Editorial February 19, 1977 Issue

Don't Be Afraid of Your Spouse

Nathan A. Talbot

Marriage was considered such a vital subject by Mrs. Eddy that she devoted an entire chapter to it in Science and Health. Although the message of this chapter has far-ranging significance regardless of one's marital status, she addresses specific counsel here to the partners in a marriage agreement—counsel both wise and practical, gently aiming thought in purer and more spiritual directions. She deals thoughtfully with points that especially relate to the individual needs and concerns of both husband and wife. Recognizing individuality within the unity of marriage, she writes, "Fulfilling the different demands of their united spheres, their sympathies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each partner sustaining the other,—thus hallowing the union of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace and home."^{Science and Health, p. 59;} Surely an ideal goal.

Problems may arise when we permit ourselves to drift along depending upon a marriage partner to bring fulfillment, security, income, or comfort to our lives.

To observe in a husband such qualities as courage, strength, vitality, or to see in a wife love, purity, beauty, is a happy activity. But to believe such Christly qualities originate in a human personality causes one to limit or lose sight of them. Looking to a mortal for what is actually given by immortal Love, divine Principle, obscures spiritual facts and can induce fear—a fear that those treasured qualities may ebb or even disappear. The good that flows from God never dissipates. It is forever constant and abundant.

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