploughman’s Talk, says the author, Rev. C.H.  Spurgeon, the famous London preacher, “has not only obtained an immense circulation, but it has exercised an influence for good.”  As to the “influence for good,” the reader will judge when he has read the following choice bits from the pages of that unique book.  And we feel sure that he will thank us for including John among our “Brave Men and Women.”

RELIGIOUS GRUMBLERS.

When a man has a particularly empty head, he generally sets up for a great judge, especially in religion.  None so wise as the man who knows nothing.  His ignorance is the mother of his impudence and the nurse of his obstinacy; and, though he does not know B from a bull’s foot, he settles matters as if all wisdom were in his fingers’ ends—­the pope himself is not more infallible.  Hear him talk after he has been at meeting and heard a sermon, and you will know how to pull a good man to pieces, if you never knew it before.  He sees faults where there are none, and, if there be a few things amiss, he makes every mouse into an elephant.  Although you might put all his wit into an egg-shell, he weighs the sermon in the balances of his conceit, with all