32$ ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
as you leave, will you let one voice for a few minutes sound a deeper
note ? It may not be easy for you in all this happy excitement to
listen ; but perhaps some echo of my words may linger among tfe
memories of this great day. At least, you know that the words will
not be merely formal but spoken from the heart of a friend and
Father in God.
We all wish you happiness ; but our wishes cannot give it. Nor
can it come from outward circumstance. It can only come from
yourselves, from the spirit that is within you. You cannot choose
what changes and chances are to befall you in the coming years.
But you can choose the spirit with which you will meet them. Let
it be the spirit of the noble vows in which you have just plighted your
troth each to the other. If you will take these vows not as a form
but as a bond of honour which you will keep with unswerving loyalty,
then whatever may come you will have that inward happing which
no pleasures of themselves can give and no sorrows can take away.
Then the home-life which awaits you will be both an abiding security
to yourselves and a welcome example to others.
Today your separate lives, with their own memories and hopes,
temptations and trials, are merged in one. Will you bring into this
new life, each for the sake of the other, the best that you can be ?
Let your deepest bond of union be in that inward region of the soul
where conscience and true ideals dwell. For there you come near to
God and God comes near to you. Keep there a reverent remem-
brance of Him. Then His protecting hand will guide you, and by
His eternal love the love you bear each other will be ever strengthened
and enriched.
One more word. As you think of the good wishes with which the
people of this nation and Empire are surrounding you, you will, I
know, resolve that you will ever be eager to help and serve them in
such ways as you can. You, Sir, have already and fully taken your
place in this service of the community. And you, dear Bride, as
your husband's comrade, will find a new happiness in sharing the
joys and sorrows, and in ministering to the needs of the good British
folk who have already, with a warmth so swift and so spontaneous,
taken you into their heart. I am sure that that heart is now speaking
through my words as I say; God bless you both, God guide you,
God keep you always.
The Marriage of Queen Elizabeth
/CONCERNING marriage, I have been long since persuaded that I
V_y was sent into this world by God to do those things chiefly
which may tend to His glory. I have already joined myself in
marriage to a husband* namely the Kingdom of England. And do
not upbraid me with miserable lack of children, for everyone of you,
and as many as are Englishmen, are children and kinsmen to me*
Queen Elizabeth's answer to Parliament,
which had urged her to marry