Cautions and Counsels
19
preparation you should have made for her comfort. To a very great
degree you possess the temperament of your father.
When you seek a wife, go not among the delicate and refined,
where the intellectual predominates. Select you a wife among that
class more in accordance with your organization. You cannot make a
person of refined spiritual temperament happy.—
Letter 21, 1868
.
Faithfulness in the Parental Home—It is by faithfulness to duty
in the parental home that the young are to prepare themselves for
homes of their own. Let them here practice self-denial and manifest
kindness, courtesy, and Christian sympathy. Thus love will be kept
warm in the heart, and he who goes out from such a household to
stand at the head of a family of his own will know how to promote
the happiness of her whom he has chosen as a companion for life.
[25]
Marriage, instead of being the end of love, will be only its beginning.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 176
.
I beg of you, yes, I warn you in the name of my Master, do not
enter the marriage relation and take upon yourself the responsibilities
and obligation of the marriage vows until you are changed in heart and
life. When you can make your own home happy, be a blessing to your
father and mother, your brothers and sister, then you can understand
the duties involved in the marriage relation.—
Manuscript 2, 1871
.