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The Widening Circle of Love, July 19
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise
also the wife unto the husband.
1 Corinthians 7:3
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Husbands and wives should feel it their privilege and their duty to
reserve for the privacy of each other’s society the interchange of love
tokens between themselves. For while the manifestation of love for each
other is right in its place, it may be made productive of harm to both the
married and the unmarried. There are persons of an entirely different cast
of mind and character, and of different education and training, who love
each other just as devotedly and healthfully as do those who have educated
themselves to manifest their affection freely; and there is danger that by
contrast these persons who are more reserved will be misjudged, and
placed at a disadvantage. While the wife should lean on her husband with
respect and deference, she can, in a wholesome, healthful way, manifest
her strong affection for and confidence in the man she has chosen as her
life companion....
It is the high privilege and the solemn duty of Christians to make each
other happy in their married life; but there is positive danger in making
self all absorbing, pouring out all the wealth of affection upon each other,
and being too well satisfied with such a life. All this savors of selfishness.
Instead of shutting up their love and sympathy to themselves, they
should seize every opportunity of contributing to the good of others,
distributing the abundance of affection in a chaste and sanctified love
for souls that in the sight of God are just as precious as themselves,
being purchased by the infinite sacrifice of His only-begotten Son. Kind
words, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would be to many a
struggling and lonely one as the cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word
of sympathy, an act of kindness, would lift burdens that are resting heavily
upon some shoulders. And words of counsel, admonitions, warnings
from a heart sanctified by love, are just as essential as an effusion of
loving sentiments and expressions of appreciation. Every word or deed of
unselfish kindness to souls with whom we are brought in connection is
an expression of the love that Jesus has manifested for the whole human
family.
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